Voglio un casa - Convivencia
Three extraordinary "early music" concerts today. And all forcing thoughts about colonialism, racism, the enounters / collisions between cultures, the ethics of such concerts.
Jean-Cristophe Frisch and XVIII-21 Le Baqroque Nomade playing a Baroque concert from Beijing and telling us how music was a safe topic for discussion between the Jesuits and the Chinese, when they couldn't talk about religion or politics.
The amazing L'Arpeggiata under Christina Pluhars. Don't ever miss an opportunity to hear this group. I am glad to have lived to hear the King's Singers and L'Arpeggiata performing their version of Duke Ellington's Creole Love Affair. And the performance was memorable for the exuberant, virtuosic violin of Charles Edouard Fantin and guitar of Marcelo Vitale. And the sensational Lucilla Galeazzi. Feeling the smile spread across my face as she began each number was an experience I rarely remember in concerts:
Voglio un casa, la voglio bella,
Piena di luce come una stella
Piena di sole e di fortuna
E sopra il tetto spunti la luna
Pieno di riso, pieno di pianto
Casa ti sogno, ti sogno tanto
Dididindi, Dididindi ...
Voglio un casa, per tanta gente
La voglio solida ed accogliente,
Robusta e calda, semplice e vera
Per farci musica matina e sera
E la poesia abbia il suo letto
Voglio abitare sotto a quei tetto.
Dididindi, Dididindi ...
Such was the excitement and happiness of that concert that I wasn't sure how the final one of the day, Catherine Bott, David Miller, the 'oud player and singer Abdul Salem Kheir, and Stephen Henderson's Convivencia programme, exploring Spain in the period of the Reconquista when Christians and Moors apparently showed some tolerance of each other. I needn't have worried. Bott's singing was emotional; and she had equal impact when she recited English versions of some of the songs over the accompaniment to bring out the impact of the words.
These concerts were remarkable for their presentation of beautiful music in a complicated political and moral context.
Jean-Cristophe Frisch and XVIII-21 Le Baqroque Nomade playing a Baroque concert from Beijing and telling us how music was a safe topic for discussion between the Jesuits and the Chinese, when they couldn't talk about religion or politics.
The amazing L'Arpeggiata under Christina Pluhars. Don't ever miss an opportunity to hear this group. I am glad to have lived to hear the King's Singers and L'Arpeggiata performing their version of Duke Ellington's Creole Love Affair. And the performance was memorable for the exuberant, virtuosic violin of Charles Edouard Fantin and guitar of Marcelo Vitale. And the sensational Lucilla Galeazzi. Feeling the smile spread across my face as she began each number was an experience I rarely remember in concerts:
Voglio un casa, la voglio bella,
Piena di luce come una stella
Piena di sole e di fortuna
E sopra il tetto spunti la luna
Pieno di riso, pieno di pianto
Casa ti sogno, ti sogno tanto
Dididindi, Dididindi ...
Voglio un casa, per tanta gente
La voglio solida ed accogliente,
Robusta e calda, semplice e vera
Per farci musica matina e sera
E la poesia abbia il suo letto
Voglio abitare sotto a quei tetto.
Dididindi, Dididindi ...
Such was the excitement and happiness of that concert that I wasn't sure how the final one of the day, Catherine Bott, David Miller, the 'oud player and singer Abdul Salem Kheir, and Stephen Henderson's Convivencia programme, exploring Spain in the period of the Reconquista when Christians and Moors apparently showed some tolerance of each other. I needn't have worried. Bott's singing was emotional; and she had equal impact when she recited English versions of some of the songs over the accompaniment to bring out the impact of the words.
These concerts were remarkable for their presentation of beautiful music in a complicated political and moral context.
posted by Tony at 11:41 PM
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