David Dalle
Thursday June 15th, 2023 with David Dalle
Reflecting on my European journey, the Holocaust, the Mendelssohn's, Wave-Gotik-Treffen, the Cotswolds, Mali in London
I am back after a month travelling through Europe. The highlight of this trip was, of course, the Leipzig Mahler Festival, but today I will be playing new music I encountered during the trip, as well as my reflections on the places I visited. Starting in darkness, my first evening in Leipzig was spent at the Leipzig Holocaust Memorial, built on the site of the Leipzig synagogue which was burned down in November 1938 during Kristallnacht. It is comprised of 14 rows of 10 empty chairs, symbolizing Leipzig's Jewish population of 14,000, murdered during the Holocaust. It was a striking memorial, partly because of its location, smack in the middle of a downtown urban environment. It was a beautiful Saturday evening, and I was a Jew alone reflecting at the memorial, surrounded by the cheerful conversations of Germans enjoying drinks and food at the crowded restaurant and café patios adjacent to the memorial. It made me think of Brave Old World's extraordinary song "Berlin 1990", written in Berlin as the Wall was falling and German reunification was in the immediate future--ambivalent reflections on being Jewish musicians living and working in Germany. BOW's director Alan Bern has lived in Germany for over 35 years.
"I've played here in Germany many's the time -
'...he who divides the sacred from the worldly,'
But I swear by my muse,
Mark well what I sing,
That not once has it been easy to be here.
I see you at night in smoky hangouts,
Talking youthful talk of today,
I'm proud of my heritage,
Yet I envy you,
Today's children of yesterday's enemy,
Because yours is the future,
One land and a language,
While we are left here, speechless...
...Yesterday's echo forever at hand,
'Of Blessed Memory' at every turn.
Yet something still draws together
Our two peoples;
A forbidden love, disrupted by evildoers,
Be it love or hate,
It is as if fated,
Cursed by human beings and the Creator.
So sing, my fiddle,
Play, my fiddle,
Like no one has played before.
And play me a sweet Diaspora song,
With a longing that's pure.
My own heritage is ever on my mind
Even as I traverse the bright present,
Because if not for the wars,
Pogroms, slaughter,
I too would have been Europe's progeny.
Our world has already
Gone down in flames h ere,
Branches severed from the Jewish tree,
Yet again walls and fences are being built,
And you persecute those poor souls seeking a home.
You drive them anew from your gates,
Hunting them down through nights of broken glass.
What chutzpah you have, to act like that -
Are we supposed to forgive you?
Again you devour your own children,
Turning them into murderers, bloodthirsty dogs.
Then turning a blind eye to their crimes
Until all of Europe has been laid to waste...
So sing, my fiddle..."
Jews were integral to German cultural and musical life from the 19th to the early 20th century. The Mendelssohn siblings, Felix and Fanny, exemplified this (as well as Mahler). Felix was instrumental in popularizing Bach to the wider German world, as well as championing music from Haydn to Schubert. The final decade of his short life was spent in Leipzig, where he worked tirelessly to improve the musical life of the town working with the Gewendhaus orchestra, the Opera house, the Thomaschor, and founding the Leipzig conservatory. I visited the apartment where Felix lived with his family during the last two years of his life, and is now a museum. I was really pleased to see one floor of this two story apartment was dedicated to each of the siblings, Felix and Fanny. Fanny was every bit a mercurial multi-talented prodigy as her younger brother Felix. Fanny lived in Berlin, their family home, where she continued to direct the weekly concerts at the Mendelssohn's family home, which were a huge draw for notable musicians and composers visiting Berlin. We will hear her Piano Trio in d minor composed in 1847. She suffered a stroke not long after, while rehearsing one of her brother's cantatas for the weekly concerts and died at only 41 years. Felix, heartbroken at losing his cherished sister, died six months later from a stroke as well only 38 years old.
An unexpected surprise during my visit to Leipzig was the Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival. It is the world's largest Goth festival with over 20,000 visitors. I attended a midnight concert by P.A. Hülsenbeck on electronics and the Gewendhaus resident organist Michael Schönheit at the medieval St. Nicholas church in central Leipzig. This was a crossover concert between the Mahler Festival and the Wave-Gotik-Treffen. I could not imagine a more fitting Gothic experience than works performed on Mahler themes for electronics and organ at midnight in a famous medieval church. I did feel severely underdressed compared to most of the audience's sartorial splendour! We will hear from their 2020 album which was recorded live at the Gewendhaus on the massive organ there. I think they recorded the Mahler/WGT concert and I hope it is released!
We will also hear other music I heard in the Cotswolds and London.
Berlin 1990 Brave Old World - Beyond The Pale - Rounder |
Piano Trio in d minor Op. 11 Fanny Mendelssohn/Kristin Henneberg, Andreas Hartmann, Susanne Rasbach - Fanny & Felix - Mendelssohn Haus |
Conflux P.A. Hulsenbeck & Michael Schonheit - Reaping From The Conflux - AVM |
Der Barentanz Piro Zores - Die Grune - Independent |
I had just one night in London before I flew back home the next morning, and I thought there should be something on in London on a Saturday night. Perusing many listings I found Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba were performing at Union Chapel! So I had a wonderful night in Mali to end my European journey. The star of the show was of course Amy Sacko, a spectacular singer, hearing her live in this small intimate setting was a gift. |
Kanougnon Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Miri - Outhere |
Nyame Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Miri - Outhere |
I got to enjoy many pubs serving traditional real ale, in the Cotswolds. At one, Inn on the Marsh in Moreton-in-Marsh, the publican was a musical connoisseur with a very large vinyl collection from which he spun records all evening, between pulling pints. He played this band from Bristol. Reminds me of my youth. |
Everything and Nothing The Violent Hearts - Everything and Nothing - Dinner For Wolves |
Porcelain World The Violent Hearts - Everything and Nothing - Dinner For Wolves |
I picked up this lp in Leipzig, visiting a couple of record shops. An 1979 East-German pressing of a 1977 recording made in New York City. Post-bop with Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino and American pianist Hal Galper. Friends and family were much amused (or concerned) by my carrying a stack of vinyl in a vinyl grocery bag for the rest of my European journey. This album (and others) was carried up and down mountains in Norway! |
First Song In The Day Terumasa Hino, Hal Galper - Now Hear This - Amiga Jazz |
I heard a lot of organ in Leipzig. Passing by St. Nicholas and St. Thomas every day, the two famous churches where Bach himself played the organ and had many of his compositions performed, I often popped in to just sit and reflect. I heard advanced organ students practice and take lessons from their teacher, several rehearsals, and several concerts. Bach was everywhere in Leipzig, and this month they are actually celebrating the 300th anniversary of Bach's move to Leipzig where he spent the rest of his career and life. The full organ is such a magnificent sound, like in this Chorale from Bach's Clavier-Ubung III, his organ magnum-opus, composed in Leipzig. |
Chorale, Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist BWV 671 Johann Sebastien Bach/Tom Koopman - Clavier-Ubung III - Teldec |
Adding in this gorgeous organ transcription of the finale to Glass' opera "Satyagraha" for the hell of it. Also, the last piece by P.A. Hulsenbeck & Michael Schonheit is very much Glass-inspired and I listened to it three times in a row when I first listened to this album. |
Satyagraha Philip Glass transcribed Michael Riesman/Christopher Bowers-Broadbent - Trivium - ECM |
Summa P.A. Hulsenbeck & Michael Schonheit - Reaping From The Conflux - AVM |
Berlin Overture Brave Old World - Beyond the Pale - Rounder |
Show is about to start, FM is having an issue, but the show will still be streaming! Tune in at www.ckcufm.com
2:00 PM, June 15th, 2023