Europe's very own digital concert hall launched

Another 'digital concert hall' has been launched. Dutch media company CommuniServe B.V. are promoting http://www.monteverdi.tv/ (above) as a resource offering 2,500 hours of classical concerts, blogs, reviews, a downloadable music catalogue and several classical radio stations.

A different take on the digital concert hall here.
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New music from the old world

Interesting article in French over on ConcertoNet.com about twentieth century music in general and Alex Ross' new book in particular. (Flaky machine translation here.) The writer is sometime Overgrown Path contributor Antoine Leboyer who highlights some overlooked contemporary European composers, and particularly recommends exploring Philippe Boesmans (above right), Guillaume Connesson, and Pascal Dusapin.

Connesson and Dusapin are both French, but Boesmans is Belgian. Today, Belgium has been without a government for 157 days, and as time ticks by the possibility of a permanent split between the country's Dutch and French speaking communities comes closer. It is a story that has attracted surprisingly little international media coverage, and that is not because Belgium is of little importance. It was the German invasion of the country in 1914 that caused Britain to enter the First World War, a conflict that changed the world political landscape for ever.

Since 1831, when the country was created by the Catholic Flemings and Walloons separating from the Protestant Netherlands, Belgium has had an identity crisis. This is shown by the following list of Belgium born figures from the arts who are commonly thought to be French, César Frank, Georges Simeon, Jacques Brel, and Renée Magritte, whose Ceci n'est pas une pipe (below) connects him with Simeon's Parisian detective Maigret.


Composer Philippe Boesmans was born in 1936 in Tongeren, in French speaking Wallonia. He worked as a producer of Radio-Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF), and since 1985 has been resident composer at the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels. The 1993 premiere of Boesmans' opera Reigen was given at La Monnaie. This performance took place against a back-drop of possible federalisation, as this article from the New York Times recounts.

My header photo shows Boesmans (right) talking to director Luc Bondy during the production of the composer's new opera Julie at La Monnaie in 2005, and the lower photo is from that production. Julie is a one-act chamber opera is based Strindberg's play, Miss Julie, as is William Alwyn's eponymous opera from 1976. If you want to sample new music from the old world, Philippe Boesmans' Julie is available on Cypres Records in a live recording from La Monnaie.


More on new music in Europe here. And as Christmas is approaching why not visit Le village de Noël in César Frank's birthplace, Liège?
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European politicians catch classical music bug

In the audience for yesterday's Bayreuth Festival performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg were German chancellor Angela Merkel and the president of the European commission, José Manuel Barroso. In the audience at the recent Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment anniversary concert in London was the new UK culture secretary James Purnell. European politicians are catching the classical music bug, as two articles from the official EU website, which I have combined below, confirm:


'Among the ranks of MEPs are two concert pianists - Lithuanian Vytautas Landsbergis (above left) and Luxembourg's Erna Hennicot-Schoepges (above right). This week we speak to them both to get their views on the relative merits of piano playing and being an MEP.

Erna Hennicot-Schoepges has been a leading politician in Luxembourg since the 1970's - mainly through her involvement in cultural policy. She has also held the post of Cultural Minister of Luxembourg. She is also - like fellow MEP Vytautas Landsbergis - a highly skilled pianist. We spoke to her about her experiences in the cultural field - both on a national level and in the European Parliament where she sits as an MEP for the European People's Party and European Democrats.

Vytautas Landsbergis shot to prominence in the late 80's as the leader of Lithuania's independence movement from Soviet rule. He was the county's first post-Soviet leader before becoming an MEP. Prior to both of these he was a concert pianist.

Are musical and political skills comparable?

- Music and politics are complementary. A piece of music obliges one to start from scratch every time. This calls for a significant amount of discipline and an attitude of humility because irrespective of the music level reached, every piece is a fresh challenge each time. Playing music requires working consistently and insistently. What is lacking in politics is certainly harmony and colours, the art of looking at details and of observation and feeling. The danger of politics lies precisely in the potential loss of one's character and the acquirement of wooden language. Citizens are horrified by these empty words which consist of speaking but saying nothing.

- Skills are mental and physical. When talking about music we usually have physical abilities and their preservation and improvement in mind. Nevertheless, mental skills like memory and ideas for performance are following the music during all the moments. One can prepare a well known repertoire for a concert without practicing for a long time - performance is more than repetition. In the European Parliament sometimes you have to prepare for the meetings when you are at the meeting. Preparation is in one's head, unless the questions discussed are completely new.

Should politicians stay out of or support the arts?

- One should not confuse culture with art. One forms part of the other but culture is profound. It differentiates us from other species and gives us especially in Europe a better knowledge of others and a predisposition to dialogue. In art politics should not interfere in the content but politics must ensure the conditions to carry it out. Negative examples of political interference in art like in Nazism and Communism are still fresh in our minds. Back then art was encouraged and financed to ensure national glory, but at the cost of interference in its contents. In the EU we are now at a crossroads. Those countries of the EU which did not experience communism knew insufficient financing and poor, unstructured social conditions for artists. In other countries which knew generous financing, artists have seen a regression in their material conditions. Freedom requires a terrible sacrifice. For liberty one has less money. Thus the Union today must arrive at a balance. The other model is that of the USA where culture is completely privatised and sponsors influence the contents

- Patronage and care about conditions of creation and expression does not necessarily mean interference. We used to live in a regime that was interfering with everything, including the art, but it met insurmountable obstacles, such as music. Just remember the party's decision on good and bad music taken during Stalinist times. It wasted time and created some rubbish. Interference with art is wrong, nevertheless if politicians care about art it does not automatically mean interference.

You personally know the price of freedom and democracy - what is your message to people who are not inclined to vote?

- Non-voting means treason towards representative democracy. It is a paradox. We're re-establishing independence through democracy and won a right not to mechanically vote, but rather choose. If people do not cherish democracy, do not want to participate in it then they can loose it. Sometimes people have to pass democracy exams and defend their elected governments using direct democracy - like in Lithuania in January 1991.

What about those who compare the European Union to the Soviet Union?

- It is hard to speak to ignorant people who confidently repeat clichés. This mental barrier can be overcome by acquainting with the facts on the spot. For example by organising visits to the EU institutions, showing how debates are conducted. Have the people forgetten about the Soviet dictatorship? The Soviet Union was no union, just a falsified Orwelian entity. There was no socialism – the state became a capitalist exploiting workers.

Aside from music, culture is of great importance to you. What do you hope to achieve in this field in the Parliament?

- In Luxembourg I was a Culture Minister - in Parliament I can speak about and say things that others cannot say because they do not know the issue in depth. My goal is to ensure that culture is admitted as a policy field in its own right. It is also a wide subject like the environment. One can speak about culture in law, industry and education. Culture is everywhere.

In your experience, how compatible are artistic and political lifestyles?

- The political world is very creative and is like art in that respect. I chose politics firstly to show that a musician can bring lots of ideas to politics. Secondly, as a woman in Luxembourg a lot remained to be done back then as is still required today in the field of male-female equality and the combination work-family today.

Finally, what is your favourite piece of music?

- A delicate question indeed...but one of my many favourites includes the Goldberg Variations of Bach.

- It is hard to name a single one. My favourite composer is M. K. Čiurlionis.'

* Biography and music samples of M. K. Čiurlionis via this path - he is a real discovery. Music really can help change the world.
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Sarkozy - a minor change to Europe's borders

'I want an integrated Europe, in other words, a Europe that has borders ... Turkey is in Asia Minor' ~ Nicolas Sarkozy, French President-elect.

'The selection panel for the 2010 European Capital of Culture have recommended that the German town Essen and the Hungarian city of Pécs should share this title together with a third one, Turkey's Istanbul' ~ UNESCO World Heritage website

I am a camera in East Berlin

"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Recording the man shaving at the window opposite and the woman in the kimono washing her hair. Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed." (from Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, 1939)

The remarkable photo above was developed, carefully printed, and fixed in the 1970s, but has never before been published. It shows two of the feared East German Vopos (Volkspolizei) whose job it was to guard the Berlin Wall. The photograph was taken across death-strip from the West side of the Wall using a powerful telephoto lens. The original print was passed to me recently, and I scanned it to create the image above. The photographer tells me it has never been seen in public before.

For long periods both sides in the Cold War stand-off exchanged nothing more than shots from cameras across the Wall. But for short periods the shots came from guns. Estimates vary as to how many died trying to cross the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989. The official figure from the German Federal Prosecutor's office is 86 dead at the hands of the Vopos and others. The German Government supported website Chronik der Mauer puts the figure at 125. An even higher figure of 227 is given by Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13, an organisation linked to the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie museum, and known for its strongly anti-communist stance.

Fortunately Berlin is no longer divided, and for pictures of the city today see I am a camera - Berlin re-unified. A united Germany, including the former East Germany, is now one of the member states of the fast-growing European Union. This weekend the EU is marking its 50th anniversary with a celebration of its many achievements. These include creating the political climate that allows democracy to flourish in 27 member countries. Among these are Spain, Portugal, Greece and ten former Communist countries, none of which were truly free in the decades following the Second World War.

In 2005 the European Union and its member states paid out more than €43bn in 2005 in aid to developing countries. This is 0.32 per cent of GNP of the 25 member states, and is approaching double the per capita aid level paid out by the United States, which currently spends 0.2 per cent of GNP. The expanded EU is developing common foreign and defence policies, and these are starting to provide a much needed counter-weight to the global power of the US and China.

Europe loves a party, and we also love music. Centrepiece of the EU anniversary celebrations are an all-night bash in a rejuvenated Berlin,and a birthday party in Brussels where Zucchero, Axelle Red, Simply Red, Hooverphonic, Carla Bruni, The Scorpions, Helmut Lotti, Kim Wilde, Las Ketchup, Nadiya (left), Lou Bega and many others come together for an evening of rock at the Atomium. Across town, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, while some of Europe's best jazzmen will be dotted around the city performing at ‘Jazz in Europe now!’. The Jacky Terrasson Trio, Aka Moon, the 18-year-old sensation Gabor Bolla and his quartet are just some of the top bands in Brussels.

In Portugal, more than 220 'bandas' will open their concerts throughout the country by playing the Europe Anthem all at the same time. In Germany, musicians from all 27 EU countries take to the road to play in 50 German cities. Were you born on 25 March? If so, you are invited to a special concert of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in Luxembourg. The EU is not new to supporting musical events. The Brxl Bravo Festival (Brussels, 2-4 March) and the European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) are just two recent examples. Most of the financial support comes from Culture 2007.

* I Am a Camera is the title of the play by Christopher Isherwood that became the hugely successful musical and film Cabaret (right). The play was based on Isherwood's Berlin novels, Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939). During his time in Berlin in the 1930s Isherwood lived in a tenement block in Schöneberg, which after the war was in the American Sector to the south of the Wall.

Now read about contemporary music from 1930s Berlin in Furtwängler and the forgotten new music.
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Germany’s new generation of gypsies

Gypsies are the forgotten victims of the Holocaust, and it is estimated that half a million perished under the Nazi regime. But in recent years the reshaping of political boundaries and new migrations have increased the number of Sinti and Roma living in Germany to around 70,000, though this number is only an estimate as the German government does not keep records of ethnicity. The situation is further complicated as many Roma who arrived in the 1990s from former Yugoslavia do not hold German citizenship, and hence are classified as immigrants or refugees. The powerful photograph above of a Roma family near Stuttgart comes from an excellent photo essay in Catalyst magazine, which is published by the UK Commission for Racial Equality.

Now join the Roma as they Celebrate with Saint Sarah
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Berlin parties as Europe expands

Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate is the place to be on New Year's Eve as a huge party gets underway to welcome Bulgaria and Romania to the EU. The headline act is the Scissor Sisters, with the two new member states supplying support in the form of Bulgarian rock singer Roberta and Romanian band Sistem, and more than one million visitors are expected to attend. The Brandenburg Gate has been the scene of a number of famous free concerts including Leonard Bernstein’s Beethoven Ninth in 1989, see the photo above. If you can’t be in Berlin tomorrow night the next best thing is to join in the fun online via this link.

* Now playing - Michael Tippett's suite from his opera New Year. Not exactly party music, the opera is set on New Year's Eve in Terror Town where the principal characters face up to life in a violent, blighted society with the help of friendly space voyagers. There is only one recording, Richard Hickox presides over the fun with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

For more on eastern European music read how Composers struggle under Shostakovich regime
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Europe's news secret weapon - culture

With industry in decline and high streets dominated by Far Eastern imports, Europe has discovered a secret economic weapon: culture. The arts and creative industries now earn more than double the cash produced by European car-makers and contribute more to the economy than the chemical industry, property or the food and drink business.

An independent study commissioned by the European Commission has underlined the changing way in which Europeans earn their living. Throughout the Continent people are now much more likely to work in sectors such as television, fashion or other "niche" jobs than in a car assembly plant.

The sector employs no fewer than 5.8 million people, more than the working population of Greece and Ireland together. While jobs disappeared overall in the EU between 2002-04, they actually rose by 1.85 per cent in the culture and creative sectors. And creative workers tend to be better educated and more flexible than others. Almost half have a university degree, as opposed to about one-quarter of the overall working population, and the sector has twice the standard rate of self-employed people.

Jan Figel, the European commissioner for education, training, culture and multilingualism, said: "This study confirms that the arts and culture are far from being marginal in terms of their economic contribution. The culture sector is the engine of creativity, and creativity is the basis for social and economic innovation." The study draws on a broad definition of the cultural sector, beyond traditional areas such as cinema, music and publishing. The written press, radio and television, and creative sectors such as fashion and interior and product design, cultural tourism, the performing arts, visual arts, and heritage, were included - reports today's Independent.

My header photo shows Zwickau's tribute to local boy Robert Schumann. For more on Europe's cultural secret weapon take An Overgrown Path to Leipzig and Dresden, and read how in Europe music history was rewritten.

Header image taken by Pliable March 2006 (c) On An Overgrown Path. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk