Donaufest

This post is overdue. In July we saw some bands perform as part of the Donaufest, which happens every two years. A lot of stands with food and handcrafts are set up along the Danube ("Donau" in German), representing all the countries along the river. We saw Safran, a European folk music trio, one night and Ensemble Zengö, which plays Hungarian music, the next night.

Ensemble Zengö performing on an "Ulmer Schachtel" (boat)

We also saw the Balkan Brass Battle, a "competition" between Fanfare Ciocarlia, from Romania, and Boban & Marko Markovic Orchestra, from Serbia.

Donaufest at night

Black Mountain

Since Kristen is back in the US for a while, I've got plenty of time for myself. So Friday, I took the train to Rome in order to go to a concert at the Circolo degli Artisti by Black Mountain, a Canadian progressive/psychedelic rock band. It was all a rock concert should be: loud and energetic. Black Mountain's music owes a lot to the sounds of the 70's: something like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, with a touch of Pink Floyd added in. Led by Stephen McBean, guitarist and lead vocalist, the band has a second vocalist in Amber Webber, who also sings in the side project Lightning Dust with bandmate Joshua Wells. I love Amber's singing: alternately shattering and shattered, she can be powerful and fragile all at once. Lightning Dust's album "Infinite Light" was on heavy rotation for me last year, and I'm sure that now Black Mountain's new album "Wilderness Heart" will do the same (I got the album at the show). The band doesn't do stage antics, so they might seem disinterested to some, but they concentrate on the music, which was tight and well-crafted. No banter in between songs, but they cracked up at the odd request for "Me and Bobby McGee" from the audience.
The opening act, The Night Terrors, played decent, though somewhat repetitive psychedelic instrumental rock, which had the advantage of frequently featuring the theremin.

Concerts

Leonard Cohen and band in Piazza Santa Croce

After a longer drought in terms of pop concerts, we went to not one, but two concerts by big acts this week. First up, on Wednesday, was Leonard Cohen in Piazza Santa Croce here in Florence. This was probably the biggest concert in Florence this year, and it seemed like half the city was here. The start of the concert was a typical Italian situation: apparently not anticipating that anything could actually start on time, the first two songs were basically disrupted by people trying frantically to find their seats. I also had the impression that Cohen needed a little while to warm up (not surprising, considering that he's 75!), but after a few songs he had found his groove. He played most of the favorites on his Live in London album (a fantastic album -- check it out), and added some of his older songs, like Chelsea Hotel No. 2, Famous Blue Raincoat, and The Partisan. Like Bob Boilen, I was particularly intrigued by Javier Mas, one of Cohen's bandmates, who got to shine on various stringed instruments such as bandurria and archlute, especially on an extended introduction to Who By Fire.

Arcade Fire in Bologna

The next day, we went to Bologna for the I-Day festival, which had the impressive lineup of JoyCut, Chapel Club, Fanfarlo, Modest Mouse, and the highlight: Arcade Fire. We had rented a car (there's no way to get back from Bologna after 8:30pm using public transportation) and got there quite early, during the first set. Since it was still quite empty, and also sunny, we sat down in the shady grass at the outskirts of the festival grounds during the decent sets of JoyCut (an Italian indie band) and Chapel Club. The crowd started to grow a bit during Fanfarlo, who played a good, though brief, set, and seemed genuinely excited to be there, taking pictures of the crowd. I think their neo-folk/indie style resonated well, at least with me (maybe it's the trumpet, but they reminded me a bit of Beirut). Next up were Modest Mouse, and Kristen joined me in front of the stage. I wasn't too familiar with their music, but I liked their energetic set. They were a good opening for the highlight of the evening: Arcade Fire. What can I say? They're an awesome live act, and a fantastic stage presence as well, going all out. I thought the songs from their new album, which sometimes seem to go on a bit long on the record, worked much better in a live setting. And there's nothing better than thousands of people singing along on Keep The Car Running or Wake Up. Apparently the concert was broadcast live on Italian radio, and there's a YouTube of that here.

Barcelona

Last Tuesday was a holiday in Italy, so like all good Italians, we made a long weekend out of it and went to Barcelona for a few days. We really liked the city, with its Gothic old town and modernisme architecture by Antoni Gaudi, among others. Kristen got tickets to a concert in the Palau de la Musica Catalana for her birthday, and we enjoyed listening to Mozart's Requiem in this over-the-top concert hall. Add to that the excellent food (tapas and paella), and you can tell we had a good time.

It was also enjoyable to be in a city (even a southern European one) in which there is ample and functioning public transportation, mostly friendly and helpful people, and you don't feel like you're being ripped off at any given time. Hey Italy... *nudge, nudge* Interestingly, there were very few jaywalkers... what's up with that?

Turkey Day

We celebrated Thanksgiving a few days late again, since making a big dinner on a weekday is too much of a hassle. So Sunday was spent preparing turkey (or rather turkey parts, since a whole bird was too much for just the one meat-eater in the household), gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, cranberry sauce (out of the can), fruit salad, and pumpkin pie. And we've been eating turkey ever since... If you still have some sitting in the fridge, this turkey spinach curry was pretty good.

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The day before, I went to a concert at the Auditorium Flog, where Yo la tengo were playing. Indie rock bands playing in Florence are few and far between, so even though I wasn't too familiar with their music (there goes my indie cred...), I went and was not disappointed. It was loud, energetic, and incredibly varied -- everything you could ask for from a rock concert. The opening act, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, was pretty good as well.

The Tallis Scholars

Last night, we went to the Duomo for a free concert by the Tallis Scholars, one of the pre-eminent Renaissance choral groups active today, along with singers that took part in a master class they gave. This being Italy, there was a definite lack of organization: the concert took place in one of the largest churches of Christendom, and yet it was located in one of the transepts, so that half the people waiting in the line outside were turned away, and a considerable number of others did not find seating. We were among the latter, so at least we got to hear the concert. It did not disappoint: the setting of darkened cathedral with a slight smell of frankincense was ideal for the complex simplicity of the works. Works by Palestrina, Gabrieli, and Josquin among others were on the program, but the highlights for me were a setting of the mass by Ingegneri, sung by the Tallis Scholars, and a motet 'Inviolata Integra et Casta es, Maria' by Festa, sung by their students.

Patti Smith in Arezzo

It's open air season in Italy in June and July. No one in his right mind would go to an indoor concert venue anyway in this heat, and in August everyone's at the beach. So everything is crowded into roughly a month and a half. Wednesday, I went with some friends from work to Arezzo, where the 'Godmother of Punk', Patti Smith was performing. All concerts in Italy, be they classical or pop, seem to start after 9, so there was enough time to get a nice dinner in a fiaschetteria before making our way to the piazza below the Duomo where the concert was held. It ended up being an acoustic show, with Lenny Kaye and someone else on acoustic guitar, and Patti's daughter Jesse on piano. Nevertheless, she brought a good deal of energy with her, and the crowd (partially seated) was enthusiastic. I guess she was quite impressed by the frescoes about the Legend of the True Cross, since she kept mentioning them and even performed a song she had written about them that afternoon.

Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n!

The concerts keep coming... Tuesday we went to see Mahler's Symphony No. 2 at Teatro Comunale with Zubin Mehta conducting. If you haven't heard this piece, do yourself a favor and get a good recording (I have the Gilbert Kaplan with the Vienna Philharmonic, but I've heard very good things about the Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic as well), and cuddle up in front of your stereo for some 90 minutes. Maybe you should tell the neighbors, because this thing gets loud! (While we're promoting things, if you're at all interested in "classical" music from Mahler up until today, or if you're wondering why you should be, get a copy of Alex Ross' The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century)
In any case, hearing the symphony live is of course an experience all by itself, considering the forces required. There were some intonation issues at times (not surprising when you have 10 horn players...), and the pacing was sometimes a little shaky, but these are minor grievances. I was a little disappointed in the alto solo by Marjana Lipovšek in the 4th movement (Urlicht), who sang this beautiful song a little too plainly for my tastes. Kudos to the choir, who delivered an excellent performance, especially in the hushed passages when they first came in (and to the audience for not coughing too much at this special moment). We're now looking forward to seeing the orchestra again in the production of Götterdämmerung in May as part of the Maggio Musicale festival.

Uri Caine @ Teatro Verdi

Thursday evening, we went to see a concert by Uri Caine and the Orchestra Regionale Toscana at the Teatro Verdi, an old theater near Santa Croce. We got to sit in a box. :-)
For those of you who don't know him, Uri Caine is an innovative jazz musician, who has made a name for himself by combining jazz harmonies and improvisation techniques with classical music. Probably his most successful endeavour in this direction was Urlicht, a collection of music by Gustav Mahler, which was followed by the ambitious Goldberg Variations, taking Bach's variation collection and adding variations such as the "Dig It Variation," the "Luther's Nightmare Variation," or the "Tango Variation." In the concert on Thursday, in addition to two solo improvisations on Mozart's Sonata in C as well as themes by Mahler, he presented Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. In contrast to the Goldberg Variations, with its vast variety of ensembles and musical styles, this was pretty straightforward in that the orchestra usually played an arrangement of Beethoven's original music, while Caine improvised or added some jazzy touches on top of them. Most of the time, this worked quite well, especially in the slower variations, while the faster pieces lacked some of the drive that a solo piano can have.

Paris Mécanique

Yesterday we went to another chamber music concert at the same old theater that we went to in December. Again, I subjected Kristen to clarinet music, this time by the Trio di Clarone (Sabine Meyer with husband Reiner Wehle and brother Wolfgang Meyer) as well as guests Michael Riessler (also clarinet) and Pierre Charial on mechanical organ. If you're not familiar with this instrument, it's what you might expect to see at a fairground or a European pedestrian zone, not really in a high-brow concert. Basically, the music is stamped onto large sheets of paper that are read into the organ while the player turns a wheel to pump air and progress the music.
Tonight's program was a dedication to early 20th century French dancehall and jazz-inspired pieces, so it featured works by members of 'Les Six' and others, as well as some virtuosic compositions by Michael Riessler and some crowdpleasers by Leroy Anderson. The playing was all on a high level, as can be expected by musicians of this caliber. At times, everything seemed a bit hectic -- many of the pieces segued into each other without time for applause, the mechanical organ meant that everything had to be played above a certain volume threshold, and there was no intermission (as a clarinet player myself, that was one of the things that impressed me most -- you try playing for 90 minutes straight!). For my taste, it could have used a few more quiet moments, such as in the sublime Sonata for two clarinets by Milhaud or the Three Pieces for clarinet by Stravinsky, but I guess the excitation was in the spirit of the roaring twenties.

Afternoon in the City

This afternoon, we went downtown for a chamber music concert at the Teatro della Pergola, an old theater/opera house. The program included Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, and even though the advertised clarinetist Karl-Heinz Steffens was replaced with Eduard Brunner, the concert was still well played and enjoyable. Afterward, we walked to the Piazza Santa Croce, where the “Heidelberg Christmas Market” has been going on. It’s actually more of a European Christmas market, with stands selling French Christmas cookies, Austrian strudel, Dutch cheese, Hungarian sweets, among others. Well, and German Glühwein of course.

Beethoven in Florence

Tonight we went to the Piazza Signoria after dinner for the closing concert of the Maggio Musicale, a yearly music festival. Zubin Mehta was conducting Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which seemed to be popular enough for several thousand people to crowd into the piazza (and remain standing for the whole concert). Unfortunately, the sound system was pretty bad and the balance of the instruments lacking, though Beethoven's mastery shone through even these difficulties.

Gypsy Punks

Last night, Gogol Bordello played in Florence (actually, James Taylor was as well, but I'm not sure there's too much overlap there...). Since the venue was a little outside the city, I was hesitant at first, but the bus schedule said there were buses until 12:30, so that seemed fine. The concert was pretty wild, and the band is f***ing nuts, but they put on an excellent show, including two background dancers/singers/screamers. Highlights were I Would Never Wanna Be Young Again, Start Wearing Purple, and Harem in Tuscany.
And the bus ran on the way back.