Profitez du soleil!

When we lived in Kingston we smiled at the springtime behaviour of university students... give them one warm spring afternoon, say around April 10th or so, and they'd be out on the terraces of the pubs in shorts, flip-flops, t-shirts, and Oakley sunglasses, drinking Coronas with lime and pretending it was the middle of July. By around four-thirty or so the temperature would drop, but they'd be braving the elements and pretending that they felt just fine, thank you. We had a name for that, we called it "premature terrasculation".

Here in famously drizzly Brussels everyone desperately wants to make the most of sunshine, and so there are lots and lots of cabriolets out today with the tops down, and the cafe tables on the sunny sides of the roundabouts are packed. Even our family isn't immune to the al fresco fever sweeping northwestern europe these last couple of weeks.

Last weekend we went to the Bois de la Cambre, and had a lovely picnic lunch. Everyone brought along a book, and we spread out a blanket near the lake. We stayed for a few hours, ate lunch, threw around the football a bit, and the boys even bought some ice cream. The park was more full then I've ever seen it. That evening we had our first dinner on the terrace this spring: lemon and herb marinated rabbit, barbequed on skewers with pancetta, chinese broccoli and a cucumber red onion salad. Delicious!


Today was another nice day, and so I got out the tool kit and adjusted my old bike. It's always been a bit too small for me, although I've made do with it for nearly three years, and Malcolm is getting quite tall these days, so I thought we'd try him out on it. It's a very light frame so he had no trouble, and he really likes the quick shifters and the high quality brakes.

Of course this meant that Duncan had to try out Malcolm's bike, and while it was his first try on a two-wheeler, he got the hang of it on the first go. He's used to balancing on the add-a-bike, and on his scooter, and he learns very quickly, so it's no surprise that, apart from some cornering problems, he'll be riding on his own very shortly.

Some new projects

It looks as if my performance in Merksem was appreciated, or perhaps it's just a coincidence; I just got a call to do a two performances of Messiah in April of 2011 with the Flanders Baroque Academy. I'm quite excited as this will be my first Messiah on this side of the pond, and my first one since 2005. I've sung Messiah half a dozen times before, and audition with the arias regularly, of course, so the work is in a good place already, but my voice has changed quite a bit in the last few years, so I'm really looking forward to performing this piece again and finding something new in it.

Vocally I have been resting for the past week; my cold is still here but fortunately the accompanying laryngitis isn't, so I should be able to get in some good rehearsing over then next couple of days. I need to refresh my memory of the BL!NDMAN: TRANSFO music for our performance next tuesday, and learn the GLOBUS pieces for next month's concert, which is a debut for me, as a programme and as my first sing in Holland. We're also spending time organizing our summer plans, and getting ready for the boys' two birthday parties that will take place over the next month. Then I have an audition in Cologne to get ready for, in mid-May or mid-June. For anyone who is interested in finding out when and where I will be performing, both in Europe and in Canada, you can get that information on my public site www.matthewzadow.com.

We have several friends and colleagues who have had their flights delayed by the Icelandic volcano problem, and have met the unexpected adjustment of their schedules with varying degrees of contentment. It would seem that the flight ban is lifting, so I send my good wishes to those left in faraway places with time on their hands that they a) enjoy the unstructured time and b) get home safely.

I don't know... I don't know...I dunno where I'm a-gonna go...

...when the volcano blows. Isn't this a tremendous photograph? I thought it was a painting at first.

If you don't understand the title of this post, it's from a song I first heard in "Joe vs. the Volcano", a largely forgettable Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan film from 1990. You can click here to listen to the song by Jimmy Buffet.

We have been expecting a visit from two of Maggie's cousins, due to arrive this weekend, but at this point we're not sure if they're going to make it. Air travel throughout western Europe has been totally disrupted by the recent eruptions from the volcano close to the top of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier near Reykjavík. I tell you, the Icelanders haven't had a good couple of years. First the global financial meltdown in 2008 hammered their economy, and now a geological meltdown is doing the same to a glacier, causing flooding in the communities located in the valleys below.

The stable weather pattern that is preventing the dust and ash cloud from dissipating has brought some local benefits, in that the bright clear weather continues today in Brussels as it has all week, and perhaps because of that, I'm feeling a little bit better today. Let's hope that air travel resumes for Sunday so we can spend some time with Maggie's extended family.

vacation

The house has been very quiet lately. Duncan is away at the chateau for the week, and yesterday Malcolm left for a sleep-over, swim/baseball/golf session with the family of one of Maggie's colleagues. Last night Maggie and I were on our own, and so we made a nice little salade nicoise with a seared tuna steak, and had a quiet dinner here, just the two of us. Luxury.

I am fighting a bad sinus and throat infection, so there's no singing in the cards for me today, but I am taking advantage of the quiet to do some music planning instead. Dina and I have confirmed two performances of Die Schöne Müllerin in May 2011, and are planning additional performances, and I have several projects in December 2010 that are waiting to be finalized. As usual, there are scheduling conflicts with these performances, so I can't do all of them, but it looks like I'll have no shortage of gigs on either side of the ocean for the next eighteen months to two years.

As well I have taken a few steps back into the teaching realm. I used to give guitar lessons, and have done some conducting in my day, but this past weekend I gave my first voice lesson here in Brussels, and it looks like I will have a regular student in this young singer. As well, there is a boys choir in Waterloo that has approached me to assist their young soloists in preparing their pieces, so it looks as if I may have an opportunity there as well. Bruce has always said that someday I'd take on students, and I am very pleased to have a chance to try to pass on my (and his, and his teacher's) knowledge to other singers.

As well I need to start preparing the music for the next two BL!NDMAN concerts; one is in ten days in Courtrai, and the other in Amsterdam in May, so I would like to be in top form for those.

A photo or two from the St. John

I got an email from Vocaal Collectief today along with a link to some photos from our concert on Good Friday, and thought I'd share a couple of them with you. It was a great first Johannes Passion for me, and I hope not the last.

Some blog posts from our visit to Amsterdam

We didn't bother to purchase internet time at the hotel, so wrote some blog posts, and are publishing them now that we are home. You can read Maggie's post here.

Wednesday, April 7, 18h
Amsterdam is a lovely city, but can sometimes be a challenge with children… we found an english bookstore shortly after arriving, and so were fortunately able to reinforce our supply of reading matter for both kids. We came in around mid-day yesterday, and after a little walk past the flower market, Madame Tussauds, the Hard Rock Cafe, we came to our Hotel and the Vondelpark. After checking in we set out for a boat tour of the canals, and saw many sights of the city... the drivers know the area very well, and seemed to enjoy their own "Amsterdam Coffee Break" without any ill effects.


It's amazing to me how closely integrated the water is with life in this city... it's like I understand Venice to be. Even the opera house is on the water...


Today we were up early and off to the Van Gogh Museum. Since it was closed until 10h, we walked along to the Concertgebouw, and found out about the free lunchtime concert that starts at 12h30 on Wednesdays. Stopping for a coffee, we headed back to the Van Gogh, and spent a very pleasant hour-and-a-half going through the first floor galleries, which trace Van Gogh's artistic development from his early days in Antwerp through to the Paris period and then his final time in Arles.

This is the largest exhibit of Van Gogh in the world, and it is presented very intelligently with lots of external context… for the first time in a long time I didn't have to translate from the French, as they present the descriptions in Nederlands and English, unlike in Belgium, where it's French and Flemish. Maggie and Duncan enjoyed the video guide, while Malcolm and I opted for going without and just reading the descriptions and looking at the paintings themselves. I was interested to see influences from Japanese painting, such as abrupt cropping of figures, the absence of a horizon, and a flatness of presentation; these things are not indicative of a lack of technique, but a deliberate artistic choice. By skipping the audio commentary, we missed out on a few things, but Duncan knew lots about the famous "ear incident" and gave us lots of details as we walked back to the Concertgebouw for the lunch concert.


After contemplating an hour's wait in line with two kids, we realized that we were more in need of lunch, so went a cafe for some soup (Maggie and I), a sandwich (Malcolm) and some frites (Duncan). I did manage a quick look inside the small concert hall, which is really beautiful, perfect for chamber music, but the large salle was closed in preparation for the evening concert, so that will have to wait until another time.

After lunch we headed back to the Van Gogh museum for the Paul Gaugin exhibit, which made reference to the famous Paris exhibition of 1889. With their works excluded from the main showing, which was dominated by painters of the academic tradition, Gaugin and his contemporaries organized their own expo of modern art in a cafe. This present-day exposition was careful to try to recreate the ambiance of that 1889 show by making the display space as much like a cafe as they could, with an installation of cafe chairs in the centre of the salle, paintings from the original show, as well as twelve zincographs by Gaugin on yellow paper along one wall. There was also a display and explanation of the process of zincography, and on the second level, more paintings by Gaugin that traced the arc of his career. I was particularly interested in an 1889 painting of a red-headed bather entering the blue-green water, entitled "Into the Waves".


Upstairs a carved polychromed wood piece ("Be Mysterious", 1890) used the same image in a different medium. It reminded me very much of my friend Darren's work; he does large wooden bas-reliefs himself, and his style at times also incorporates japanese or primitivist influences, much like Van Gogh and Gaugin.

Thursday, April 8, 12h
We are on the train back to Brussels, sitting in a compartment: it's a "Harry Potter" train according to Duncan. Nothing from the refreshments trolley, though; we had a little lunch in the station before leaving. This morning was fairly cold and damp, so we opted to head home a little early. Now of course the sun is shining brightly, and we can see large expanses of blue sky. Oh well! We needed to be back home in good time, so that we all could get a good night's sleep.


Last night after the Gaugin exhibit Maggie and the boys walked back to the Vondelpark, and from there to the hotel, while I headed down to a used music score place to poke around for bargains. I spent a good hour there, but the sheer number of scores was a bit overwhelming, stacked as they were floor-to-ceiling, and it was very dusty. I did find a couple of items, a set of Brahms duets for baritone/alto and soprano, and an assortment of Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Schumann lieder arranged for voice and guitar. I suppose it would be a useful thing to learn my own guitar accompaniments for these well-known pieces, just for fun. This store's catalogue is available online, and I am back in Amsterdam at the end of May for a BL!NDMAN concert, so I'll do my searching online and ask the proprietor to put stuff aside for me once I've had more time to consider.

On my way home I walked along a long market that seemed to sell everything from meditation crystals to jeans, DVDs to fresh fish. I met up with the family, and we had a little quiet time reading and relaxing together, and then took the advice of our concierge and went to Bazar, a middle eastern restaurant located in a gorgeous building. Originally a church, it was then used as a synagogue before being converted into a restaurant. The food was incredibly good, and the service was excellent. We started with a plate of stuffed grape leaves, phyllo pastry and four delicious dipping sauces/pastes, and then had skewered shrimps and chicken and lamb stew with almond and cardamom. I would recommend this restaurant in a flash for anyone going to Amsterdam; the kids even got ice cream at the end of their meals.


The market that I had seen earlier that afternoon was wrapping up, and there were two herons that prowling in the street, lured no doubt by the scent of fresh fish that still lingered among the piles of ice used to cool the fish during the day. These birds were really a beautiful and unexpected sight, but then we are in a city surround and completely networked by water, so perhaps the sight of them was not so unusual to the residents. We had a leisurely walk back to the hotel, and turned in for the night, falling asleep quickly.

Next time we are here I hope to see some other things, like the Rijksmuseum that has a collection of Flemish masters, and also the Anne Frank house, which was mostly inaccessible due to renovations. I do also hope to get a good look inside that Concertgebouw, and also the Netherlands Opera House.

The trees here in Brussels are flowering like mad, and we are looking forward to some relaxing days now after bustling around for the last three. Have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Easter

We are enjoying a relaxed day today, at the end of very pleasant Easter weekend. Our performance of the Johannes Passion was given to a capacity audience in the Sint Bartolomeuskerke. It was quite a success for everyone involved, and a wonderful start to the Easter weekend. There was a photographer present so I will be sure to post a pic or two when I receive them.

Then we went to Glons to celebrate birthdays with our Walloon friends, returning last night. We have given the house a good cleaning, done some laundry, and are getting ready for a trip to Amsterdam tomorrow. We hope to visit the Van Gogh museum, the flower festival and see the sights, returning home later in the week. Musically I have some preparing to do for the two upcoming BL!NDMAN concerts in Courtrai and Amsterdam, a trip to Paris to see Bruce's teacher, and more auditions, these ones in Germany and France. Looks like it's going to be a busy spring!

General completed; day off; spring is coming

The Bartholomeuskerk in Merksem was built in the late 17th century in a very simple, clean style, and the acoustic inside is lively. The Apostle St. Bartholomew is only mentioned in John's gospel, so I suppose it is very appropriate that we do the Johannes Passion in such a place.

Last night we had the general rehearsal, and everything went well... I am very pleased, and it is a relief today to have a day off from singing before the show tomorrow, as I have been rehearsing every day for a long time, and it does add up. The voice isn't like a stringed instrument where you can just change the strings if they get worn; rather you have to give it some time to repair itself. Today I'll do administrative things, write and call to ask for auditions, and spend some time listening to the recordings I made from the numerous coachings and rehearsals, and reviewing the score. I can't spend too much time thinking about these works... perhaps I've missed something important, that I only notice after the fifteen - or fiftieth - reading?


Tuesday I was walking down the Avenue de Cor de Chasse, on my way home from dropping off the boys at school, and from the top of the hill I could see that something had changed. In the warm morning light, the flowering tree near the corner of our old street was just starting to bloom. The previous day it had been a large bundle of black sticks, and then, suddenly it had transformed into a cloud of pale pink blossoms. I didn't have a camera with me at the time, but the picture above is from our first spring here in 2008, so it gives you some idea of how it looked.

The contrast between the warm yellow of the house, the dark green pine trees rising into a clear blue sky behind the cloud of pink blossoms, illuminated with golden morning light was wonderful, and I sat down for ten minutes to simply take it in. The variety and profusion of blooming trees in our part of Brussels is really astonishing. They don't all bloom at once, but in sequence, so we enjoy a marvelous display for several weeks. That's good urban planning for you.

Later that same day I was inspired to make a run for some gardening supplies, but the weather has since turned colder so I am holding off on that for the moment... Duncan is home with a cold today, so perhaps if it warms up, and if he feels up to it, we'll get some seeds in pots together.

In case I don't write again before the weekend, happy Easter!