Retrospective: things I used to play, such as Borodin, “Polovetsian Dances.” New: Vivaldi, from the Four Seasons. I wish I could come up with something in the way of a tribute to a cat who died just before Christmas. She was bold and brassy and very much the alpha cat, and she was the only one to realize that my Samoyed puppy, however large, was nothing but a puppy, whereupon she adopted him. (He is now 11.) She also had a very low-pitched meow.