Showing posts with label concerts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concerts. Show all posts

Sunday, July 18, 2010

second time's the charm


Remember me gushing about Les Jacobins a few posts ago (okay, I just read the post I wrote about it, and I did not do this place justice. It is BEAUTIFUL. Probably my favorite Catholic Church related place I've seen)? Well, last Friday night, Noemi and I went to a concert in a chapel that opens to the cloister there and oh my gosh. It was incredible. There was a string quartet, Quatuor Modigliani, and a pianist, Philippe Cassard, who played a bunch of Mendelssohn and Schumann. The quartet played first, then the pianist, then intermission, then they played together for the last half. Wow, wow, wow. The acoustics in that little chapel were unbelievable. The concert lasted over 2 hours, but it seemed like five minutes. It just flew by.
The pianist reminded me of my dad, and if I closed my eyes it was like I was sitting at home at the kitchen table listening to him play. So I cried.
For all of the time spent here in Europe when life hasn't been so fun and for all of the moments I've wanted to go home.
Sitting in southern France crying in a monastery listening to Mendelssohn, wishing I was in the brown desert in the United States.
And I realized how silly that was and how lucky I am and for the rest of the concert I felt content to let the music wash over me and heal my little broken heart.



at last.





So I took a bunch of video footage from the concert, but apparently I have no idea how the sound works on my camera, because all they sound like is static. Ugh.
Click here to watch Olivia Ruiz's video of "Crepes aux Champignons". It's slightly frightening/pretty entertaining.


Friday, July 16, 2010

teaser

The 14th of July is the national holiday in France, marking the start of the French Revolution with the storming of the Bastille. The city of Toulouse blocked off the entire Allées Jean Jaures and had a concert in the street and then fireworks. It was super fun. Noemi and I greatly enjoyed listening to Olivia Ruiz and a few Toulousians perform. You ought to look up her songs "les crêpes aux champignons" (mushroom crepes) or "la femme chocolat" (the chocolate woman). She sort of reminds me of Tim Burton. And I have lots of photos to post, but am currently at les petits frères office (am getting so good at typing on a French keyboard that I sometimes hit the wrong keys on my American laptop) so I shall do that later!