Salzburger Zeitung - Sunday Morning's Concert

Via Toledo - Music of the Streets

This was perhaps the most interesting concert of the Festival. Given amidst the pseudo-baroque decorations of the Gosser Saal(at the right) in the Mozarteum, the church and conservatories gave way to music that had grown from the streets of Naples and the surrounding countryside. Six men sat in a semi-circle, some with baroque guitars, others with lutes and one with two tambourines and a boron drum; another stood at a combination portive organ and harpsichord. A tambourine rattled and then a single voice - Italian actor and singer Giuseppe Di Vittorio - rose in a passionate love cry - Cori miu (My Heart.) Marco Beasley, De Vittorio, Guido Morini and Accordone joined forces to present an exciting programme of tarantellas, love songs and working songs from the Medieval to the modern.

Beasley is a short stocky bald man, he looks like he could be a Neapolitan dock worker. The son of an English father and a Neapolitan mother, he’s devoted his career to the music of his native city in all its forms - classical, church, folk. He has a powerful tenor voice and a commanding presence but remains firmly grounded on and of the earth. De Vittorio is tall, craggy and handsome in a world-beaten way – when he stands eyes closed, head thrown back, hands held in an almost priestly manner he embodies all the raw passion and sexuality of the south.

The instrumentalists occasionally rose to join in song or to add percussive vocal effects. When not singing Beasley or Di Vittorio would pick up the rhythm with bone castanets. Percussionist Mauro Durante took centre stage and stopped the show with a solo that was worthy of Gene Krupa except he did it all with one large tambourine not a trap set.

The 60 minutes programme flew by – often one number leading into another without break – but the sold-out audience called them back for three encores before they were willing to let them go, gather up their belongings and head out for Mother’s Day brunch.

And again here'a bit of what we heard: Marco Beasely and Accordone doing a tarantala:



They are scheduled back for next year's Festival with a programme tantalizingly titled The Temptation of Evil!

As a sidebar Laurent and I came away with four CDs by the various artists involved and there are at least two more I'm planning on getting.

18 maggio - Santi Trinità

Zwergerlgarten VI

This fellow is wearing a variation of a commedia dell'arte costume - he may well have been a member of the Prince-Archbishop's theatre troupe.


The sack of vegetables would suggest this chap is a door-to-door vendor - though again his costume has overtones of the commedia dell'arte. And again it appears he originally held something in his hand.

18 maggio - Santi Trinità

Salzburger Zeitung - Saturday's Concerts

Arias for Senesino

As well as being a sweetie, who I may have mentioned I have a crush on, Andreas Scholl is a wise performer; at the outset of his recital career he realized that people could find an entire concert of countertenor arias a bit much. So he has teamed up with various musical ensembles to present a varied vocal and instrumental programme.

It was apparent on Saturday morning that his relationship with Accademia Bizantina is a happy one. There was obvious enjoyment and at times playful interaction between him, director Ottavio Dantone and first violinist Stefano Montanari. And the programme allowed Scholl, Montanari and the ensemble to display their individual and joint talents. And I now have another crush - Montanari can tune my fiddle any time!

As the title suggests the vocal music was arias written for the celebrated castrato Senesino by Handel, Albinoni, Porpora, Geminiani and Lotti. I've always preferred Scholl when he sings the more lyrical arias and this concert was no different - two of the Handel pieces Caro Sposa and Dove Sei are part of his usual repertoire and he delivered them with a gentle simplicity that pulled at the heart strings. In the more showy pieces he doesn’t have the power or range of a David Daniels but the sound is never less than beautiful. In Lotti's Discordi pensieri, a piece new to me, it was often difficult to tell where Montanari’s violin ended and Scholl's voice began. And as a sidebar he was utterly sweet and sexy at the CD signing session afterwards - he knew how to charm the 100 or so fans who crowded around taking pictures and gushing. I wasn't like them though, I didn't take a picture!

And here's a bit of what we heard - Dove Sei from the 1998 producton of Handel's Rodelinda at Glyndebourne with William Chrisite conducting. Bertarido laments his seperation from his wife Rodelinda.



The three instrumental pieces – two by Vivaldi, the third a variation on La Follia by Geminiani – had a brilliance and spark that it often seems to me only Italian musicians can bring to this type of music.

Neapolitan Church Music

It was that spark that was missing in that evening’s concert. Thomas Hengelbrock and his Balthasar-Neumann Chor and Ensemble are well know for their eclectic repertoire ranging from early music to 20th century pieces so it was no surprise that they were scheduled at this year’s festival. Their programme was made up of three choral pieces – including a beautiful but seldom heard Stabat Mater by Emanuele d’Astorgo – and one Scarlatti church concerto grosso.

I recall remarking to Laurent once, after a performance of the Monteverdi Vespers by a German group at the Frari in Venice, that though the music making was lovely there was something missing. To my mind Italian church music – even a Miserere - has a certain dance like quality to it that Northern Ensembles often just can’t quite catch. This concert was an example of that – beautifully sung but there was a certain fire missing. And when they gave an exquisite performance of a Bach chorale as an encore it only reinforced that belief. It had a style and sense of musicality that the rest of the programme lacked.

17 maggio - San Pascal Bayon

Zwergerlgarten V

This chappy with the turban and the big sweeping moustache is obviously meant to be a Turk. Like many of the statues he has lost an arm somewhere over the years.

17 maggio - San Pascal Bayon

A Balcony By Any Other Name

I initially posted this with a poll which worked fine for a while and then messed up the coding for the site. I'm going to try it one more time - so though you may have commented or voted already, please do so again.

Of course Verona is the city of Romeo and Juliet. We have Juliet Kisses and Romeo Cakes in the pastry shops, there's the Romeo and Juliet Hotel, the Capulet Hotel, Ristorante Guiletta. Then we have the Casa Capuleti with its graffiti covered entrance into the garden where the great love story written by Luigi da Porto in 1520 begins on its tragic path - okay some English guy did his version of it but these translation things never really work.

Here's are pictures of a few balconies in Verona.

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Originally poste: 15 maggio - San Giovanni-Batiste di LaSalle

Zwergerlgarten IV

For some reason this chap is wearing a basket on his head. The position of his hands and some strategically place holes suggest at one time he was holding something between them.

16 maggio - San Brendan

1000 Miglia

Today was day 2 of the 2008 Mille Miglia - the great annual motor race from Brescia to Roma and back. Tonight at around 2100 the first of 388 cars registered in the race arrived at Piazza Bra in the centre of Verona. They did a circuit of the Piazza and headed down Corso Porto Nouvo and onward to Ferrara and down the south coast of Italy.

As we sat at diner at Osteria Casa Vino, just off the Via Roma, we could hear the roar of engines and catch glimpses of some of the incredible antique Alfa Romeos, Ferrari's, Aston Martins and Lancias in the race. The streets were lined with people taking photos and when a particular favorite entered the Piazza a general roar would go up.

We were tempted to get a better look but dinner was so incredible - Cod mousse on grilled polenta, cut with a fork crusted pork medallions with roast potatoes and cafe creme marscapone for me, Chicken liver pate, stewed rabbit with polenta and lavender creme brule for Laurent - we just couldn't rush away from it. And there was no way we could insult Gianetta and Rinaldo, the brother and sister team who run the Osteria, by leaving any of the food untouched.

But we needn't have worried - it is now 2345 and the cars are still roaring past our window at the Grand Hotel on the Corso. It reminded us both of the race car scene in Fellini's Amarcord.



15 maggio - San Giovanni-Batiste di LaSalle

Zwergerlgarten III

I find this weather beaten Woodsman one of the more disturbing of these grotesque figures. The hardship of his life and trade seem etched into the stone.

15 maggio - San Giovanni-Batiste di LaSalle

Salzburger Zeitung - Whitsun Festival

We were on the go constantly in Trento, Salzburg and briefly in Innsbruck and between opera, concerts, great food and sightseeing its been hard to find time to write anything about the Pfingstfestpiele (Whitsun Festival) that was the principal reason for our trip.

I’ve only been in Salzburg during the Summer Festival, back in 1969, 1971 and again in 1978, when crowds are chaotic, hotels are full and prices are astronomical. Fortunately the Whitsun Festival is still small enough that things are quieter, hotels available and it’s possible to have a good meal without mortgaging your first born. One thing that will never change is the abundance of ticky-tacky Mozartiana souvenirs - to bad the family isn't still around to benefit from the copyright.

Beginning with last year what was once a festival featuring Baroque music in a general way now celebrates the musical genius of Naples. And behind it is that modern Neapolitan genius Riccardo Muti. Like my friend OC, I’m one of those people who worship at the shrine of Muti – and this weekend Laurent has also become a convert to the cause. After watching him at close quarters yesterday, our seats at the side choir of the Kollegenkirche gave us a perfect view of his interaction with the soloists and orchestra, Laurent remarked that he had an almost palpable sense of Muti’s love of music and musicians. Yes there may be stories of his vanity and arrogance but for the two performances he gave us this weekend alone in my book he’s entitled.

Speaking of his vanity I recall the last time we saw him conduct in 1998 – Milan, Les Dialogues des Carmelites – he mounted the podium took his bows, turned away from the audience and surreptitiously slipped his glasses out of his pocket; his year he arrived specs firmly in place and still looking leonine and handsome.

The form of the Festival seems pretty much set now: three concerts of secular and sacred music mixing the classical and the popular (folk) bookended by a Muti-led opera and a Muti-led cantata/oratorio/mass. The Muti performances feature his exceptional group of young Italian musicians, Orchestra Giovanile "Luigi Cherubini" and young singers who in many cases he has mentored. The concerts are by international soloists and ensembles - e.g. this year's Andreas Scholl, theBalthasar-Neumann Chor and Ensemble, Accademia Bizantina and Accordone.

In what has become standard practice for Muti, his Orchestra Giovanile "Luigi Cherubini" joined the performers on stage to share in the 20 minute ovation opening night of Il matrimonio inaspettato . (Photos by Silvia Lelli)

On Satrday Muti was confirmed as Festival director until 2011 and next year's programme was announced. Sunday we decided that we'll be there - God willing and the Salzach don't rise.

I am honestly going to try and get something up about the indivdual performances tomorrow or Friday - it just we're still doing the sight-seeing thing here in Verona.

14 maggio - San San Pachomius

Zwergerlgarten II

This is one of only two female statues in the restored group - though there may have been more amongst the missing figures. She appears to be a fruit seller dressed in local peasant costume and offering a pomegranate - a symbol of welcome and prosperity.

14 maggio - San Pachomius

Mercoledi Musicale

As well as being incredibly funny men Ernie and Eric - Morecambe and Wise - were good old fashioned song and dance men. Bring Me Sunshine was one of their signature songs. Unfortunately the one video of them performing it live has been disabled for embedding on YouTube but can be viewed here.

But in the meantime here's a recording of the boys doing it with a video tribute



14 maggio - San Pachomius

KISS Me Stupid*

*No matter how much I try I just can't get those lightening Sses in any of the available fonts. I really must talk to BlogSpot about that.

When we wandered down the Corso Porto Nouvo in Verona this afternoon, after a pleasant ride through the Dolomite's from Innsbruck, we were greeted by hundreds of people in black t-shirts, face paint and Goth adornments. By the time we hit the famous Verona arena it had turned into at least a thousand - some teens but mostly people over 25 and many into their late 40s and 50s. What the hell was going on?

Then we realized that KISS was in town as part of their Live/35 World Tour and playing the 15,000 seat 2000 year old arena. The T-shirt sellers where doing record business but I declined Laurent's kind offer to buy me one - there were enough middle aged men with paunches wandering around trying to regain their lost youth as it was.

Later when we went out to dinner the concert had started and the restaurants surround the Arena where full of people listening for free. I'm afraid we decided on a really nice Osteria a bit further away. We are getting old but damn it the wild boar antipasti and grilled steaks and pana cotta where worth it.

And of course I didn't have the camera with me - we're sharing one at the moment but that's another story - to take pictures of the invasion of the KISS fans into the land of Montagues and Capulets.

13 maggio - San Giovanni il silenzioso

Salzburger Zeitung - Der Zwerglgarten

Back in 1715 Prince Archbishop Franz Anton Harrach wasn’t terribly big into political correctness when he had the Zwergerlgarten (Dwarf Garden) built in the gardens of Schloss Mirabell. Dwarfs were a source of amusement and kept in large households for their entertainment value. Many of the Salzburg stone dwarfs were modeled on real members of the Archbishop’s retinue; others were simply caricatures of peasants and foreigners.

Of the original 28 grotesques only 15 are still there and they have been moved to a high tower-like patch of grass surrounded by a moat. In the spirit of Baroque political incorrectness I’ve decided to post a Dwarf a Day; hopefully that will not offend as I am thinking of them more an example’s of an anonymous stonemason’s craft.



Since the garden was restored in 1928 these two have been guarding the drawbridge crossing while waiting to play what appears to be a rather dangerous ball game – notice the Mad Max padding.

13 maggio - San Giovanni il silenzioso