Give music a chance

Realised suddenly on Tuesday March 2^nd that it was the sixtieth anniversary of my wedding in 1957.

My first husband died just over a year ago so I am the sole survivor left wondering what on earth happened between 1957 and now. Sixty years unbelievably happened and I hardly noticed the speed

  Summertime, and the living was easy.

of the journey, so busy was I in keeping on, keeping on, as Alan Bennett might say. I DO notice the accelerated speed now of the passage of a day, a week, a month, in common with the elderly everywhere. And I do remember that one year seemed an eternity when I was very young. Even the six weeks’ summer holiday used to stretch luxuriously ahead when we had a lifetime of no school, playing in our gang in the woods near home, organising competitions, giving shows on top of the barricade [erected to stop Hitler and his acolytes from driving up our country lane and there long after the war had finished!], having picnics and games in the long narrow garden full of Mum’s dahlias, making the annual trip to the cinema, hugely anticipated. Oh yes, six weeks then was a gift of gold to me and my sisters.

On Saturday I went with a friend to the Concertgebouw to see Anima Eterna performing Gershwin. The concert itself was a total joy with a new discovery for me of Claron McFadden, an American soprano of inspiring rhythm and great warmth. She so clearly enjoyed herself and the orchestra so clearly adored her. It was an infectiously happy occasion. However, en route to this important concert hall in ‘t Zand, I had been stunned to see what appeared to be the aftermath of

Claron McFadden performing
in Amsterdam

 't Zand under siege. Trees will be planted
within the circles on the right.
Note the reduced space for café terraces!

Sarajevo. I hadn’t been there since the end of January when the dismantling of the splendid fountain was just beginning in the first phase of the redevelopment of 't Zand, estimated to finish in June. The entire area has been dug up but worse, so has much of the surrounding area too; the devastation extends into Steenstraat, one of the two major shopping streets of the city. And goes behind and to the side of the Concertgebouw. It makes the Concertgebouw and adjoining cafe and In en Uit, the major tourist information centre accessible only by muddy duckboards while restaurants, cafes and bars which line 't Zand are similarly besieged. Cannot be good for business; I certainly resolved not to go to two evening concerts towards the end of this month because the approach from any direction is unlit and perilous. And I now don’t dare attempt perilous!

 Geef musiek een kans

In the Concertgebouw I discovered that the Music Fund was in action. People were donating old instruments to be given new lives and provide support for musicians in conflict areas and developing countries. Since 2005, the organisation has collected over 4000 instruments of which more than half were immediately ready to be played and sent off to partner projects in Africa, the Middle East and Central America. The fund also assists in training specialists in music instrument repair and in contributing to musical dialogue between Europe and the rest. We arrived apparently between acts as there was a running programme throughout the day of jazz and pop, piano, gospel plus the afore-mentioned opera/jazz singer Claron McFadden providing a musical intermezzo. Worth spending the day here next year!!

Before beginning this blog, I hurried off to Aux Merveilleux de Fred, a palace to coffee and little cakes, opened over a year ago in the Eiermarkt. I haven't been for some time and had rather forgotten the chandelier, the busy patissiers at work in the window before an audience of admiring tourists outside, and especially the enticing little confections on display. I bought four tiny, frothy bonbons for coffee with a new friend who was coming round later and proudly carried the chic dainty little container home giving thanks yet again for the proximity of Good Things in Brugge!

 A merveilleux sight chez Fred!