Musical balance

Duo Atlas - Chazelle Eglise Notre-Dame

Even though the beautiful weather still continues, the summer season, where it concerns festivals and concerts, is drawing to an end. Hence time to draw up the balance sheet!
We'll start off close to home: Guitares en Cormatinois in Chazelle's church. Unfortunately the three first concerts were given during the period of the World Cup Football, which drew even more attention of the population because France reached the Finals and won.

Paris Gadjo Club - Chazelle Eglise Notre-Dame

The number of visitors of the concerts reflected that; Irish Kind Of, Markus Held & Cie. and the Hair Brothers performed for a half empty church. Fortunately, the remaining two concerts filled the church almost to capacity. The Spanish/Dutch Duo Atlas played an excellent classical concert, and the Paris Gadjo Club played for a full house a mixture of Manouche jazz and Brazilian Choro, with the emphasis on Choro.

Roundelay - Chapaize Eglise Saint-Martin

From Chapaize Culture we had chosen what we thought were the best concerts: the Dutch madrigal choir Roundelay gave (as usual) an excellent performance, and the Irish Folk concert with the trio Rachel Goodwin, Hervé Dréan and Gilles Poutoux radiated an enormous amount of pleasure, which was not lost on the spectators.

Quatuor Modigliani - Cluny Eglise Saint-Marcel

For Les Grandes Heures de Cluny and the free Festival Off Les Petites Minutes de Cluny we had this year made a conscious choice. Last year we saw all concerts (7 + 7), which soon resulted in concert fatigue. Like last year, this year had for two weeks 3 consecutive concerts per week, and a separate concert a week later. We had chosen one concert per week, 3 concerts in total. And because we were looking at a Festival and a Festival Off, we nevertheless saw 6 concerts.

Trio Goldberg - Cluny Farinier des Moines

Highlights of this year was a series of string quartets by the Quatuor Modigliani and the free concert by Trio Goldberg with a.o. Bach's Goldberg Variations arranged for violin, viola and cello. Note however, that this does not mean that the other concerts were of inferior quality!

Guitares en Cormatinois 2018

Eglise de Chazelle

Like each year, an overview of what the Festival Guitares en Cormatinois, 17th edition, has on offer. This year will see a number of familiar faces on stage, however, there are also a number of artists who have never played in Chazelle before. For more detailed information do not hesitate to visit our completely renewed Guitares en Cormatinois website
All concerts start at 17h30 and will be held at the Romanesque church of Chazelle.

Irish Kind Of 2016

Saturday 7 July 2018: Irish Kind Of, a trio (guitar, vocals, violin, flute) specialized in Irish folk music. This is their third performance in Chazelle, and so far they always managed to fill the church up completely. We strongly recommend making a reservation.

Sunday 6 July 208: Markus Held - violin, Hilario Yáñez – guitar en Marie Braun – flute with a varied program of classical music. Yáñez has played here before, and Held is also not unknown around here.

Sunday 15 July 2018: Hair Brothers, a duo, vocals and 7-strings guitars. According to their Facebook page they hve developed a style based on jazz and world music.

Duo Atlas - Spanje

Saturday 21 July 2018: Duo Atlas, a Spanish/Dutch duo, guitar and cello. Both live and work in Spain. Their program covers music from around 1200 to contemporary music.

Sunday 22 July 2018: Paris Gadjo Combo, a Manouche Quartet (guitars, bass, clarinet) playing Manouche jazz and Brazilian Choro Music. Knowing the popularity of this sort of music around here we strongly recommend making a reservation.

Paris Gadjo Club

For reservations I refer to the Guitares en Cormatinois website. However, we can also organise tickets for you; contact us directly and we will take care that the tickets are waiting for you on the required evening(s).

Annecy: Carnaval venétien

Annecy

I have always thought that the date of Carnival was related to the date of Easter: carnival's Sunday is 7 weeks before Easter Sunday, and ends three days after the first day on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). The Dutch Catholic part of the population seems to stick with the religious calendar; however in predominantly (traditionally) catholic France they do not seem to bother so much with the exact dates of carnival.

Annecy

In those towns in Burgundy where carnival is celebrated the celebrations take place during a weekend one or more weeks later then the "official" carnival. In places where carnival is only celebrated as a party for schoolchildren it is often held on a weekday. Sometimes the festivities last a week, like in Chalon, partially indoors (balls, concerts) and partially outdoors with one or two big parades. Scenes one encounters in Dutch Brabant and Limburg (the catholic southern provinces of the Netherlands), where the towns are filled with a seething carousing guzzling mass of people, we (fortunately) have not encountered around here.

Annecy

Recently we accidentally found out that a number of French towns organise something connected to the Venetian carnival. One of those towns is Annecy, a small 3 hour's drive from here. And since we had enjoyed the Chalon carnival twice already (which we found enough anyway), we decided to sign up for a bus trip to Annecy. Not for Sunday 11 February of course, but for Saturday 23 February. We were completely baffled by the crowds there. Annecy's old town is small with narrow streets, and at places it was impossible to move at all.

Annecy

In and amongst the spectators there were people dressed up in elaborate costumes with ditto masks, and when asked they stopped, took an artistic pose, had a photoshoot with whomever wanted that, and then paraded on. There were about 500 people dressed up like this, of all nationalities. There were Swiss, Italians, but also French dressed up like Venetians.

Annecy

Even though the costumes were beautiful, I was a bit put off by the masks. That what can make a photoshoot of people with "real" faces interesting are the facial expressions of the models (if one can catch the expression of course). Needless to say that the masks do not show any emotion at all. My conclusion is, that, even though it was a very cold but beautiful day, one event like this one in Annecy is more than enough for a life time. Having said that, if Annecy one day decides to stage a Carnival in Rio, who knows….

The show must go on

Biréli Lagrène & FrancisLockwood

Jazz in Trivy is one of the few festivals around here that does not issue newsletters to those interested; one has to keep an eye on the website or on the posters in Cluny. Last year there had been no concert that suited me, and this spring I had completely forgotten Jazz in Trivy. Fortunately early April I saw a poster in a window where the first concert in the series was announced for 20 April: Biréli Lagrène – guitar and Francis Lockwood – piano were going to give a concert entitled "Hommage à Didier Lockwood".

The Lockwood Brothers

I had heard Lagrène several times in Trivy, even one time with Didier Lockwood – violin, hence this concert seems to be worth its while. The word homage however was a bit strange, like Didier Lockwood had departed this life. That appeared to be correct; Lockwood had died of a heart attack in February. Through Google I found out that Francis was Didier's brother, and that explained the "Hommage". Tickets were ordered on line, and a few days later we went on our way to Trivy to hear Lagrène play.

Francis Lockwood

The plot thickened when we arrived in Trivy: at the entrance I picked up a flyer announcing a concert of the Lockwood Brothers for … 20 April. Obviously the flyers were printed before the death of Didier Lockwood; however, the organisation had managed to replace Didier Lockwood with Biréli Lagrène. The poster however was most likely printed just before the date of the concert.

Francis Lockwood & Thibault François

Once inside the church there appeared to be even more surprises. The announcer told us that also Lagrène could not be present tonight. He had phoned around 18h00 with the message that he was ill, and could not play. Fortunately, like good jazzmen, the organisation had a talent for improvisation. Before the break Francis Lockwood was going to play solo in a relatively short set, while after the break he was going to play a longer set together with the hastily drummed up guitar player from Lyon Thibault François.

Thibault François

To give those the honour they deserve: the organisation deserved a prize with honours for their improvisational talent, and, not having heard either musician previously, both played an excellent set.

Jean Léchère

Congratulations to Jean Léchère of Jazz in Trivy!

Chapaize Culture

Chapaize

Actually, this is advertising for the "enemy", however, the understanding between the organisers of the various musical festivals here is such that we do not really try to catch each other's clientele.
Chapaize Culture has this year again an interesting program, reason why I decided to take a pick from this year's (2018) offer:

Saturday 14 April 18h30 - Auberge rurale, Chapaize: Soirée crêpes / accordéon (€5 for the concert, crêpes and drinks are charged separately). Two accordion players and two guitarists.

Roundelay (Chapaize)

Thursday 10 May 17h00 (ascencion day) – Eglise St-Martin, Chapaize - Roundelay, Dutch madrigal choir (free of charge, at the end they will go around with a hat). The ascencion day concert of Roundelay is a yearly event. We are still very impressed with this choir. We have attended their concerts since 2010, if not longer. The church has wonderful acoustics for this sort of music.

Sunday 27 May 17h00 – Auberge rurale, Chapaize – La Sido Trio (€12), with a program of Chansons written by o.a. Ferré, Prévert and Weil. Jazz trio with female singer.

Saturday 2 June 19h00 – Eglise St-Martin, Chapaize – Choeur arpège de Trélex (free of charge, at the end they will go around with a hat). Mixed choir of approx. 30 people, music from renaissance to contemporary music.

Friday 8 June 19h00 – Eglise St-Martin, Chapaize – Chorale Lycée Bismarck de Karlsruhe (free of charge, at the end they will go around with a hat). Music from classical to jazz and film music.

Ensemble ODO (Cluny)

Saturday 16 June 20h30 - Eglise St-Martin, Chapaize – ODO ensemble (€15). A group best described as bringing World Music. I saw them last year in Cluny and I was well impressed.

Sunday 5 August 18h30 - Eglise St-Martin, Chapaize – Irish music (€12). Flute, vocal, piano, accordeon.

Lancharre

Saturday 1 September – Prieuré de Lancharre (free of charge, at the end they will go around with a hat). The official opening of the renovated church with various events, such as:
16h00 – Trio with bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy.
18h00 – Roundelay (see also 10 May)

Saturday 8 September 20h30 - Eglise St-Martin, Chapaize – Paris Gadjo Club (€25). A quintet with manouche (à la Django Reinhardt) and Brasilian jazz.

Paris Gadjo Club (Paris)

Click here for the complete agenda.

Les Oiseaux Rares 2017

Grande Rue - Cormatin

In the past I already published a blog on the subject of Les Oiseaux Rares, a group of artisans from Cormatin and surroundings. They still have their yearly exhibition which is, even after all these years, still worth a visit.

Contributions of the public

This year, for the first time, the public was invited to participate. Everybody who felt the urge was asked to write or copy a poem, a piece of prose, a drawing, a photograph or a collage on an A4-sheet. The only restriction was, that the contribution should have some relation to the theme "Time".

Time heals all wounds

The first thing that sprang to my mind was a short poem by a Dutch poet/comedian Hans Dorrestijn entitled "Time heals all wounds". No Frenchman will understand the Dutch words, however, our contact within the Oiseaux Rares thought it was a nice idea to have something real foreign amongst all the French contributions. A rough English translation:"Fate is ranting on / For hours, minutes and seconds / Time heals all wounds, however / It causes many more".

Tempus fugit (1)

After another brainstorming session I remembered having taken a picture of a clock with an exposure of 4 seconds; the picture showed clearly that the second hand moved four times with one second interval.

Tempus fugit (2)

And finally I remembered a more recent picture of a sundial on the wall of the cloister in Cluny III. My theme's title was born: "Tempus fugit".
The A4-sheets were quickly made; it took a bit longer to find them amongst the approx. 350 contributions hanging from trees, gates, hedges and window facades throughout Cormatin.

At Pascale Hautefort-Ponsard - Cormatin

And whilst looking for one's own contribution one also wonders into the exhibition space of again another artisan. Which is exactly the object of the exercise, no doubt….
For our own website click here.

Forum des Associations Cluny

Fan form

If, living in this part of France, one wants to take part in leisure activities but does not know where to look, once a year that person is waited on hand and foot. In almost every village of over 4000 inhabitants a yearly event is being organised where each club or organisation has a stand where those interested can get some information about the activities.

Yang 24

In Cluny this is called the Forum des Associations. are you interested in pottery, painting, writing, parachute jumping, aikido, judo, collecting mushrooms, birdwatching, line dancing, donating blood, or just in walking? I would be very surprised if you would not find what you are looking for. That was the way we got in touch with La Spirale d'Or, a club organising and giving lessons in various forms of tai chi.

Fan form

And since we really enjoy what we are doing with this club, we have become quite fanatic members, also taking part in the demonstrations given during the forum to attract new members. We learn, or at least our association teaches amongst others qigong and tai chi (yang and Chen form, with bare hands, stick, sword or sabre). One of the most attractive forms we have learned is the fan form.

Chen 24

The form we are performing has been used during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games of 2008 in Peking; the various parts of the performance are based on diverse Chinese martial arts (Shaolin, Chen, Yang, Kung fu). And without blinking an eye I dare say that the demonstrations of La Spirale d'Or are a highlight of Cluny's yearly forum.

Qigong

A complete performance of the fan form (approx. 4 minutes) can be found on this Youtube link.

For our own website click here.

Sound and light show

The façade in daylight

Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain, 01) hosted this year for the first time during various evenings in the summer a sound and light show. The most interesting we thought would be the show projected on the façade of the Monastère Royal de Brou, a beautiful Gothic building with a pure white façade decorated with elaborate stone carvings.

Sound and light show

Apart from this show there were two similar ones in the centre of town, on the facades of the Hôtel de Ville and on that of the theatre.
Because the last two were quite far away from the first one, we decided to stick with the Monastery. Another reason to see only one show was, that Bourg is approx. a one and a half hour's drive from our house, and even though we had waited till early September (when the first show takes place at 21h00 instead of 22h00), this outing would keep us occupied for the best part of the evening.

Sound and light show

We left home at 18h45, and arrived in Bourg well in time. And since there is a café-restaurant located right in front of the monastery, we could watch the show comfortably from behind a glass of wine. The only drawback on such occasions is that there are always some people who feel the need to park themselves on top of a low wall just in front of our table.

Sound and light show

Apart from the obligatory projections (flowers in all sort of colours, the various sculpted parts of the façade in different colours), there was also quite a bit of attention paid to those who had the monastery built, mediaeval history in general and to the way a building of this stature was built in the middle ages.

Sound and light show

The show lasted a good 15 minutes, and especially the projection of the construction of the monastery was very well done. And even though we reached home at about 22h45, I was very happy we had made this "long" journey just for this show.

Sound and light show

For our own website click here.

Les Grandes Heures de Cluny

It has been a year ago since I wrote another blog about Les Grandes Heures de Cluny.This year the programming was different compared to that of previous years.

Quatuor Morphing - Farinier

Then there were six (last year even seven) concerts in the series, but this year was the festival's 50th anniversary and the organisers had decided not to stick with one festival, but to organise a second so called "Off" festival (Les Grandes Minutes de Cluny), consisting of four free concerts. The first festival is financed from subsidies, receipts and sponsor gifts, the second is entirely paid for by the council of Cluny.

Sergei Nakariakov & Maria Meerovitch - Farinier

Since I am not a music critic, I will restrict myself to sketch in course lines what was and still is on offer this year.
The "real" festival is always opened in June, presenting what this season will bring and with a musical accompaniment. This is a free evening, and the music this year was performed by the (saxophone) Quatuor Morphing.

Tsjaikovsky avond - Cloître

At the end of July the first concert was a Tchaikovsky evening (violin concerto and the fourth symphony) by the Briansk Symphony Orchestra with Elsa Grether – violin.
In August there are 5 concerts.
Olivier Charlier - violin, Aurélien Pascal - cello and Olivier Gardon – piano played Schubert, Popper and Beethoven's "Archduke" trio.
Nicholas Angelich – piano played Beethoven's "Waldstein" sonata and two series of variations by Brahms and Haydn.

Aartshertog trio - Farinier

The next concert was a very versatile concert given by the Russian trumpet player Sergei Nakariakov and piano player Maria Meerovitch, with music by a.o. Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Mozart, Schumann and Skriabin.
Still on the program are the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi and a modern version of the Stabat Mater by Lacroux, sung by the female choir Calliope.

Waldstein sonate - Farinier

During the final concert by the Salzburg Chamber Soloists "The four seasons", in the versions of Vivaldi and Piazzola, will be performed.
In the "Off" series we missed out on a concert by a choir, however we fully enjoyed a piano recital by the 16 years old Ilan Zaitmanm and a jazz concert by the Paul lay Trio with singer Isabelle Sörling. Still to come is a Baroque performance by the Odo Ensemble.

Zaitmann - Farinier

In my humble opinion all concerts so far were of extraordinary quality as well as varied, and the same goes for the concerts in the "Off" series.
The programming had one disadvantage. Last week there were three concerts on three consecutive evenings, and on two of those days there was also an "Off" concert. And to be honest, five concerts on three consecutive days is a bit much, however, I also must admit that I would not have wanted to miss any of the concerts.

The Man I Love - Trio Paul Lay - Farinier

For our own website click here.

On to the next concert series

Guitares en Cormatinois 2017

The last three concerts of Guitares en Cormatinois 2017 are over and done with. The first two concerts were not as well attended as we had hoped for; however the last three made up for that.

Rossfelder Guitar Quartet

The number of tickets sold for the concert of the Rossfelder Guitar Quartet was such that again there was no space inside the church for most of the volunteers. Fortunately the four excellent guitar players (Ekaterina Khoreva, Emmaneul Rossfelder, Philippe Mariotti and Pascal Polidori) produced enough volume to be heard by those sitting outside the church. They played many popular classical pieces, arranged for four guitars, such as the Carmen suite by Bizet, Ravel's bolero and Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Tarrega/Sagreras. Click here for the pictures published on internet by our local newspaper.

Serafimova / Dinkova

The fourth concert featured marimba player Vassilena Serafimova and guitar player Stela Dinkova. Serafimova played many contemporary Bulgarian pieces, Dinkova played among others pieces by Bach and Villa-Lobos. Unlike what was written in the program, the ladies chose to play their pieces alternately instead of marimba before the break and guitar after. This certainly made the performance a lot livelier; besides they played several pieces together. Serafimova lived up to her reputation, and gave a sparkling performance. Click here for the pictures published on internet by our local newspaper.

Trio Tzigani

The last concert by Trio Tzigani consisted of Eastern European gipsy music. They played a lot of Hungarian pieces, although they had also arranged some well-known French tunes (such as La bohème – Aznavour) and Russian folk classics (Kalinka, Ochi Chyornye). The three gentleman even got the audience clapping aand singing along with Bécaud's Nathalie. Also this concert resulted in a full church, although fortunately there were some seats available for the volunteers. Click here for the pictures published on internet by our local newspaper.
We have, as usual, already started the preparations for the festival of 2018.

For our own website click here.