September 16, 2010

  • Gustav Leonhardt

    I've just been fortunate enough to hear, for the second time in my life, a concert by the "legendary" Gustav Leonhardt. 
    'Who?' I hear most of you cry...  Well, before the first time I had no idea either.

    It was in Falaise, France in July 2007. It was the first month of my work placement at the tourist office there. I was living alone (I was there for 4 weeks on my own before the other work placementers turned up) and I didn't have a whole lot to do, so I turned up to pretty much all the events that took place. That month there was an organ festival on, and the main event was a harpsichord recital by this Dutch guy, Gustav Leonhardt (he plays several instruments - keyboard, harpsichord, organ, claviorganum (yeah, what?!) etc) . When I looked him up, he turned out to be pretty famous. The best thing was that under 25s were getting in free to this concert, so I went along and was very glad I did. Packed church, applause like you've never heard... he really was quite something. He was 79 at the time. I managed to get a few photos of him that night because he was posing for them! Below is him with the harpsichord he was playing.


    Anyway, in a similarly bored state now, I was scanning the events guide for Brescia a couple of days ago, and spotted a familiar name! I confess that I had to double check it really was the same person (by looking at my photos from Falaise), but there he was. 9pm on Thursday 16th August, Organ Concert, Gustav Leonhardt, Santa Maria del Carmine, Ingresso Libero. 
    Perfect! The church literally 3 minute walk from my house...free entry again! (I think people pay a lot of money to see this guy, but I'm broke at the moment!).

    Well, he's now a very sprightly 82! The concert began unannounced, to a packed church. The programme had a list of 10 pieces on, all by different composers. I found it a bit strange that nobody at all clapped in between pieces. This was the opposite problem to the concert I went to at the Teatro Grande, where everyone was clapping between movements of Beethoven's 3rd symphony (to much tutting from the lady beside me!). Here there was just silence as he went through all the pieces, which felt a bit strange to me.I lost track completely of how many pieces he had played so had no idea which was the last anyway, but luckily other people had been paying attention and when he had finished the whole church broke forth into applause which seemed to go on forever. The organ in Santa Maria del Carmine is a beautifully ornate one, built in 1629. It's raised up so we couldn't see him while he was playing (great shame, it's nice to see the footwork etc) and he was just standing up there to bow. He had to come back six or maybe seven times and the applause was still going! Afterwards lots of people were hanging around to meet him, and a whole crowd of young guys (maybe music students?) got him to autograph their programmes. I really wished afterwards that I had bothered to as well... oh well. He seems like such a nice man though, shaking hands with everybody and listening to them (I assume he must speak some Italian since most of them were talking Italian!). I just find it really funny that he's Dutch, I'm English and I've now seen him perform in France and Italy... 

    Funnily enough this was the second organ concert I've been to in the recent past. I don't really make a habit of attending them but in August Dad and I went to hear David Bednall, a talented young organist - aged 31, 51 years Leonhardt's junior! - who  was playing in St James' Church, Taunton on the organ there. Well, the organ there was built in 1861 so that was a lot younger too! Anyway, his concert was also very enjoyable, with the bonus that the organ was fully visible so we could watch everything he was doing. It was a shame that only about 20 people turned up to hear him... oh and another contrast with tonight was that he got applause and did a little bow after every piece. However, I think the applause at the end of the performance tonight definitely made up for the lack of it during the concert.... all in all, I'm glad I happened to read through the events list and spotted that it was on! It was just a shame Dad couldn't join me at that one too!

    I also spotted something else is on which will be my treat for tomorrow or the next day... more details to follow perhaps!
    Only 6 days to go now!! I've done everything on my "to do" list. Just got to pack up my clothes and last things (but will wait until at least Monday to do so I think). I went to Ikea today again to pick up some last things which I 'need'. Mostly I went because I fancied eating Swedish for lunch.... timed it REALLY badly though and ended up on the most ridiculously packed bus because it was lunchtime and schools had just chucked out. What's worse is that the bus went right past my old workplace, so lots of my ex-students got on the bus too! Oh well, luckily I had got one of the last remaining seats before the bus turned into a cattle market with kids crammed in every available space... won't be doing THAT again! (But the meatballs were worth it!).

    Oh and I found out my new address yesterday... will wait and post photos and details once I'm actually there!
    I'm also really happy because I've just had an email from the man I met in Taize who took a group there from Udine this summer. He's sent me some dates of Taize meetings in Udine and stuff so that's really good. Just got to work out how to get to them now! (a whole new bus system to investigate!). Although sadly I've just realised that the ones I was really keen to go to are actually in a village outside Udine, about 20km away... if I had a car I'd be ok, but without one I'm not going to make it unless there happens to be someone who travels from Udine. The other problem is that they start at 9pm and I could well be working until 8pm or later, so it's going to be tight time wise. Fingers crossed!! At least the other ones are in town, albeit the other side (4km away).