-
Contents
Categories
Archives
Touching the hand of royalty…
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Well, it’s been a while since my last blog. In my defence, April and May have been incredibly busy months (and for a self-employed musician, that’s the best possible reason for getting a little behind with the paperwork…)
Now that June is here I’ve once more got time to get out the hoover and to re-establish some order in my life.
Keeping me the most busy these last few weeks has been a typically ambitious project conceived by the musical educative centre ReMuA. Under the management of Sarah Goldfarb, I have been working in two primary schools : St Henri, Woluwe St Lambert and Schaerbeek 13. The project ‘Choeur à lEcole’ got everyone in the school singing (including the teachers!) and culminated in a magnificent concert at the Brussels Conservatory, in collaboration with another of Sarah’s schools projects, ‘Orchestre à l’Ecole’.
What an achievement! A big thank you from me to everyone involved and in particular the children and staff of ‘my’ two schools for their energy and commitment.
The children themselves wrote the texts of the songs, which we then set to music. They performed with various young professional musicians, notably the New Orleans Trio Big Noise (style Louis Armstrong on speed). And with a little visit from Princess Mathilde, it was quite an experience. And a challenge, as I was expected to conduct, play the ‘cello and sing solo…
Now I’m not really a royalist, but I must admit that the presence of a Royal adds something extra to an event. After the concert a small group of us were invited to perform at the Serres de Laeken for the Fondation Reine Paola. Not something that happens every day; and I admit – being saluted by the guards as I drove away felt pretty good!
Here’s a link to find out more about ReMuA. And do check out Big Noise – they’re definitely worth it.
Remembering our Evolution
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
My great uncle, Raphael Salaman, had a passion for old tools. He wrote two dictionaries, one about wood-working, the other about leather-working tools. During his life he assembled a vast collection of implements once used by the likes of coopers, wheelwrights and blacksmiths.
For 40 years Raph’s collection has been open to the public at the St Albans’ Museum, UK. However, it is now threatened with being dismantled and put into storage.
His grandson, my second cousin, Saul Wordsworth, is hoping to keep this collection together. If you would like to support him in his attempt to preserve this catalogue of the working man’s evolution, please sign his petition.
Symphonic Music LIVE!!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Last month we took the children to a Sunday afternoon concert at the BOZAR. The National Orchestra of Belgium (ONB) played William Walton’s Viola Concert (with Antoine Tamestit) and the 10th Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich.
We had seats in the loges directly over the cellos. What an experience! The Shostakovich is such physically exciting music. I had goose bumps three times (something that’s not happened in a while). And for the children to be so close to the players; to be able to feel the vibrations through the woodwork.
I can’t recommend highly enough experiencing symphonic music live. It’s what it’s all about.
The ONB seems to have a Sunday 15:00 slot at the BOZAR approximately once a month. Next up : two symphonies by Brahms on 21st March.
The State of Things
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Yesterday I visited the exhibition ‘The State of Things‘ at the BOZAR in Brussels.
I have to say that I was disappointed. After seeing Manu Riche’s excellent documentary on BOZAR’s Paul Dujardin and the making of the exhibition (De Lange Mars, part of the Hoge Bomen series), perhaps my expectations were too high.
‘The State of Things’ is a large exhibition of disparate Belgian and Chinese artists. It aims to question the ‘Faustian pact that today unites the artist and the art industry, creation and marketing’ (BOZAR website). It seeks to demonstrate that art cannot escape the mundaneness of society, but is always society’s ‘reflection and a concentrate of society’.
But doesn’t all contemporary art do that? There was, for me, no clear link between the works displayed; no clear reason why Belgium was side-by-side with China. The theme was not strong enough: it remained an eclectic mix, the whole not greater than the sum of the individual parts.
I do not deny the power of some of the individual pieces displayed. There is a great deal of emotion in many of the works; much political engagement and much anger. But, with some notable exceptions, no beauty and very little humour.
And I have discovered that works that make me feel sick to the stomach do not have (what I presume to be) the desired affect. By invoking a physical repulsion, any important message (political or otherwise) remains blocked by my nausea and fails to reach either my brain or my soul.
Ironically, the Belgian ‘State of Things’ was encapsulated for me in the cloakroom on my way out. I inadvertently knocked a young woman’s yellow mitten onto the floor as I retrieved my coat. I had been speaking to my family in English but apologised to her in Dutch. She said (in English): ‘I speak French’. I said (perhaps too flippantly): ‘Oh, I never know what language to use.’ She said: ‘In Brussels most people speak French’. And then she left, in what I can only presume was a flemophobic flurry, before I had a chance to delve further into her fear and antipathy. And this, from an apparently educated young woman, interested in culture, within the confines of the conscientiously bilingual BOZAR. Ah, Belgium.
