Not Just Another Saturday Night

For the first time in our new situation, we actually made plans!  Okay they were last minute plans, but plans none the less and with real people too! 

Bill has been traveling a LOT.  When he is home for the weekend, we do a lot of the mundane things that settling in require; fixing a cabinet door, buying a broom, visiting the post office and so on.  We did all those things and in the midst of it all, we started connecting with some folks we'd met back in the Fall.  We sent out invitations to lunch or dinner or drinks, you know, socializing.  We were quite pleased with our little blitz and having completed our errands early, we started planning our Saturday night. 

After a soggy walk down Blvd St. Germain de Pres, we found ourselves in the Odeon area, known for all the "Cinemas".  Sherlock Holmes opened this weekend and we were interested in seeing it.  So we strolled back down St. Germain, in the rain, hit the market for supper supplies, went home and settled down with a beer, bread and cheese and made our Saturday night plans...dinner at 20:00, movie at 22:45 and perhaps crepes after the show for our stroll down the boulevard.

As the afternoon wore on, Bill tended to some correspondence, skyped with the girls who were in the midst of the Blizzard of 2010 in the mid-Atlantic and I started making my homemade stocks and broths.  Alors!  The telephone rang, a rare occurance in our new place, and it was our new friend Nadine thanking us for our invitation for next weekend and she was curious as to what our evening plans were.  Bill hesitated and said we were planning on going to the movies...pause..."Um, would you like to go with us?"  Nadine laughed and asked if we might rather go to a concert with her and her husband Juan.   A concert...at their Church...hmmm...to hear hunting horns and organ music...okay, sure. Plan on going back to their place for some salmon. See you outside the church at 20:15pm.  A change in plans, but we still had plans!  Yippee!

We wrapped up our business, ate about an hour earlier than intended and got dressed.  What does one wear to a concert of hunting horns and organ music?  Smart casual we guessed.

Nadine and Juan are our eldest friends in Paris, both well lived and still enviously vibrant.  So even if the concert might be a novelty, spending time practicing our Franglish and catching up was most wlecome.  We arrived at the Basilique Sainte-Clotilde promptly at 20:15pm found Nadine and after making a suggested donation for the free concert, headed for our seats. 

The concert was a fundrasier sponsored by the Basilica for the L'Abbaye de Citeaux, which is a Trappist Monastery in Norway.  So on a Saturday night in Paris, the City of Lights, Bill, Nadine, Juan, Olga (Nadine's Russian friend )and I joined over 800 other people in this beautiful old church to listen to fanfares and the history of the Trappists as told by narrators, representing a grandfather and his granddaughter.  The first part of the concert was all about the Trappists' history and their philosphy of dedicating work of human hands to the glory of God, all set to music.  This particular abbey is known for its milk, cheese and honey...honored work dating back to the 12th century and enduring on into the 21st.

Hunting Horns are similar in shape to French Horns, but do not have valves.  All the music is made by varying the lips and breath...also known as embouchure.  The horns were the same in size, but the music was divided into a chorus of parts from bass to soprano.  And under it all was the musical vibration of the Church's pipe organ.  I love classical organ music because you can actually feel it as you listen to it.  The musicians were phenomenal!  I had never heard concert music from hunting horns. So much more than the old stadium classic "Da ta da da ta dah, Charge!"...we sports nuts know. It really is quite unique.  And the musicians' classic hunting costumes of velvet riding jacket and breeches made it all the more authentic.

And then I heard an angel sing!  The soloist sang O Sactissima Vergine Maria and I cried.  His voice was a beautifully rich baritone and you knew he was praying as he sang.  Wonderful!

After 9 selections in the first part of the program, which included a thunderous improvisation on the organ of themes played earlier, the pastor of the church spoke about the fundraiser, thanked all who attended and most greatfully thanked the musicians for bringing their music to Paris.  The Hunting Horn troupe had just returned from a successful concert series in the US, including a visit to a famous Monastery in Kentucky.  World renown...who knew!

Pere Olivier concluded his remarks (in French of course)  by saying "La ou deux ou trois sont reunis en mon Nom, je suis au milieu d'eux."  Roughly translated in my French from Scripture, "Wherever two or three are gathered in my Name, I am with you."  And this beautiful scripture verse certainly was alive in that church during that concert.  It was the perfect reflection for the occasion.

The second part of the concert featured independent classical marches and suites for the horns and organ.  The soloist, again brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart when he sang Ombra mai fu from the opera Xeres by Georg-Freidrich Handel.  Breathtaking!

The show stopper though was the organ recital piece written by JS Bach, Toccata et Fugue in D Minor.   Anyone who has ever seen a classic horror picture with a monster at the pipe organ knows this monumental piece...sent chills up and down my spine and then back up again.  Magnificent!

The concert concluded with a ten minute ovation and one encore featuring the horns, organist and soloist, ensemble. Thank the Good Lord we where in Church,  for to hear this anywhere else would have done the music a disservice. The Basilica herself was a performer too...adding subtle echos, virbrations, and of course the mood as set by candlelight and stautes, tall columns, graceful arches and that smell one only smells in Church.

At 22:30, our little entourage walked down the block to Juan and Nadine's flat.  Three of us piled into the tiny elevator and Bill and Nadine hit the stairs to the third floor.  We were once again welcomed to our new friends' home.  We gnoshed on salmon on toast and blinis. We talked about the concert and articles in Le Figaro magazine about the Universe with its impending demise in 3-5 billion years and about the rebirth of Russian spy schools training children and "tweens" to be operatives like back in the old KGB days.  Fascinating conversation.  We talked about crop circles, astrology, Obama and healthcare reform and the French perception about the dichotomy of American greed and generosity.  Truly stimulating. 

The lovely red wine helped as well. 

Before we knew it, it was after midnight and we had to go.

It was a perfect way to spend Saturday night.