Blogcrastination episode IV: A New Hope

trying to wake up the top of my voice at the 9am rehearsal

Part Four: Bach and Father's Day

The concert at the Eglise des Minimes turned out to be quite a big success... I ended up bring Malcolm along as well, because his flute teacher was performing the famous BWV 1067 Orchestral suite #2 in B-minor, with a fantastic flute solo part.  It's really important for young musicians to see their teachers perform, to know that all the things that they are being told are really put into practice as well.  I certainly remember the first time that I heard Bruce Kelly sing, in a concert with soprano Carol Lynn Reifel and Brian Jackson on the piano... it completely blew my mind, and gave me something I could strive to emulate.

"bass" solo 

duet with soprano Bepke Keersmaekers 

with soprano Bepke Keersmaekers and tenor Teun Michiels

This was a great pleasure to perform with Bepke and Teun; these are the two solo singers with whom I sang Carmina Burana this past season, so it was great to do something again.  They are both lovely singers and great colleagues.

The conductor Julius Stenzel was really over the moon about my singing; he said that this was going to go into his personal carnet (notebook) of special musical memories, as he has always wanted to present this very large and challenging cantata but had never before found soloists who could do it.

There were some fortunate coincidences on Sunday: a Netherlands television crew has been filming a documentary film of the Minimes church and its surrounding area, and they were present for the rehearsal and performance.  This Cantata was originally written to celebrate the dedication of a new organ, and the priest at Minimes spoke at the concert, reporting that this past sunday was the 300th anniversary of the opening of the Minimes church, so much of our text - which talked about God's house - was very appropriate to the occasion.  The TV crew also had very high quality audio recording equipment set up, and said that we will receive a CD of the performance... the documentary will be broadcast nationally on the Netherlands CANVAS+ network, so I am looking forward to seeing that, and hoping that a little of our singing makes it into the final cut.  As well the Belgian co-producer was very complimentary and has suggested to her English-language Belgian television team that they might interview me for a segment later on in the autumn, as part of their ongoing series of interviews of Brussels expats... so we will see if that pans out.

When I got home after the concert it was time for Father's Day presents.  While I love the music of Bach I certainly didn't start out listening to it as a teenager... as I was explaining to Malcolm a couple of weeks ago, there was a period of time for about 18 months when if it wasn't the Rolling Stones, I didn't listen to it.  He had idly explained over breakfast that he found that the Stones really weren't very funky... when I had cleaned the coffee off myself, the floor and the table and regained the use of my voice, I immediately played him "Exile on Main Street", "Goat's Head Soup" and especially 1980s "Emotional Rescue", a Stones album which I had on cassette and have always loved.  He took note of this and on Sunday gave me an original vinyl pressing of that album.

Duncan had decided on his own that he wanted to give me flowers... I guess he has noticed how much I enjoy receiving bouquets after concerts and so he went up to the florist at the University and composed a beautiful bouquet with white and orange roses and purple calla lillies.  Lovely presents from both of them.

So to finish off this post, I think I am just about caught up.  We received news this week that both boys have passed their exams: Duncan scored an 85% average on his CEB standardized test that grants him passage into secondary school.  He'll be attending the bilingual french-english programme at Le Verseau in Wavre next year, and is looking forward to that very much.

Malcolm's hard studying over the last month pulled up his flagging results in nearly every case; he still has a low mark in Geography that he plans to contest, as he was given a zero on a test last term that he missed because of a school trip.  Even so he passes into the next year, and will switch from the Latin-Greek option to Latin-German for his last two years of secondary school.

Maggie had her end of year party last night, and I drove out to Waterloo to join her.  The last day of classes was yesterday, so the students are gone, but she has today and maybe tomorrow to clean up her classroom and start to prepare for next September.

This weekend we are going to drive to Metz, in France, for a brief stay-over, and then we will continue on to Nancy, where my friend Korneel Bernolet is assisting the french conductor Christophe Rousset in performances of Lully's Armide at the Opéra National de Lorraine.  He has been kind enough to agree to play an audition for me, so that's exciting... have a good weekend and in advance, a happy Canada Day!

Blogcrastination part III: Berlin and birthday

PART THREE: Berlin and birthdays

the path of the former Berlin Wall near Peter's house 

the new government complex Spreebogen near the Reichstag

the front of the Reichstag building with the glass dome just visible above the roof 

the Marshall McLuhan Salon at the Canada House near the Potsdamerplatz 

the booming Potsdamerplatz 

the Holocaust memorial 

an evening drink by the river Spree overlooking the dome of the Reichstag 

the Berliner Philharmonie Hall

On the tuesday following our latest "Hammerpalooza" (as our little parties with Bryan and Kiana Hammer are referred to) I hopped on an Easyjet flight to Berlin's Schoenefeld airport.  If one is willing to travel only with carry-on baggage, and will fly early in the morning or purchase one's ticket far enough in advance, these flights are only around 20 euros each way.  I was able to stay with Peter Tomek in his apartment for the next two nights, and it was great to catch up with him and to have the opportunity to really work hard on learning the Bach BWV 194.  This piece I have written about before, but it was described by the conductor Julius Stenzel, who asked me to sing it, as "practically unsingable" by most bass singers, and very, very diffficult for most baritones.  They attempted it at the Chapelle des Minimes some years ago, with a tenor singer, but the result was not quite what Julius wanted, and so he was happy to let me give it a shot if I wanted to.

The reason it is so difficult is that it has a very high tessitura: most of the Bach repertoire for Bass singer has at its extreme top end a high E-natural; once before I have sung a cantata that had a passing (quick) high F-natural, but never notes like in BWV 194: over and over again it passes through E-F-F#-G.  It would seem that either the organ at the church it was written for was tuned low, or Bach had a bass with a very easy top on his voice there.  The Bach Collegium Tokyo has released it transposed down a whole tone, and I have heard recordings performed at A=415hz, which would mean that everything is a semi-tone lower, but this is an orchestra with modern instruments and so they play at A=440hz, so no breaks for me!  

Fortunately Peter and I have worked on many cantatas in the past and I knew if I was to learn it quickly he was the best person to go to for the coaching.  Apart from the high tessitura, there are two solo recits, one long duet recit with the soprano, a very long duet aria with soprano, and a difficult solo aria.  That's quite a lot of work, so I was happy to get it learned properly.  Learning these pieces takes hours of very concentrated mental concentration and physical work so when I was finished I needed to simply walk around Berlin a bit to clear my head.  Many people seem to think that when one is travelling to other cities there will be time and mental energy to explore many things, but the reality is that when one is working so hard mentally, one's mind really is a blank, and one is too tired to really do very much other than explore the city in a very relaxed and flexible way. 

I did manage to go for a nice long walk with Peter though, to see the Reichstag, and walk through the park around it.  The Brandenburg Gate was blocked off for some sort of football event, so that was difficult to get to.  But I did walk to the Potsdamerplatz, the new Sony Centre with cinemas, a huge enclosed dining area, and Legoland, and visited the Canadian Embassy nearby, and saw the Holocaust memorial.  This whole area of East Germany is absolutely booming, with new construction going up everywhere.  I saw construction barriers with barbed wire enclosing many building sites.  I had a chance to see the famous concert hall where the Berlin Philharmonic performs, built in I think the 1960s… it has a very space age look to it, but the designers who opted to have it constructed in what was then outside of the busy centre, on the understanding that someday the wall would come down, were right to do so.  They just had to wait several decades for the surrounding area to be rehabilitated…

The weekend that followed was significant as it was finally an opportunity to celebrate the joint birthday party with Duncan and Arthur.  Both birthdays are actually in April, but they had decided on a joint celebration and so it took the committee of four parents a little while to get themselves organized.  Together the two boys invited about eight friends; all of them known to each other as they all are members of the same karate club.  We met in the park for shared birthday cakes, some presents and the ritual destruction of a piñata, and then walked a short distance to the New Rock climbing gym, where I had booked a lesson with an instructor.

We got set up with climbing gear, had some lessons about safety and the proper way to climb, did a little bit of free climb warming up and then spent the next hour climbing the various walls.  Arthur's mother, younger brother and younger sister even had a chance to participate, and so did I, which was really a lot of fun.  Malcolm was home studying for his year-end exams, so he didn't come, and Maggie was off at the graduation ceremony for the secondary students at her school, so she didn't climb either, but the gym is a good one and not too expensive so I hope we can go again soon.  I love the strategy and the exercise; I was a compulsive tree climber as a child, and liked working high up in the tops of buildings when I did a little bit of construction work, and also had to climb every day, sometimes with climbing irons or spurs when I worked outside for Bell Canada, so it was fun for me too.  Here are some photos of the party and the climbing session...

Duncan having a crack at the piñata 

Valentin's successful hit

Cool presents 

Climbing instruction 

Getting ready to ascend 

climb like an Egyptian 

spider dad 

up we go

to the top 

a tough section 

I need more practice

a bunch of tired but happy climbers at the end of the session

(Part FOUR: Bach at the Minimes)

The procrastinating blogger part II: Back in Belgique

PART TWO: Belgium

No sooner had I dropped off my bags at home than I had to attend Duncan's theatre performance: his "Spectacle fin de l'année" was held that same afternoon.  I managed to make it there on time, and even beat Duncan to the theatre, as his karate class is held early on Wednesday afternoon and so he only just made it in time.  He did a pretty good job; this year his delivery is much improved, his lines were audible and clear, and delivered straight out into the house; he's made a lot of progress and likes acting, so plans to do quite a bit of that next year in secondary school.

I brought back quite a few vinyl records from Canada, including some that Malcolm had requested.  He has recently started to get quite excited about vinyl, and considers it a more enjoyable experience than listening to mp3s.  We had a good time spinning some discs together and working on air drumming...

Duncan's twelfth birthday happened while I was in Canada (more on his party later), but Malcolm's sixteenth birthday fell shortly after I arrived home, and as that is the legal age to purchase beer or wine in Belgium, I suggested that we go out together to Le Roi Albert, the neighbourhood pub, for a pint.  He bought a round of Julius for Maggie and Duncan (he had a soft drink!) and himself, and it was a nice experience.  Belgian beer is strong so we encouraged him to sip it slowly!

Santé!

The rest of the week for me was spent recovering from the jetlag and getting back into the rhythm of things here.  The weekend that followed included a great day out with my friend Gediminas, sailing on the Verse Meer in Zeeland.  Gediminas is the Lithuanian ambassador to Belgium, and he was scouting out locations for a regatta that he would be coördinating with the Lithuanian embassador to the Netherlands a couple of weeks later, so we rented a 4,6 metre boat and sailed around the now landlocked sea, stopping off for some frites and herring in the town of Veere.  

walking in to the marina

It is an amazing place with an interesting history; the museum on the edge of the port there had a huge Scottish Saltire flying in front of it, and when I inquired I discovered that Veere had been a major port for the Scottish wool trade.  Prior to the 16th century Bruges had been the main route for Scottish wool to make its way into Europe, but the river Zwin there silted up, and the wool port was moved to Middelburg in 1518, and then for religious reasons (Catholic pressure against the Scottish Calvinists) it passed to Veere in 1541.

on the pier at Veere

a Saltire in the Netherlands

The following week was a long weekend because of the Ascension Holiday, so Gediminas and his fellow Lithuanian  colleague Tomas and I signed up for another longer sailing trip of three days, and our sons Simonas and Jonas and Malcolm came along for the ride.  This time we went with Frank, our skipper from our previous expedition last summer to Dover, and departed from Zeebrugge to Roomport in Zeeland, where we overnighted, and then went on to Middelburg, and then through the locks and canals, to Veere, and then back home.  It was really a great trip, with a nice mix of choppy sea and wind - which was a bit disorienting and exciting, and required a dose of gravol - and calm smooth sailing, and I found motoring through the picturesque canals also quite restful.

This period ended up with more dance spectacles to mark the end of the school year; Duncan's ballet spectacle was reduced in size because the other boy in the class withdrew at the last minute, but he did get in some classical moves, and there was also the modern dance section he participated in.  He has expressed an interest in tap dancing and more acrobatics for next year; we are hoping that we can find another ballet school as well, and that there will be some more performance opportunities at his new secondary school.

We also got in some more socializing with Bryan and Kiana and company… Osa is getting quite large but his personality is continuing to be that of a really nice dog, and we were very happy to play with him.  We did some jeep exploration with the kids until the weather turned wet, so we didn't have an outdoor fire but we had one in the fireplace instead, and also had a game of Cranium, and then had an impromptu dance party!

(next: Berlin)