Middle age as early

Quiet Monday is over and it's down to some serious museum stops. First is the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne's museum of visual arts from 13th century. The art is on three levels of a modern building. First floor is mediaeval Durer, Cranach, various triptyches and altarpieces. I love this era for its ardent faith and apparent openness. Of course this is mostly a thing of wealth but it's attractive nonetheless. My discovery here was Stefan Lochner, renowned Cologne artist, especially his glorious Madonna. Interestingly the gallery claims to hold up to half of the art produced in this period, if I read right. And it was a significant art site influenced by Italy and the Netherlands. Then to the second floor for the Baroque and Tintoretto and Rubens and van Dyck and Rembrandt (another self portrait and another). And up another floor for more modernism leading to Renoir and Cezanne and Van Gogh. The whole gallery is laid out to tell a story over the ages and the labelling is excellent.

Then another hit of mediaeval art at the museum Schnutgen. This is a collection of mediaeval religious art located in in a reused old Church. Lots of old carved stone and timber and polychromatics and reliquaries and stained glass with that mediaeval faith and fear of the fall all and just a touch of clerical elitism. Again just my thing.

Bomb or no bomb

I've come to Cologne. It's Monday when the town rests but also the end of summer and music is not yet up for the year but I found a few jazz gigs. I missed one at a crossover recording studio cum live venue then I attended the Loft the next night and it too was setup for recording. I'm told it's run by the music community and it's venerable 30 years old and has made over 1,000 recordings. This night was a tenor sax quartet with a fill in pianist due to sickness, Billy Test of the NDR Big Band who was to leave for Paris the next day. The music was a mix of originals by tenorist Matthew Halpin and Billy. From the first notes I loved it. Matthew's airy and fluid but often speedy lines combined with the most deliciously responsive and leading comping and some exploratory piano soloing sat wonderfully over richly syncopated bass and reserved and responsive drumming. A great pleasure so I wouldn't have thought drummer Jonas hadn’t met pianist Billy before that night but that's jazz for you. Along with originals were several tunes by Carla Bley and a nice slow take in three on Never will I marry. The audience was just about 20 – too often the way in this jazz - and it was delayed by a particularly European phenomenon: the trains were running late because ww2 bomb had being found.

Matthew Halpin (tenor), Billy Test (piano), Roger Kintopf (bass) and Jonas Kaltenbach (drums) performed at the Loft, Cologne.

Buskers fore and aft

I'd stayed beside Oper Frankfurt and walked through Willie Brandt Square frequently in the past and attended a few chamber concerts in the foyer but never an opera. Mozart Idomeneo was playing and I took my chance.

But first was the walk and another busker. This was Cuban clarinettist Leonel Fernandez Ortega playing jazz and latin with nice conviction and understanding. It's not an instrument I know well in jazz although it has a strong early history. Leonel did a great job, spelling melodies with authority and improvising with nice modern conventions.

Then to the opera. I had the cheapest seat with no view but I moved. It's a surprisingly intimate theatre ringed with dress circles and with a massive stage area and a generous Orchestra pit. Excellent German design. The orchestra was about 26 players with harpsichord and two bassists who I thought playing period bows (French grip held up the stick). Between soloists and chorus there were about 45 singers dressed in modern clothes on a sparse stage frequently using its massive rotating floor. The nautically-themed opera lasted 3.5 hours with one interval. Greek King Idomeneo is thought to be lost in battle. To survive, he's made a deal with Neptune to kill the first person he sees on return. That turns out to be his son so he sends him off. The son is bereft. This all happens against a love story of opposing princesses. And the death of the father and a successful romance. If I got the story right... The son was once played by a male soprano but now is a cross dressed female so that adds some modern day confusion. The music is typical Mozart but sprinkled amongst song. The playing was neat as was the singing although I felt their tightness strayd occasionally. But I think it was the first performance in this series. With the heat and my little experience of opera the first half was trying but I settled into the second. An interesting outing not least for the opportunity to see some casual German operatic audience habits.

I walked out to a hot night and milling people and busy bars and a hip hop beats busker. I like that music when it's done well; simple but with deep deep grooves and otherworldly electronic tonalities and sudden pauses and the like.

Mozart Idomeneo was performed at Oper Frankfurt. Leonel Fernandez Ortega (clarinet) busked.

Städler’s sister

Städler's sister institution is the Liebieghaus. It's housed in a castle-like manor just a few steps away. Städler displays the visual arts; Liebieghaus displays the sculpture. It's an impressive range if Western oriented, going from Egypt through ancient Greece and Rome on through mediaeval and Renaissance to neoclassicism. It's a small Museum so you can get close to inspect and you'll likely have rooms to yourself. Most was fairly common fair but a small statue of an early Mesopotamian worshipper was new to me and the busts of of ordinary Roman men and women where revealing and the Roman Egypt funeral portrait of a young girl was quite beautiful. But the mediaeval era is usually my favourite with endless religious themes and fervid emotions and dangling fabrics and borers in timber. Some grouped statues were delightful especially one of four clergyman. Then on past a few big della Robbia ceramic panels and into the excessive flourishes of later European years. The special exhibition was a gem: sculptures in ivory. It's a beautiful material for small carvings but aptly no longer available. More ivory than I've experienced in one room and some truly stunning works of detail and faith and, often enough, discrete lust.

It's been a hot, hot summer in Europe and was hot this day. The Liebieghaus is situated in a lovely garden and I swear some people in the outdoor cafe were there when I arrived and when I left. I'd been on a long hot walk around the old battlement gardens and been pleasantly interrupted by a very capable classical violinist busking Vivaldi and Bach and more. Nae Carol was trained in Romania and now teaches and performs in Germany. From Bach Sonata and partita no.3 to Four Seasons all played from memory with wonderful clarity and intonation and bowing. Classy, perhaps more than was deserved by the ignoring tourist hordes.

The Liebieghaus is Frankfurt's sculpture gallery. Nae Carol (violin) busked for hordes of tourists.

No music

This was my day with no music. I'd allocated it to the local art gallery, the Städel. It's not overwhelmingly huge but it boasts some impressive feature works and otherwise a history of European art from C13th. I especially remembered a Botticelli from a previous visit, forgetting there were two, but van Eyck's Lucca Madonna was a favourite this time and I revelled in a string of mediaeval works then through Perugino and Raphael and Bronzino and the like and right up to the modern period ending here at 1945. This is the town of Goethe and I was pleased to see the famed Tischbein portrait of Goethe reclining in the Roman campagna. I'd forgotten it was here. Lots more too. The Rembrandt wing is undergoing restoration so I missed that, as was contemporary art, but this was more than enough for one day. A huge pleasure.

The Städel gallery is in Frankfurt.

Reruns

I'm just in Frankfurt in passing and my options for jazz were limited but still I was surprised to revisit a band leader at the Jazzkeller. It's a venerable European jazz club complete with signed photographs on the walls of jazz masters who have played there over the decades. The band leader was Peter Klohman, tenorist, who had played a string of gigs with different bands in August. All based on a style or performer, Eddie Harris or Rolling Stones or 90s pop or hip hop or Paul Desmond. I caught his band, Hard Bock, playing bebop but the music was far more contemporary. Billie's bounce turned into heavy funk pared to a few chords. Moanin' was more recognisable throughout despite harmonic and time shifts and straight rock drums. We all sang the Salt peanuts response as a communal sing-along that then dissolved into continuous breathing on sax and the deepest groove and that recognisable syncopation throughout on drums. Yardbird suite lost its turnarounds to become a three chord syncopated funk. Ornithology was all harmonic excursions on sax and piano and driving distorted guitar with the most delicious echo pedal losing time in the middle. Just four players with pianist playing keyboard bass. It was convincing. Obviously the reharmonization was written to support the convincing, contemporary improvs over the top. Very impressive. Strange to see the same leader in the same club on my return like my organ concert.

Peter Klohman (tenor) led his band Hard Bock with Yiriy Sych (piano, synth bass), Heiko Duffner (guitar) and Leo Asal (drums).

3508 and counting

Organ concerts in churches are a common tourist pleasure in Europe. I know I've been to a few. One was St Katharinen here in Frankfurt where Martin Lücker played a few years ago. That was his concert no.3424. It's a few years on now and Martin was playing his concert no.3508 of Bach Fantasie C Major and Reger Symphonic fantasy and fugue and I was back. Along with about 150 others. These weren't tourists. This is obviously a regular outing for many frankfurters. The Bach was attractive but the Reger was overwhelming. The organ is big and loud and fills the bare, rebuilt space. Reger takes full advantage with ever rising lines of varying degrees of mania. Mvt.2 was some relief with perhaps occasional descending lines but then the climbs returned, excessive and fabulous on deep, loud organ pipes. An organist is frequently obscured or unseen up back in the loft. In this case he's even hidden behind another set of pipes. I thought it was loud so I tested with my phone. I was surprised to find loud passages measured just 75db , much the same as the background noise on the Boeing I'd just flying over on. If the app is accurate. I prefer the organ. But my other thought is Martin Lücker 's music reading. He's virtually played 2 concerts a week since 1985 and the music is not trivial and he plays the music capably and confidently. This is a seriously admirable skill. I am in awe.


Martin Lücker (organ) performed at St Katharinen in Frankfurt.