Kindness

Hello again

Thank you, everyone, for all your notes and e-mails and letters and cards -- just so, or for my recent birthday. I am deeply gratified by your comments and compliments on my blog. What a wonderful circle of friends! Thank you!

I've not had time to process the few photos I've taken recently: too much work everywhere, too many projects started and not completed, although a couple are coming along very nicely, thank you. And one reason why I've not been doing much blogging is because I've been wonderfully busy developing a social life here. More about that some other time.

Today, three plain but nice new tall bookcases arrived and are now ready to take the books that have been languishing in boxes.

Also today, my light and airy "workstation" arrived -- a fancy computer desk with glass shelves and metal tubular struts and legs. It's on wheels so with a bit of caution and quite a bit of force I can wheel it from one room to the next depending on where I am happier to work. The fact that all the surfaces are glass will mean I'll see no end of dusting, but it also means I have a very good idea of where everything is. Very pleased I am. Photo will follow soon, I hope. The only fly in the ointment is the fact that one glass shelf is rather cloudy and I can't seem to get the residue off. And there are -- despite the glass being tempered and supposedly unbreakable -- a couple of very small chips off the edges, and one very nasty-looking scratch that runs parallel to the underside of the main tabletop. A real shame. I called the supplier and they'll have replacements in for me next week. But it will mean that the whole thing has to be dismantled and I'm sure that's not very good for it. Oh well...

Despite lack of time I attended a book launch this evening, which was very pleasant indeed. As I recently joined the local Book Club -- we meet once a month -- there were one or two familiar faces there and it was lovely to be included in the friendly chit-chat. What a difference from similar events in Bern where I often attended without speaking to anyone, because -- I don't really know why. It's just the way it is, and one of the reasons why I no longer live there.

Finally, I simply must share the following with you -- I was so chuffed at receiving this message tonight:

"Hello,
I too am a translator (Hebrew to English).
Recently, I came across your translation of the history of the "Hotel Wilden Mann" in Lucerne. I was struck by the fluency of the English, and the fact that it was almost impossible to discern it as a translation - so rare in Germany and Switzerland. I did not see the original German, but your name appears on the document as the translator.
May I say how impressed I was by your work!"

Needless to say, I wrote back to J.D. in Tel Aviv, and I also wrote to my client in Lucerne -- without them, and without the excellent original text, I could never have produced this translation -- which was a joy to do, by the way.

Nuff said, must get back to work.

An evening in Lucerne: The Boston Symphony at KKL

Hiya again

Just a quick note on a fantastic evening in Lucerne, at one of Switzerland's greatest concert halls (more details via http://e.lucernefestival.ch ):

A friend's 55th birthday present to me was a trip to KKL to hear The Boston Symphony Orchestra (James Levine, conductor) and The Tanglewood Festival Chorus (John Oliver, director) perform La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz (Symphony Concert no. 13).

For some notes about the contents, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_damnation_de_Faust --

Here are my notes about a glorious evening -- no photos this time but I hope my words will evoke some images in your minds:

What a fantastic night I had at the great concert hall in Lucerne yesterday. Absolutely mind-blowingly beautiful.

The acoustics at the great KKL hall are superb. Everyone says that. But it's one thing to be told, quite another to hear for oneself. The things one hears -- and doesn't hear! For example, three piccolo flutes with a sound so velvety I almost melted. None of the stridency one sometimes catches in poorer surroundings (or because the players are less able). A delight.

The whole performance was magnificent.

James Levine magisterial, gentle, delicate, suave, coaxing, tender -- his arms and back speaking volumes!

His orchestra, the Boston Symphony -- almost a hundred musicians, six double bass violins, ten celli, twenty violas, forty violins, two harps, three flutes/piccolo flutes, four oboes, a clarinet, four bassoons, four or five or six trombones, a tuba, six big brass kettle drums of various sizes, one huge bass drum, cymbals, a massive gong, a "bell" tube -- and I'm sure I've forgotten a few! They all fitted comfortably onto a huge stage in front of
the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (lead: John Oliver): 71 men, 47 women (don't call me on these numbers, please, I was focusing on the music) producing a fantastic sound with a huge range.
In the last part, they were complemented by about forty children from the Lucerne Knabenkantorei (lots of boys, and a few girls) with angelic voices.

The Soloists:
Yvonne Naef, the Swiss mezzo soprano (Marguerite) -- a great voice, warm, big, tender, tiny, moving -- I was in tears a few times just listening to that voice, not understanding – but of course remembering from when I read Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Goethe's Urfaust – the words and feeling/remembering the pain ...
(see also http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Naef-Yvonne.htm -- where she is said to have a contralto voice)

Marcello Giordani, tenor (Faust) -- a warm, flexible voice, but ran into trouble the first and second time he tried to hit that impossibly high note (a C sharp'') in the third and fourth parts. Acquitted himself well third time round, though. A bit stiff, always holding on to his massive score book, which I thought was a shame, especially as he only consulted it once or twice.

Patrick Cerfizzi, bass baritone (Brander) -- a voice that was warm and enticing, if a bit on the 'woolly' side. Huge, magisterial part, often almost drowned out by the massive orchestra. Rather stiffly holding on to his score book for dear life much of the time.

Jose van Dam, baritone (Mephisto) -- superb performance, flawless. Great voice used expertly. I'd have loved to hear more of him but his part didn't allow for that. Beautiful, expressive hands which he used to underscore his words, which reminded me of Italian/Mediterranean gestures.

The music:
I was deeply impressed and moved and elated, hugely entertained by the variety of it all. Never, but really never in the 2 1/2 hours that the concert lasted did I feel like drifting off or taking my eyes off the stage. Some passages sounded amazingly modern, even jazzy; all of it was youthful and energetic, except the very, very lyrical passages. There was a moment when Marguerite was accompanied just by a cello and it sounded like two human voices singing in unison. Elsewhere, she was complemented by the three flutes/piccoli, and the sound was heavenly, just magical.

I was in raptures. It is not often that I feel like this about music, although I couldn't -- literally could not -- live without it.

Really glad I heard this. Thank you, M!