Miss Lingard's Fragrant Bouquet
Saturday, August 03, 2019
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| Phlox carolina 'Miss Lingard' buds not yet opened 3 August 2019 |
My RAE
(Diccionario de la Real Academia) has no entry for phlox. The closest is
flof (defined as the noise objects make when they fall) and
flux.
Phlox carolina ‘Miss Lingard’ is a fave perennial of my
Rosemary. She likes it because it is white, has a lovely scent and it does not
develop the rust that other phloxes invariably get.
No matter how much I searched I did not find any Miss
Lingard. My guess is that since this particular phlox is sometimes called the
Wedding Flox, Miss Lingard can no longer found as she adopter her new husband’s
surname.
As perennials go I cannot get excited about phlox. But then
no garden is a garden if it is a mono culture of roses or bi-culture of roses
and hostas. With the rose season in hiatus until early fall I could not resist
cutting the phlox and scanning it.The same goes for my scan of
Hosta 'Fragrant Bouquet'.
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| Hosta 'Fragrant Bouquet' 3 August 2019 |
Kathleen Allan - Conductor - Composer - Soprano
Friday, August 02, 2019
I have photographed
musical conductors in my past but never one who was not only a female but was
also somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6 ft. For many of my photographs of
Kathleen Allan I had to stand on a stool in order for my camera to be at her
eyelevel.
Most of the musical conductors that have faced my camera
have not been all that young and none had a complexion as smooth as Allan’s.
When I asked her to be serious and with her imposing presence (helped by the
fact that she was dressed in black all the way to her shoes) I told her that
she may have chosen the wrong profession. I think that she would have excelled as headmistress
in an exclusive school for girls. They would all behave not wanting to face her
in the office.
On the other hand it seems that with the many hats Allan
wears she has to deal with children. This is why I asked her to wear her baton
in her hair and to give me a serious and then a smiling look. I am sure that
children would feel comfortable with her.
Taking her photographs, after having watched her direct a
French program at Early Music Vancouver, while her almost-as-handsome-cohort
LeslieDala dealt with Gabriel Fauré, was a treat. I wrote about that concert
here.
Toronto may be lucky to have Allan in their city but it is
nice to point out that Matthew White, Artistic and Executive Director of
EarlyMusic Vancouver, brought Allan to her former home for this year’s
EMV BachFestival. We hope that White will continue with this splendid joint
undertaking.
Anaranjado & Bulls that Drag their Testicles
Thursday, August 01, 2019
 |
| Rosa 'Westerland' 4 August 2019 |
My on line dictionary of the Spanish Language RAE (Real
Academia Española) is my quick reference for spelling and that nasty accent. But
it is also a repository of the origin of the words. For example the word
naranja which in Spanish applies mostly to the fruit. One can say in Spanish, “Los
pantalones era de color naranja.” (The pants were of an orange colour.” But it
is far easier to use the word anaranjado (anaranjada ). It is a lovely word to
pronounce. The pants would simply be anaranjados.
nāranǧ, este del persa nārang, y este del sánscr. nāraṅga. 1. ... Fruto del naranjo , de forma globosa , de seis a ocho
centímetros de diámetro , corteza rugosa , de color entre rojo y amarillo ,
como el de la pulpa , que está dividida en gajos , y es comestible , jugosa y
de sabor agridulce . RAE
The hot weather brings with it fiaca (Argentine Spanish for
laziness). We Argentines are most uncouth with the use of language. We may be
up there with the uncouth Jarochos (from the Mexican State of Veracruz). When
somebody nags an Argentine the usual answer in protests is ,”¡Nó me rompas las
bolas (or the even more uncouth Pelotas)! It is all about someone breaking your
testicles.
Stupid people are usually either boludos or pelotudos. I
think that the origin of those expressions may have to do with the Rural in
Buenos Aires. This was a sort of PNE and at the Rural I saw my first huge bull
barely able to move with testicles that dragged to the ground.
You hear the word shouted, “¡Pelotudo!” and you instantly
know it is an Argentine.
This fiaca that I feel brings with it little desire to write
elaborate and long blogs. In fact I have noticed that in the last five years my
blogs are awfully short.
The song below (one that includes the orange) is often sung
in Mexico for Christmas:
Naranjas
y limas
Naranjas
y limas,
limas y
limones,
más
linda es la Virgen
que todas las flores.
Salgan
acá fuera,
miren
qué primores;
verán a
la rama
cubierta
de flores.
Denme mi
aguinaldo
si me lo
han de dar,
que la
noche es larga,
tenemos
que andar.
Salgan acá
fuera,
miren
qué bonito;
verán a
la rama
con sus
farolitos.
Ya se va
la rama
muy
agradecida,
porque
en esta casa
fue bien
recibida.
Ya se va
la rama
muy
desconsolada,
porque
en esta casa
no le
dieron nada.
Canción
popular
Oranges
and Limes
Oranges and limes
limes and lemons,
the Virgins is lovelier
than all flowers.
Come outside
Look how lovely;
you will see the branches
covered with flowers.
Give me my Christmas bonus
if you are going to give it to me
the night is long
and we have to go.
Come outside
look how pretty
you will see the branch
with all its lights.
The branch is leaving
thankful it is
because in this house
it was well received.
The branch is leaving
unconsoled
because in this house
they gave her nothing.
Popular song (My translation)
I Want to Live My Death
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
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| Pedro Armendariz |
While I have seen John Ford’s 1947 film, The Fugitive, at
least twice, this time around I was floored by the dialogue between the “Mexican
Clark Gable” Pedro Armendariz (The Lieutenant) and Henry Fonda (The Priest) who
was going to face a firing squad in the morning. The film is loosely based on
Graham Greene’s novel The Power and the Glory. Fonda is an alcoholic priest (Greene's The Whiskey Priest)
attempting to flee a country (probably Mexico) where priests were persecuted
and executed.
Our cowardly priest played superbly by Fonda has finally
found himself on the evening of his execution. The Lieutenant, the avid atheist
and priest hater shows he has a heart when he says, “Can I give you some
brandy? It will help you forget.”
The priest answers, “No thank you, I want to live my death.”
The novel and the film are quite different as there are many
more characters in Greene’s book including an English dentist. In many ways while they are indeed different, the novel is as good as the film. That it inspired writer Dudley Nichols to see eye to eye with Ford and Figueroa is a wonder.
 |
| The priest - Henry Fonda |
But the film is simpler and starker (thanks to Gabriel
Figueroa’s luminous black and white film shot in several Mexican towns) and it
plays on the idea that in the novel, the priest is Christ who has been forsaken
by His Father. There is a bad gringo, Ward Bond who represents the good thief.
The wavering Chief of Police, Leo Carillo is Pontius Pilate, Dolores del Río
(never named, just the Indian woman) Mary Magdalene and the nasty and oily
informer (really scary) J. Carol Naish is Judas.
To me this film is as perfect a film as can be made. It is
interesting that Mexican director Emilio "Indio" Fernández helped John Ford but is
uncredited.
The film and that stark quote served to throw cold water on
me and make me realize that at my age of 77 there are still new things under
the sun and that I have yet to become an automaton without feeling.
An Edwardian on the Concord
Graham Greene on Sharks, Vultures & Palenque
Pedro Páramo & Gabriel Figueroa
John Ford & Sun-Yat-Sen
Que sea de cinco balazos
Mexican Nostalgia
EMV's Fauré With Lots of Juice
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
 |
| Christina Hutten's mirror on the organ of Christ Church Cathedral 30 July 2019 |
“Give me some juice, I will gladly take it”.
Music Director Leslie Dala to organist Christina Hutten
A quick perusal of Thursday’s Early Music Vancouver
concert of the Bach Festival (at the end of this blog), an all French 19
th
and 20
th century programme, may seem at odds with the theme of the festival.
 |
| Leslie Dala & choir |
To me it makes sense as I am aware that there is a most
likely explanation if one considers the joint discovery of the calculus by
Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. Their finding of the infinitesimal means
that I could pour some hard liquor (the type that my friend Martin Auclair, the
bass singer in this program, uses sparingly to aid in keeping his low notes)
into any BC lake and within time, easily calculated by the Calculus, one could
determine the presence of the liquor on the other side of the lake. In the same way there are 95 years between
the death of Bach and birth of Gabriel Fauré. Surely there would be the
presence, and influence of Bach on Fauré?
I will diverge from the above by mentioning Vancouver Sun
gossip columnist Malcolm Parry who guides what he does by the concept of the “privileged
position”. You can look down from a high building but never, if you have any
class look up. Anybody can be present at a rock concert but a few can be
backstage. And so with me yesterday Tuesday at a rehearsal of the Fauré at
Christ Church Cathedral I was up in the balcony with organist Christina Hutten and I was privy to stuff that will not
be noticed or known by concertgoers on Thursday night. I feel quite smug about
it.
I watched Hutten step on the 16 Hz pedal quite a few times during the Fauré. Being next to the pipes made that sound all that more striking.
The organist at the Cathedral faces the organ and not the
stage/altar. In order for her to see the director, Leslie Dala she has a mirror
standing on the instrument. But there is a time lapse between her seeing Dala’s
hands and her playing. There is the added problem that Hutten has to deal with
complex organ boxes besides reading the music.
 |
| Christina Hutten |
The solution was to bring music director Kathleen Allan
to mimic Dala’s conducting upstairs by the organ. Without having to look at
her, Hutten was able to play the music in unison with the choir below.
This was most interesting for me as I have attended two performances, in my past of Charles Ives's
The Unanswered Question in which two conductors are used!
While Fauré’s work is usually played with an orchestra
there is another form of it in which just an organ is used. That Fauré was the
organist at La Madeleine makes that quite appropriate if you consider Hutten’s
sheer virtuosity.
I was surprised to see Rebecca Whitling with her violin
upstairs. This violinist not only plays for the Vancouver Symphony but for the
avant-garde
Standing Wave. In the Sanctus, the third section of Fauré’s
7 section Requiem she plays on her instrument. Behind her I could hardly hear
it but below, thanks to the unusually good acoustics it was loud and clear
below.
 |
| Rebecca Whitling |
To cap all the privileged stuff I was able to discern on
the balcony, baritone Sumner Thompson, wearing shorts, and soprano Danielle Sampson each sang
solos.
 |
| Kathleen Allan & Sumner Thompson |
The quote by
Leslie Dala in the beginning of this blog
has a likely explanation. Dala is of Hungarian heritage. During the two-hour rehearsal
he wanted drama and sometimes sound volume from the choir and the organist.
The seventh section Paradisum did not sound to me like a body was being taken out a church slowly! It had some lovely touches with the organ (subtle juice) that was lively and happy. My Wikipedia search of Paradisum gave me this:
It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an
aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.
The music of Gounod
has been criticised for its inclination towards human tenderness. But
his nature predisposed him to feel this way: religious emotion took this
form inside him. Is it not necessary to accept the artist's nature? As
to my Requiem, perhaps I have also instinctively sought to escape from
what is thought right and proper, after all the years of accompanying
burial services on the organ! I know it all by heart. I wanted to write
something different
 |
| Danielle Sampson |
Sitting with Kathleen Allan she told me (and this was
true for me, too) if we looked at bass singer Martin Auclair, standing on the
second row of the huge choir, she could hear him!
 |
| Martin Auclair & friend at VanDusen Botanical Garden |
Fauré Requiem
Thursday August 1, 2019 | 7:30PM (Pre-concert talk at
6:45PM)
Christ Church Cathedral | Map
Leslie Dala, music director; Vancouver Bach Choir;
Kathleen Allan, music director; Danielle Sampson, soprano; Sumner Thompson,
baritone; Christina Hutten, organ
For EMV’s first collaboration with the Vancouver Bach
Choir, the singers of this illustrious choir join sixteen of the finest
professional choral singers in the Pacific Northwest for a performance of
Faure’s uplifting Requiem and Cantique de Jean Racine. The first half will
focus on unaccompanied performances of works by other important French
composers including a full performance of Poulenc’s Mass in G.
Programme
VANCOUVER BACH CHOIR AND VANCOUVER BACH FESTIVAL CHAMBER
CHOIR
conducted by Leslie Dala
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924):
Cantique de Jean Racine
VANCOUVER BACH FESTIVAL CHAMBER CHOIR
conducted by Kathleen Allan
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963):
Mass in G major
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974):
Cantique du Rhône – I. Qu’il est beau
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921):
Op. 68,
No. 2: Les fleurs et les arbres
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937):
Trois Chansons – III. Ronde
INTERVAL
VANCOUVER BACH CHOIR AND VANCOUVER BACH FESTIVAL CHAMBER
CHOIR
conducted by Leslie Dala
Gabriel Fauré:
Requiem in D minor, Op. 48
Introit et Kyrie
Offertoire
Sanctus
Pie Jesu
Agnus Dei
Libera Me
A Good Garden Plant
Monday, July 29, 2019
 |
| Rosa 'Abraham Darby' 29 July 2019 |
I have a friend in his 90s,
Alleyne Cook who just before
Queen Elizabeth was crowned monarch he happened to be only one of two men
working (gardeners) in Constance Spry’s School For Girls. She instructed Cook
to cut flowers so that she could make floral arrangements for that coronation.
New Zealand-born Cook and his wife Barbara moved to
Vancouver where he was instrumental (working for the Park Board) in planting
rhododendrons in Stanley Park and in the VanDusen Botanical Garden. He is also
an expert on magnolias. He and his wife are happily settled in North Vancouver. Barbara is no garden slouch.She knows her garden plants.
Many of my plants including a Rosa complicata that Cook gave
me are prospering mightily (as friend and editor Malcolm Parry likes to say) in
our smaller Kitsilano garden. When people come to visit they use all kinds of
exclamatory words and expressions to describe our plants.
And yet, Cook only has one definition for a plant that does well. He says, “That is a
good garden plant. “
That defines the David Austin English Rose Rosa ‘Abraham
Darby’. It has exquisite old-rose scent, it is floriferous (remontant with
vigour) and the blooms are very large.
What more could one want from a good garden plant?
