A new favourite pianist

I listen to quite as lot of music on video -- mostly classical.  And the piano is of course a big part of that.  So it is a very pleasant discovery for me to come across a new artist -- new to me anyway.  Up until recently my favourite pianist was Yuja Wang, a gift to us all from Beijing.  I have just in the last few days got to hear the playing of Alice Sara Ott, from Germany.  Her mother was Japanese so she is rather tiny in build but quite pretty. 

I have heard quite a few pieces by her but the one that gets to me most is Beethoven's 3rd Piano concerto.  Her timing is exquisite.  Below she joins with the French national radio orchestra in Paris under a Finnish conductor.



Before her the pianist I was listening to most was Yuja Wang.  She is quite amazing playing Schubert.  I know the words and story for quite a few Schubert Lieder and listening to Wang play I could swear she has the words in her head too.  Her playing exactly reflects the poem concerned.  Below is an example of that most dramatic Lied Der Erlkoenig -- set to a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



The Erl-King

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Who's riding so late where winds blow wild
It is the father grasping his child;
He holds the boy embraced in his arm,
He clasps him snugly, he keeps him warm.

"My son, why cover your face in such fear?"
"You see the elf-king, father?
He's near! The king of the elves with crown and train!"
"My son, the mist is on the plain."

'Sweet lad, o come and join me, do!
Such pretty games I will play with you;
On the shore gay flowers their color unfold,
My mother has many garments of gold.'

"My father, my father, and can you not hear
The promise the elf-king breathes in my ear?"
"Be calm, stay calm, my child, lie low:
In withered leaves the night-winds blow."

'Will you, sweet lad, come along with me?
My daughters shall care for you tenderly;
In the night my daughters their revelry keep,
They'll rock you and dance you and sing you to sleep.'

"My father, my father, o can you not trace
The elf-king's daughters in that gloomy place?"
"My son, my son, I see it clear
How grey the ancient willows appear."

'I love you, your comeliness charms me, my boy!
And if you're not willing, my force I'll employ.'
"Now father, now father, he's seizing my arm.
Elf-king has done me a cruel harm."

The father shudders, his ride is wild,
In his arms he's holding the groaning child,
Reaches the court with toil and dread. -
The child he held in his arms was dead.


And before that I was most often listening to Emil Gilels, a Ukrainian pianist from the Soviet era -- playing Beethoven's 5th concerto, "The Emperor".  Its beauty  still moves me to tears

A weekend of dinners

On Friday night Anne and I had our usual Friday night dinner at my place with some good Wagyu sausages on the menu.  I made the salad and Anne did the cooking. Wine tends to give Anne a bit of congestion so I made her a Martini -- which she particularly likes -- while I had a can of Fourex Gold.  I hear that I make a good Martini but I don't drink them myself. Adding a wormwood liquor to good Gin seems sacrilege to me.

Then on Saturday  night it was the 13th anniversary of Anne and myself being together.  So we had what we usually have for special occasions:  Fried French (lamb) cutlets.  I got some really nice ones --  big, lean and juicy -- from Woolworths for a largish sum and Anne brought over some Sydney rock oysters.  We had the dinner at my place and I made up a big salad to go with it.  I put a few pickled onions in the salad.  Anne likes them but is a bit allergic to them.  She ate them anyway.  We had a bottle of a German "champagne" -- Henkel Trocken -- to wash it all down.  It is Anne's favourite champagne and I like it too.

After the main meal we had some small Belgian chocolate desserts.  And after that we listened to a CD of music from Vienna.  It had some good arias from operetta in it so we both enjoyed it.  It was a CD from a concert Anne went to in Vienna -- on one of her many trips to Europe

And on Sunday Joe gave me a Father's day dinner.  He got some excellent Barramundi from a very good fish shop we have near us so I had a very enjoyable dinner of fish 'n chips,  We talked about politics and Mr Trump as we usually do. I drank a can of Fourex Gold and Joe had whisky and Coke.

It was actually the second dinner we had had together that day as we also did our usual Sunday visit to the pie shop for a bacon & egg breakfast that morning. 

I suspect that I see my son more often than most fathers do.  He is sitting only a few yards from me as I write this in fact -- with both of us on our respective computers.  The fact that we both have similar musical tastes and similar political opinions does help.  On politics we are both deep into detail.  We mentioned the Holodomor tonight for instance -- not something on everybody's horizon.  Mostly, however we talk about American politics -- as that has most impact on the world.

I was pleased that Von sent me a Father's Day greeting.  She and I have always got on especially well.  When she was a little girl, I explained to everybody that she was a lady and had to be treated that way.  Everybody more or less went along with that but Paul thought it was a bit of a racket.