Yet another little musical interlude...

I can't think of anything to post these days, my head is a mess of thoughts but i can't seem to make sense of them, or find ways to express them.
I hope all is well with you, my readers who are still there...

For now -enjoy this song - and gorgeous Fragonard-inspired little masterpiece of a video by the wonderful Claire Diterzi, to the title track from her terrific album "Tableau de chasse" (Naïve):

the Castle of Engsö.

Last tuesday I, my friend K, her "sister in law" L and their respective infants Joni and Ingrid, went out to Engsö castle -one of my favourite places on earth. It's situated on a peninsula a two hour-drive west of Stockholm and so beautiful it almost makes you feel as though you're in a painting by Constable, complete with grazing cows.

The castle was built around the late 15th century, "glammed-up" in the 1620s and again in the 1740s when the fourth floor was added and it got much of the appearance it still has today. The architect was Carl Hårleman (1700-1753) one of swedens leading architects at the time.

In spite of being one of the moste beautiful places in the nation Engsö is best known for it's many ghosts, there has even been a team of american paranormal researchers here, lead by a Dr. Raymond Moody -and with their equipment gotten stronger reactions than at any of the famous haunted places in england... There's the 17th century Lady, Brita Bååth - who died, according to the legend - after mistakenly attending the mass of the dead... the hunchback dwarf Anders Luxemburg, and Cotillion - the dog of Axel Von Fersen's younger Sister Sophie, who died and was buried there -"at the feet of his mistress", as his little tombstone says, located somewhere in the park. There is also Brandklipparen, the last horse of King Charles XII who spent his last years there.






The castle doesn't look like any other, not really an architectural masterpiece, but still wonderful, rising tall above the green, lush landscape. The whole site is almost phenomenally beautiful, especially on a bright summers day, as you can imagine. Sadly the castle was closed this day, but we enjoyed a nice picnic in the park and took a look at the church nearby.


When you walk up the stairs to the first floor you'll encounter an eerie portrait of an austere-looking lady, dressed in grey. -it's the ill fated Brita Bååth who, according to the legend, was a "cruel and rigid woman who was said to have driven her two husbands into an early grave..."

-one early christmas day-morning, she was to attend the christmas service. Anxious to miss it she'd instructed the servants to wake her early, but toward the morning she woke up by herself and saw the light in the church windows, annoyed she thought that the service had already begun and that they'd simply forgotten to wake her, so she dressed hastily and got out. Half way to the church she saw an apparition, uncannily resembling her old wet nurse who'd been dead for many years, and the old woman almost seeemd as if she was trying to warn her from continuing, but as she was already late she ignored the vision and scuttled on.

And as she approached the church she noticed that the light in the windows had a cold, pale-green glow to it, with none of the usual warmth of the christmas candles, but this didn't stop her either. But upon entering the church she stood petrified, for in the benches sat skeletons with devoutly clasped hands and grinning faces. She realised she was much to early and that she'd come to the mass of the dead. -and as if that weren't enough the ghosts of her two late husbands came rushing toward her - one swung his rapier at her, but only got a piece of her veil and the other threw a large stone, which struck her to the ground, outside where the servants found her the following morning, and she retold the horrific tale before she died, three days later.

The rapier with the piece of her veil still hangs in the church, hung across her funeral coat of arms, and nobody knows how it got there.


I hope to be able to get back later this summer, when the castle's open, to see it's beautiful interiors again, (not to mention posting more pictures for you to see!) -before last tuestay i hadn't been there in more than six years. A couple of years before my mother's death five years ago, we made it a tradition to go there on my birthdays. So it was so nice getting back there again, for it's too gorgeous a place not to go to at least once a year!

The Piper family arriving at the newly rebuilt Engsö, oil on canvas by unknown artist.

Someone has heard my prayers at last!

I have long been pining for more period-instrument recordings of the music of André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry (1741-1813) -there have been shockingly few over the years, in fact hardly any at all. -absurd, considering what a huge star he was in his own lifetime, for example; his "La Caravane du Caire" from 1783 was given more than five hundred performances! Now his 1780, "Andromaque" -his only tragédie lyrique, based on Jean Racine's play, has been recorded by Hervé Niquet et Le Concert Spirituel on the spanish label Glossa.
...And i'm thrilled!!!
...And there's more!!!
-Later, i've heard, a recording for cd, of Grétry's 1773 ballet héroïque "Céphale et Procris" will be made by Les Agrémens, lead by Guy van Waas, for Ricercar. Last fall it was performed in concert at the Opéra Royal, Versailles. See it here.

"Céphale et Procris" by Fragonard
Grétry, by Vigée-Lebrun.

Now i'm only praying for the weather to change! -though the winter was unusually rigorous this year, even for us in the north. It really was the very winter i had been longing for for years and not since the 1920s, i believe, have we had as much snow... and then of course i started pining for spring, wich looked like it was coming along nicely, until a couple of days ago when it suddenly felt like we had stepped back several weeks. -and with an impenetrable thicket of clouds above! -and temperatures never rising above 50 F. Just unacceptable! And the iris and the honeysuckle on my balcony seemed to be thriving and i had even taken out my poor lemon tree for the season! But at least it's a great excuse to just stay in, drink tea... and listen to some Grétry, i guess.

And i'm sorry i've posted so infrequently lately -really since i started this blog, but i just haven't had the peace of mind for that, or anything really... and i have scarcely drawn for months, except for some pointless doodlings every now and then. But I do hope to be back soon, and i'm glad you're all still with me.
Au bientôt!

The park at Drottningholm, a lovely day exactly two years ago. Now it's more like november.

June and midsummer in Berlin

Hello loves!
I just have to post this german documentary (in two parts) about Drottningholm that i just found on youtube. I can't stand how time just evaporates like this - i haven't made it to Drottningholm since i was there for Handel's Ariodante in the beginning of june, and i used to go there at least once a week! -but of course it's been a terrible start of this summer -after a lovely spring most of june just rained away and the temperature stayed around 13 Celsius...but now we've had several days of almost tropical heat with temperatures never sinking below 20 degrees even at night. So i hope to go soon! -and i really could be there within 30 minutes so i don't know what keeps keeping me!

1,

2,

Last week i was in Berlin for a couple of days, visiting my friend, who's currently doing an internship at an architecture firm there.



This was my first time abroad since my mother passed away in 2005 and god, i needed a holiday! My friend lives in Kreutzberg in the most beautiful apartment in a 19th century building with stucco ceilings and no less than three beautiful tiled stoves!

On the third day we got tickets for Mozart's "the abduction of the seraglio" at the Staatsoper Unter den linden, it was just third row seats and we scarcely saw the stage, but it was a great performance, with Christine Schäfer as Costanze, who also sings the part on the recording with William Christie.
Annoyingly we didn't get to see her when she gloriously sang "Marter aller arten",
so the operaglasses i found in a little antiques shop in our neighborhood earlier the same day weren't much use, but we heard perfectly:
Unter den linden towards Alexanderplatz with the Staatsoper to the right.

One of my favorite things about Berlin is Dussmann -a huge and fabulous store on Friedrichstraße, open until midnight on weekdays, selling books, music, movies, games and more. -they have the most incredible classical section! Too good to be true! I bought Mondonville's "Titon et Aurore" and Mouret's "Les amours de Ragonde" (Erato/Warner) both with Marc Minkowski and a lovely new cd titled "Le salon de musique de Marie-Antoinette" (Naïve/Ambroisie" with Sandrine Chatron on Harp, playing beautiful pieces by Gluck, Grétry, Mozart and others including Marie-Antoinette's own composition "C'est mon ami" and other arias and duets sung by Isabelle Poulenard and Jean-François Lombard, and then to my pleasant surprise i found a sequal to Véronique Gens and Les Talens Lyriques with Christophe Rousset, terrific 2006 recital cd "Tragédiennes" (Emi/Virgin) simply titled "Tragédiennes 2".

The first one had music by Lully, Campra, Rameau, Mondonville, Leclair, Royer and Gluck and the second one Gluck, Sacchini, Piccinni, Rameau, Grétry, Cherubini, Arriàga and Berlioz. I also picked up Lully's "Atys" (Harmonia Mundi) with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.

the view from the tv-tower

The classical section at Dussmann truly is fantastic, i discovered it the last time i was in Berlin in 2004 and i was like a kid in a candystore! They have absolutely everything! -and i was pleased to see nothing had changed in five years, what with all those superstores closing and downsizing allover the world.

I also made it twice to my favorite eatery, Monsieur Vuong where i had delicious springrolls, noodlesalad Mekong and Phò. How i love that place...just like the rest of the world! Sadly i did not make it to Potsdam and Sanssouci or to revisit the Charlottenburg palace...but they're excellent reasons to go back to that lovely city.

The Sophienkirche in Mitte, a gorgeous little church


Again, i apologise for not being more active here but time has just been slipping through my fingers lately. But i'm pleased to see you're still with me.
See you soon!

Bisous

The Castle of Skokloster

Yesterday I and my friend P went out to Skokloster castle, where her boyfriend, who's studying to become a director at the Dramatic Institute, was shooting a scene for his thesis-film, and to wich i have drawn the storyboards. The film is set in 1713 and tells, in short, the nightmarish story about the downfall of Count Magnus Stenbock, a nobleman and general under King Charles XII.


But i shall write a little about the castle, for those not already familiar with it. It is one of my favorite places, and a major tourist attraction, and has been since the early 1700s.
Northwest of Stockholm, Beautifully situated by Lake Mälaren lies one of. it not THE most well preserved baroque castle in the entire world. It's construction began in 1654, as a display of the power and wealth of Count Carl Gustaf Wrangel, however construction took a halt upon his death in 1676. Probably one of the most interesting rooms is the huge, unfinished banqueting hall and a suite of adjoining guestrooms, standing just as the workers left them, tools and all, just as they stand today.

The castle is a marvelous treasuretrove with more than 50.000 objects from some of the wealthiest and most powerful noble families in sweden. The room depicted above and below is a royal guestroom. The gilt leather wall hangings are 17th century but weren't put up until 1837 wich is why they've retained much of their colour - Skokloster has one of the biggest collections of gilt leather in the world, in eight rooms and alltogether around 550 square metres of it.
The room has an exquisite collection of chinese inspired furniture from around 17th to 19th century. Some of the chairs were made in Paris around 1780 and later copies were made. The canopy-bed dates from around 1700.

The room used for the film is the so called Brahe dining room where a scene between Stenbock and the king was filmed, and to my horror some of the extras cas as courtiers were wearing the most excruciatingly bad costumes! Not only were they the wrong period but in the worst cuts and fabrics you can imagine, not to mention the hair. I wish i had known and i would have put a stop to it, but too late to say anything at this point, it is just a school production after all, but i do hope they won't show too much!

Monsigny.

I never thought i'd say this; but i so wish i was in Washington, DC. -now...or in a fiew weeks - January 29th. When those who are lucky enough to be thereabouts can see - given that it's not sold out - William Sharp and Dominique Labelle in Monsigny's lyric drama "Le Désérteur" (1769) at the Kennedy Center with Ryan Brown and Opera Lafayette; a conductor and an orchestra i discovered a couple of years ago when they made an excellent recording of Antonio Sacchini's 1786 opera "Oedipe à Colone" for Naxos...

Monsigny by Carmontelle

The composer Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (1729-1817) was -along with Grétry and Gossec that i mentioned in a recent post - a giant in his own time, but virtually forgotten and rarely performed today and recordings are nonexistent, and "Le Déserteur" was a huge success - it's about "the resourceful heroine Louise who wins a pardon from the king for her fiancé Alexis who is accused of desertion from the army after he was tricked into believing she had married another..." (excerpt of text from the Kennedy Center) Here's a clip i found on youtube with bits from a performance at the Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne in 1994:



Needless to say how much i love this music - it makes me nostalgic somehow - reminds me of performances at Drottningholm in my childhood - and everything else i love about the 18th century, though Monsigny hasn't been performed there in modern times - but was in the 18th century - for example, in honour of Queen Sophia-Magdalena on Magdalene's day, July 22 in 1779 when Monsigny's "La Belle Arsène" was performed.

Ingmar Bergman filmed his "Magic flute" at Drottningholm, and i watched it constantly as a child, -that, along with Scola's "La Nuit de Varennes" and Carné's "Les enfants du Paradis" -i still have the tapes, and they always transport me back...even though it wasn't a very happy childhood...but that had more to do with the world around me - just as it does now...
I will be going on an on about Drottningholm and it's environs, in many, many future posts...

All illustrations courtesy of Réunion des Musées Nationaux.

Farewell, little one!

I just wanted to share my christmas tree with you before throwing it out...wich was due days ago really - but i couldn't bear to do it just yet as it hadn't begun losing it's needles yet...
It's just a tiny tree, wich has more to do with my tiny apartment and lack of funds, than my 18th-century fanaticism - in the 18th century - at least in sweden - christmas trees weren't much bigger than this and were placed on the dining table.
The huge, gaudy fabergé-egg bauble i got some years ago, shortly after my mother's death as a small homage, as she loved all things russian.

Bored and yearning.

The way things look now, this winter seems to be getting as mild and worthless as the last, wich really worries me, we had a fiew lovely, heart-stoppingly cold days around christmas and new years, although scarcely any snow and the little that did come just dripped away and the thermometer now shows +6 C, so depressing! I would so much love a little winter...i'd go out flattening bastardly car's tires if it would help!


But i am so excited about the 2009 season at Drottningholm! They haven't presented any details yet, but they will be giving us Handel's "Ariodante" and Monteverdi's "L'Incoronazione de Poppea" -part of their Monteverdi series - last year was "Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria" and the year before that "l'Orfeo".
-Below is a beautiful duet from "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" with Anne-Sofie von Otter and Mireille Delunsch in the roles of Nerone and Poppea respectively, with Marc Minkowski conducting:



But foremost i am an avid Handelian and severely hope that Christophe Rousset will return for "Ariodante", -in 2000 he conducted Handel's "Tamerlano" wich returned in 2002 and wich i unfortunately didn't see. In 2003 it was "Alcina" wich is one of my favourites...and it was a fabulous performance. Christine Schäfer was Alcina, Anne-Sofie von Otter, Ruggiero -though Von Otter was in surprisingly bad shape... The director was Pierre Audi, set/costume designer, Patric Kinmonth, and in 2005 they and Rousset returned, and this time - to my immense joy - with something in Sweden so rare as french baroque! -"Zoroastre" by Rameau wich i went seing with my mother...it ran again in the following year - when it was also filmed and made into a formidable dvd - a fiew years ago the performances at Drottningholm were traditionally broadcast on national television, something i really miss...i don't know why they stopped. -Below is the final scene from Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" filmed at Drottningholm in 1987.



the "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" will probably be an all-swedish production, like the two previous ones by Monteverdi but for "Ariodante" i ferociously hope for a return of Christophe Rousset, and in the title-role i'd like to see Ann Hallenberg - one of my favorite singers, a fabulous mezzo. She's swedish but rarely ever performs here, but is very much in demand everywhere else and has fortunately made several fabulous recordings.

I was so excited last year when she was up to sing the role of Penelope in "il ritorno di Ulisse", though i sadly missed it, and then made a fiew appearances in Stockholm in December, she sang in Mozart's Mass in C-minor at the Nobel prize concert, in Bach's "Christmas oratorio" and songs by Chausson with no less than Marc Minkowski conducting! Follow this link to hear Ann Hallenberg sing Judith's aria "Parto inerme, e non pavento" from "La Betulia Liberata" by Mozart, the conductor is Christophe Rousset.


This is the woman i'm hoping to see and hear.

Another obsession.

It often grieves me that there are so fiew recordings of the music of the walloon composer André Ernest Modeste Grétry (1741-1813), -let alone on period instruments...
Grétry was only a name to me when this wonderful dvd came out a couple of years ago, it's titled "La Petite Musique de Marie-Antoinette" and is a filmed concert from Marie-Antoinette's little private theatre at Trianon. With the orchestra Les Agrémens lead by the belgian clarinet virtuoso, Guy van Waas.

Truly delightful ballet music and symphonies, interspersed by a fiew arias and duets by Grétry and his fellow walloon François-Joseph Gossec (1734-1829) sung by the soprano Sophie Karthäuser and the baritone Jean-Yves Pruvot. An absolutely lovely concert in this charming little theatre -where we see the "ghost" of Marie-Antoinette (in a rather horrible wig!) appearing here and there. There is also a documentary about the theatre itself.



Then i discovered that the belgian label Ricercar had released a couple of cds with the same orchestra - and leader, playing music by both Grétry and Gossec, one titled "Grétry - Airs et Ballets" with pretty much the same programme as on the dvd and also Karthäuser singing the airs, and then two with symphonies op. XII and VIII by Gossec, and this one with symphonies for various solo instruments by both Grétry and Gossec - as well as by Dieudonné-Pascal Pieltain (1754-1833) and Antoine-Frédéric Gresnick (1755-1799) - two other Walloons working in paris at the same time. I't just gorgeous music, beautifully performed - so beautiful and so redolent of everything one loves about the 18th century. Complete and uncomplicated pleasure!


...And then; this summer Ricercar re-released a live-recording from 1991 with Ricercar Academy lead by Marc Minkowski (an old favourite of mine!) of Grétry's opéra ballet "La Caravane du Caire" -wich had it's premiere at Fontainebleau on the 30th of October in 1783. A sort of "the abduction of the Seraglio" story set in Egypt. It's an absolutely dazzling recording with infectuous dance music as well as a fiew excerpts of the music for d'Hele's comédie "Le Jugement de Midas" from 1778, with La Petite Bande under the baton of Gustav Leonhardt and recorded in 1980. I cordially recommend them all!

I am still not satisfied of course; for there is still no decent recording of Grétry's most famous work, the comédie-ballet "Zémire et Azor" from 1771, libretto by Marmontel -whom Grétry often worked with - a lighthearted beauty and the beast story in a middle eastern setting. The only existing recording is a rather boring one from the 1970s, on modern instruments conducted by Edgard Doneux - sheer elevator music!

I actually saw Zémire et Azor when it was given at Drottningholm in the summer of 1993, conducted by Louis Langrée. I was eleven and went with my mother and her friend whom i always thought incredibly chic - at that time i wouldn't have cared enough to know Grétry from any other composer... It was first performed there in 1778, seven years after it's creation.

The story is of Sander, travelling along with his servant Ali. Shipwrecked they find themselves on an island with a magnificent garden and palace - wich appears to be deserted, it's great hall set for a banquet - but they don't see a living soul, they help themselves to the buffet...

-Sander has three daughters back home: Fatmé, Lisbé and Zémire, his favourite. Before leaving he promised them gifts; Fatmé and Lisbé wished for lace and fine ribbons but all Zémire asked for was a rose...in a charming trio sung by the sisters; "Veillons, mes soeurs"

-So In the garden of the palace Sander picks the most beautiful rose he can find for Zémire and is then stopped by a beast-like man, Azor - really a transformed prince and the owner of the palace. Azor says that Zander must pay with his life for stealing the rose...unless he can persuade one of his daughters to take his place. Zémire agrees to sacrifice her life for her fathers and Ali takes her to the palace. She almost faints with terror upon seeing him. Here is Azor's aria: "Du moment qu'on aime" -sung by Rufus Wainwright (!) from the film "L'age des ténèbres" by Denys Arcand:

But Azor appears to be a proper gentleman and shows Zémire her family back home in a magic mirror...the scene depicted below, by Pehr Hilleström from the swedish production in 1778. (i apologise for the poor quality)

-Zémire even gets to visit her family as long as she promises to always return to Azor.
When she returns from one of those visits, she finds him in despair as he thinks that she has abandoned him, she protests that she cares for him -and the magic spell on Azor is lifted now that he has found someone who loves him, and so he is turned into his old, handsome self and claims his kingdom - with Zémire as his consort. And then they live happily ever after...

I only wish that some period instruments ensemble would record it!

"Nina ou Les Ennuis de l'absence"
Niclas Lafrensen, le Jeune (1737-1807)