Arriving in Leipzig

I arrived in Leipzig on Wednesday and couldn't believe the difference to Dresden. I thought they must be similar, being so close (an hour and fifteen minutes by train) but the are very different cities.  In Dresden I felt very DDR but in Leipzig I have landed in a very buzzy area. Perhaps Dresden would have felt like Leipzig does now if it had not been fire bombed in 1945, who knows. The difference between the feel of the two cities in 2017 though is remarkable.

A bit of the old East survives in Leipzig. Like Dresden, Leipzig does not have an information office in the main station. It is hidden in the city center. Perhaps they imagine tourists parachute in? I had a friendly but very blunt woman from the train service tell me she can only sell tickets and the info office is at the market and I should go there (but how?) 

Luckily I had researched the place before I came and knew I had to get the #10 tram to my lodgings. Eastern Google seems to be a bit behind the times too as Google maps doesn't list Leipzig trams. They would have sent me by train and a very long walk whereas the #10 tram took me to my door. 

Pension stairs - lucky my suitcase is not heavy.

I am in a pension here with old fashioned keys,  spacious room and comfortable bed. What more could one wish for? 

Well WiFi. When I log on with the correct password the WiFi doesn't connect. The manageress here tells me the WiFi here is very doubtful.
"What can you do?" she says spreading her hands.

So I am very glad I bought a big data package from AldiTalk when I arrived as it looks as if I'll need it here in Leipzig.

My street

Dresden - youth culture

Äussere Neustadt

If you take the tram from Dresden's central station over the River Elbe to Neustadt then walk north, you reach Äussere (Outer) Neustadt. This is where alternative youth prefer to live and the buildings here are older than the old-looking buildings in the center which are mostly reconstructions. 

I went in the morning when it was very quiet with most shops still shut (one had a sign saying "open at 17:00") but wandering through the courtyards was still a pleasure as many of the buildings have been decorated with interesting artwork, some of which, like the piping below, was functional as well as decorative. 

Semperoper in Dresden

Semperoper: level 1 foyer

Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Serial) was on at the Semperoper in Dresden during my stay so I went to see it although it is not an opera I would have chosen, because I was keen to see a performance in the Semperoper.

My seat neighbour told me she would not have gone either except that she had read in the local paper that the production was witty with lots of visual gags.
 “You have to be careful what you see nowadays,” she said. “I have been disappointed too often.”

My neighbour’s newspaper was right. It was a witty production (by Michael Dijkema) and the wit saved it as the story is silly, and three hours long. I didn't know any of the singers but they were all good.

The performance took place in a swamp, complete with crocodile and all of the performers wore elaborately muddy eastern style boots and clothes with mud encrusted hems. They often got stuck in the swamp. The German heros were silly when they weren't singing (the silly story is punctuated with lovely arias) and the Turkish servant was a buffoon. The only character to emerge honourably from the story was the evil looking Turkish Pasha.

There was a lot of spoken dialogue and I'm not sure how much was from Mozart and how much was added as I hadn't seen this opera previously.  The spoken and sung dialogue appeared as subtitles above the performers in both German and English so I imagine a lot of foreigners visit the Semperoper for a performance while they are here.

I found the opera rather long, but that gave me time to admire my surroundings. The building itself is a stunner. A prime example of Baroque building style, it was largely destroyed in the last months of the second world war. It remained a shell until rebuilding started in 1968. It was completed in 1985,  exactly 40 years after it was destroyed.

The air conditioning is interesting. Each seat has its own grill so the air gently rises instead of being blown down from above.

Top of chair with air-con vent

When you aren't admiring the air-conditioning you can look up and admire the ceiling with its depicted conductors, or the fire curtain which my neighbour told me was saved from the bombing and was carried through the streets in profession when the rebuilding was complete.

Portraits of conductors on the ceiling of the Semperoper

Semperoper: curtain saved from the firestorm.

Dresden : the hill from 1813

Dresden's "old city" has some beautiful old buildings, buildings which have been re-created from post war rubble, some like the Semper Oper during DDR times and other like the Frauenkirche, relatively recently. 

There is a lot of Dresden though that is not so beautiful. As trams criss cross the inner city much of what you see are square soulless DDR-and-moderrn blocks planted in still-empty land. I can't help but think of all those refugees bombed to oblivion in 1945. 

View from my window. The building on the left is an office block, residential on the right

This is the view from my window. The building is one tram stop from the station and is part Hotel, part hostel. It looks out over offices and squat apartment buildings on my side and the railway line on the other side - I am glad I requested a quiet room when I booked as it has been too hot to keep the windows shut. 

View over the train track.

Yellow part is hostel, white part is Hotel.

At every corner you are reminded of this city's turbulent past. In a city park a small monument with a jar of flowers in front of it was a commemoration of "The Red Army".  I wondered who put the flowers there.

Commemorating the Red Army.

On Sunday I discovered another historical memorial.  Sunday was a very hot day in Dresden and about 6 o'clock I looked for somewhere cool to eat. There were plenty of places open at the station nearby but not much else in the area. I checked out Google maps and discovered a cafe in a small park a few blocks away. Google said it was open and the menu looked solid old-fashioned Germany fare.

The park was shady and pleasant, perched on a small hill, a lovely spot on a hot afternoon but there were not very many people there. They served beer and Wiener Wurstchen with toast, so that was what I ordered.

An elderly couple sat down at my table as it was the only table of the three with seats to spare. (It turned out all the people at the café knew each other.) They told me the hill was created in 1813 to stop Napoleon's invading army. They came close, but not to this spot. You get the feeling in Dresden that the past is very much present, the distant past as well as the recent past.

The elderly woman said she could not understand people who leave the place they are born in. They were from near by and the cafe was their ‘local’.  She looked around at the others and said, " They are all from here. They live even closer than we do."

The 'hill' with the cafe between the trees.

Maximilian Schnaus (*1986)

In the center of Dresden, near the Frauenkirche is a booth selling festival tickets. I asked there about a good place to get a salad. 

They not only recommended Vapiano restaurant on the other side of the square (good choice), but told me about a free pre-concert concert taking place at 7pm in the Frauenkirche. It was an organ concert by Maximilian Schnaus, who has a stipend with Stiftung Kunst und Musik für Dresden. He was playing his work Come Sweetest Death. 

I went, primarily to have a chance of seeing the inside of the church  before dark, but oh how glad I was that I went.

I usually find organ music rather boring as it never seems to change - but not this time. It was exactly the sort of music one would expect of a 21st century composer and the sort of music you wished you heard more often.

It began with sounds of things water somewhere far away (reminded me of Wagner's Rheingold) and high pitched distant birds then moved slowly into the loudest thunder. I wondered if it might  shake the church foundations. There was no room for boredom in the half hour piece which ended with the sweetest of melodies.

Thank you Maximilian Schnaus!

Frauenkirche: ceiling

Rienzi at the Frauenkirche

In Dresden's Frauenkirche, listening to the Overture from Wagner's Reinzi, then mezzo-soprano Waltroud Meier singing Straus' Four Last Songs, I wonder, ' have I have died and gone to heaven?'

But no, I am alive and fulfilling a long held dream: to visit the Frauenkirche in Dresden and hear a concert. That is should include something written by Wagner then songs sung by Waltraud Meier is the unbelievable dream. 

The music (which I heard last night after a train trip from Hamburg) put me on such a 'high' that I was still spinning and sleepless at 2am.

Waltraud Meier and festival orchestra take a bow.

I was on level two, high above the performers (there is also a level 3) but the acoustics were wonderful and I heard every word. The Rienzi overture was fabulous and made me want to return for a Wagner binge.

 The Frauenkirche was destroyed during the second world war and rebuilt between 1994 and 2005.  During the intermission a local audience member told me he had studied in Dresden and had always hoped the pile of rubble in the city center where the Frauenkirche once was might one day be rebuilt. He said that when they did restart building they laid all the stones out in the city square, hoping to reuse them with use of a computer.  The German building rules, however, require that stones which have been subject to fire be tested for stability and when these stones were tested many of them, being sandstone, were found to be unstable. Those that are original are dark, the new stones are light coloured. The building is overwhelmingly light coloured. 

After the concert: Frauenkirche at night

Roses bursting into flower

Despite Hamburg's recent spell of 13C weather, the roses have suddenly burst into flower. This one is an old English rose with a very sweet scent. It is flowering as if its life depended on it.

Old English Rose with antique clock

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle in a white vase

Early summer in Hamburg and honeysuckle climbing up the trellis bursts into flower.

Summer cool

The warm weather that spread North from Spain last week is a distant memory. Today is already June 7th but it is 13C in Hamburg and raining.

 I am very pleased I packed some woollies. I am wearing them all.

Hamburg: reclaim your neighbourhood

Right in the middle of Hamburg, near the music hall, is a neighbourhood that has been reclaimed by its citizens and remodelled along more homely lines. Books line the walls of a makeshift library in an alleyway leading to a courtyard. The courtyard has been planted with trees and vines, tables and chairs stand ready for use. 

It is not hard to make a neighbourhood feel like home. All you need is willing citizens and a city council that understands.

Schubert at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg

On Thursday I was at the Laeiszhalle to hear a Schubert concert conducted by Guy Braunstein.  Most of the work they played was new to me and I suddenly realised what a small part of Schubert we normally hear.  Of the five Lieder sung by baritone Mattias Goerne, the only one I knew was the Erlkönig.

The Laeiszhalle has excellent acoustics and it was such a pleasure hearing every note of all of the orchestra.

The Laeiszhalle Hamburg

Laeiszhalle, Hamburg

The Laeiszhalle (pronounced lie-ss-ha-le), home of the Hamburg Symphony is named after the Hamburg businessman Reeder Carl Laeisz, who left 1.2m German marks in his will to fund a 'music hall' in Hamburg. His widow made the sum up to 2 million Marks. Opened in 1908, this Baroque revival building was one of the few public buildings that survived the second world war intact. Luckily, because it has wonderful acoustics.

Since the opening of the now-famous Elbphilharmonica, new home of the Hamburg Philharmonica and completely sold out until 2019, the Laeiszhalle has enjoyed an increased audience.

Inside the building are sculptures of Hamburg-born composers (including Brahms) and standing outside the building in Johannes Brahms' Platz is a big granite block with the Title Homage to Brahms' created in 1981 by Thomas Darboven. The face of Johannes Brahms at four different ages is carved into its four sides.

Ships welcome/farewell in Wedel

Ship sailing the Elbe

When ships arrive at or leave Hamburg along the River Elbe they pass the 'Ships Welcome Point'  in Wedel (Schulauer Schiffsbegrüssungsanlage Wedel). 

Each ship is welcomed or farewelled with their national anthem and them a short description of the ship is broadcast to those watching from the shore. It's a gesture that is enjoyed by the landlubbers and I am sure it is appreciated by the ship's crews. 

Video of Wedel Welcome Point

Frankfurt

Frankfurt is one of the world's commercial hubs so it is no surprise to see the large blue Euro with yellow European stars near the Frankfurt opera house.

It seems to have special significance right now after the visit by President Trump which seems to have had the effect of welding the diverse States together.

A few streets further on is the Römer, a picturesque building which has served as Frankfurt's town hall for three centuries.

Römer

When I was there early on Friday morning a city council worker was sweeping the forecourt with an old fashioned broom made of long twigs, the type used for hundreds of years. I found it strangely comforting to see this broom in use in a 21st century commercial hub.

Bridal party at the Römer

Could Sydney build a Frankfurt sized opera house?

Frankfurt opera house is 'Klein aber fein' (small but elegant). The acoustics in the hall are excellent and while it is big enough for a substantial audience it is not so big as to be overwhelming.

Sydney could solve both it's opera house acoustic problems and not-enough-music-venues problems by building a small house such as this and using the Sydney Opera House for miked performances.

Der fliegende Holländer in Frankfurt

Erika Sunnegårdh sings Senta

I saw the Flying Dutchman in Frankfurt on Thursday. It was a very satisfying performance.  The costumes and set design were timeless, the costumes just old fashioned enough and the set chaotic enough to fit into several epochs, so instead of thinking about them you listen to the music. I can't think of a better recommendation for an opera production. The set designer's master stroke was a gigantic revolving propeller which appeared as a backdrop whenever the ghost ship was about.

All the singers did credit to their roles. 

Erika Sunnegårdh was a marvelous Senta. Some years ago I took part in a crowdfunding project which was started to enable her to make a CD so I was interested to see her on stage. I discovered that she can act as well as sing and the role of Senta suits her voice. She was a delight to watch.

Slate and quartz

Weisel

The small village of Weisel, like many of its neighbours on the hills overlooking the Rhine River, has a lot of houses with slate rooves (Ziegeldächer) which is not surprising since slate mines are common in the area. They have been closed as they are no longer an economic proposition.

It was mined nearby and the remains of the mines are still visible.  The slate is interwoven with quartz and black and white rocks seem to ooze from the mine sites. 

Slate and quartz

Slate pile

Satu Vänskä and Locatelli

Today I heard the most extraordinary piece of music. Satu Vänskä played the Locatelli Violin Concerto in D Major at Angel Place Concert Hall in Sydney. It was wonderful inspiring playing of a fiendishly difficult work (I think you have to see it performed to appreciate the achievement) and I would have gone to a second concert just to hear it again but unfortunately today was its last performance. I hope she revives it and tours it elsewhere in future. 

Ruth Crawford Seeger (left)
with sketch of Satu playing her music.

In my opinion Satu is changing  the way people view female performers by scheduling and playing a work such as this. The first piece on the program was the Crawford Seeger's Andante for Strings which somehow underlined the message. Ruth Crawford was creating marvellous music when she married Charles Seeger, became Pete Seeger's step-mother, had children of her own and was then consumed by 'other duties'.

After the Locatelli piece the woman sitting next to me said she was lost for words and I am sure she spoke for many in the audience. 

Go Satu!

Mt Ruapehu painting

Mt Ruapehu - waterccolour

When I was in New Zealand last year a snowstorm hit the Central Plateau just before I got there. The desert road opened just before I drove north from Taihape and the mountains were as beautiful as I have seen them.

Sun shone on the snow-covered slopes as I drove very slowly along the icy roads and I stopped to paint a watercolour of the view across to Mount Ruapehu.

Red canvas beginning

The painting was a pretty good approximation of what I saw except that the tussock grass was not as bright as it remained in my memory.

Earlier this year I painted Ruapehu again based on the watercolour. This time I used acrylic and a palette knife which seemed appropriate considering the rocky angular structure of my subject. I started with a red canvas as there has been so much red-brown in the desert scene.  

Mt Ruapehu - acrylic on canvas

Music, coffee, etchings, art

Coffee grinder with (Wagner) music

At Art School in 2008 I had a wonderful time in the print workshop. 'Print' as in etching, intaglio,aquatint, relief ... not print as in photocopying.

Before spending time in the print workshop I had thought that multiples of etchings were as easy to produce as photocopies, that one turned the handle several times and out would pop several etchings, all the same. Little did I know. (If you do see etchings all exactly the same, with multiple colours, then you are  looking at work of a print-master.)

I worked like a crazy and learned a great deal. One of the etchings I made was of a coffee grinder - with some of Wagner's music in the background (of course).

The other day I found the  coffee grinder cutout I worked from and was about to throw it away. Then I discovered it has a charm of its own.

Coffee, coffee, coffee.

As my print teacher Neil Emmerson told me, the product is sometimes an e-product - and that's fine!

Neil is celebrating 10 years at Dunedin Art School this month with an exhibition of work by teachers and students.