My first words this (and previous) morning were - brrrr, brrrr - so cold.
In our 42 years of life in Australia we never before switched on heating in February.
Why Be Be or double B?
Memory from 70 years ago - BB = Brigitte Bardot - CLICK.
I lived in a communist Poland and I am not sure when I saw BB in a movie but she was present in the papers and movie newsreels.
I was also aware of two other BBs - very popular German writer Bertold Brecht and not so popular Hungarian composer Bela Bartok.
Those memories revived at the end of 2023 when I got a message from Melbourne Symphony Orchestra about a concert - pianist Berta Brozgul will perform Bela Bartok's piano concerto No 3.
Unfortunately I could not attend this performance but I remember the name.
And here it came - Brunswick Beethoven Festival - Sofia Kirsanova - violin and Berta Brozgul - piano will play violin sonatas by L. Janacek and L. van Beethoven.
In last 3 months I experienced a serious health deterioration so I could not plan ahead any travel to the city in evening hours.
On Tuesday (18/2) I had an early dinner and at 6:30 pm decided that I am able to GO!
Concert took place in Brunswick Uniting Church. I arrived over half an hour before the performance, the church was closed, few people sheltered from cold wind in door niches.
- I am from Latvia - one lady introduced herself - because the violinist is Latvian. I introduced myself as Polish and to my surprise I got reinforcement of one lady.
There was one more lady around and she introduced herself as Australian - odd.
Eventually we were allowed to enter the church, there were around 150 people, my guess is there were no more than 5 people under 50 years of age.
The concert began...
I am not qualified to evaluate the performance although I was more moved by L. Janacek Sonata.
As for Kreutzer sonata I have another story...
Famous Russian writer - Leo Tolstoy - wrote a novella - Kreutzer Sonata.
This is a story about a man who killed his wife because he suspected her of marital infidelity with her music teacher and the inspiration to betrayal was - Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata.
There is L. Tolstoy's opinion:
"They say that music stirs the soul. Stupidity! A lie! It acts, it acts frightfully (I speak for myself), but not in an ennobling way. It acts neither in an ennobling nor a debasing way, but in an irritating way. How shall I say it? Music makes me forget my real situation. It transports me into a state which is not my own. Under the influence of music I really seem to feel what I do not feel, to understand what I do not understand, to have powers which I cannot have. Music seems to me to act like yawning or laughter; I have no desire to sleep, but I yawn when I see others yawn; with no reason to laugh, I laugh when I hear others laugh. And music transports me immediately into the condition of soul in which he who wrote the music found himself at that time. I become confounded with his soul, and with him I pass from one condition to another. But why that? I know nothing about it? But he who wrote Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ knew well why he found himself in a certain condition. That condition led him to certain actions, and for that reason to him had a meaning, but to me none, none whatever.
And that is why music provokes an excitement which it does not bring to a conclusion.
For instance, a military march is played; the soldier passes to the sound of this march, and the music is finished. A dance is played; I have finished dancing, and the music is finished. A mass is sung; I receive the sacrament, and again the music is finished.
But any other music provokes an excitement, and this excitement is not accompanied by the thing that needs properly to be done, and that is why music is so dangerous, and sometimes acts so frightfully."
Copied from Project Guttenberg (guttenberg.com).
I had this words in mind listening to the concert performance probably therefore I found it... short of madness :(
Here is a link to a performance with a bit of madness - CLICK - no wonder - the violinist is Moldavian, the pianist - Turkish.
One interesting point - here is the text of original dedication: "Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer [Bridgetower], gran pazzo e compositore mulattico" (Mulatto Sonata composed for the mulatto Brischdauer, great madman mulatto composer).
George Bridgetower - look HERE - musician of Polish descent, born in Biała Podlaska...
Actually Biała means in Polish - White.
Isn't it mad?
And one more quote from L. Tolstoy novella - something written 135 years ago but still valid: The absence of the rights of woman does not consist in the fact that she has not the right to vote, or the right to sit on the bench, but in the fact that in her affectional relations she is not the equal of man, she has not the right to abstain, to choose instead of being chosen. You say that that would be abnormal. Very well! But then do not let man enjoy these rights, while his companion is deprived of them, and finds herself obliged to make use of the coquetry by which she governs, so that the result is that man chooses ‘formally,’ whereas really it is woman who chooses. As soon as she is in possession of her means, she abuses them, and acquires a terrible supremacy.”
“But where do you see this exceptional power?”
“Where? Why, everywhere, in everything. Go see the stores in the large cities. There are millions there, millions. It is impossible to estimate the enormous quantity of labor that is expended there. In nine-tenths of these stores is there anything whatever for the use of men? All the luxury of life is demanded and sustained by woman. Count the factories; the greater part of them are engaged in making feminine ornaments. Millions of men, generations of slaves, die toiling like convicts simply to satisfy the whims of our companions".
