Cars here stop for you when you cross the street: incroyable.
Today is day two and a half of my Swiss experience.
Today I heard an amazing rendition of Die Schöne Müllerin by the British tenor Marc Padmore. It was a concert in a festival celebrating lieder, or art songs. He apparently is something of a baroque specialist and his voice is very beautiful--not just loud and powerful all the time, it had much tenderness and nuance.
I am taking French three with Frédéric Wandelere, a Fribourg native with a particular interest in French etymology and Swiss history. He also is a classical music fanatic who writes liner notes for CD's (he specializes in Hugo Wolff). He mentioned that Hindemith wrote many works for the viola in my interview.
I've met quite an interseting cast of characters here at the school: so far there is only one other American, and I have befriended a few Chileans, a biologist from Tajikistan, a business-woman form Moscow, a pianist from Shanghai, my next door neighbor Igor is from Irkutsk (the city near Lake Baikhal), and a forensic chemist from Prague.
It's humbling and fascinating to be so out of my element, to be among so many interesting people and away from the small, narrow world of classical music.
Google has switched to German.
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cars stop for pedestrians in California, too! It's the great unwashed midwest that seems to treat pedestrians as fair game for any motorist who thinks he has right of way. Happy fourth of July, Clio! no one en Suisse will mark the day, but we will be thinking of you back home as we barbeque and eat watermelon.
ReplyDeleteFrederic was my professor of French during my course in Fribourg ten years ago. I still remember his fascination with chant and his way of classifying CD, as well as his knowledge of Chinese art of tea preparation
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