I had fairly high expectations for this concert, Franz Schubert: Master Storyteller by Benjamin Appl and Sholto Kynoch, which was also the opening concert of this year’s Oxford International Song Festival, for three reasons. Firstly, I had heard their wonderful performance back in May in Heidelberg, Germany. Secondly, I have been a lover of Lieder …
“Lange lieb’ ich dich schon…” — Friedrich Hölderlin “I have loved you for a long time…” wrote Hölderlin in his poem Heidelberg. But how long is a long time? How about twenty years? It was in 2005 when I first visited this enchanting, romantic city with my sister. We were tourists then, right before I …
The concert at Aula der Alten Universität Heidelberg at 19:30 was the 100th anniversary commemoration of the singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. A significant figure who contributed greatly to the cultural landscape after the war, especially in the German cultural heritage of Kunstlied (Art Song). His last pupil, Benjamin Appl, curated the programme using Fischer-Dieskau’s biography as …
Have you ever had a beautiful dream and somehow lost it somewhere. Schubert’s Nacht und Träume is about bringing back this fair dream from above to us. If it is a beautiful dream, be courageous to dream again, and never let it go. Some dreams are messages from heaven about our purposes on earth. Only …
I am in the chapter 5 of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. The privileged, well-educated and moral-degraded college kids are getting more horrible page by page. I have only read 1/3 of the book, it is still too early to say anything definitive about the book. One thing for sure, Donna Tartt is an extraordinary …
When I am not reading, I am probably playing organ. One of my various musical engagements is accompanying funeral service at the organ. Some funerals are unforgettable beautiful. Recently, I encountered this kind of funeral again. A man has died, I play organ at his funeral. The atmosphere was calm and peace, the clergy read …
One day, Alex, Penny, Robin and Naomi saw a seal and hoped the seal would stay a little bit longer. Alex remembered what Oonagh said to him and he told them:“She said the way to get them to stay was to sing to them.”“Sing what?” asked Penny. Naomi has a song for the seal, apparently …
Reading the chapter eight to chapter nine of the book The Magician’s Nephew from The Chronicles of Narnia took my breath away. At first, I found myself in the darkness with Digory, Polly, Cabby and Strawberry. “This is an empty world. This is nothing!”“There were no stars. It was so dark that they couldn’t see …
So wherever you are, in whatever life situation, just sing!Happy weekend, see you next week!
I am very sorry if I have disappointed you, when I talk about Heidelberg without showing you the old bridge, the old castle and the old church. I love the Heidelberg old town, like the whole world does. People from all over the world cross the ocean for just a glimpse of Heidelberg and I …