Hitler's elephant

You need a late start sometimes given that travel is otherwise so consistent. Today's first outing was a Bach harpsichord concert in the Elephant Hotel in Marktplaz in Weimar early lunchtime. It's the prestigious hotel from whose balcony Hitler spoke. Look for the recent photo of a Nazi rally in Martktplaz. But it's a nice big comfy room with a Steinway and a harpsichord ready for entertainment. This day it was Ki Feng Yeung, a student at the local Hochschule playing Ritter, Sweelink and 2xJS Bach. He was a little unsteady, perhaps unprepared, on the Ritter but better on the others but the harpsichord was strong and present and nicely infectious when comfortably played. So a nice lunchtime outing and a good opportunity for the local student community to get some gig time. But odd also to associate this hotel with its neighbour just 2 doors up, E. Keller, that bohemian basement bar I had attended just the night before.

Ki Feng Yeung performed a lunchtime concert at the Elephant Hotel, Marktplaz, Weimar.

Bb mates

The significant experimental-cum-jazz club in Weimar seems to be C Keller. It's behind a door littered with stickers and posters in Marktplaz, the heart of town. It opened its doors at 9pm for an opening duo at 9.30 preceding a jam session thereafter. This is a town of many music students and I think it's them who promoted and run these sessions. It's a small ground floor room, dark and littered with paints and posters, with a decent bar up two big steps and a friendly if dishevelled staff. It's free entry for the jam night (a hat is passed around for the opening band) and well priced beers so it's a cheap night out. Immensely worthy, too. Since Chris Pound introduced me to DOMi and JD Beck, I have heard or seen references all over. This band was in that style, all frenzied and inventive and odd times and deep grooves with all manner of accents and explosive phrasings and then sitting and searching electronica between tunes. They were advertised as piano and drums, but had added bass on the night. Incredibly, a wonderfully capable bassist playing first time on a fretless (a borrowed Ibanez SRF700). Pianist Franka sat with her Nord on her lap (hints of DOMi videos), all heavy then explosive then repetitive, sometimes playing with the volume on a cartoon movie projected over the band. She and bassist Philipp had charts, presumably sketches but sometimes complex bassy lines to play in ecstatic unison. Plenty of repetition of four or eight bar passages overlaid with those phrasings and those intricate, jumpy drum parts. Drummer Felix had started on an e-drum pad for heavy beats and oddly toned snares then switched to acoustic. I noticed a cloth on the snare, reminiscent of JD Beck. Not that they hid their influences when I chatted a few words with them after. Suffice to say, this was deeply thrilling to my ears, new and exploratory in the continuing history of jazz and relatives. Then on to a few jamming bands. The first was OK with a notable pairing of trombone/pocket trumpet up front playing real book charts. Then an older crew (including bassist Philipp returning on hollow body e-bass playing thumpy fingerstyle) presenting a decent bebop set. Nicely done, especially some dissonant passages the soprano sax entered into, but as I said to a Turkish musicologist I was sitting with, it's now a music of 80 years ago. Worthy but hardly the bleeding edge. That tribute can go to the opening band which, probably tongue in cheek and temporarily, was called Let's be flatmates (Let's Bb mates?).

Let's be flatmates performed at C Keller, Markt, Weimar, and were followed by a jazz jam session. Let's be flatmates comprise Franka Bayertz (keys), Felix Neumann (drums) and Philipp Thomas (bass).

Small town

It's a small town but with an interesting history and it places Weimar in an odd class. The small town museums I've visited are generally lesser things, smaller, less significant collections. It's not the case here, but I did feel underwhelmed with 2 museums yesterday. But then, perhaps it's to some degree a function of language: we don't speak German. The first was a major national institution, the Bauhaus Museum. The other was the Stadtmuseum Weimar, so more in the local category. Bauhaus was the design training institution that's renowned for its developments between the wars, seeking new responses in architecture, design, living. The history of the new man, the Nazi interferences, the changing leadership and location was outlined and we saw designs for housing and examples of furnishings. I wondered about the influences of Frank Lloyd Wright and others. FLW considerably preceded the Bauhaus. I was somewhat non-plussed by waste of space and confusion about moving through the exhibition spaces. Despite promoting modest family housing, the building was replete with half-hidden staircases, tall rooms, form over function and the like. Nice, arty and impressive, but I thought inconsistent. I liked that we could test some of the iconic chair designs. They are significant and some still are available. My father, an uncle and a friend each have/had Bauhaus-styled chairs. I particularly liked the project rooms that were given over to an informed presentation with national and international political implications on homelessness. It was a worthy and informed deliberation and obviously well received by the visitors. Then on to the Stadtmuseum of Weimar. This is a local museum, free access for tourists, in a worthy old building, with lots of visuals, a lesser collection and all captions in German so hard for us to judge. We saw of the democracy movement, the Nazis, life and times, the National Theatre, quite a few costumes which are always interesting, a few swords and pipes and the like. Amusingly, the temporary exhibition was of bookmarks over the centuries. Who would'a thunk it!

The Bauhaus Museum and Stadtmuseum Weimar are in Weimar.

Meeting more musicians

I often say that jazz is a great interest to travel with as there are clubs all over that are public and the community is not so large but it's inviting. It's somewhat the same with community orchestras although obviously much less frequent but they hold concerts and you can compare notes with corresponding instrumentalists. We found one in the significant Herderkircke celebrating Reformation Day. The Stadtkirchenorchestrer Weimar was performing an orchesterkonzert zum Reformationstag under Erik Sieglerschmidt with soprano Anna Kellnhoer. The orchestra isn't large (~20) but it contains all the strings and winds and a timpani. They were playing Mendelssohn overture from Paulus, some Haydn arias and recitatives and his Clock symphony Hob.101. In the major church in Weimar, also called St Peter and Paul or the Stadtkirche but popularly Herderkircke after its founder. It's a Lutheran church from 1525 following the Reformation which we were presumably celebrating ... under an artistically significant, large, colourful crucifixion triptych by Lucas Cronach the elder and next to a small, stern triptych of three church elders. Thus is German history. The Mendelssohn was initially mild but later littered with busy fugues which I drool over. The arias and recitatives were fairly short but Anna had a lovely voice expressing well. The Clock was a lovely pleasure ticking along at a gentle pace early on but lifting to vivace in the final movement and challenging the basses. I met one bass, Amelie, younger and an early bass student at the local Hoschschule and a capable English speaker, and greeted the other, incidentally her mother. So a pleasurable outing and a serendipitous find in the presence of some arresting art. Thus is often enough my Germany. PS, I picked up a brochure of the music at Herderkircke and it is impressive: numerous concerts from its Bach choir, Evangelical singing school, Bach cantata ensemble, Stadtkircken orchestra, period (court) ensemble and organ.

The Stadtkirchenorchestrer Weimar performed Mendelssohn and Haydn under Erik Sieglerschmidt (conductor) and soloist Anna Kellnhoer (soprano). Amelie Kirst and Regina Kirst (bass) performed the bottom end.

Why Weimar?

It's been a fairly frequent question and we weren't too sure of an answer other than the Weimar Republic and it's near Leipzig. We are here now and discovering how small it is (~65,000) and one young muso was telling us how her mates just want to leave when they can given the life (it happens everywhere). Certainly this is a quiet town on day 1 but it's a public holiday. So what's the history? UNESCO recognise Weimar for its the Republic (Germany's first democracy) and also Bauhaus which was based here, but there's also Goethe and Schiller and Bach (6 Bach children born here; 3 survived past 1 year) and Liszt (the Liszt School of Music is here) and Richard Strauss and the Weimar Republic and Walter Gropius and Hitler and Buchenwald (grimly, there's a bus here that has Buchenwald as its destination but also frequent memorials to local victims victims). The population graph for Weimar is indicative of its history: a steady rise from early 1800s to ~WW2 then pretty much unchanged since. Plus it's on a local track and our journey from Koln had taken eight hours with cascading missed trains (a ticket inspector had had expressed it thus: "Welcome to Germany"). But it's looking up. We've found the local interesting venue and there are museums aplenty and only a few days and we've got a few musical events to attend and it's walkable so looking good. PS. Just some other names associated with Weimar are Marlene Dietrich, Berlioz, Kandinsky, Klee, Martin Luther, Schopenhauer, Rudolf Steiner, Carl Zeiss, Nina Hagen...

Weimar is a small town with a big history in Germany.

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.

Tramming it up

Just an indulgent, relaxed tram trip through small towns to Bonn today. Bonn has been the capital of Germany and it's jsut a hour on the tram thre, so why not. The attraction was Beethoven haus, where LvB was born but the intent ws just a day away from more serious outings. For us, the tram passes underground through a local square jsut metres away, then comes to ground level for most of the trip, past various metropolitan stations then small feeder towns and to the Bonn Hbf. There are crowds throughout the malls, it being a Saturday, and it didn't let up. Incredibly, we didn't even cross a road, the city centre being just wide cobblestoned malls throughout, or so it seemed. What a wonderful lifestyle, healthy and slow and humane although I wonder how to transport double basses in this world (I've seen it, actually, with double basses lugged like big backpacks through railway stations). Meeting a fellow dachshund owner (one of only 2 dachshunds we've seen in Germany this visit) and visiting a strange modern-art display in an otherwise colourful Jesuit church. Then to the Beethoven Haus. As I expected, presumably a private museum with not much that's original, although they do have a treasury with a some original writings under decent security. Otherwise there are facsimiles throughout, LvB's last piano, some hearing aids of the time, his viola and a string quartet of instruments gifted to LvB from the local prince, requisite death mask and the like. And some paintings including one that's used frequently, not least for at least on program I've played in. So the indulgent pic. They also present concerts and do musicological research and even maintain a publishing house so a worthy institution, but we missed most of that. As for the Beethoven Haus shop, my favourite item was the little LvB statue with the solar powered conducting arm, a Bonn-esque Maneki necko, the Japanese lucky cat (€20 from Amazon, eBay etc; there's also a waving QE2). As you would do, a pleasant Saturday outing to Bonn.

The Beethoven Haus is in Bonn.