What could be better than listening to music that takes you back to your memories of Mediterranean life during a gentle rain shower?
A concert at a special location
Relaxed, I sit in the rehearsal room of an award-winning harmony and listen to a beautiful combination of music that briefly revives my images and feelings of life in the Mediterranean. It wasn't that long ago that I lived on a pearl on the Adriatic coast and walked with the sea air in my nose along the shore where the waves were breaking apart. The birds were busy fishing their food out of the water. Over the years, I have adopted a Mediterranean lifestyle and still see the atmospheric evenings and beautiful sunsets before me just as much as I smell the delicious scents from the kitchen and the land.
Maastricht as a radiant starting point for many emotions
I am in Maastricht, the city of my alma mater, where my passion for classical blossomed. In recent years I have traveled through Europe and am back again. It is pleasant to find a musical connection between all my travels. With compositions by the wandering pianist Albeniz, the impressionist Faure, the Spanish fury of Bizet (do you know his Symphony in C?), and my favorite, Mozart. His overture from 'Die Entführung aus dem Serail' was played with beach sand between the toes and served as an intro full of enthusiasm for what was to come. The concert felt like a barefoot beach walk in the setting sun, where you occasionally stepped on sharp pebbles. The enthusiasm of the conductor and the university orchestra was invigorating, the selection of works a proper one, and the collaboration with the Ravelin marching band a surprising one.
The music the orchestra played
- Isaac Albéniz - Serenata Espagnola
- Georges Bizet - Carmen Suite ('Toreadorlied', 'Segeduilla' and 'Habanera' )
- Gabriel Fauré - Masques et Bergamasques
- Gabriel Fauré - Pavane in F-sharp minor (a slow processional dance)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Overture from Die Entführung aus dem Serail. (In other words: Turkish percussion in a Spanish setting)
Funnily enough, this music made me strongly desire to travel again to Estonia, which I jokingly call the Monaco of the Ost Sea.
It is nice to note that people working and studying in higher education in Maastricht make music themselves without virtuosity but with a lot of fun. It is proof that music and education are indeed a powerful combination.
MusikRoel