A week to ourselves

 

The boys are away at their respective locations for a week of classes au plein air;  Malcolm is in Koksijde on the West Flemish coast, and Duncan is in the Ardennes, at Nettinne (pictured above). 

We got up early together, and I used the car in this exceptional case to drop Malcolm and his suitcase off first, then took Duncan to his school to get him installed on the bus with his friends.  Usually they walk or take the bus/tram but I wanted to see them off...

This is the first time that their individual weeks away coincide, and I am home, and as I am not excessively busy with music preparations, we have some quiet time together at home.  Maggie is quite occupied with her school work during the day, and french and yoga classes two evenings, but we have already made plans to take the opportunity to go out to a nice restaurant or two.  Last night it was to "Le Klepto", which is a lovely bistro near the maison communale, and since it was a nice night we walked the 1.5 km or so to get there, and then again on the way back.  It's not a bad thing, after a nice meal out, to get some fresh air and exercise on your way home.  Tonight we are going to try Hemgie's downtown, which is the highest ranked Brussels restaurant on TripAdvisor... if it's good we'll take the boys sometime when they are back.

 

Last week we were treated to a great surprise:  our good friend Gediminas - former diplomat with the Lithuanian embassy to NATO here in Brussels, who moved with his family back to Vilnius a couple of years ago - called us up to let us know he was in town, and so we invited him over.  We had a great time having dinner together and hearing about his family's adventures, their recent purchase of a sailboat, and other topics of conversation.  We really miss their family very much, and remember fondly our New Year celebrations spent in Vilnius almost two years ago.  We are hoping to get some time to try out that sailboat on the lake at Trakai sometime soon!

This past weekend was the "Scratch" or "sing-along" Messiah in Antwerp, with Geert Hendrix conducting, Cristel de Meulder (s) Inez Carsauw (ms) and Jan Caals (t).  I've sung with the other soloists before, and saw familiar faces in the orchestra and chorus, so it was very nice.  Cristel and Inez and I sang my first Johannespassion in 2010 together, and Inez remarked on how much she felt my voice has continued to develop since then.  Here is a photo of that Johannes from April 2010 with Inez and Cristel on my left...

 

Inez told me that we will perform again in March 2013's Matthäuspassion, with Chorale Caecilia, the group that I sang Die Schöpfung with in April of this year.  On that topic, I just received the news from Paul Dinneweth that he wants me to do the arias and "Pilatus" parts, and that the "Christus" will be sung by another bass/baritone.  I've been doing a lot of marking up and translating my score this week, and listening to many many different singers as they have taken on this incredible masterwork.  I cannot say enough about how lucky I am to sing this music, which feels to me like the most natural music in the world... and it is so beautiful.  I have already been talking with Peter about working through it together this month; there is no limit to how deeply one could explore it, and it deserves all the time I can give.  Here's a little sample of one very famous person's take on the bass/baritone recit and aria in the last section, Am Abend, da es kühle war / Mache dich, mein Herze, rein.

For now though I have a Brahms requiem coming up in Middelburg, Holland, on Sunday the 7th of October, and I am looking forward to working again with Bart van Reyn.  He was the first person I auditioned for back in 2007 and indeed gave me my first contract to sing in europe that season, so it's nice to sing with him again, and for my first time in Holland since the BL!NDMAN concerts in Amsterdam a couple of years ago.  After the general rehearsal for Messiah last week in Antwerp, I stopped in for lunch and we sang through the Brahms together, and caught up on what's been happening lately for him.

Then we do the Fauré Requiem at St. Andrews in Brussels a couple of weeks later with Newfoundlander Penni Clarke conducting.  It looks as if Maggie's parents will be able to attend that performance, as they begin a Belgium visit just prior to that concert on the 20th and will be staying until just after my birthday.  I'm starting to rehearse the first and last choral movements with Malcolm, as they will be supplementing the senior choir with the older kids from the junior choir, and it's not bad for him to sing the mass in Latin, seeing as he is enjoying his second year of it at school, and I hope it will work out so that he can participate.

It was sunny for much of today, but the weather on the whole has been rainy and cold.  I have resisted turning on the hot water heat thus far, as it hardly makes sense to heat the whole place when I'm the only one here, but I can tell that I won't be able to hold out much longer... I hope that those in Canada are enjoying the autumn leaves...