JeKi and Hagen Philharmonic

More music for the masses! The Fonoforum, a German classical music and jazz magazine, though actually, based in Cologne, hardly ever reports on anything outside Northrhine-Westphalia (don't they get overnight subsistence?), in its March 2008 issue reported on the project 'Jedem Kind ein Instrument' (one instrument for every child). It's a project that takes place in the Ruhr valley, a formerly industrial wasteland of Germany which is regenerating itself as a cultural oasis (it will be European Capital of Culture in about 2010).

The project started in the city of Bochum, where the local municipal music school (each German town has one) began providing instruments to every child of primary school age. Now it has spread across the whole of the area, with funding of 50 million Euros from a variety of sources, not least the old lady who provided a violin for children to use, which only turned out to be a Strad! 13 orchestral instruments are included, as well as instruments native to the countries of migrant children - though I assume that all children can choose all instruments. I'm not sure whether the full maintenance costs have been considered - there need to be sufficient instruments for the children for 12 school years, theoretically, though some will buy their own instruments, and others will give up. The overall impact of this has not yet been evaluated - it's too early for this. Let's hope it works out - it would grow a fantastic audience for concert halls, CDs etc.

In the same neck of the woods resides the Hagen Philharmonic Orchestra. For a large city Hagen is truly, but truly a dump. Ugly like you would not believe. The orchestra was always pretty iffy, too, though in recent years they got a new conductor, Anthony Hermus. He's done a recording of Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde' which is well praised by Fonoforum. The orchestra must be on its way up! (Though did I hear that Hermus has gone on to better places?). NB My last violin teacher was a violist in this orchestra.

Final bit of unknown trivia from Fonoforum - I did not know Justus Frantz also had an older son (he has one of about two years or so). This son, Christopher Tainton (he's taken his mother's name), born 1975, studied in Hanover with Kaemmerling (a very highly regarded piano pedagogue); Christoph Eschenbach (who used to do concerts with Justus Frantz) is his mentor. He also spent some time, as a child, shadowing Leonard Bernstein, when the latter worked at Frantz's Schleswig Holstein Festival.

New meaning for 'car bumper'

This article in today's Guardian describes a new type of musical instrument - scrap cars. Sounds like a great idea - the cars are being scrapped anyway, so why not have some fun with them. (The carbon footprint involved in getting the cars to the concert hall, and disposing of them afterwards, is another question).

A German with the history-laden name of Christian von Richthoven and his partners will put on a series of concerts at the London Riverside Studios until 4 May, destroying a car in each show. They got the idea when involved with some teenage vandals; instead the team invited them to their lessons and then let them destroy a car in a musical way, with Bach, Tchaikovsky and Motörhead.

Seems that not everyone shares this sense of humour. They performed at the Leipzig motor show exhibiting lovely shiny new cars - afterwards the guy who booked them was sacked on the spot....

Thank you, Verdi!

An hour after I came home after last night's dreadful concert, 3sat rescued me from my musical depression with Verdi's requiem (I know, I know...hardly cheery), performed by the wonderful Semyon Bychkov with his WDR Rundfunk Orchestra, no less than three choirs, and a group of soloists including our very own Violeta Urmana (who has not sung much in Vilnius recently).

That was a passionate performance, though even here the Dies Irae, my most favourite part of it (offering plenty of scope for amateur psychologists) was not as harsh or biting Abbado's available on youtube. But otherwise, like much of Verdi's other music, it is really rather ice cream music, no? That part where the soprano and alto sing an octave apart - oy vey - and there are some other similar places, too. Probably perfect, though, for an outpouring of grief at perhaps a peak time for emotion in music writing. Only a day or two before I had thought about anger in music, and about Mozart's Dies Irae. His is a much more refined kind of anger - but he was limited by the style of music writing available to him. I wonder what his audience might have said had he plonked Verdi's Dies Irae into the middle of his requiem (and he might have had good reason, too....).

The concert was broadcast from the Cologne Philharmonic, which seems to be a very new hall - apparently the size of a football stadium? The three choirs were all easily accommodated in what seemed like the gods about a mile from the conductor. Presumably the wiring for recordings was pre-installed. And does the place really have a glass roof?

What a difference a letter or two make

The German newspaper 'Die Zeit' has an article on an Austrian lady who was a guard in one or two concentration camps, and who may have contributed to quite a number of deaths, beatings and so on. She had been interviewed twice by Austrian and German police after the war, but got off scot-free. Recently, however, she was within inches of being taken to court. She died before this happened.

Her name is Erna Wallisch.

Which reminds me of Ernst Wallfisch, the fabulous viola player.

And of the delightful Raphael Wallfisch, the cellist, his mother who played the cello in Auschwitz, for her life, and the rest of that talented family. (Not sure if they are related to Ernst).

Isn't it creepy what difference a little letter or two can make to a name? Like put you on different sides in the camps?

Incidentally, I see that Raphael is playing in the Berlin Konzerthaus on 8 May, to celebrate the end of WWII on that day 63 years ago, and also the founding of the state of Israel 60 years ago. Not sure that I would want to push the latter quite so much, given the more recent history. For that I would be very happy to chuck eggs at Mr Wallfisch, even in Germany. (Nothing more than eggs, mind, and making sure they'd miss the cello). They will be playing Schelomo by Bloch, something by Pavel Haas (who perished in Auschwitz) and some other pieces, all Jewish music. It would have been nice to add Kol Nidre to that - would he play it like Misha Maisky in that memorable Vilnius concert in 2004?

Wuppertal - a recent creation?

Looking up Julia Fischer to see who taught her (will comment her wonderful Brahms recording later), I come across this blog. Apparently the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is on a tour of Europe, and in it the city of Wuppertal (Germany) is described as '... seventy minutes from Cologne. Wuppertal is a fairly recent creation. Several cities were joined together, like Pittsburgh, Allegheny City and Lawrenceville. It’s an industrial city along the banks of the Wupper River. Tal means valley. The two biggest cities joined in a long, narrow stretch were Elberfeld and Barmen. Not everyone was happy with the merger, naturlich. Sollingen, the company that makes the fine German steel cutlery, is just up the river.'

As it happens, I grew up near Wuppertal (before I became Scottish). Not sure what they mean by it being a recent creation; it has always been Wuppertal as long as I can remember back - that's almost 50 years. Both Germany and the UK have had at least one local government reorganisation since then.

Wuppertal provided a favourite outing to the nearest zoo, and it has a famous overhead railway going along the river; there's some story about a baby elephant being transported in it and falling out - years ago. Wuppertal should also be famous for the Pina Bausch Tanztheater, and it also has a fine concert hall, though I see it offers a wide range of music...For an industrial city to have a ballet company like Pina Bausch's suggests that there is some intellect behind the money.

Luckily for the burghers of Cologne Wuppertal is nothing like 70 minutes from that city; it's nearer 35 minutes, though Cologne has its own fine artistic world, what with that delightful Semyon Bychkov and others.

And oh yes, we won't quibble about the spelling of the name 'Solingen'.

After spotting 3 errors in six lines of text, decided not to check the rest of the blog. Still don't know who taught Julia Fischer, though.

Sternkinder

The Julius Stern Institute in Berlin provides training for highly talented musical children who are too young for university (but surely German music universities have young students - Jung-studenten - too?).

The pupils are called 'Sternkinder', based on the name of the institute's founder ('Stern' = 'star'). This is doubly unfortunate:
1) afflicting them with the expression 'star' at a young age, and
2) my mother, who was alive at the time, tells me that in Germany between 1933 and 1945 'Sternkinder' were children who had to wear a star sewn onto their clothes. Jewish children, in other words whose life expectancy was limited.

Double ouch! But the institute has been around, in various forms, since 1850....

Terezin

Terezin, as I had to explain to the shop assistant at Dussmann's in Berlin, is better known to the Germans as 'Theresienstadt', a concentration camp near Prague. (Usually Dussmann's shop assistant's are pretty well informed). Theresienstadt gained notoriety, apart from the usual reason, by being used by the Germans in a propaganda film along the lines of 'we have built a city for the Jews', showing people partaking of a cup of coffee outside a cafe and so on. The truth was of course different, and if you want, you can go and look at the place next time you are in Prague.

In Terezin many artists and musicians found themselves, amongst them Erwin Schulhoff, Gideon Klein and many others, all of whom composed and all of whom perished. This CD by Anne Sophie von Otter and others is not the first with Terezin music; I have another one somewhere. It has a series of songs, as well as Daniel Hope playing Schulhoffs solo violin sonata (did they not have enough songs to fill the disc?). It has been highly praised by Jessica in her blog, as well as in the German media (who under the circumstances will never be able to do anything else).

It is indeed very beautifully sung and performed, and heartbreaking at the same time, eg the lullaby for the Terezin children going to....sleep...., or 'farewell my friend, ...I'm going on the Poland transport' [to Auschwitz, presumably].

And yet, and yet, I have a small problem with it. I find it too beautiful. My gold standard for Jewish music singing is Judita Leitaite's singing on the soundtrack for the film 'Ghetto' about the Vilnius ghetto theatre. You can listen to bits of it here. It's the sheer rawness and hunger for life that I find so impressive. Liora Grodnikaite, a stunning young Lithuanian singer, has also been heard to perform these songs (mostly transcribed/composed/orchestrated by Anatolijus Senderovas) incredibly movingly. But then again, am I being fair?

Much of the Terezin was written by very high class composers, cultured and maybe assimilated very much into the Austro-Hungarian ways. The German songs in the collection are in high German (like BBC Standard English if it still exists), whereas the songs I hear in Lithuania are generally in Yiddish. Maybe that makes the world of Terezin totally different to the world of the (further) East European shtetl, and maybe I should not compare these two worlds. But then again, the people singing these songs/performing the pieces at Terezin will not have been in the best of health, unlike the present-day performers with their well-cared for voices and fine instruments. I don't know.

It's certainly a CD well worth getting if you want to get a feel of life in a camp (omitting the dirt, disease, death, hunger, cold, ill treatment, overcrowding etc), particularly if you study the texts of the songs where some raise themselves above life in the camps, and others very clearly describe the reality of life (the meat you can only see with a magnifying glass). It's interesting that now there are young Germans who do not wish to get information about this period - apart from the neo-nazis maybe other people cannot deal with it emotionally. It's nice to have that choice -in the 1930s many people in Germany had no such choice.

You must, must, must go and see it!

Rossini's 'Barber of Seville', that is, at the Staatsoper in Berlin. It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Starting already with the overture and some ironic rallentandos and unexpected echos (conducted by Paolo Arrivabeni), this production bursts into life and never stops till the end.

Set on a white stage with a mini theatre made from sheets of fabric hanging off wires, Ruth Berghaus' production resembles those paper and cardboard models one had of eighteenth-century theatres. This is reinforced by the exaggeratedly caricaturic characters all of which have their own walk (as if they were pushed around the stage on a stick of cardboard) as they appear and disappear. The costumes were pure 18th century, with ironic additions.

Figaro (Alfredo Daza) was wonderful, totally as he should be, a factotum, a fixer who could sort out anyone's problems; great singer, too. Count Almaviva (Dimitri Korchak) seemed a bit weedy at the beginning, but soon picked up speed and was a brilliant comic actor. Alexander Vinogradov as Don Basilio floated all over the stage, backwards and forwards, eyes rolling all around his head - his aria on the power of libel was to die for. All others were great, too.

It really was a great, great performance; the house was packed and everyone enjoyed themselves hugely. The orchestra played wonderfully, too. If you go to Berlin, check out this one (and if you go to Sydney, Australia, check out their very different, but equally stunning, production).

In the news today....

• another foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey, England. The first one, in August, was in Normandy, where I got my gorgeous first dog, Arran, from. This one is in Egham, very close to which I lived whilst gardening for the Queen. There's some concern for the Queen's deer (didn't know there was any space in that area for something as free as deer), and Windsor Great Park has been closed. No doubt leading to a loss of revenue, and of a handy shortcut from Englefield Green (where I lived) to Windsor.
• in Vilnius a little plane belonging to SAS crashlanded, following the failure of half its landing gear. Another plane of the same model belonging to the same airline had crashlanded for the same reason a couple of days earlier (in Denmark). Gives you confidence in SAS, no? Now they have grounded all the planes of the same make, cancelling 112 flights. During the first incident the propeller, on hitting the ground, broke off and sliced into the fuselage, and a passenger, though he was not badly hurt. So this time, apparently, the crew knew what to do and got all the passengers onto the non-affected side of the plane prior to landing. I'm trying to visualise that given that worry always over being attached to your seatbelt. These Canadian-made planes are not big - so did people have to sit on other people's laps? Or were they standing up and hanging on to other seats in a plane anticipating a very rough landing? Not a single person was hurt, apparently, which is great news. How long did it take to unfankle the luggage?
  
• Dresdner Bank has admitted unfairly dismissing an Australian manager. The story is that he was 'not German enough', and he is complaining that he was excluded from major conversations when the German managers went off and talked .... German. Though another native English-speaker who spoke German did not have that problem. Is there a message in this, I wonder. Now that the bank has admitted this, he'll get oodles and oodles of money no doubt, though perhaps not the 10 million GBP he is hoping for. I don't suppose he feels any inclination to spend the money on language training - especially not German...
  

Oh, the rules!

A nice little story in a Berlin paper described a guy called Janusz who had killed three people, and who had been convicted for at least two of those killings. For reasons best know to himself, one evening last week he presented himself at the prison gates, intending to serve the last 1000 days of his sentence (don't ask how he came to be free in the first place, or why he presented himself).

Unfortunately, the prison was unable to help him, seeing as he had neither ID nor sentencing documents on him at the time. You can just hear the prison guard at the entrance: 'Anyone could come along and ask for a bed for the night'. Janusz was sent packing. He went round to the police. Luckily they were able to help him - and banged him up.

Bank profits

Went to the Deutsche Bank in Berlin, where I have an account, to open a savings account - but what type to choose? The branch in Friedrichstrasse is a 'bank of the future' where you also get a high class cup of coffee while you speak to your adviser, or wait for them; and you can do bits of shopping. What you don't get, however, are leaflets giving you information. These are contained in dinky metal tins, the size of a leaflet; a different tin for each product. You have to BUY the tin to get the full information (the back of a tin has a general description, but I am not interested in 'interest rate up to x per cent'). The tins cost between 2 and 10 Euros, but they contain vouchers for the full value. What do you get for the voucher? In my case a couple of cups of coffee at the bank branch; there was also a nice pen. And how often would I visit the bank branch? Being Scottish I refused the tin, and they were ok with that - but how many people know about this option? It's all a bit outrageous, no?

Happy little things...

See the lalitah website. They make nice cushions, including ones stuffed with cherry pips. Apparently you pop the inside into the oven or the microwave and then it gives you lovely cuddly heat. That'll not be the microwave I have here in Ukraine which went on fire last night.

If you click on 'Eine kleine Geschichte' and you know my family you'll know what that's all about. Watch the tree....

Language - it's a scream!

I was asked earlier today to help a friend of a friend of a friend to help with a translation into English of a German website for migrants, amongst others including social services terminology.

It was very interesting, and very hard - there are ideas that foreigners just cannot conceptualise! Like 'Baby Klappe' - which is a box at the side of a maternity hospital where mothers wishing to abandon their new-borns can pop the baby, secure in the knowledge that the box will be checked every 15 minutes or so. Much demand for this then, is there? Though it's an easy solution to an awful problem. 'Familienkasse' is not a 'family cash box', but a kind of insurance which pays child benefit. 'Jugendweihe' - only in the former DDR is a kind of secular confirmation event for young people; I wonder what people will make of the 'initiation to adulthood' translation - it should not involve physical pain.

However, for a total scream you should click on my new buttons, if they exist in your own language, and read the translation by Google. You'll not recover for a long time!

All over Germany

Was in Germany for a few days, for a family party and to meet the Girlfriend (went well). The birthday queen was 90 and full of life and fun. In her speech she talked all the time about the fun she had had in all her life, even though she also faced some difficult periods. About 30 /40 guests, ranging from 30 to more than 90. Long evening in a restaurant, including speeches, a magician, fireworks and a sketch based on "dinner for one" with the birthday queen and her nearest people being very well represented by two of her relatives. "Dinner for one" is a German TV programme which runs at Christmas every year. It is about an old lady and her butler celebrating Christmas; all her relatives have died and the butler has to represent them all - giving and drinking a toast for each of them in each course of the 5 course meal. Inevitably, he gets very drunk.....It is supposed to be set in the UK, but is a totally German programme. Very funny.

The night before going to Germany was at home briefly and found an invitation for the premiere of the British film 'Elizabeth'; an event run by the Lithuanian Euro MP Margarita STARKEVIČIŪTĖ to celebrate the cultural cooperation between the UK and Lithuania. I thought this was the film about the current Queen and her annus horribilis, but in fact it was the film made in Lithuania in June 2005 about the first Elizabeth. Confusingly in both films both Elizabeths are played by Helen Mirren. Reception went well; it seems our MEP is an academic who has done research into differences in cultural funding between UK (and other European countries) and Lithuania. It needs to be mentioned, though, that with governments like we have had in the UK for the last almost 30 years there have been few politicians with any interest in matters cultural.

Anyway, the film was.... very very long; in total it lasts 3.5 hours. We left after the first half (seeing I had to get up at 4.30 am the following morning) which seemed to have told all that there needs to be told. The queen was portrayed as a very spirited lady, though also with a sense of what one should and should not do as a queen which sometimes exceeded her political considerations. Patrick Malahide was in the film; I did not recognise him (probably because I thought the name belonged to another actor's face). There were quite a few funny moments, but by the time we had been through the Queen's lovelife (chapter 1), her relationship with Queen Mary of Scots, and the Armada this seemed to cover all necessary facts. It was a bit odd knowing that the film had been entirely made in Lithuania, so one tended to look out for bits of Lithuania. Apparently 13500 square (metres/feet?) of set had been built in Lithuania, and knowing this, the sets did not entirely properly represent the UK buildings that they were meant to be. Sometimes the sets meant to be in the far distance were smaller than other things in the foreground, eg where people were rowing about in a lake and the boats were well out of proportion with the buildings behind. However, not everyone might notice this, and for a costume drama it was a pleasant enough film. Good for a history lesson or three.

On the Sunday in Iserlohn went to the final concert of the 'Herbsttage fuer Musik' in the local theatre. The Hagen Symphony Orchestra played, first the Magic Flute Overture and the Brahms 2nd symphony; later after the rehearsal the music school orchestra played, very carefully, Saint Saenss' 'Carnival of the Animals' with the soloists Antony and Joseph Paratore from the US. Joseph has an amazing resemblance to Harpo Marx. They were rather hampered by the caution of the orchestra, but came fully into their own when performing with the Hagen Orchestra Poulenc's Concerto for two pianos (d-minor); the impression was that it was 'their' piece. Finally they performed a piece of Jazz music, by special request apparently - did not go as jazzy as it might have been, perhaps also because they played from sheet music.

In the evening to Dortmund to hear Mihaela Ursuleasa (a website still under construction) play the piano in the Konzerthaus. This was part of a series of concerts in honour of Shostakovich's 100th birthday. She played stunningly. She has a particularly calm way of playing, very far from histrionics. Started Beeethoven's variations on the Eroica Symphony awesomely quietly and calmly; she made the Steinway sound almost like a hammerklavier. (Not sure the Steinway was in the best of health). This was followed by 14 of the 24 Shostakovich 24 preludes. I think these are based on the same principle that Bach also wrote 24 preludes, ie going through each major and minor key. It was interesting to hear how much more different types of music were available to Shostakovich than to Bach, eg waltzes and other dances (but perhaps Bach's were also based on dances, of his period). A very enjoyable work. Finally she played Mussorgsky's 'Pictures of an Exhibition'. To reply to the standing ovation she picked up a theme from the Shostakovich Viola Sonata (thank you, Mihaela) which briefly quotes a Beethoven piano sonata (and other Beethoven pieces) and she played this piece in an extremely calm and controlled manner; very beautifully.

Other participants in this mini-festival included Julian Rachlin and Itamar Golan (both born in Vilnius and emigrated as babies), and Julian's partner from the NL, Janine Jansen, but we did not hear them. Outside met an acquaintance who on being asked how he was told us all about his cancer, and that he did not expect to live till Christmas. The treatments seem to be giving him hell and so he is not sure whether he really wants to 'fight'. Is on some sort of experimental treatment; presumably the others are not considered to be effective for him.

On Monday to Berlin Friedrichshain which is continuing to come up; went again to the beautiful restaurant 'Schneeweiss', and were able to eat outside. The place was quite busy for a Monday night. On the Tuesday we went to an Italian restaurant in Kopernikusstr in Friedrichshain (or it might have been at the beginning of Wuehlischstr, on the side nearer the river). A very tiny restaurant, slightly pricy for the neighbourhood and Italian food, but very exquisite, too. The menu was very short, but had something for everyone. It was entirely in Italian, so the padrone explained it to us. The three of us first shared an assortment of starters (for two people, meaning that of some items there were only two); then individual main courses, and then an assortment of sweets, two of which contained coconut (not my favourite). We had a wine called primitivo something which was very nice, and served in rather a special way, whereby the first tasting shot was swilled through all three glasses, a bit like preheating a teapot.

After Tuesday being a bit of a shopping day, Wednesday was spent getting food for dinner that evening, and a trip to the Martin Gropius Bau to see an exhibition of contemporary French painting since 1972. Very interesting it was, too. Mostly very huge paintings, often borrowed from official French government buildings, and both figurative and abstract paintings. I preferred the calm abstract ones, such as Genevieve Asse's Atlantique (half light blue, half darker blue, not like the one in the link). Also Sylvie Fachon's blue painting with a series of connected red do-nuts in the bottom half (looked a bit like a map of the roundabouts going round East Kilbride). There was Gottfried Honegger's painting consisting of a series of brown stripes (he makes very beautiful sculptures, too!); someone else had done a series of 66 black squares arranged round a room in three rows (have lost my notes of the exhibition), another person had made some picture frames which could then be painted in the colour of the walls of the room which they hung on. Incidentally I was very surprised by the ornateness of the Gropius Bau, which I had expected to be rather Bauhaus. However it seems that Martin Gropius is an older Gropius, having died in 1880. Walter Gropius of Bauhaus fame was born in 1883.

Then on to the Neue Nationalgalerie to see an exhibition of Berlin and Tokyo and the artistic links between the two cities. Very interesting, particularly the contemporary part. The exhibition looked back to about 1900 - it is clear that there were links between the cities; when in Berlin it was the Dada movement, in Tokyo it was the Mavo movement, both countries had happenings during the happening period and so on. Rather interesting upstairs was the exhibition architecture, where they had built with wood something like a Japanese garden with small hillocks. One of the most interesting displays was like a little house made of sheets on which was printed the story of pet architecture. This is the kind of architecture where people squeeze into the tiniest and awkwardest of spaces a building; for example an estate agent who had a space 1 metre wide; a build supplier who had his business on a place where a road forked into two (perfect for storing long building supplies objects) or small shacks for the homeless (made by themselves) which represented in miniature all that not homeless people aspire to. Very interesting.

Dinner with friends in the evening, and home this morning.

shlepping round Kyiv

Another Saturday in Kiev. Finished off some work in the morning and felt great when it was done. Then went off for a walk, to the supermarket in Podil to pick up the a few things for the last few days in Kiev. Took a stroll along Sahaidachnogo street in Podil, which is lined with cafes and restaurants and even has a Laura Ashley shop. Very nice street; then in the opposite direction along the river to the supermarket, got milk, juice, water etc - not that much, but since I usually use the backpack for such purchases, and this time only had the supermarket plastic bag, it was a bit heavy. Became much heavier because I had the idea that I might pick up a sushi for dinner, and maybe even pop into the Repriza cafe on the way home. Did not have a map with me but could roughly work out which way to go to get to the Yakitoria....

And very roughly it was, too - a long way out of the way at the river level, then up a very steep hill, and finally back towards the restaurant - a very very long slog. At the start of the walk I had thought that having a sushi and a cake would be a bit indulgent, but by the end indulgence was seriously required. Finally got to the restaurant, picked up a mega sushi to take home, then a lovely plum cheese cake in the Repriza and then home to put those very very weary feet up. Total hike of about 8 km, 5 or 6 of which with heavy shopping bag. Forgot to get another opera ticket for one of Helene's friends. Not sure that I really need to go to my hash tomorrow. Then again, it was lucky I was not wearing my new shoes - but I would never have got very far.

Glad to see on TV that the Oktoberfest is opened; watched the magic moment when the Munich Oberbuergermeister had to open a barrel of beer. Mr Stoiber was also there with his wife - no Bavarian politician could afford to miss this. The pope has sort of apologized to the muslims for using a 14th century quote. At least one senior Muslim cleric has said that it would be more useful for them to react rationally rather than emotionally. Let's hope someone listens to this.

After all that effort time for a total flake out at home. Watched 'La Gloire de mon pere' on DVD - what a wonderful film it is. What is it with these French films that they are so enjoyable? Is it the relaxed atmosphere, the beautiful environments and people, the relaxed meals?

Expensive Concert in Kiev

Tonight the next concert in the Virtuoso Planet series, in Kiev's stunning opera house. Tickets extremely expensive, 250 UAH, about 40 Euros - probably a third of the monthly minimum wage. Before the first half the hall looked quite bare, especially in the expensive front row. So slipped from the side of the second row to the centre of the front row. Found the same orchestra before me, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine. First soloist was Clement Saunier of France playing the Hummel concerto. Orchestra was rather large for this, but they coped. Saunier could have been a bit smoother; he's not a Nagariakov, but he played competently enough - got the impression he was a bit bored with the piece. He was followed by Marie-Elisabeth Hecker of Germany, aged 18 or 19, playing the Shostakovich cello concerto. She has a passing resemblance to Ms Du Pre, and gave it all she had. The second movement was quite haunting; the first could have been played a tiny, tiny bit dirtier but really, it was a very very good performance. There was a bit of a strange audience; applause in the wrong place (only businessmen can afford the ticket prices), and in particular some guy high up in the gods applauding long after everyone had finished, and shouting 'bravo' into the silence. The conductor gave him several of his glares, but it took some time for the guy to stop...

In the second half the hall had suddenly filled up; not sure if they had come from upstairs, or from outside. The front row was suddenly filled by a bunch of very smart young men one of whom was carrying a bible. Hmm. I sat down on one of only two free seats (after the row had been empty for the whole first half of the concert) - the back of the seat was taken by the jacket of the guy behind me. He asked if I could move; I suggested he move his jacket, which he did. A young American conductor called Solshenitsyn conducted Shostakovich's 10 symphony. Very good, with lots of energy, and driving his way through the piece. This time the audience had mysteriously got it about not applauding between movements. Very strange.

Just now in the flat, watching on Arte (French) a film about the Kenneth Noye road rage incident. Must be 15 years ago, and was the first major road rage incident. Came into the film late, but it only took about 4 minutes to work out what it was about; something about the policeman in the British uniform, the range rover and an old guy attacking a young guy immediately brought that story to mind. I expect the incidence of road rage murders is much higher in Eastern Europe, what with life seeming to be cheaper, more drink, more drugs....

a normal Saturday in Kyiv

A beautiful day. Dry and relatively sunny. Almost a total day of leisure, apart from finishing a report. Should have done a bit more on another report, but that'll keep till tomorrow.

In the morning hiked to another supermarket, www.furshet.ua. Same chain as the very posh one I used earlier this week, but this is for more normal people and not so much for foreigners. Seems to work on the principle - cram as many goods as you can together, as closely together, make it unpleasant for the customers, supervise the customers, and get them out of the door. Very tight aisles; goods stacked to the ceiling (about 5 m high), fairly grubby. Has a huge range of goods, however, decent-looking meat, fairly good vegetables (though it's more fun to buy them in the market), and now I have almost everything I need for the duration. Even had some Walker's shortbread! Back home on the metro; not too busy thankfully - had some concerns about being robbed, but in my carriage there was no such danger.

Popped out of the metro at the wrong end of the Maidan, Europa Square, and found myself close to an anti-gay demonstration. Very poor attendance, thankfully - maybe it was too early in the day, and not many people were around anyway. A bit further on were some soldiers practicing their goose-stepping, but I am not sure what for.

A further stroll out later in the day, to buy concert and opera tickets, found myself in B. Khmelnitskovo street looking at a bookshop which seems to serve as a cafe and foreign book exchange. Highly rated in Kiev in your pocket; maybe the food is good, but the books were the kind you'd leave behind when you move to another posting. In the same street, almost exactly opposite the German embassy, spotted another branch of the cafe 'Repriza' with the scrumptious cakes - I see they know a good marketing opportunity when they see one.

Strolled along Khreshchatik, on the way to the Filharmonija and popped into Tsum, the central universal store, of which there is one in each of the former Soviet capitals. The one in Moscow is so posh that normal people cannot afford it, and even most foreigners cannot afford it. Hugely tarted up all gleaming chrome, uniformed doormen, etc. The one in Vilnius is fairly ordinary; not the highest class of shopping centre, though renovated beyond recognition a few years ago. The one in Kiev does not seem to have been touched, bar a lick of paint, since independence, though at least the shelves are full. Contains lots of little businesses, including some stuck in unexpected little places. One of these was a cosmetics stall in the stair, which also seemed to sell wigs. The wig, on second sight, turned out to be the immobile head of the stallholder just above her counter; she herself was deeply immersed in a book she was reading.

The Pope is in Germany; all German TV is full of it. Apparently he is going to be there all week, and will visit all the places where he lived and worked (all are in Bavaria). That's something to look forward to, then.