Monday, Europe

I am looking forward to going to the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. In all the years we have gone to so many music festival, the Whitsun Festival and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy are the two I enjoy the most. These two videos show this wonderful little city of Salzburg on the Salzbach river, where you can walk to all concert venues. There are many festivals during the year in Salzburg, one is dedicated to Mozart usually in February, then the Easter Festival. The Whitsun Festival is around Pentecost weekend and finally the summer Festival of music, theatre and opera. Founded in 1920 by producer Max Reinhardt, writer Hugo Von Hofmannstal and conductor Richard Strauss, this is in response to the end of the First World War and economic difficulties in Austria with the fall of the Empire. Salzburg is chosen because it is a picturesque prestigious baroque city associated with Mozart who was born there in 1756.  Many great artists participate in this Festival, names of people I have heard on records or CDs but never in person. This is the opportunity to see and hear them and sometimes meet them at the restaurant afterwards, this is how small Salzburg really is, a real pleasure for us.

Max Reinhardt

Hugo Von Hofmannstal

 The surrounding area of Salzburg is lovely with its mountains, historical residences, castles and churches. Austria being a very Roman Catholic country, there are many religious congregations like the Benedictines and Franciscains who have ancient monasteries and churches. Salzburg also had a riding school the Felsenreitschule which is cut into the rocky mountain face. It has been converted to a concert hall and is part of the Festival Hall and was inaugurated in July 1960 with Der Rosenkavalier of Johann Strauss Jr with a sumptuous decor, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf sang the role of the Marshalin, it was later filmed.

Will at the Mozarteum for a morning concert, reading the program, yes it is a thick book.

Some of the great musical artists associated with Salzburg Festival, Herbert Von Karajan and Wilhelm Furtwängler (both natives of Salzburg), Bruno Walter, Arturo Toscanini, Richard Tauber, Kirsten Flagstad, more recently Riccardo Muti, Thomas Quasthoff and Philippe Jaroussky and so many others.  This will be my fourth visit.    










http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at

Will at dinner at Hotel Bristol, Salzburg in the Sketch Bar.

The new face of Canada

These guys started out a few years ago with one video on YouTube. They are now a success.
Asians in Canada either from China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand from a large ethnic presence. The most numerous at 1.3 million out of a total population of 35 million Canadians are Chinese.

Andrew Gunnadie aka Gunnarolla started 3 years ago on YouTube with a skit called Canadian Please, this skit took off. Julia Bentley was his partner in that video. Lately a new partner Andrew Huang appears with him. They have obvious musical talent and imagination.

They are funny, weird and try to appeal to a large audience with their videos. They define themselves as Asian-Canadian, now Toronto base, though I believe that originally were from Vancouver, but I remember Gunnarolla saying he lived 2 hours by train outside Toronto, so who knows.

They produce music videos and say they make attempts at comedy, music and stuff to make you think. I just love them and think they are refreshing and fun. Gunnarolla also speaks French fluently am not sure about Huang. This bilingual French-English language element makes it all the more Canadian, at least in my mind. I presume they also speak Cantonese but could be wrong.

My question is are they doing this on their own or is there a large production crew behind them a la Hollywood or like Martha Stewart does. I think that there is, cannot see how you can produce this type of quality video without a crew to support you. You can find them on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Le mercredi des cendres, Ash Wednesday

For me today has always been a day of reflection on the meaning of life and death and the afterlife.
It is the beginning of Lent or Le Carême as we call it in French and in 46 days we will celebrate Easter and the promise of the afterlife.

I always like the opéra Dialogue des Carmélites by Francis Poulenc. The story is set during the French Revolution and tells the story of the Carmelite nuns in Paris who fall victims of the fury of the French Civil War and of the street mob. The final act of the Opera takes place on Place de la Révolution today Place de la Concorde.

These women are facing execution in public, the mob roars, the sinister guillotine looms large over them. At this grave hour they are carried by Faith and Faith alone and the promise of the Afterlife. Poulenc uses the Salve Regina as the backdrop music to make his point and to illustrate the courage of the nuns. At the very end Sister Constance is the last to walk to the guillotine, she falters and Sister Blanche who ran away from the Order when the revolution started comes out of the crowd and joins her, having found Faith and Courage.

In our world this is a forgotten message. Poulenc wrote this opéra 60 years ago but it could have been 300 years ago, the world today is so very different. Difficult to find people motivated by Faith or by Courage today. Such themes take us into a different reality which requires a deeper understanding of who we are and of the world around us, hopefully Ash Wednesday is such a day.

The finale of the Dialogue of the Carmelites, Canadian Robert Carsen created this production that we saw at the Scala Milan a few years ago.

Official Christmas photos of our Household

We put up the tree last night and we have so many decorations we collected for the last 35 years from everywhere around the world that we can choose and rotate them from year to year. This year we added decorations from St-Petersburg, Russia and from Helsinki, Finland. I also had the task of polishing the Sterling Silver Christmas tree balls all 30 of them.

Our 2.1 meter Christmas tree 2012 edition. (click for larger view)

Our star which has adorned our tree for the last 35 years. With the figure of Humpty Dumpty below.

The Christmas frog in her sleigh.

Lady Bear from St-Petersburg, Russia.

English Page boy from London with some of the sterling silver balls on either side.

Mother Mouse and miniature book

Carabinieri Italy.

Finally a little bit of music for this Christmas Season.
Dagen är Kommen- Adeste Fideles- Psalm 122 sung by a Swedish Choir.
It is quite beautiful to hear this famous piece in Swedish.




To all a very Happy Christmas! 

Symphonie no.5

Many years ago I read the biography of Dmitri Shostakovich, (1906-1975), the great XXth Century composer who lived in what can only be described as a very difficult time in Soviet Russia under Stalin and then under years of mediocrity under various Soviet rulers in an crumbling and creaky country.

I love his music, it is so expressive and so very different. Composition was not easy in those days as he had to fit the official party image and doctrine. He would be severely criticized and attacked by Communist Party ideologues often at the urging of Stalin who played a game of cat and mouse with Shostakovich. In Russia, ethnic origin always plays an important part in how the regime views a person, Shostakovich's ancestor were Polish, the family became Russified after living in Russia for several generations. However that was not sufficient for the Soviet Authorities who viewed him with suspicion.

Stalin who remains famous as a violent if not deranged, cruel dictator, had countless people executed for a mere trifling. When he died, Shostakovich was surprised he had survived, so many other artists had perished. Strangely enough Stalin died 5 March 1953 the same day as Sergei Prokofiev, another great composer.

His music is haunting and I like all his work, I picked Symphonie no.5, the conductor is Semyon Bychkov.

                                   Dmitri Shostakovich

A little song from the past

I remember this song from my childhood in Montreal and how it became associated with my parents. My father liked it a lot and would often sing along with Tony Bennett. I visited San Francisco with Will in 1983, staying at the San Francis Hotel. I always kept a beautiful souvenir of that city. I heard the song again the other night as we were driving to friends house and every time it brings back a host of happy memories. Composed in 1954, George Corey, music and Douglass Cross, lyrics, it was first performed by Tony Bennett in 1961 in the Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel on Knob Hill.
It has become his signature song. They don't write songs like that anymore.

a little music by Rameau

On our flight home from Copenhagen I watched this movie called Les Choristes, (the choir) in it there is this piece by Jean-Philippe Rameau from 1683 entitled Ô Nuit, (oh night), it is taken from the opéra Hippolyte et Aricie in it a duet by two priestess of Diana sing Rendons un éternel hommage.

Today is 24 June, Summer Solstice and this is an annual Feast since time immemorial my ancestors the Gauls celebrated by lighting a huge bonfire to the Gods so that the Sun would return quickly in the morning. I think this piece is appropriate to this day. It is also a National Holiday in Québec.



The words are really poetic and beautiful in a very 17th century French.  Speaking of the night and its great qualities.

Ô nuit ! Qu'il est profond ton silence
Quand les étoiles d'or scintillent dans les cieux
J'aime ton manteau radieux
Ton calme est infini
Ta splendeur est immense

Ô nuit ! toi qui fait naître les songes
Calme le malheureux qui souffre en son réduit
Sois compatissante pour lui
Prolonge son sommeil, prend pitié de sa peine
Dissipe la douleur, nuit limpide et sereine.

Ô Nuit ! Viens apporter à la terre
Le calme enchantement de ton mystère.
L'ombre qui t'escorte est si douce,
Si doux est le concert de tes voix
chantant l'espérance,
Si grand est ton pouvoir transformant tout
en rêve heureux.

Ô Nuit ! Ô laisse encore à la terre
Le calme enchantement de ton mystère.
L'ombre qui t'escorte est si douce,
Est-il une beauté aussi belle que le rêve ?
Est-il de vérité plus douce que l'espérance ?

For my Mom on this Mother's Day

A little music by Edvard Grieg, Holberg Suite, Prélude.



played by the Christiansand Orchestra at the Lindesnes Lighthouse in Norway. 

In our National Capital it's Angela Hewitt Week, 14-20 May 2012

The Mayor of our National Capital Ottawa has proclaimed the week of 14-20 May, Angela Hewitt Week. The world famous pianist is a native of Ottawa and she will be playing a series of concerts at the National Arts Centre.
We are going to see her. We had the good fortune to meet her in person at a private event at Le Café a few months ago, she is absolutely charming. Hyperion is releasing her latest CD of Schumann piano concerto 2 weeks ahead of schedule in Ottawa only. Angela Hewitt made her professional debut as a pianist at the age of 9.

Here she is playing Les barricades Mystérieuses by François Couperin.

Musica Italiana

A friend of mine brought this to my attention, I remember this song from a long time ago.  An Italian classic.




A very famous song by Renato Carosone, a 1957 hit. 

Una de las más famosas canciones de Renato Carosone es ésta de 1957.

Mi farò prestare un soldino di sole
perchè regalare lo voglio a te
Lo potrai posare sui biondi capelli:
quella nube d'oro accarezzerò...

Questa piccolissima serenata
con un fìl di voce si può cantar
Ogni innamorato all'innamorata
la sussurrerà, la sussurrerà

Mi farò prestare un soldino di mare
perchè regalare lo voglio a te...
Lo potrai posare sugli occhi tuoi belli
nel tuo sguardo azzurro mi tufferò...

Questa piccolissima serenata
con un fìl di voce si può cantar
Ogni innamorato all'innamorata
la sussurrerà, la sussurrerà

Mi farò prestare un soldino di cielo
perchè regalare lo voglio a te
Lo potrai posare sul bianco tuo velo:
quando sull'altare ti porterò

Questa piccolissima serenata
con un fil di voce si può cantar
Ogni innamorato all'innamorata
la sussurrerà, la sussurrerà

Musical Evening in Ottawa

Our friend Blake, invited us to the house of his neighbour in Old Ottawa South, a district of the city which at one point about 60 years ago was the southern border of the City marked by the Rideau River. The other side, today's Riverside drive, was all farmland.
It remains a very nice quiet neighbourhood of prosperous looking homes. A neighbour, John has opened his house for musical evenings, it is by invitation only and it is a select small group. We were about 55 last night, the recital was held in what could be described as the music room with a large grand Steinway piano at one end. These evenings happen from time to time in an informal sort of way.

  see her web page   www.silviecheng.com

We heard a pre-concert recital by Bryan and Silvie Cheng, natives of Ottawa. Though Silvie was born in Tokyo. They will make their debut at Carnegie Hall in NYC at the Weill Recital Hall on October 16.

Bryan is 13 years old and studies in Montreal with Yuli Turovsky. It is amazing to hear this young cellist. Such talent and he is also well spoken and poised, something that is very rare in someone that age.

His sister Silvie is older by a few years. She is a pianist and has a beautiful light touch on the keyboard.  They had a good program and no easy pieces, it showed their talent. Being so close in this intimate music room, I realized for the first time that a cello makes a breathing almost asthmatic noise as it is played, at first I did not understand where the sound came from and then I realized it was from the instrument. As Silvie mentioned when introducing Sonata no. 59 by Haydn, this was composed for his client the Princely Esterhazy family whose great Estate at Eisenstadt was a cultural hub in the 18th century. The piece was played in a setting much like the one we attended for a small group in an intimate setting. It gives a completely different feel to the music being so close to the instrument and the musician.

Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt, Austria

Another piece they played and I enjoyed a lot was Bringing the Tiger down from the Mountain, by Canadian composer Alexina Louie. A modern piece composed in 1991, with great shifts and shows what one can do and the range of the cello.

The parents of Bryan and Silvie were also present, they had brought the refreshments for the evening, we had Peking duck, fresh fruits, cheese plates, and fancy cookies, wine, coffee and tea. It was such a nice convivial evening.

I also found this quote this week, in a newspaper article and I really liked it because at the moment their is so much talk about integration and multiculturalism in Canada:

“Being Canadian is not about losing your identity, but adding your identity to what is the fabric of Canada.”

                            Queen's Park Provincial Legislative building, Toronto

In fact the Provincial Election this week in Ontario ( pop. 11 million) saw the re-election of Dalton McGuinty also known as Premier Dad, for his 1950 fatherly style of government, more dotting than adventurous. A lot of the candidates in this election to the Provincial Legislature at Queen's Park were of immigrant stock, having been born abroad and raised in Canada. This is certainly a change from 25 years ago when most if not all candidates were white born Canadians.  Our re-elected member of the Legislature is Yasir Naqvi a Pakistani born Canadian who came to Canada as a boy. I spoke with him and he came across as well informed, well spoken and involved. I asked about him to colleagues and friends and everyone had good things to say about him.

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday,  we are going out for dinner tonight at Grill 41. Tomorrow off the Merrickville on the Rideau Canal. The weather is summer like at 25 C., it's what we called Indian Summer. It will not last so better enjoy it. I just discovered that the first Canadian Thanksgiving service was held in 1578 on Baffin Island in the far North by Martin Frobisher and his men. Our modern version dates from the end of the First World War.  It was Thanks Giving to God for Peace, Canada had sent 10% of its population at the time into that war. This contribution was more than any other allied Nation in the world including the USA who arrived very late in the conflict.

Fall colours in Ontario.

In the Gatineau near Ottawa

Evening at the Parco della Musica, Roma

In the last 4 years in Rome we have enjoyed our subscription to the concerts of the Orchestra dell Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Maestro Antonio Pappano, the Choir under Ciro Visco is wonderful.
This evening it was Brahms, German Requiem, not a requiem for Germany and not a religious piece or nationalistic one, simply a humanist reflection, this is how Brahms presented it.

The hall at the auditorium is wonderful, all cherrywood, the sound is rich, the acoustics perfect. The German Requiem is one of my favorites, the other one is Fauré. The singers were baritone Peter Mattei and soprano Rebecca Evans.

This week throughout Italy it is the Settimana della Cultura. Every town has cultural activities, exhibits, concerts celebrating Italian art and culture.

interlude musicale

Maurizio Pollini at the piano, Debussy l'ile joyeuse.

Orkestra Sinfonike, Tirana

This evening in the old theatre of the Faculty of Art of the University of Tirana (C.1933) the RadioTelevizionit Shqiptar Orkestra (radio-television orchestra of Albania) was giving a free concert, as is usually the norm in Albania. The orchestra was created in May 1962 under the Stalinist Regime of Enver Hoxha. It is a very good orchestra and a lot of its members are the original crew. The conductor is one Nir Kabaretti of Santa Barbara, California, who appears to belong to the ham fisted school of conducting. The soloist was Mirela Kokasykja who played the piano concerto opus 54 of Schumann, on a piano that needed tuning. The music auditorium is quite small about 500 seats, built like a bunker in concrete, poor acoustics and it has never been renovated since 1933, you can well imagine the terrible state of the place, the stuffing coming out of the chairs and the smell of mildew, dried sweat and stale cigarettes, I think it use to be called the smell of old communism. The chandelier in the ceiling is missing and the paint is peeling off the walls. Also during the concert people talk and take calls on their cel phones. But I have to say that though the Faculty is full of ghosts of the last 80 years it is sad but at the same time fascinating.
The faculty buildings of the University of Tirana stand at the end of the great boulevard built in the 1930's by the Italians for Mussolini, at the opposite end of the great square of Skanderberg currently under massive renovation by a Kuwaiti firm.
Though the concert was free only about 50 people showed up, many quite elderly.

On the main boulevard this week a protest by the Socialist party of Edi Rama,they set-up tents and are blocking the street, each night speeches to a light crowd who I am told is paid to attend and listening half-heartily. Lots of police around but not one has a gun or any weapon, just looking around.

Here at the Hotel Rogner (Austrian owned) jazz concerts on Thursday and Friday nights in the lush gardens. The music is quite good, it reminded me of Budapest. This is probably the best hotel in Tirana in terms of comfort, services, amenities and price.
Tomorrow return to la Citta Eterna.