Rain soaked concerts 08Jun09 | 1

Past weekend Concerto delle Dame had two concerts in Cordoba, included in the cicle Antiqva 2009. Unfortunately, all of us found an insuperable obstable: it was raining… and they were outdoor concerts!

On Friday, when we arrived to the Plaza de los Abades for our sound check we found the members of Ensemble Quadrivium trying (pointlessly) to keep their stands in contact with the floor (well, the idea of placing the stage in the crossroad of two streets did not help). Some minutes later, we covered the harpsichord and had permission to go home.

On Saturday, after the second travel from Seville, we arrived to the place just for saving the harpsichord again inside the van, and taking refuge from the rain. After waiting in a cafe for large part of the afternoon, we received the “green light”… to play!

It did not rain anymore, that’s true, but we had to face a wet and slippery stage, a harpsichord tuned fast (while the tuner was in the other square, I tried to save some time with my instrument) that could not keep in tune till the end due to the humidity, and the experience of simply playing, no check, at all… Result?: we played “blindly” (it took around 20 minutes to change the lights so I could have some on my score) and “deafly” (at least I could only figure out what was going on on the stage following the bow of the gambist!, and they did not have a greater time)…

I am sure that these informal concerts help to “promote the cultural and turistic image of a city” introducing also new young groups, and attracting a new audience that maybe we would not find in the concert hall… We all know what is about, and try to adapt to the conditions. But maybe having a “B plan” would not be that difficult, and would help so much, both to the performers and audience.

Overall, a pity. General feeling of leaving empty-handed…

who said...

"[Beethoven] went in his usual (I might say, ill-bred) manner to the instrument as if half-pushed, picket up the violoncello part of Steibelt's quintet in passing, placed it (intentionally?) upon the stand upside down and with one finger drummed out a theme of the first few measures. Insulted and angered, he improvised in such a manner that Steibelt left the room before he finished, would never again meet him and, indeed, made it a condition that Beethoven should not be invited before accepting an offer."

F.W. Wegeler & F. Ries, Biographische Notizen über Ludwig van Beethoven (Koblenz, 1838)

"[...] the king [Charles II of Spain] eagerly asked me if I had heard Matheuchi sing, when he would come, and if he was impertinent or not, and as if there were no army in the world, nor Milanese state, completely forgot such matters, but this is not surprising given that all his ministers, or most of them, have had the same experience [...]"

Letter of Carlos Felipe Spinola y Colonna to the duke of Medinaceli (1698)

"I was in St Alban's Abbey and I was intrigued: they were building a new organ and I went up to - I suppose it must have been - the verger and I said, 'Is the organ baroque?' And he said, 'No, it's in perfectly good order.'"

John Tavener, The Music of Silence, A Composer's Testament (Faber ISBN 0571200885)

"The Second Harpsichordist will go only to the last rehearsal, sending the Third One to the previous, who won't read more high Clef than Soprano, trying to play without using the Thumbs, don't follow the Numbers, play always the Sixth, don't meet up with the Master, and close all the second Parts of Arias with major thirds, etc. etc. etc."

Benedetto Marcello, Il teatro alla moda (1720)