Bad-a$$-Bach

That earlier post where I included a picture of Bach as "The Terminator" appears to not have been entirely unwarranted, as it would seem that he was not a total stranger to brawls. I happened upon David and Mendel's "A Bach Reader" in Bruce's study this morning, and came upon a reference to a tussle Bach had with a bassoonist when they were both students in Arnstadt in 1705.

Now, some of my best friends are bassoonists, seriously, but it would seem that Bach had little patience with what he called "nanny goat" bassoon playing (Zippelfagottist was the actual word he used) and wasn't shy about saying so. Apparently he was accosted by one such bleaty fellow in the Markt, who called him a dirty dog and started in on him with a stick (one presumes it was a different type than the one he played). J.S. promptly drew his sword, and it was on! It was fortunately resolved without bloodshed, but makes an interesting story nonetheless, and gets me fired up for the coming weekend.

I'm breathing a little easier at the moment, now that the Purcell St. Cecilia last weekend has been completed, and rather successfully, I think. I had coached it with Piers, who certainly is familiar with this idiom, having worked extensively on baroque repertoire in the UK, South Africa, the US, Belgium and in Aix-en-Provence, and indeed conducted the first baroque opera in China recently. That helped me get into the swing of this particular style of music, quite early and very English, so I was confident, despite a fairly short rehearsal period. An orchestral conductor friend of mine was there, and he has offered me a big project for 2012: Haydn's Creation. This is a repeat engagment with his orchestra and quite an exciting thing; getting asked to come back and do something else by a conductor is a clear sign that you've done a good job. I was offered the Creation last winter in Belgium but had to decline because of a scheduling problem, so I am really very, very pleased to be asked again to perform it, and this time I will assuredly say "YES!".

But back to Bach, I've been relaxing this morning listening to a number of recordings of his Weihnachts-oratorium, and getting ready for the first rehearsal this afternoon. It's going to be great to devote all my attention to this concert, because for the first time in the better part of a year, I'm not preparing to perform one project while simultaneously learning the music for the next couple of projects... after this weekend, I have a couple of months in which to get ready for Messiah and Die Schone Mullerin which are both pieces I know well.

Arts and Literature, or Sports and Leisure?

Pie me! Anybody who played Trivial Pursuit most likely remembers the different pieces, and if we were playing a real-life version, as a family we've collected quite a few of both the Arts and Lit, and Sports (even a bit of Leisure) pieces recently.

Last week we had a nice dinner together with Stephanie Martin, a conductor, musician and composer friend from Canada. Stephanie is on sabbatical from York U., and one day last week we walked around Brussels together, exploring a variety of places new and old in the city. When visiting the Church of St. Nicholas near the Grand Place, I learned something new about the saint's effigy; there was a small sculpture of three children in a barrel at his feet that I'd never recognized before, but whom Stephanie immediately recognized as the "pickled boys".


Yeek! Apparently part of the St. Nicholas legend includes the story of a wicked innkeeper who murdered three boys, and salted their bodies to serve to his guests, to save on the butcher's bill. Nicholas visited the inn and confronted the innkeeper, who confessed his crime, whereupon Nicholas prayed over the brine-tub and the three boys leaped out unharmed. Talk about a Trivial-Pursuit winning question, on the lives of Saints, no less! What is particularly interesting to me about the three children, and St. Nicholas's effigy, is that over top of it floats the Eye of Providence, which most of us would recognize from the back of the U.S.A. banknotes, but which is also a Masonic symbol. Of course we just got back from Vienna, and Zauberflöte at the Staatsoper, and my mind is buzzing with Masonic imagery, but it is intriguing that there are three boys in the barrel, like the three boys in Zauberflöte, and above all floats the Eye!


Later on Stephanie came over to our place for moules frites. Both boys got excited about having a Canadian guest, and as usual, the board games came out. A post-prandial chess death match ensued, but no pickling occurred, unless you count the modest consumption of Trappist beer that went with the moules frites.


That's about it for leisure: Thursday was the Remembrance Day concert in St. Andrews, which was a big success. It was the first time that Eleanor Daley's Flanders Fields setting had been performed in Brussels, certainly as a version for solo voice, and it may very well have been the first time that the Ned Rorem War Scenes were heard here. These deeply disturbing pieces on text from Walt Whitman's Civil War diaries are difficult both emotionally and technically to sing, but very affecting. Other pieces included the gorgeous Vier ernste Gesänge of Brahms, the Schlummert ein from Bach's Ich habe genug, Barber's Dover Beach, and the Libera me from the Fauré Requiem.

Then on Saturday there was a reprise of the all César Franck concert with Vocaal Collectief, in a 13th-century church in Tervuren, just south-east of Brussels. It was also very successful, perhaps because we all had performed the same material on October 3rd, and the programme had a chance to mijoter (simmer) since then. The sense of ensemble in this church was much greater than for the first concert, partly because we could all hear each other much more clearly, and it was extremely well received.

Last night I had the first strings rehearsal with Philippe Gérard, who will be conducting this Sunday's Bach concert at L'eglise des Minimes. These two cantatas have some extremely dramatic and vocally challenging singing for the baritone/bass, on the themes of the day of apocalypse and judgment, contrasted with the peacefulness and contentment of God's love. In between the ongoing preparation of these pieces, I'm also getting ready for the Purcell Ode on St. Cecilia's day, which is all about the beauty of music, and takes place on November 26th in Kingston, Ontario.

Now for the sports and weather... D. experienced both this past weekend, during his trip to the Maidstone Rugby Club in Kent, just south of London. He had a great time but came home quite wet; apparently the heavens opened mid-game. Here in Brussels yesterday was the first dry day out of the previous 17, and it appears that England has its share of rain this time of year as well.

The Telegraph mentioned our concert...

As a little coda to my last blog post, where I spoke about the importance of art, the political correspondent for the UK Telegraph happened to be at our concert in Brussels last night, and wrote about it today. We were also mentioned in the Brussels Weekly, and Brussels TV also filmed a piece on the concert which should be airing tomorrow.

It's gratifying that a Remembrance/Armistice day concert has received so much recognition here, and that our choice of pieces was appreciated. I promise I'll write more about our programme later, but for now, a big "thank-you" to St. Andrew's Church of Scotland itself, for hosting the concert.

Remembrance of a different sort

I feel like I've been on the run since mid October! No posts for a couple weeks reflects my high level of musical activity recently. It's been a very challenging couple of weeks, one filled both with much preparation for upcoming concerts, and performances, but also full of the theme of Remembrance.


All Saints' Day is an important holiday here in Belgium, and everyone takes the time to remember those who have died. On a personal note of remembrance, our family said goodbye recently to my Grandmother Helen Gillespie, who died in September of this year. I was unable to go back to Canada for the funeral, but fortunately our family had several opportunities to visit with her when we were back in Canada, and she was in good spirits and energetic for those visits. I'm glad that we took those opportunities to spend some time with her. I was lucky enough to have a close relationship with her, as did both boys, and we kept up a written and telephone correspondence for many years.


Remembrance for me has also included some commemorations of the life and work of fellow artists. In the week leading up to the Hunting Cantata concert of October 24th, I heard the sad news that Pierre Fleta, Bruce's mentor, had died in Paris at the age of 85.

There is little information available online about Pierre, so I would like to say a few words about him now. He was a beautiful tenor singer, a committed teacher, and a gifted artist. The son of Miguel Fleta, himself perhaps the most famous tenor of his generation, Pierre lived with Beniamino Gigli while completing his voice studies. He debuted as Cavardossi in Tosca, sang at La Monnaie in Brussels for six years, notably as Alfredo and Hoffmann, and sang for many years in many European opera houses including Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Nice, Bordeaux, and Montpellier. In 1972 he became the artistic director of the Opera Royale de Wallonie in Liege, and shortly thereafter was named professor of voice at the Liege Conservatory. For the following 20 years he staged many productions there and in France, Spain and Monaco before retiring to Paris, and subsequently moving with his beloved wife Claude to the village of Millau, near Montpellier, in the south.

Bruce and I visited Pierre and Claude in 2005, and I was lucky enough to sing for him then, and again during subsequent visits to Montpellier in 2007. He was a wonderfully warm person, and a gifted teacher, deeply committed to encouraging young singers. While he made many recordings for the French label Pathé, there are few available online. Here is one clip I found of him singing a patriotic french chanson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yr5R4qAB2g

Bruce was in Victoria at the time of the funeral, but I was able to take the fast train to Paris and get to Montrouge in time for the service, and pay our respects the the Fleta family, before returning to Antwerp for my rehearsal of the Hunting Cantata that same evening. I am glad that I did, to help honour this remarkable artist.

The following week I spent time preparing for last night's Music of Remembrance concert here in Brussels. (I'll write about that in my next post). The week of November 1-5 was the Toussaint school holiday, and we put the boys in a residential programme for the week at the castle in the Ardennes, and Maggie and I went to Vienna to celebrate my birthday.


As you can see, the Hotel Bristol puts on a nice breakfast! Vienna was gorgeous, as majestic in architecture as Paris, but on a scale that reminded me more of Brussels, in that it was possible to move easily around the old city on foot or by metro.


We saw many fantastic museum exhibitions, including the Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Biedermeier exhibits at the Belvedere Museum, Michaelangelo and Picasso works at the Albertina, and a host of fantastic displays at the natural history museum, including quite a few amazing fossils such as archaeopteryx and some ichthyosaurs. We also say probably the most famous piece of prehistoric art in the world, the 22,000 year-old Venus of Willendorf.

The age of this female human figure is mind-boggling; when you consider that it's been 2000 years since the time of Jesus, and this figure is at least ten times older than that, it gives you pause. It makes me think about all the human stories that have passed, now forgotten in that span of time, and wonder what people will know of today's events in the year 24,000 AD...

We toured the Staatsoper, and visited the Mozarthaus. There was a manuscript score of Marriage of Figaro on display, and at it was quite a profound experience for me to sing a few lines of Conte Almaviva there, in the room in which it was composed. The museum was very informative, with lots of great exhibits including Mozart's death mask:


I made my pilgrimage to the central cemetery, to visit the resting places of several great composers. The location of Mozart's grave is unknown, but there is a monument to his memory in a little grove of trees:


and with him are Beethoven,

Brahms,


Schubert,


Wolf,


and the opera composer Gluck.


I was very happy to have the chance to pay my respects to these wonderful composers, to thank them for the beauty that their music has added to the world.

Speaking of beautiful music, that evening we lined up for standing room places to see Die Zauberflöte. Imagine, for four euros each, we had really the best view and sound of the stage! It was great! You can see the standing places on the parterre in this photo, just behind the orchestra seating, under the imperial box.


The Staatsoper has a huge stage area, with elevating platforms that make up the front and rear stages, each 25 by 25 metres, and a side stage of the same size, plus an understage that covers the combined area. They have about 150 operas in repertory, and stage 50 different productions a year, with a different show every night of the week. Changing all those sets around employs perhaps 300 technicians, and they use all that stage space for quick scene changes, because if means you can be arranging the set on one platform and then quickly and silently move it into place using the elevators.


Seeing all the people involved in the production, and indeed all of the economic benefits that Viennese art and culture bring to the people of Vienna makes me understand how ignorant are those who consider arts to be a "frill". While this particular "frill" may require state subsidy to continue, along with employing singers, musicians and directors, it keeps 300 macho guys with power tools busy every day of the year, employs set builders, costume designers, sewers, set decorators, lighting technicians, ushers and cashiers, and provides beauty and enjoyment to thousands of people. It also injects millions of Euros into the local economy in hotel and restaurant purchases.

Ok, enough preaching about the arts, at least for now. What a wonderful trip!

* * *

This past week was a resumption of our normal family schedule, with lots of rehearsing, not only for last night's concert, but also for upcoming performances of Franck (tomorrow in Tervuren), two Bach Cantatas (Nov. 21st in Brussels), Purcell's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day (Nov. 26th in Kingston) and Bach in Toronto December 4th and 5th. I'm looking forward to a day without singing, a glass of whisky and a good cigar, but I doubt that will happen until after the 5th of December. Until then I have a lot of work to do, so I'm signing off for the moment.