The weekend was unexepectedly full of social engagements... we are trying to makes times to meet with people; as I wrote before, I am out of commission until late June. We were invited "by surprise" to a raclette evening on Friday night at Jean-Luc and Regine's house, with Matthias and Karin. We know each other mostly because we lived in the same Boitsfort neighbourhood, and our children were at school together. Duncan and Valentin and Fritz were all in the same class in primary school. But since our children have moved on to secondary school and post-secondary education, and we have moved to Wavre, we haven't seen them very much, and so were glad to accept the invitation. Duncan came along but Malcolm was travelling home after his week of classes and so he stayed in Wavre. (Both boys are on holidays for the next two weeks. Maggie also has two weeks off but they are delayed by one week).
Saturday morning Maggie and I went up to a Volkswagen dealership near Antwerp for 10h, to test drive a 2018 Golf. It is a beautiful car, and as it is the dealership replacement vehicle it is barely used. I think that we will pay half of the cost and finance the rest; interest rates are so low that it costs very little to borrow the money. With monthly rent for a lutherie student on top of our mortgage we really would rather not have a car loan, but we also want to make sure that we have enough money to pay for more renovations on the house, and have a bit of a financial emergency cushion in case any unexpected expenses arise. We are going to go there again to test out a virtually identical Skoda; these are also manufactured by the Volkswagen group, using the same pool of parts for the engine and body, but with slightly less expensive interior finishes. This Skoda is a 2017 and is cheaper by almost 5K EUR, but has a less powerful engine. If it turns out that it is not satisfying to drive then we'll go with the VW.
In the afternoon Malcolm's old friend Simon arrived from Amsterdam, and we met him at the Ottignies train station and headed over to Bryan and Kiana's for a BBQ. Two of Kiana's oldest friends were visiting as well, and it was nice to see Hansoo again (after the brewery tour we did) and to meet her friend Gina. It was a relatively late night, but a good one, and the weather cooperated.
Sunday was pretty relaxed, and we celebrated Simon's 20th birthday with a big spaghetti bolognese and a chocolate cake that Malcolm had baked. It was nice to have some time together with Simon as we haven't seen him much recently, and as his parents are in Tokyo and his sister is in Zurich, it was important that he have some friends around to celebrate his passage out of the teenage years.
Monday was an early start, and as we haven't yet resolved our car situation, our neighbour Isabelle lent us their spare car. I drove up to Hamme and settled in for a long day of rehearsal with Bart Naessens and the BachPlus ensemble.
Not to slight any other conductor or orchestra, but this is really one of the best ensembles that I've ever worked with. The Il Gardellino baroque ensemble is highly celebrated, and their many recordings have seen great success, with some of them winning the Diapason d’Or and Classica awards by the international music press. As well the other solo singers, and the organist and harpsichordists are of international stature, and have performed the Matthauspassion countless times. So I'm really trying to up my game.
The conductor is wonderful, and as I am placed inside the orchestra, close to the continuo players, and have a clear line of sight with the conductor and the first violinist, I really feel like we are doing a chamber music concert, and that I can be as free and expressive as possible. Bart has made some suggestions but he is not at all didactic or overbearing, and I as a singing actor am doing my best to deliver on what he communicates. It's a lot of fun.
During that long afternoon rehearsal we managed to finish all of my arias and then quickly ran through all of my Christ recitatives with the orchestra and the continuo players; he said that I wasn't required for the evening rehearsal, which was a relief. I will have a listen to my recordings of the rehearsals this week, but I am pretty confident that it will go well.
Yesterday Lawrence and I went running in the Foret des Soignes for the first time in probably a year. I haven't done more than 12km in a long time, and he runs faster than I do, so I was working hard for our 14km run. Afterwards we had lunch out, which was burgers and frites; I have been reasonably successful at keeping my weight constant at around 75-76 kg for the last three years, but after a BBQ at the Hammers, spaghetti bolognese on Sunday, and burgers and frites with Lawrence, I may have to eat salads for the rest of the week!
But that was not to be today, as our friend Raoul called in the morning and invited us three gentlemen to lunch in Brussels, at - you guessed it - Manhattan burgers! I will have to run an extra ten kilometers on Saturday if I still want to fit into my tuxedo...
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