Milano 31 July 2011

I have now officially moved into my new house in Milano. Actually the move took place two days ago. It is a very nice little apartment right next door to Michele's sister, who owns it. A lounge/kitchen area downstairs and upstairs there are two rooms, one of which is mine and the other empty for now. I have my own bathroom also.
I went to the supermarket for the first time yesterday...there are all manner of interesting and delicious looking foods there. So many choices of pasta and oil and cheese and prosciutto. But I decided it was high time to have Indian food again, so I bought some rabbit meat and proceeded to cook a rabbit curry.
The fresh markets are everywhere and nice and cheap. I love the pomodorino (cherry tomato) and the basil.
Michele has been kind enough to invite me to eat his cooking yesterday...I learnt how to make gaspacho (I think I spelled it correctly), a spanish dish of fresh vegetable, almost like a cold soup. Very nice and very healthy. I think European food in general seems so much more healthy than what most people eat in Australia.
This morning I went with Michele to the catholic church where he plays the organ. It was interesting to see church in Italian...

I must go and practice more. We have the first rehearsal with Arcomelo tomorrow all day. And I still don't have the last movement of the CPE Bach fast enough yet...

Ciao!!

Urbino 27 July 2011

These days are becoming so full and so much fun that I can hardly remember where to start. Last night there was danza popolare again after the concerts so it started at 11:30pm...the last dancing for the course. It was much fun!! Afterwards I sat and talked to Marzio while waiting for the other college musicians to finish some drinks after dancing and got home to sleep after 2am.

Had a nice slow morning and then a rehearsal for the concert tonight. Susanna tutored my Marini and it was sounds a lot better now that my theorbist and lutist and gambist and everyone else was all there (for the first time).

Some goodbyes have already been said....to Luca Guglielmi yesterday and Alfredo Bernadini today...so sad when some of our best and most exciting tutors leave. Bernadini is one of the most entertaining people I have every met, and also a wonderful musician! He has told us many very funning stories of his performances and even seeing him doing 'ordinary' things is rather fun.

I had adopted two Italian sisters, Francesca and Annalisa. Both play violin. Francesca is doing the course here and is 17 and her sister Annalisa is only eleven and just here with the parents. Very lovely girls and it is very nice to hear them speak Italian. And I have also adopted some Italian brothers.....my very nice musician friends who I usually eat dinner with, Nicolo and Riccardo.

It has been raining most of today...just a light misty rain most of the time, although I did get quite wet coming home tonight. Very strange and cool summer for Italy. I am glad to have borrowed a warm sleeping bag from Kim and Stijn.

Ah, the concert tonight was very fun! My little group played the Eco sonata by Marini with the two echo violins outside the door. Quite effective. The our Mattheis was taken out of the program by the organisers because the concert was quite long already and it only started at 11pm. But my theorbist sneakily modulated to the right key after the Marini and we played it anyway. And so we became the concert terrorists... But the audience loved the piece and we received many nice compliments afterwards. After the concert we sat around for awhile and now I am finally home and writing this at 3am.

Buona notte!

Urbino 24 July 2011

Music making has been quite full on as usual with a performance of two pieces at a concert last night as part of my chamber music group. Started rehearsing Rameau Dardanus suite in orchestra yesterday and I had the interesting task of so many clef changes...beginning the day with treble, then switching to alto clef for playing a viola part on the violin, then in the Rameau we have soprano clef for several sections and then the rest in French clef....eeeek! Note+information+brain overload...

I do not remember much else from yesterday without a great deal of thought.

Today I did the first rehearsal with a soprano singer, but a guy!!! Amazing voice...and he can sing up to the third F above middle C. Incredible! 

Today there was rain and storms in Urbino. The sky was so beautiful and the air full of energy, but it did get cold later. Unusual for this time of year here...a nice change after some of the hot days we have had. 

Have been practicing my Italian a lot now. Nicolo and Riccardo teach me new words everyday and are very entertaining company. 

And after the second concert tonight (which I did not go to) Yotam and I did a session of salsa dancing in front of Palazzo Ducale...fun, but I am not so good at salsa.

I cannot really remember much else, there are so many things happening and so many details that would take too long to write...

Urbino 22 July 2011

Writing this helps me remember what day it is... The days are passing by so filled with such different activities that I do not usually know if it is Monday or Friday or Tuesday. Time hardly exists at the moment...if there is such a thing as a moment when there is no time.

This morning I sort of slept in a bit later than usual but finally got up to have breakfast in the 'mensa' at college. Kim and I walked to school and came to the violin lessons. I was just in time to play some Leclair with Davide and then caught a theorbo player who agreed to do my Marini sonata with me. After the lesson, Johan (not sure how to spell the Swedish version of this) and I went in search of a place where we could have a quick look at this piece and see if I needed to get the bass part figured. There are music lessons going on in every room in the whole school and we tried to play in the corridor but got sent away because it was disturbing a singer. We went out onto the cobbled streets and went into a side door leading to another interesting corridor. We tried to ask the men there if we could play there...eventually one man took us through the bathrooms to an office-like room where we practiced. 

Almost all the rooms in Urbino seem to be very big and full of echoes. Its quite easy to get lazy about making a good violin sounds because it is so easy to sounds quite nice in this kind of acoustic. But it has such a nice resonance...

I should have described the town of Urbino in a little more detail. It is a very small medieval city situated on top of a hill in eastern Italy, about an hour from the coast. There is a wall around the city and the streets are paved with stone and there are four room high stone house/apartments on each side of the streets. Very beautiful! There are several palaces and churches and other nice big buildings and stone carvings and fountains. But the most stunning thing is the view of the countryside from the city. Because it is on top of a hill, when standing on the edge of the city walls you can view green valleys and hills, everything green and refreshing. The college where we are staying is outside of the city walls but we have a very nice walk to get there. 

Tonight at about 9:45 we started dancing in one of the town squares. It is Italian 'danza popolare' or folk dancing. Everyone joins in as the lady is calling the dances. People who live here, students from America who stay at the colleges, music students and teachers and other people who are visiting for the Musica Antica festival. It is a very social and fun little session. Afterwards of course we had some more gelato.

Ah and the food... simply DELIZIOSO! Breakfast is not such an important thing in Italy, except for the coffee. But the pizzas, the pastas, and the Buffalo mozzarella with tomato, and the prosciutto and rocket are so good. For lunch today I had my favourite (at the moment) salad made with tomato, olives, egg, carrot, cucumber, lettuce and tuna with lots of amazing Italian oil on top. Each meal is something to look forward to...

This post is way to long...I must stop and go to bed so I can wake up tomorrow.

Buona notte!

Urbino 21 July 2011

Been in the splendours of Urbino for three days already! Enjoying music all day long, and the excellent food and company. Today I played in Yotam's cello lesson Haydn concerto in C and then had a lesson with Suzanna on Marini Eco Sonata for three violins. Also played chamber music with Luca Guglielmi as tutor. We did Gabrielli sonata for three violins and Falconieri Passacalle. Then orchestra with Suzanna french style with Lully dances.
Went to my first concert tonight to see Enrico Gatti play some early Italian music. It was nice, but I did not like a lot his bowing style. I do want to play the Mattheis fantasia that he played however. After the concert Kim, Stijn, Yotam and I had gelato and watched some tango dancing. Unfortunately no folk dancing tonight.
Learnt some new words in Italian today, but forgot some of them. It is fun to practice speaking with people who don't know much English.
It is very late now...too late to be sitting up writing when I have music to play in the morning!
Buona notte!!!