Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Un petit rappel que notre soirée musicale Classique et Cabaret aura lieu la semaine prochaine :
- le mercredi 23 avril, 2008 à 20h30
- à la Chapelle de Boondael, Square du Vieux Tilleul, 10, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgique.
On présente un récital intimiste et interactif.
Accompagnée par Andrew Wise au piano, je vous menerai à travers un programme où la musique classique rencontre le cabaret.
Du sérieux au plus léger on sera en compagnie d’Apollinaire et Poulenc (Banalités); Auden et Britten (Cabaret Songs); Barber (Despite and Still); Andrew Wise (Musée aux Beaux Arts); et d’autres encore…
Attention!!
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On a déjà reçu pas mal de réservations. Comme le nombre de places est limité, il est conseillé de réserver vos tickets en avance. Vous pouvez m’envoyer un courriel à penelope.turner@chello.be.
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En plus, le placement dans la salle sera libre, donc c’est bien utile d’être à l’heure.
Pour des informations supplementaires veuillez vous adresser à www.penelopeturner.com/projects/.
On Saturday we made it for the first time to the Jazz Station in Saint-Josse.
The venue, which is in an old, restored train station, hence the name, is intimate and stylish. There is a small podium, tables and a bar and the most amazing ceiling. The entry charge is very reasonable and the kids got in free.
There are often concerts on at 18:00 which makes it feasible for the whole family. And its a great way to give the children a taste for live performance.
My thanks to the argandi piano trio for introducing me to the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks and for re-establishing my faith in the innate possibilities of the piano trio.
As a result of a couple of recent experiences, I had been wondering whether the combination of piano, violin and ‘cello was not simply too great a compositional challenge. Often the piano seems overbearing, or its timbre just too different from the timbre of the string instuments, making it impossible to mix.
However, I have to admit that the argandi’s performance of Peteris Vasks’ Episodi e canto perpetuo at the Rosario centre in Bever, Belgium, has convinced me that the combination can be made to work – here is a piece that seems only possible as a piano trio. Well worth a listen. A live performance is highly to be recommended.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
During the February half-term holidays I was able (thanks to the generosity of my family) to sneak off to the From Russia exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
The exhibition contains paintings by French and Russian artists working between 1870 and 1925 and looks at the cultural cross-over between the two countries. Central to the exhibition are the collections of the two Russians, Morosov and Shchukin, important men in pre-revolution Russia.
Two of my own favourite works in this exhibition are by the Russian Nathan (or Natay) Altman. He was 25 when he painted his beautiful blue and yellow picture of the poet Anna Akhmatova.
Different websites show very different sides to Altman’s art. Compare, for example, Tatiana Kofyan’s Russian Avant Garde and Olga’s Gallery.
After the Russian Revolution Altman chose to work within the system. He is chiefly remembered for his political works. In an editorial about the From Russia exhibition, the Royal Academy Magazine is critical of Altman’s life choices – suggesting that his art suffered as a result and that he never realized his potential.
Altman died in 1970 at the age of 81. He may not be well-known in the west, but he did survive longer than many a more subversive citizen. He was also Jewish. How can we possibly judge which was the better personal choice for him. All that is clear is that artists, poets and musicians of 20th century Russia had to face harder decisions than we are ever likely to know.
Tatiana Kofyan’s own art is well worth a look, by the way.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Last Monday evening the Sainte-Marie primary school of St Gilles, Brussels, put on a concert involving the whole school. It was a wonderful turn out, and the pupils did themselves proud. What a success : bravo à tous!
The concert was the culmination of phase I of an educative project set up by ReMuA : Etoiles et Voix. Over the past eight weeks I have been working in the school as their ‘adopted’ singer, helping the children to develop their voices and teaching them a repertoire of specially arranged opera arias in line with the project’s inspiration : the Belgian Queen Elisabeth Competition, which this year is for voice.
And on Monday it all came together. I was immensely proud of the pupils, who gave of their very best – from the moment that they had to form orderly lines to mount the stage, through to their final sung note. How wonderfully can a performance concentrate the mind of even the most distracted pupil…
At the end of February it’s the turn of the Saint Henri primary school, Woluwe St-Lambert. I’m looking forward to it.
Phase II of Etoiles et Voix will see one class from each of the nine participating schools creating their own piece (text and music) to be performed at the Théâtre Marni, Ixelles at the end of April.
