mmmm... Bagels...

(Ok, for those who were wondering how long I could hold out, I've broken down, and must warn you that I will mention food in the following post, which was written during the two hours I waited for my internet to start working again. In the end I finally fixed the problem by resetting the router myself.)

Today is another nice day; it's been a nice couple weeks, although a bit cooler than I like. This weekend was great; I dragged the family out of the house on Saturday to go shopping, and we enjoyed a drink on the terrace of La Becasse, a restaurant just up the street. Then yesterday we all cycled down to the Sunday market for some produce shopping. Food quality is always great here and we've been eating well: homemade bagels (see photo), Shanghai red-cooked pork, rabbit stewed in Rodenbach beer, lamb brochettes and grilled zucchini are a few recipes we've tried out recently. While Maggie and I did our tour of the market the boys played, and after we'd sampled a little dim sum, we bought some more flowers for the window boxes (cyclamens and a few others) and I did a little container gardening yesterday afternoon to get them planted properly.

I cycled with the kids to school this morning and then went swimming; got in 2km at the pool before it got just too busy. I've managed 2.5 Km the last two times I went, so I am definitely feeling that I'm back in the groove.

The house is getting outfitted incrementally as time goes by, and feeling more and more comfortable. We've picked up a few things at brocantes over the last few weeks, such as:
plates and serving dishes, an indian carpet, a new kettle and a barometer.



This last is a nice German one, but I thought it was broken because the needle seems stuck at 102.5 Kpa, or midway between "Variable" and "Fair", or at least it's wavered near there for the last two very lovely weeks. I should have realized that barometers in Belgium are usually stuck on "variable" anyway.

The weekend before last we enjoyed a visit from Marc, a pianist friend who now lives and works in Paris; he was in town to see the Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman sing at La Monnaie, with baritone Werner Van Mechelen and an American tenor I hadn't seen before, conducted very elegantly by Marc Soustrot. I really enjoyed the concert, and at a reception/dinner afterwards met Measha and a number of other people including Kevin Skelton, a Canadian tenor who lives in Brussels, and spent a nice hour or so in conversation before hightailing it home at an appropriately early time. (The only one with children, I explained to the others that the kids wake us up at the same time, no matter what time we go to bed).

Stuff to see this season coming up at la Monnaie includes The Rake's Progress, with a Canadian connection: Nathan Berg (bass) and Robert LePage (director). Speaking of Canadian opera, I hear that the COC is doing Dutchman again; I really am quite eager to see it but unfortunately I think it's not during a period I'll be in Canada. Last night I had another listen to George London's unearthly recording of the Dutchman's opening aria, Die Frist ist um, with Hans Knappertbusch and the Vienna Philharmonic; it's got to be one of the greatest recordings ever made, and one that I never get tired of hearing.

While we are on the topic of recordings that blow my mind, another track that rocked me yesterday while listening to the CBC radio online was Fritz Wunderlich's performance of Dein ist mein ganzes Herz from Land of Smiles. Unbelievably beautiful singing.

Fritz's amazing use of the German text in his phrasing of course inspired me to look into my library for his copy of Die Schöne Müllerin, but unfortunately I didn't bring his along and so only have Fischer-Dieskau's and Hermann Prey's. I listened to Fischer-Dieskau's this morning, and then to a few movements of Victor Braun's recording of Winterreise with Antonin Kubalek, just to lighten my mood a little. I seem to have a German thing going at the moment, and it's probably because a) my next gig is the Brahms German Requiem, followed by Bach, and b) I want to perform Die Schöne Müllerin from memory for the first time this coming year with Peter Tomek here in Brussels, and in Canada with Dina Namer. Everybody finds this work difficult to memorize because of the strophic setting (i.e. multiple repeats of the same music with different words) but having done it several times before I think I can get it down by heart.

Lots of Canadians performing in Belgium this season: Carla Dirlikov (in Liege) and Julie Nesrallah (Brussels). Both mezzos, I had the pleasure of singing with each of them in two different productions of Carmen, back in Canada. I hope we'll get a chance to see their performances and have them in for dinner and a little visit... this house is becoming the unofficial Canadian embassy, and why not?

I already mentioned Kevin Skelton, who I'd met two weekends ago; this past Friday evening I went to Aalst, just to the west of Brussels, to hear his vocal quartet, Blindman vox.

The Blindman Collective started in Flanders perhaps twenty years ago as a saxophone quartet, and a few years ago expanded into a larger ensemble made up of four different quartets, one each for saxophone, strings, drums and voice. These different quartets now perform separately but also together in different configurations as needed, and this concert was held in a lovely little chapel in Aalst, using the saxophones and voices to perform music by Schutz, Buxtehude and Bach.

I was really amazed at this distinctly Belgian presentation - Adolphe Sax was Belgian, born in Dinant, after all - of baroque music in an ancient chapel, with four master saxophonists playing wonderfully nuanced and dare I say delicately coloured music that somehow put me in mind of a church organ. It was really quite something, and has to be heard to be appreciated.