NEW MUSICAL EXPERIENCES - AND HOW !

I was mad with myself. Furious in fact.  I have a subscription to the New Philharmonia which had been organized in August last year. I knew there were concerts in January but for some reason they did not show up on my iPad or iPhone. Well I found them on the computer which for some reason had not synchronized with my other « gadgets ». You can understand why I was furious for having missed two concerts which I had been looking forward to. Instead of January then, I went to my first concert lin February.  Maurice Ravel « L’Enfant et Les Sortileges » and another not so well known piece. 

The new music complex is centred on a 2,400-seat concert hall and includes an educational wing aimed at reaching out to a broad spectrum of the public. The project submitted by Ateliers Jean Nouvel was chosen by an international design competition in 2007. Built in a park that already has a cultural focus, in an up-and-coming district on the northeast edge of Paris, and clearly visible from the outer suburbs of the city.

Jean Nouvel was not happy about the concert hall being opened in January as it was not finished. In comparison with the Louis Vuitton Foundation it has certainly not taken as long to build. Once again though they went right over budget. The Philharmonie de Paris was a joint undertaking financed by the French government and the city of Paris, with the support of the Greater Paris region, to build the new music complex in the Parc de la Villette.  

One can understand why such buildings are on the outskirts of a city. Whereas the Foundation Louis Vuitton is in the west of Paris, the Philharmonie is on the other side. I have been going out to the Cité de La Musique for over 20 years and this new complex is right next to it, or in actual fact is part of it which I was to discover later in the week. 

Walking over the cobbled paths to get there is far from easy, especially if you are wearing heals. I had decided to dress for my first concert. So finally I get to the entrance and lo and behold am faced with a very steep escalator - two of them in fact. Not that I needed a lift, but if there was one - where was it? Up and up I went and then what appeared to be the security control stopped me as I proceeded to enter the hall. Then another control only to be told that now I must climb stairs to get to the floor I was seated on. I needed a drink. 

Well there was a bar but if there were crowds of people, no way you could get a drink. 

Finally I made my way into the concert hall. As you can see, I was there well before the concert started.

Waiting

and watching

the ceiling needed a little paint

people come in

The ceiling

The area is very impressive and there I was sitting practically on top of the orchestra or so it seemed but looking at the staircase next to me, the ceiling and walls, Jean Nouvel was right. There were no finishing touches. I wonder when that will happen?

and the stairs certainly did

I went out at interval and got lost in the maze of look alike corridors even if I was on the same level. The concert ended with quite an ovation. Yes, it was good but without the text in front of me, it would have been impossible to understand the voices. Did it matter? After all I knew the story. Rather than wait for the ovation to end and in fear and trembling of some 2000 people rushing down the escalator, I left. 

When the Beaubourg centre opened, I found it very cold. Now I love it. Perhaps it will be the same here. Acoustically it may be excellent but for the moment it has no warmth or that wonderful feeling of « used » concert halls. 


Waiting for the Conductor

Esa Pekka Salonen takes a bow

the adult choir

the two choirs

A few evenings later I was to go to one of my "live dangerously" concerts. Those are chosen in function of a description, quite often music which I am not familiar with at all and that goes for the musicians or groups. On the first evening I had seen a notice telling us where Philharmonia 2 was to be found, so with my usual confidence I paced forward, followed the sign and got no-where....I was not the only one. Then I woke up to the fact, belatedly I admit, that the Cité de la Musique where I had been going for over 20 years had now become the Philharmonia 2. So I backtracked for around a 100 metres and I had "come home". I informed someone at the welcome desk that we were quite a few people who had been mislead....it didn't seem to matter.

The concert I had chosen was with Ibrahim Maalouf and Oxmo Puccino. Both are apparently known world wide. I am of course the exception. The name of the concert modern opera was "Au Pays d'Alice" taken from Alice in Wonderland. What had tempted me was that an orchestra, choir, rock group, Trumpeter and Rapper (who had composed the verses) were tor work together. As you can imagine I am not a rapper so didn't belong to Oxmo Pucciono's admirers nor that matter did I know anything about the trumpeter  and musician, leader of the different groups - Ibrahim Maalouf. This video does not do the concert justice (and you can see me in the first few moments before the concert begins) but it certainly shows how different groups of musicians can work together.

 http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/live/musique/jazz-blues/au-pays-dalice-dibrahim-maalouf-et-oxmo-puccino-210955

 A far cry from the Alice we all know. I got the CD at once just to be able to listen a little better to the words. This morning I booked for a further concert with Maalouf. I'm hooked......

The stage set for Alice.....

Now we move onto the Chatelet.  I had seen Julia Migenes during the week singing Kurt Weil

Very "engaged songs" and for the most, she sang in German. If it hadn't been for a woman sitting in front of me, squirming, moving around, obviosuly very bored, I would have enjoyed every moment of my concert. A far cry from "Le Petit Prince" which I saw the following night. Every child in France must have been brought up on "Le Petit Prince". A little like us with Alice in Wonderland or........

"I wrote for children and adults of all cultures a lyrical work which sings the text and message of the Little Prince, the enigmatic translucent child whom Saint-Exupéry met in the desert, with whose voice he addresses adults at the heart of the 20th century tragedy. When the work was published, in 1943, the monstrous ideologies of the Second World War had not yet been overcome. The way in which the Little Prince saw our world is a sign of hope." Michaël Levina

A VERY modern opera by Michaël Levinas (born in 1949). The Chatelet was packed and I would think that the audience was mostly made up of children, parents and grandparents. When the opera started, I  was  surprised by the sophistiction of the music, it's modernity to the extent that everything was subtitled - French on French. In comparison with the previous evening, the children were enthralled. I had a little boy sitting next to me. No more than 7. His eyes were glued to the stage......What a delight.

http://chatelet-theatre.com/fr/event/le-petit-princehttp://chatelet-theatre.com/fr/event/le-petit-prince

The video is half way down the page.

On we go. Next was a matinée "We Love Broadway". The Philhamonia 1 was packed and this was an all rounder audience. Excitement could be felt in the crowd.

We were to hear the  full orchestral version of "West Side Story" and then some Gershwin. The conductor, Wayne Marshall was the first black conductor I have seen. No only is he a conductor but also pianist and soliste. His improvisations within a theme such as West Side Story make the music somehow even more exciting. At one moment, I thought he would start dancing. His body conducted as well.

Indra Tomas and Sir Williard White sang well know songs from Porgy and Bess. I doubt if there was a dry eye in the audience. The young man next to me was padding his eyes with a rather used kleenex tissue. White was out of this world and in my book as a tenor his voice overwhelmed that of Indra's. He certainly got an ovation which was stronger than for her.

Sir Williard White

Indra Tomas

Wayne Marshall

 










Not wanting to be drowned by the madding throng when I left the concernt hall, I rushed out only to find when I got home that I had missed the last part of the concert "An American in Paris."

The last concert/film for the week was the apotheosis. I am not wild about Philip Glass's music because of the repetition. However, what I had read about his turning Cocteau's "La Belle et La Bête", (Beauty and the Beast of course)  into an opera made up my mind. This could be a must. Not only had he recomposed the original film created in 1946, but in deleting the sound, well known opera singers replaced the film actors and sang in sync the words of the film. Rather like a cinema-opera and quite frankly breathtaking. I listened to the music without the voices on YouTube this morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r34abqPim8k

I'll be downloading the opening to listen to again - and again at the gym.....

 Well I might not have seen any exhibitions, but musically the week was very full.