Euro kids today

I'd run into Lena and Jakob at the railway station a week before. Lena was the girl with the bass; Jakob had the cymbal bag. They said they were in town to play Ellington and invited me. An Ellington suite at the Koln Philharmonie done by a jazz orchestra was not one to miss. It was a Sunday matinee, 4pm, with the JugendJazzOrkester NRW (Youth Jazz Orchestra of North Rhine-Westphalia) and Kolner Korrende playing Michael Villmow Da pacem and Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts. The jazz orchestra was a standard jazz big band format; the Kolner Korende had me a little confused, but it turned out to be the choir of ~65 behind the band, presumably SATB. There was a conductor, Michale Reif, and two featured female singers, Lilith Marie Walkenhorst and Anna-Karina Barthel. This was not a meagre outing: it lasted over 2 hours with an interval. The first half was Da pacem. It reminded me of Carmina Burana, straight not swung, jazz tones and solos but seemingly a classical conception in a string of movements. Mostly bowed bass although introduced with solo drums, heavy on cymbals, and frequently featuring percussion. My guess is that all the bass was written, although there were featured solos from tenor, trumpet/flugel, trom. Time signatures were varied and counts could be a challenge. Ellington was drastically different. From the first notes, from the first vocal melody, you could feel the inventive melody, the jazz swing, the seriousness but joy of this genius. Swing, delays, feels, offbeat hits and accompaniment, that sweet, despairing sound of reeds, the grandiloquent brass, plenty of spots for solos with players coming up front, some glorious songs with stratospheric female harmonies against choral melodies or calls for freedom or other spiritual claims. I remember the first sung line with some close notes then long rising interval then a tritone drop to finish the line (if I heard right): just pure Ellington. Some beautiful solos from all manner of horns, effective piano and vibes, bass open to improvise and walk, rhythm section letting go a little. Surprisingly with ~65 singers, I felt the choir needed more volume and I would have enjoyed some more dirt on the solo vocals. I was surprised at some immensely mature soloing from these young performers. I spoke to a parent afterwards and the JJO is limited to age 21. In comparison, our classical Australian Youth Orchestra accepts to 27. I was touched by the beauty and the themes and even the humour of Ellington. There was a line in a song about Freedom that "[freedom] even sounds good in the cause of Freedom". Witty. The text was in English, of course, but then these Germans mostly know it anyway. At one spot Lena had a very prominent and significant, if musically short, solo entry; I didn't envy her that but she pulled it off. Then towards the end, the glorious Come Sunday, a tune from one of my fave albums, Archie Shepp Cry of my people, and the depth of Ellington's presence really cuts. My God what beauty and purpose and what an opportunity to be treasured to play this music. A deeply satisfying outing with young performers in a wonderful space. About as good as it gets.

The JugendJazzOrkester NRW and Kolner Korrende performed Michael Villmow and Duke Ellington in the Kolner Philharmonie, Cologne, under Michale Reif (conductor) with Lilith Marie Walkenhorst and Anna-Karina Barthel (vocals). Lena Lorberg (bass) and Jakob Hein (drums) played in the rhythm section.

The high and the flighty

The bells were ringing and the location was truly inspiring so we attended mass at the Kolner Dom. The tourists were kept at a gate for the mass, perfectly understandable and nicely done, but it was easy just to confirm your wish to attend and gain entry. The bells were for midday and they came not just from the Dom but presumably they were the loudest. It's a powerful call to prayer. Sitting, waiting, musing, you could feel the immensity of the space and the occasion more than simply touristing. This is the tallest cathedral in the world and the third-tallest church. How must mediaeval minds have perceived this, 800 years ago? We know height, but even we have probably never experienced such height within a building. Firstly for the side aisles, then for the even taller central aisle and transcept. A thing of omnipotence and awe. Then the organ, again a huge sound and immense beauty. Then choral singing, a fairly weak priest's voice, through mass to communion and departure from a side door from a relatively unoccupied Dom. Be it a religious or tourist experience, either way it was quite compelling. Then on to another Koln experience, Eau di Cologne. The first Eau di Cologne was developed by Italian Giovanni Maria Farina in Koln in 1709. The better known 4711 was also developed in Koln but decades later. Both have a museum-cum-public space. We visited the Farina shop, tasted the original and later developments, as one does. I am not one to comment on the fragrance but it was a pleasant interlude and an exposure to a world I know little of.

Ravel+

The classical offerings have been rather sparse in Koln this visit but we got to the Kolner Philharmonie for the Orchestra Phalharmonique de Radio France under Kimmo Frank with soloist Sol Gambetta. It's an orchestra of ~85 players and 7 basses. The Koln Philharmonie is a magnificent building with great acoustics. Sol Gambetta is a name and recording star on the cello. What's not to like? Well, I'm not too keen on French impressionism in visual or musical arts and this was all Ravel with a Lalo concerto. Even so, I enjoyed the concert. We started boxes above the choir seats (not too, too dear). The sound was pretty good even there and the engineering views were incredible. I moved to some free seats in front of stage, near the basses, at interval and the sound was better, insistent, clear in parts. A huge pleasure, and I could see. The conductor was not tall yet he moved his chair off the podium and sometimes sat. Not sure how the performers all followed him but it sounded together. The swells and such would be easy enough but the hits worked too. Sol Gambetta was a star, well decked out in a flowing gold dress, playing some deleriously fast lines at times and smiling with pleasure. So I enjoyed it lots, even if it's not a fave style. The music was Ravel Alborada del gracioso), Lalo (Cello concerto Dmaj), Mel Bonis (Trois femmes de legende) and Ravel (Daphnis nad Chloe) but the Mel Bonis was replaced on the night with Ravel (Prelude to the afternoon of a faun). Ravel heavy, but I could come to it occasional concerts with decent musicians like this.

The Orchestra Phalharmonique de Radio France under Kimmo Frank (conductor) with soloist Sol Gambetta (cello) performed at the Kolner Philharmonie, Cologne.

Rust

The Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln (Museum of Applied Art) is a small and thus easy visit very close to the Funk Haus, the central location of WDR Westdeutsche Rundfunk. I am yet to see their famed big band, but that's another story. The warnings on the rusting entrance were somewhat a reference to the urgency and quality of post-WW2 rebuild and maybe even the state of those eras of design. This is design from ~1900 through to the post-modern. It's amusing and a bundle of memories. Even the young will have seen films of bakelite radios and Bauhaus furniture and record players with plastic lids and telephones with rotating dials and early iMacs and Walkmans. They weren't so long ago; before the era of the mobile phone. There were some items that I knew from ordinary, daily life, not even at student times when you use old tech. So it was a blast from the past and some chuckles and some history to learn of everyday items and rapid change in these decades of new tech. PS, we survived the rusting portico. BTW, on the way we ran into a men's choir singing in the rain.

The Museum of Applied Art is in Koln. The men's choir was Grungurtelrosen Kohler Mannerchor.

Mediaeval means church

Then just across the road to the Schnutgen Museum. I had described this collection to Megan as one of religious statuary so I was surprised to find Schnutgen described simply as a collection of mediaeval art for it was virtually all religious, through stained glass and religious robes and reliquaries and implements for masses and memories and ivory and bronze and mostly statues of saints and Mary and Jesus. None-the-less, the collection is impressive and worthy although I had seen it before and the gruesome aspects of mediaeval religiosity, in the days of short and painful lives, did grate. I was amused by the stutue of Jesus on a horse on wheels for a procession; slightly horrified and a little confused by a locked cell with skull from centuries later; taken aback by the modelled head of St John the Baptist on a plate and amused by the reappearance of St Denis (?) holding his skull and mitre. Otherwise just enjoying a connection with another era, for these are still people and products of their society as we all are; their society is just different.

The Schnutgen Museum of mediaeval history in in Cologne.

Just local history

I hadn't realised thee extent of Cologne's past history on my previous visit. I'd come across the Roman road and a few remaining Roman remains but The Roemisch-Germanisches Museum had been closed, presumably for restoration and I could only look down on a massive mosaic and famed from a floor level glass window. This time we discovered the collection was relocated to the Belgian House, just metres from our unit, so the visit. The display was not vast (as I like it) although the collection is. One panel spoke of 2m items being dug up in one tunnel build. These could be just glass shards or discarded oyster shells or broken tools, but historical and it speaks to the history in this place. And we discovered the history reached back to Neanderthals through stone and bronze ages through the Roman empire to the Franks. We first visited the Romans with their stone memorials, a lengthy run of busts and memorials and a road marker, through tools for various purposes, decorations and jewellery and stunning glassware, and the incredible road map for the Roman Empire, the Tabula Peutingeriana (held in the Austrian National Library in Vienna). A naval base was located just near Koln so their tools and various discards in the waters. Then on to the Franks after the rout of Rome by the Germanic peoples, again personal fineries, more glass, and through burial remains from the Paleo- and Neolithic and to two cutting stones, one in process of preparation, perhaps 60k years old. And the stunner is that these collections are locally sourced, from the city and surroundings. The website lists a string of larger items which may reside with the mosaic, and crowns and more that weren't at the Belgian House, but what was was a wonder none-the-less. A long history and much change and a stunner to think that it's still just local!

The Roemisch-Germanisches Museum is located in the Belgian House in Cologne.

Art apart

Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. Here's my latest visit to the main local art gallery in Koln, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum. I wouldn't miss it. It's not too large, spread over 3 floors from mediaeval which was quite a scene in Koln at the time, through baroque and into the impressionists. My preference was the early works, for the discovery of people and perspective and the strange other worldliness from our time. To what degree were they like us? I can't answer although there's plenty that's relatable, if lots that isn't. Whatever, here are a few pics.