Vernalruminations

  There was a moment when I was standing on the platform at Grand Central having just missed the train I needed, doors shutting as I came down the stairs, seeing the sign that it would be 19 minutes until the next train, and for that moment I wondered why I wasn’t in my own living room, in front of a blazing fire, a libation to hand, lots of CDs of baroque music to choose from. But once I was in Alice Tully with the Chamber Music Society players performing, I had no further doubts.   Only the cellist and harpsichordist are seated. All the other musicians, strings, winds, brass remain standing, leaning into each other as the music suggests or demands. This is the Christmas season, and baroque music is  rich in counterpoint, otherwise defined as conversation between and among the instruments. I love it. New York has many holiday traditions: the Rockettes at Radio City; the magnificent tree at Rockefeller Plaza accompanied by the skaters; lavishly decorated windows in the Fifth Avenue s