Flowers and Music

A nice weekend, fortunately not without company.

Friday evening my neighbour and I went to see the floats which were ready for the flower parade on Saturday. The auction halls are just down the road, and the weather forecast for Saturday was for rain and more rain. The halls are huge, and after Aalsmeer which is world famous, they are the biggest flower auction halls in Holland. They are covered, so we could admire the flowers well protected from the elements. Of course during the parade the floats carry people: flower queens and maidens, brass-bands, clowns and whatever. But the flowers are the most important thing. The imagination of the people designing the floats is amazing. It seemed that every one taking part in the parade had been awarded a prize, be it bronze, silver or gold. And rightly so, for all the private cars and trucks, as well as the floats were beautiful in their own way. I could not choose between them, although I liked some colour schemes better than others.  But that is a matter of personal choice. Every visitor went home with a big, long stemmed rose, which is now taking pride of place in the living room.

Zaltbommel

Another and totally different outing was on Saturday night. I had not seen my organist friend for at least seven weeks, during which time he had given recitals in France and Switzerland and I had gone to England to sing in Ely Cathedral the day he came back from his five week tour. On Saturday evening he gave a recital in Zaltbommel, in a big church which has a beautiful pipe organ. The church is remarkable as frescoes from before iconoclasm are still vaguely visible in several places. Although the church is dedicated to St. Maarten (St. Martin?), three of the remaining frescoes depict St. Christopher. A website for the church is in the process of being built and does as yet not give any information about its history or the pipe organ. But another website gives detailed information about musical life in the area. It contains a dairy of the recitals, and each individual programme is given in detail. For each composer listed – and for some organists - , there are links to specific websites.  One of the compositions my friend played that evening was the Passagaglia in d-moll by Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707).

It is a joyful organ piece. The You Tube recording I have chosen is interesting because it is played on the well-known De Swart-van Hagerbeer organ in the "Hooglandse Kerk" in Leyden, the Netherlands, which I am so familiar with. It was a joy to be at the recital, and to meet many friends and acquaintances. Six of us, including the organist, had drinks in a cafe afterwards, the only one in this sleepy town which was still open, so we could catch up on what we had been doing during the summer so far. I was not back home till after midnight, as it takes at least an hour and 15 minutes by car to get to Zaltbommel. But it was well worth it and a very enjoyable evening indeed.