Bonjour, Paris!

Yesterday I arrived in Paris. I should have more time and energy to blog now that the Haarlem Festival is over! I'll wrap up with a few more photos from there, then start sharing my French experiences (and I already have a few)

I think last Tuesday (not sure) we went to the Laurenskerk in Alkmaar to hear a recital on their organ, another wonderful 17th century instrument. Mr. Radulesco played a grueling recital of the Bach "Wedge" Prelude and Fugue, "St. Anne" Prelude and Fugue, the most recently discovered Bach piece (from 2007), An Wasserflussen Babylon, AND a work of his own, RESURREXIT. His piece was based on the Easter sequence "Victimae Paschali", and used lots of clusters and special effects. It was something that a lesser composer would have turned into noise, but Radulesco really did a great job with it.



Due to the secularization of Europe, most Dutch churches are shut down. I recall one professor telling us that one of the churches where we had lessons has a congregation of 8 people. The Laurenskerk is now an art museum and concert hall. The church has been completely redesigned - I said it's the only thing worse than what the Reformation did to these places.


It's a pig. Made out of chairs. In a church.

One of the last concerts was an "interpretation concert" where two performers played the same pieces on harpsichord and organ, then entertained discussion afterward as to why they played them as they did. It was interesting, although I found the Muffat fugue to be deadly dull on harpsichord. That and my last class were at the Nieuwe Kerk, which has a cute little organ:



And today, my second day in Paris, I just walked back from the Louvre to my hotel in the Latin Quarter in pouring rain. So I thought it'd be appropriate to post this picture not from today, but after the trip to Alkmaar last week. Due to missing a train, we all wound up in Haarlem rather late. Due to construction on the station, I had to walk 5 blocks or so to get my bicycle, and then it started pouring rain! So this is me much as I am now, after biking about 3 miles in the dark in pouring rain!



I'm going to really miss the great food, organs, and people in Holland, but France is looking like tons of fun! Stay tuned for updates!

A Fair Trade?

"Concert Saturday night... Bavo kerk... 9:15... 21.15... DON'T FORGET!"

I kept telling myself this, over and over. Then I check all the details in the guidebook, just to be sure. And I'm right on all of them. Repeat this several times a day for the past few days. Every time all the details match up. I have time to get dinner a little before 7, make it nice and leisurely, then get to the church in time to hear Mozart's Requiem.



So I'm patiently explaining to the register operator that American credit cards don't have smart chips in them, and that he has to use the magnetic stripe. This gets me nervous, so I check my cell phone - 8:20. 20.20. Still plenty of time. Also, better make absolutely sure that's right - it could be at 9! What does my program say? 20.15. As soon as I get it paid for, I run to the church and it's locked and they won't let anyone in late.

And I'm ok with that. Really. Why? Because I had Dutch pizza.

For those of you who don't know me well enough, pizza is my favorite food. I can eat it 3 meals a day, every day, and maybe tire of it a bit but still enjoy it. So after falling in love with Dutch food, I decide I have to see if they can improve upon pizza.

I went to a restaurant called Pasta di Mamma for dinner last night. I did what I usually do in a Dutch restaurant: walk in, and look around confusedly until someone tells me what to do. A woman working at the register started to explain things to me, rather poorly. It turns out this is a weird restaurant. As near as I figured out, it's like a cafeteria: you get a card with money on it, and use it to buy food and drinks. I wound up getting a pepperoni pizza, and it was delicious!! Cripsy, oily, cheesy, and they pour garlic oil on it at the end!



This was maybe the only thing that could make up for missing that concert, but it did the trick!

Tweede Haarlemse Orgeldag

Yesterday was the 2nd Haarlem Organ Day, with some 8 churches having organ concerts! Due to the scheduling, it would be impossible to visit all of them, but I did get to four! Let me sum them up for you:

Lutherse Kerk



I'm guessing this is the Lutheran church? The concert consisted of works by Mozart arranged for two hands, including the famous K608, Fantasy in f minor for an organ-clock. The organ was small, but had a nice sound.

Cathedral Basilica of St. Bavo



This was a truly impressive structure! The church was constructed in the 19th century as the new cathedral for the Roman Catholic diocese of Haarlem. The Bavokerk used to be the cathedral until, in the 16th century, it was forced by the city to reform. The structure is an example of Catholic triumphalism, even in the face of persecution, and clearly imitates the great cathedrals in Europe. And it is BIIIIIG!!



The concert was upon the church's main organ (I counted at least 3 independent organs), which was constructed in the early 20th century. I would describe its tone as similar to a modern Casavant or Austin organ that you might hear in America. It is also VERY loud, which seems to be a welcome feature of Dutch organs - I approve!



The concert started with Mozart's Fantasie und Fuge, with which I was unfamiliar but greatly enjoyed, then had some pieces inspired by Mozart such as the Variations on Mozart's famous "Ah, vous dirai-je..." by Christian Rinck (1770-1846) and an arrangement of the Kyrie fugue from Mozart's Requiem by Adolph Hesse (1809-1863). The final work was a stunning and little-known toccata by Hendrik Andriessen, written when he was 25 in 1917. I will have to write to the organist at the cathedral (who played the concert) and ask where I can buy sheet music to that piece!


Two views of the massive dome at the Cathedral

Josephkerk



The cathedral is all the way across town, so I had to walk back to the Josephkerk, and wound up a little late for the recital. The church's organ was entirely removed for restoration, and the concert was played on a small positiv organ. It was a recital of late baroque keyboard works.



Waalse kerk



The last concert I went to yesterday was at the Waalse kerk, next door to the Joseph kerk. What I didn't mention is that both churches are in the town's "red light district", so it was rather odd to walk from church to church with the "merchants" working around you! Amsterdam's de wallen (red light district) also sprung up around the Oude kerk - it makes one wonder why those pop up around churches! At any rate, I think this was a French Reformed church. Everything was in French, and the church itself was white-washed, with some pre-Reformation artwork visible under the white paint! This too had a smaller organ, but with a nice full sound. The organist improvised variations on some popular song, and everyone sang along loudly (in Dutch) at the last variation.. I'm wondering if it was their national anthem or something? The other works were baroque-era pieces, including Buxtehude.



Throughout the concerts, it was satisfying to see churches so packed with attendees. They were mostly elderly people, but they had a definite pride in their city's musical heritage and historic organs. Do we have that kind of pride in the United States? I'll address the issue of historic American organs later on in my travels, and how it applies to my church, so keep watching the blog!

Today I have to check in with the academy, and don't have much else to do besides explore and eat. Expect a few more blog posts, including: more on Dutch food, about the Requiem concert, and more...

Dutch Food

I've been neglecting to talk about food. For those of you who don't know me well, I'm a very picky eater. The list of things I will eat is far shorter than the list of things I won't. My favorite food is pizza, and I'm content to eat nothing else, so this trip had me very nervous about eating another culture's cuisine. My first experiment was airline food. The last time that I ate it was 1988, and through the mid-90s it had a reputation as being particularly awful. So I didn't know what to expect.

It turned out to be very good! I got some sort of pasta in a cheese sauce, a salad, a brownie (which I gave to my neighbor), and a roll. It wasn't great cuisine, but it was about as good as a higher-end microwave dinner. Breakfast was a banana and a really terrible "Egg McMuffin" substitute.



Then, later yesterday, I went exploring in Heemstede. I found a small Italian restaurant, since I'd know what the things on the menu were. WOW, was the food good! I got tortellini Bolognese, and it was the 2nd best Italian food I've ever had, next to Palio's in downtown Ann Arbor.

Today I went for dinner at a more normal Dutch restaurant, Babbels. It was relatively fancy, and decorated much like a somewhat classy American restaurant. Dinner was steak in wine sauce, which was also amazing! Probably some of the best food I've ever had. Green beans were wrapped in bacon, and it came with some sort of deep-fried potato which was delicious! The whole meal was maybe 20 Euros with beer. As for the beer, I asked for the heaviest beer they had, and they gave me a rather light amber lager. Light beer seems to be very big here, and I'm not a fan of it aside from Pilsner Urquel.


It was so good, I even ate the salad!

Tomorrow is Haarlem Organ Day, with concerts on eight of the city's historic organs! Then the day will end with Mozart's Requiem at the opening concert - at the same Bavokerk he himself visited all those years ago!

Exploring Haarlem

The Bavokerk in Haarlem

Today I went to the main city for the Organ Festival, Haarlem. This may very well be the coolest place in the world!! There's shopping, organs, cafes, restaurants, fashion, art, and everything! The city center is massive.. maybe twice the size of all downtown Detroit. The city is also dominated by the huge Bavokerk. I have never seen a church this large!



I went inside and saw the world-famous organ. I wasn't at all prepared for that.. It's long been my favorite facade (the visible pipes), but I never understood the scale of it. Many organs are built to appear imposing, but may in fact be not very large. That was not the case with this one! I would estimate that the pipes you see on the Positif (the smaller set of pipes in front) are larger than a man. Then compare those to the pedal tower pipes...




A bit of history on the organ for you....


There was also a cute little organ in the church. That balcony is maybe wide enough for two people.

After that, I went walking around the city looking at shops. Some shops were very expensive, and some were more reasonably priced. I ate lunch at a small cafe. I still don't get how to visit a restaurant in Europe... I ate a croissant with a raspberry-orange smoothie. I also may have figured out how to use the trains in Holland! I think it's quite easy, if it works the way I think it does.



Now I'm going to go back to Haarlem, after having stopped back at Heemstede (5 minute train ride) to update my blog. I'm going to hear the Improvisation Competition at the Bavokerk and find a traditional Dutch dinner! Check back often!


A picture for my friend Jennifer