Time goes fast when having fun...

I have lots to put down in my blog, so now it'll all come in one big one. I think it'll be A' la Helene...


After coming to Stavanger on Monday I started to get acquainted with the baroque cello. I thought I had a mountain of time to spend on it, but on Thursday night I got a phone from a very stressed singer in Bodø who needed a cellist for their Sunday concert on "All Saints Day" (Allhelgensdag).
So, I left Robert back in Stavanger (I think he feels a little forgotten some times, since I leave him all the time...) and headed for the city who is a little north of the polar circle. On Friday I had a rehearsal with the Baroque ensemble at 12, but 14.15 I had to run off to catch the 15.30 plane. Unfortunately I didn't have a seat for my cello so Anders Moberg (a cellist in SSO) was so kind to lend me his flightcase. A cello to send always takes time, so I was very stressed to get to Sola Airport in time. Luckily the Friday rush-hour had not reached its peak yet (it usually gets pretty jammed on the roads around that time...) so since Robert offered to drive me there it was no problem at all.

I have to say that I find it a bit strange how they think about dangerous artifacts in the security check. They had absolutely no problems with 5 knitting needles...

18 I was in Bodø, got a ride from the not-anymore-so-stressed-singer to the church and warmed up before the evening rehearsal for "Kystrequiem". (Coast Requiem)
It turned out that a lot of my colleagues from the Music Conservatoire in Trondheim was playing in the orchestra (small ensemble, only 6 violins, 2 violas, 1 cello, 1 double bass, piano, perk, flute and trumpet), even the composer! And not to forget Ingvild. I was so happy to see her!!
Our conductor was a bit nervous; she had never conducted an orchestra before. I must say she did a lot better than many of the more experienced choir-conductors I've seen before. She did a great job!

When I was in Bodø, I thought I could drop by Paulines aunt and cousin. Aunt Arnhild was quite well despite her back problems, and she was very talkative. On Saturday night I went to eat with cousin Mart and his wife Tatjana. I had never met her before, and it's long time since I've seen Mart, so it was incredibly nice to talk to them! I learned a lot about "hellerisstninger" in caves around Bodø, about the Russian language, problems with Norwegian and music.
Later that night, all the musicians were invited for a bacalao party at Sveinars (the pianist) house. He had an amazing flat - it looked just like it was cut out of a magasine where they show a great retro style or how to make a flat feel open and full of space but at the same time keep the atmosphere warm.

Sunday before the concert, Ingvilds parents invited me to have dinner with them at their house. It was a super thing to do before the requiem. The concert wouldn't have felt as good as it did if I had to try to find a restaurant on my own (or with the other musicians in the hotel) and then probably stress about the time... Ingvild, you have a great family! (Just missed Margrete, but on the other had, I had lunch with her the week before.)

Monday (3rd of November) I had a very early flight. 6.50 is not really my favorite hour..
And when I got to Oslo airport it was foggy so of course the planes were not on time. Bjørn Pettersen called me when I was sitting there, half asleep."Hello Tonje. Where in the world are you?" I seriously got a fright. Did I miss the rehearsal with Kyrkjelyd now? It was originally planned to be from 10-13 and then again from 16-19 but it was postponed to 15. I thought I remembered this. But with that kind of call you don't feel secure about it anymore.. No, I wasn't late. It was Sirkka-Liisa whose plane from Krakow was late so he wondered if it would be ok to have rehearsal from 19-22 instead. Phew!!!!
It was a pretty pale cellist in the quartet that evening, even though I had a few hours of rest between my flights and the rehearsal. But it was great fun to play the Yano-Yanovsky piece!!
We were only the string players, so we made all these great plans that Mona (our soprano) were going to conduct us a bit. She got pretty anxious about that when we finally told her Tuesday morning. "..to ask a soprano to do such a thing! Yes, they are really known for their sense of rhythm..." She managed pretty well! I know for my self that I would have been lost quite a few times during our 5 concerts if she hadn't. To swap between 3:2, 6:4, 5:4 and 7:4 is not always very easy without conductor.

Wednesday, time for our first concert. It was to be held in Sola Ruinkirke, and all the players were put together in a tiny bus which Bjørn drove. That was the first time I saw all the musicians in the project. Well, I had met the Libaneese singers for 2 minutes before our first rehearsal in the Dom, but I don't count that one. There were 5 of them in the Byzantine Music Group of Lebanon, an American percussionist, and then the 5 of us. The bus was absolutely packed, and with an extra person (a sound-engineer student) with loads of equip ment and my huge cello case it got pretty crowded.
We had 5 concerts all in all, and with a lot of travelling time we got to know each other quite well. The churches were all very sweet and small, cold (with a slowly working heating system) but cozy - and we got some food and hot drinks for the break between rehearsal and concert. The numbers of audience was not very great, but never less than 24. (I counted!) And absolutely everything were documented, either by digital cameras, video cameras or stored as audio files on a computer. Sirkka-Liisa baptised this project as "the paparazzi-project". This was all due to the sweet Libaneese singers. They have a church choir at home (Libanon) with rehearsals 1-2 times a week and sings for sunday mass. (They are christian arabs! I got upset when I learned that they are not allowed to enter Jerusalem because of being arabs.)
Here you can see some of the ads for our project:

Music from the Middle East
Aftenbladet

The last concert was held in the Stavanger Dom. And quite a lot of people came to listen! Ilmari, Petro and Ivan came too. They are very supportive! (I know there might have been other musicians there too, but these were the only ones I saw...) And Robi of course! I was so happy that he liked the concert. I was a little ancious about it since it all were quite meditative, but I had nothing to worry about. Afterwords, we had to gather together at the restaurant calle Bevaremegvel. 21.45 came the waiter and asked to get all the orders straight away because the kitchen would close exactly at 22. Since we were only 4 people there (Sirkka-Liisa and me being the only musicians) we thought it better to move to another restaurant. Robert fixed it so we could be at the Italian one across the street. They held their restaurant open only for us (only demand from them was: only pasta or pizza to be ordered. Or salads. Which was fine by us.)
It was a grea t fare-well party. I'm only sorry that Hanako missed it, and that Carole, Robert and I all had to be at work early next morning so we couldn't party for long.

I know I have got some new friends for life, and a little bit wider horizon.

Thank you!!!

...and now I'm back in the Scandinavian mood again with orchestra rehearsals, rain and other every-day tasks. But it feels also incredibly nice to be back in SSO, even for only 1 week.

(pictures will be uploaded when I find my chord..)

Location: Stavanger, in Roberts borrowed flat
Mood: Nostalgic, but happy
Eating: Should have eaten hours ago
Drinkin: Nipping to coffee which I bought for Roberts birthday
Listening to: The fridge. Sounds tempting!