Juggling on Bach

Last Sunday was Bach Day at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, organized by the wonderful Early Music Festival I mentioned a few months earlier on this blog. One of the events was "Le Chant des Balles", a magical show by Eric Bellocq and Vincent de Lavenère, both musicians and jugglers.

Le Chant des Balles (c)Philippe Cibille

de Lavenère explains his artistic commitment at lenght on his website. "The roots of my universe stand in the heart of our cultural and musical heritage" says the artist, explaining that his interest for traditional arts has a central place in his work. Each of the performances are inspired by various traditions, the inspiration for "Le Chant des Balles" was medieval and baroque, including Middle Ages jugglers and poetry. "Tradition isn't only a source of inspiration" explains de Lavenère, "but a real actor in the performance enabling to nurture, enrich but also to develop this very particular language that is jonglerie musicale".  

Le Chant des Balles (c)Philippe Cibille

"Le Chant des Balles" was the first such performance they developed with lutenist Eric Bellocq, therefore being at the very origin of this "jonglerie musicale" concept. After receiving many questions about this particular language using juggling and music, they have decided to publish a book that not only translates the various gestures and language of their show but also explains their artistic commitment. In "Le Chant de Balles", de Lavenère and Bellocq present an Early Music repertoire. The programme at the Muziekgebouw included Lute suites by J.S. Bach, a prelude from the Chants d'Espagne by Isaac Albéniz and traditional German and Japanese folk songs.  

Le Chant des Balles (c)Philippe Cibille

I really enjoyed the way both artists mastered their art, juggling and playing the lute, and were able to share their passion for "jonglerie musicale". There was a great energy between the two, and the show was very well balanced between comical and more sober scenes. There were a few kids in the audience but I believe all the adults were even more mesmerized by the music and the jonglerie, dancing in a beautiful mise-en-scene.

The duo is now touring the Netherlands with "Le Chant des Balles" and will end in Belgium this weekend. They will perform other shows starting from March in France, Spain and Italy. Check their calendar for more information. 

Early Music Festival in Utrecht

Utrecht

Utrecht just had an intensive ten days festival of French Baroque music during the OudeMuziek Festival. A most wonderful experience if you like early music especially in such an authentic city as Utrecht. Stepping out of a church/concert hall you still feel in the 17th century walking among the canal houses and on the cobbled roads. The music still in your head, you just ignore all the cars and all the modern day things that surround you (yes, okay, you ignore it all and just daydream basically, but the setting helps enormously). 

At the head of this beautiful and the world's largest Early Music Festival is Xavier Vandamme. I know Xavier from BOZAR, when I used to work there a press officer and Xavier was deputy director of BOZAR MUSIC. His programme was already most ambitious and original back then, and I could only but trust his choices for Utrecht. He explains in the introduction to the year programme that the Utrecht Early Music Festival "holds the ambition and the responsibility to be the premier stage for research and creativity in [the] field". He also tells about his focus on French Baroque: "The case of French repertoire - still undervalued or even unknown outside its native country - and its many talented performers is one that Utrecht takes on his pride".

Pandhof, Utrecht

I had the chance to listen to four concerts last Saturday. 

I started the day with La lanterne magique de M. Couperin, a performance by harpsichord player Bertrand Cullier, accompanied by images drawn by stage director and actress Louise Moaty and projected with a magic lantern. Lighted by a few candles, Cullier plays François Couperin under a screen shaped as a moon where Moaty projects her stories: Les Tours de passe-passe, L'Arlequine, Tic-toc-choc, Les Ombres errantes...  and together they created a wonderful dialogue between music and images. 

Jacobiekerk, Utrecht.

This most dreamlike performance was followed by a concert at the Jacobiekerk with Les Agréments, in a programme of opera arias directed by Guy Van Waas and sung by baritone Pierre-Yves Pruvot.

Later in the evening was the highlight of the day, with Jean-Marc Andrieu leading his choir and orchestra, Les Passions & Les Eléments, in Gilles' Requiem, inside the Utrecht Dom.

Outside the Dom, Utrecht

The night ended in the Pieterskerk with Swedish soprano Susanne Rydén performing Lalande's Leçons de ténèbres with Paulina van Laarhoven on viola and Karl Nyhlin on lute. They ended their performance most unusually with a contemporary creation. Unfortunately, the programme didn't mention this new work so I can't write its title or even the composer's name (if you happen to know, please leave a comment). 

More Early Music throughout the year

The Festival has ended today, but the concert season of the yearly programme will start in October and run through May 2011, with Early Music concerts in churches, castles and concert halls across the Netherlands and Belgium. My personal highlights are Les Ombres Errantes in November with Ensemble Ausonia, J.S. Bach: Kunst der Fuge in January with Il suonar parlante, including Lorenzo Ghielmi and Fahmi Alqhai, The harpsichord players of Louis XIV with Aurélien Delage in Februari, the Trio Hantaï in March and Gustav Leonhardt in April. 

More information can be found on www.oudemuziek.nl 

Open for all: Het Concertgebouw Open

On 12 June 2010, the prestigious Concertgebouw opens its doors to all for this second edition of Het Concertgebouw Open. From 12 to 17h, the Concertgebouw will welcome all for free and not only to visit their wonderful halls... but to listen to amateur musicians and artists from Amsterdam: soloists, bands, chorals... Visitors will also be able to participate to this festive event by showing their talent on the Open Zang Podium, where a pianist will accompany anyone who wants to sing, by dancing in the Tango Salon and by participating to one of the many workshops. Events will be spread throughout 10 rooms, from the Groote Zaal to the Cafe, with hundreds of artists, and a royal opening at 12h12 (it says so on the programme!) with Princess Maxima.

Some performances that have caught my attention:

• Yim Kwan Fong: Cantonese opera from the Pijp.
• Viola Viola orkest & Esther Apituley: a spectacular performance with 100 musicians and dancers.
• Trio Wahnsinn: three friends improvising jazz.
• Klezmagic: Klezmermusic from Turkey, Egypt ... by a young band lead by Emirhan Tuga.

You can see the complete programme here (in Dutch)

Melody Gardot's Journey to Amsterdam

I'd been waiting to see Melody Gardot for two years. I missed her when she came to North Sea Festival twice. So waiting for Gardot one hour more standing in front of closed doors at the Melkweg because of technical issues that needed to be dealt with was not enough to discourage me. Yes it was a bit annoying to hear that even after the standing hour, Melody Gardot needed a bit more time to get ready "to give a good concert" as one of the organizers said, booed on the stage. But again, that wasn't enough to make me unhappy. I was too enthusiastic to let anything spoil the moment, and I have to say that my expectations were far more than met.

She was (and looked) wonderful tonight, la Gardot. She entered the music hall from the back, walked down the stairs, through the impatient audience and stepped on the stage, apologizing for her delay. In front of the huge white curtain, she knelt down and patiently spread sand on the stage floor. The ritual seemed surrealistic under the red spot light. Standing up she started singing a cappella, using her high heels as drums creating a little sand storm under her feet. Then she moved behind the curtain and, together with her amazing band, started an ombres chinoises show. It was the most original concert opening I had seen in a long time. After this enchanting introduction, I was even eager to discover more of Gardot's live music. I was mesmerized until the end, and I laughed a lot in-between songs, because she has some sense of humor la Gardot, and it feels so good! Just like her music, and as her interludes show, Melody Gardot is sincere. It was a delight spending the evening with her. And just a personal note for you Melody, if you ever read this post: we can go on my bicycle every day together, through my white little earphones you will sing to me and we'll take each other along on our different journeys.

Melody Gardot performed at the Melkweg in Amsterdam, 16 November 2009.
For more tour dates check: http://www.myspace.com/melody

Photo: A white photo of Melody Gardot by Shervin Lainez (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0)

Erykah Badu The Enchantress

Erykah Badu is unique. She has proved it once again tonight on the stage of Paradiso in Amsterdam. I had the chance to see her perform at the Cactus Festival in Bruges two years ago and there already I was amazed. But tonight's concert was divine. Paradiso is of course a great place to listen to good music, it's not too big (it has a capacity of just over thousand people) and is one of Amsterdam's most beautiful concert venues. Right from her entrée, Ms Badu set the atmosphere: it was going to be an explosive night. Erykah Badu has the allure, the voice, the charisma, the humility, the talent, the humour, the beauty, the humanity... and I believe a lot more. Erykah Badu is a Diva. Erykah Badu is an Enchantress. Dressed to kill, super sexy yet classy, Ms Badu sang to us from her last album "New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)" without forgetting some songs from her beautiful "Mama's Gun", "Baduizm" or "World Wide Underground". Two hours and a half of outstanding vibes made the whole audience rise. At one point, Ms Badu stepped down of the stage to walk among the crowd. The Diva is close to the people, "not black people, not white people, not latinos, not asian... not blue, not green, not purple, all people!", constantly inviting it to rise higher and higher. So we all did, and I myself got so high that I can't get down yet. Some little voice inside me says I will stay under the enchantment for quite a long time.