One activity I've not mentioned before now in this music blog is our longstanding connection with the Val du Séran. Stéphane Fauth is a German professional musician, performing and teaching a variety of stringed instruments, welcoming groups of amateur and professional musicians to play chamber music in his home in the Ain (01) départment of eastern France, and making arrangements of existing pieces for whichever group of musicians is available to play them. Mary has been many times to play cello in chamber groups, and very quickly I was also invited to join in the groups with her. My role has been to sing special arrangements of a variety of music made by Stéphane for the forces available each visit.
Our meetings at the house he and Chantal have converted from an huge old farm building in the remote countryside have taken a week most years since 2010, and are aided by beautiful and comfortable surroundings and wonderful food and wine. Among the music Stéphane has arranged, often specially with me in mind, has been
- Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge (voice, piano, clarinet and strings)
- Carl Orff Carmina Burana
- Stephen Foster Fantasy - collection of songs
- Folk song settings based on those by Beethoven and Haydn
and along with strings the accompanying group has included one or several of either flute, or clarinet, or piano. It has always felt a privilege as well as a pleasure to be there and make music with Stéphane and the groups that come together there, and we've made good friends along the way. This year, it will be touch and go - nobody knows if the restrictions on travel will be lifted enough and soon enough to allow Mary and a Belgian pianist to go and work with Stéphane - we'll have to wait till the last minute to see what's possible. This time I and our 2 dogs will be simple spectators, but that will be a pleasure in any case, and I hope if it's not possible now we'll still be able to go sometime soon.
Meanwhile I've mentioned, in the main blog, music among the things we've watched and listened to at home. I'll continue to do so here now. Having listened to the Christie Incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi a week or two ago, we recently got round over a couple of evenings to seeing his very different Orfeo conducted by Rene Jacobs and staged by Trisha Brown, as formal and static in conception as Poppea is earthy and dynamic. We were absorbed by the balletic staging and the tapestry of madrigal and recitative in Orfeo. The huge central role of Orpheus is sung by Simon Keenlyside, whom I only just realised is son of Raymond - he the father was second violin in the Aeolian string quartet which introduced me to the chamber repertoire during my student years in the mid-1960s - once I realised the connection the resemblance of son to father is so obvious. Simon K is now sir Simon, and extraordinary baritone voice and career rightly rcognised. He and the other leading people in the production talked at length about the staging of the piece in a second 'making of…' DVD which we enjoyed greatly.
We've also watched Purcell's Dido & Aeneas again conducted by William Christie, staged by Deborah Warner and once again accompanied by a fascinating 'making of...' documentary which keeps you on your toes because he speaks in French and she in English! An unfamiliar cast of singers for us, and beautifully done. It is quite a slight piece but with strong nostalgic links for me, once again, because it was our first student production at UEA in 1965. So many of these recordings have been just waiting for this lockdown period where we find more time to watch, listen and read.
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| A sunny memory of our visit to Glyndebourne to hear Handel's Saul in 2018 - another performance happily in our DVD collection and another link for me to student days in the 60s |
