This year, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Easter coincided, so I was able to crack coloured eggs in time honoured fashion in Baden Baden - very unspoilt, charming villas, a long river divides the town its bed paved in stone. Pretty wrought iron bridges cross the river, leading to side streets or to gardens, enchantingly civilised, beautifully kept, the alley's have every variety of trees as varied as in any arboretum. There is a sparkly new Museum Frieder Burda, designed by Richard Meier, and since last year an Easter Festival to rival Salzburg (see my entry of 12/06/2014)
The Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle its conductor forsook Salzburg and is now adored in Germany.
The first day was Bach: St. John's Passion - masterful, compassionate and emotional.
The second day we had:
- Ligetti - Atmosphères
- Wagner - Introduction to Lohengrin
- Brahms - Violin Concerto, Op. 77
- Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps,
played by the now mature, peerless and
beautiful Anne-Sophie Mutter.
The third day, for reasons I failed to fathom, Ligeti, Wagner, Stravinsky again, and Elgar - Concert for Violoncello and Orchestra 85. The violoncello played by Sol Gabetta, Argentinian, pretty and stylish with self-conscious smiles at the travelling camera, she delighted the senses but not like Jacqueline du Pré, whose playing I worship & revere - it is hard to believe she died in 1987.
The fourth day was Puccini: Manon Lescaut, set in the 1940's in occupied France, directed by Richard Eyre - glorious.
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