Art and concerts

 The divine Claudio Monteverdi
1567-1643

Julian and Christoph Pregardien

Plunge in temperatures after our lovely late Indian summer accompanied by rain. BUT much to cheer about! Friday evening to the Concertgebouw, still somewhat besieged by the endless ‘t Zand 'improvements’, but functioning well inside in its usual austere fashion. To celebrate the 450th anniversary of the birth of Claudio Monteverdi, almost a week of celebrations here, including the Anima Eterna concert with the improbable title of Monterverdi’s Greatest Hits! Title notwithstanding, a marvellous concert indeed, with music from Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, Tancredi e Clorinda and Lamento d’Arianna plus madrigals. The singers were outstanding; tenor father and son Pregardien and mezzo Marianne Beate Kielland. Anima Eterna were, as ever, peerless.

 Bram Nolf, oboist

A second concert, the first of the season’s Negen Muzen programme, on Sunday mornings at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, proved to be much more of a lecture than a recital. Bram Nolf and Filip Neyens, both members of the National Orkest van Belgie, spoke on the ways the oboe, the alt-[oboe], the fagot and contra fagot work and are played. The Dutch was undecipherable for this listener but in fact, the talk was clearly entertaining and instructive; the illustrative music-making was delightful.

 

I also took advantage of the 14^th edition of Buren Bij Kunstenaars, the annual Open Studios scheme when artists of all stripes open their work spaces to the public. One studio on the Langerei, for two artists showing decorative paper work and stone calligraphy, also reminded me of the often stunning Bruggean interiors hidden behind a conventional large garage door opening from the street. That particular one led to a splendid interior room with others beyond and views of a swimming pool [covered] and lovely clipped hedges and box trees in a garden further away. The receiving room buzzed with interested people around the paper work artist who was demonstrating at a terrific rate, but I was captivated by the harmonious lettering on stone by the calligrapher. He was delightfully disinterested in material reward; when I asked how much his creations might be, he replied that he hated to sell them. 'They are like my children,' he added. Oh delight, in a Trump-infested world, innocence and beauty linked almost effortlessly alongside the artistic excellence of his creations. Good deeds in a naughty world indeed.

Hidden behind a garage entrance along the Langerei
Unsuspected beauty.

Then today, Monday, I returned to another display visited too hurriedly at the weekend. I was entertained to coffee and chocolate and discovered a couple in a lovely home; both retired, she now a passionate painter and both so interesting and enlivening to talk to. A happy half hour passed before thoughts of scrutinising the watercolour portraits again; eventually home thinking that perhaps I had found a portrait to buy and two new friends to meet again!