the solo male trio in the Nunes Garcia mass
the cellos being very expressive in the Mozart Requiem
my Christmas cactus is happy
orange and lemon peel for the Christmas cake
Maggie stirring everything up for the cake
ten egg surprise!
Duncan at the comics museum
(the rocket appears to have shrunk somewhat since his last visit)
watching The Triplets of Belleville with a live performance
of the soundtrack in the Cirque Royale
This weekend was quite busy. On friday evening we had a quick visit with our friends Bryan and Kiana to celebrate their signing the purchase papers on their lovely house in Bousval. As well this weekend was Bryan's birthday so we also took him an early birthday present, but left fairly early.
Saturday involved a lot of gardening around home: we trimmed back many of the rose bushes and other shrubs that border our back garden, and in the interest of protecting the lawn and keeping the back patio clean, we fenced in the chickens so that they won't leave their droppings there, and so that the lawn can recover. After a very hot and dry summer it didn't stand up very well to the scratching of the hens, so we are going to replace some of the lost topsoil and reseed it so that it grows back over the wet winter months, and so we must keep them away from the seeds and sprouting grass.
During the moving around of the coop and the positioning of the fencing we realised that we hadn't checked for eggs for a few days... I thought that the hens had stopped laying last week, but when we opened the door we found ten eggs! I looked again today and saw three more, so it looks as if they are still producing despite the longer nights. Maggie had replaced a lot of their flax straw bedding so perhaps that makes it a bit warmer inside the coop, and so they are laying again.
Saturday evening I had my last Mozart Requiem, which went quite well. The conductor was very happy and there was some talk of a further collaboration a few years down the line. I am very impressed with the level of preparation of what is essentially an amateur choral society, and the orchestra is entirely professional musicians, many of whom I know well, and so of course I'd be happy to come sing with them any time.
Sunday was church in the morning; Duncan is rehearsing for the Nativity play which takes place next Sunday, and I was asked to do the readings, which were from Luke (the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist) and Matthew (the foretelling of the birth of Jesus). After church we went out for lunch, this time to the Horta café which is housed within the same building as the Comic Strip museum. We visited the museum many years ago, most probably during our first year in Brussels, and so it was nice to see the building again. The service in the café was not terrible attentive, but the food was passable, and we enjoyed staying warm and dry for an hour or two. Then we walked to the Cirque Royale, which is a concert hall/theatre that seats around 3500 people, and met up with Malcolm just before the performance. It was the venue for a digital projection of the 2003 film The Triplets of Belleville, synchronised with a live performance of the soundtrack by the film's composer and his band. On stage there was the composer, who also played a Django Reinhardt-style Maccaferri jazz guitar, an upright bassist who also played electric bass, a kit drummer, a percussionist, a pianist, a clarinettist, trumpeter, and trombonist, and a female singer.
The film is a rather interesting one, a co-production between telefilm Canada, Quebec, Belgium, and France, and all of the musicians including the performers were from Quebec (except the kit drummer who was from Los Angeles). It is a bit bizarre but very clever and very, very funny. There is almost no dialogue at all, apart from a few lines at the beginning and at the end, and the music is jazz from the "Fred Astaire" age. We have attended several different kinds of screenings of films, usually silent films from the 1920s, with the soundtracks performed by the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, over the last several years, but this was the first explicitly jazzy soundtrack, and the first relatively new film. We had a good time, and I encourage you to see the film if you can.
Today it was forecast to reach a high of six or seven degrees, but dry, so I took Yoshi the dog for another long run of 15km with a 1,5 km walk at either end. Where I run near the house, it takes maybe 1.3 km to get to the forest, and then I run through the trees, mostly oak and maple, for a kilometer or so before I get to the farm fields. Today I saw that the winter wheat had sprouted up and so the hillsides were looking very green, and the warm afternoon sunlight and puffy Rubens-style clouds made it look like a Flemish painting, or maybe the Windows XP desktop wallpaper, "Bliss"...
Saturday evening I had my last Mozart Requiem, which went quite well. The conductor was very happy and there was some talk of a further collaboration a few years down the line. I am very impressed with the level of preparation of what is essentially an amateur choral society, and the orchestra is entirely professional musicians, many of whom I know well, and so of course I'd be happy to come sing with them any time.
Sunday was church in the morning; Duncan is rehearsing for the Nativity play which takes place next Sunday, and I was asked to do the readings, which were from Luke (the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist) and Matthew (the foretelling of the birth of Jesus). After church we went out for lunch, this time to the Horta café which is housed within the same building as the Comic Strip museum. We visited the museum many years ago, most probably during our first year in Brussels, and so it was nice to see the building again. The service in the café was not terrible attentive, but the food was passable, and we enjoyed staying warm and dry for an hour or two. Then we walked to the Cirque Royale, which is a concert hall/theatre that seats around 3500 people, and met up with Malcolm just before the performance. It was the venue for a digital projection of the 2003 film The Triplets of Belleville, synchronised with a live performance of the soundtrack by the film's composer and his band. On stage there was the composer, who also played a Django Reinhardt-style Maccaferri jazz guitar, an upright bassist who also played electric bass, a kit drummer, a percussionist, a pianist, a clarinettist, trumpeter, and trombonist, and a female singer.
The film is a rather interesting one, a co-production between telefilm Canada, Quebec, Belgium, and France, and all of the musicians including the performers were from Quebec (except the kit drummer who was from Los Angeles). It is a bit bizarre but very clever and very, very funny. There is almost no dialogue at all, apart from a few lines at the beginning and at the end, and the music is jazz from the "Fred Astaire" age. We have attended several different kinds of screenings of films, usually silent films from the 1920s, with the soundtracks performed by the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, over the last several years, but this was the first explicitly jazzy soundtrack, and the first relatively new film. We had a good time, and I encourage you to see the film if you can.
Today it was forecast to reach a high of six or seven degrees, but dry, so I took Yoshi the dog for another long run of 15km with a 1,5 km walk at either end. Where I run near the house, it takes maybe 1.3 km to get to the forest, and then I run through the trees, mostly oak and maple, for a kilometer or so before I get to the farm fields. Today I saw that the winter wheat had sprouted up and so the hillsides were looking very green, and the warm afternoon sunlight and puffy Rubens-style clouds made it look like a Flemish painting, or maybe the Windows XP desktop wallpaper, "Bliss"...
When we got home I had a shower and then got to work on the Bach cantata that is coming up this weekend. It is a last-minute substitution, paired with some excerpts from the Christmas Oratorio, but I still have time to get it in shape, and will rehearse it a bit on Thursday with the director in advance of the Saturday general rehearsal. Happily for me, it has a lot of rapid ornamented passages, and a relatively high vocal line. I like to sing the higher bass cantatas very much, and in the new church where we perform it will also help for audibility. As well I am very happy because Jacques Vanherenthals is conducting and I know he won't go nuts with an insanely fast tempo, but we will be able to work something out that suits everyone (including me!).
It will be a busy Sunday, because in the morning we will have Duncan's performance in the Nativity play to attend; then I have to sing the Bach in the afternoon at 17h, with a rehearsal beforehand. Then I have to rush back to St. Andrew's to sing some Handel Messiah excerpts as part of the Nine Lessons and Carols service that starts at 18h30. So I would imagine that I will definitely enjoy the mulled wine and mince pies that will follow...
It will be a busy Sunday, because in the morning we will have Duncan's performance in the Nativity play to attend; then I have to sing the Bach in the afternoon at 17h, with a rehearsal beforehand. Then I have to rush back to St. Andrew's to sing some Handel Messiah excerpts as part of the Nine Lessons and Carols service that starts at 18h30. So I would imagine that I will definitely enjoy the mulled wine and mince pies that will follow...
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1 comment:
I forgot to post the trailer for the film, "The Triplets of Belleville":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZeWp1D8MlU
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