MUSIC SATURDAY - BRAHMS' CLARINET QUINTET

“It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.” - Johannes Brahms

For Music Saturday a most delicious work for Clarinet and String Quartet by Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 - 3 April 1897). It is his Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, written in 1891.

00:00 - I. Allegro
12:21 - II. Adagio
23:26 - III. Andantino - Presto non assai, ma con sentimento
28:03 - IV. Con moto

When Clara Schumann first heard this quintet, she wrote: “It is a really marvellous work, the wailing clarinet takes hold of one; it is most moving. And what interesting music, deep and full of meaning!” These poignant words by Brahms’ closest female friend belie Brahms' disingenuous comparison of the work with his earlier Clarinet Trio: “[It is] a far greater piece of foolishness.”

From the first movement, the music pulsates with yearning. In its opening measures are the seeds that germinate in the rest of composition, which is equally perfect in its power of evocation and its structural rigour. The autumnal mood of the work results in part from the subtle shifts throughout between the closely related keys of D major and B minor.

Most notable is the second movement Adagio, a tender love song whose wistfulness seems to reflect the entire decline of the late Romantic musical ethos. Of course there is more to this piece than its dreamlike evocations. Listen to the Presto, with its Hungarian folk-dance style and the finale’s intriguing variations, the last of which returns full circle to the opening theme of the first movement.

The quintet received its first private performance on 24 November 1891 in Meiningen, with Richard Mühlfeld and the Joachim Quartet, led by Joseph Joachim who often collaborated with Brahms. The public premiere was on 12 December 1891 in Berlin.

FOOD FRIDAY - VEGETARIAN ENCHILADAS

“Having grown up in the Middle East, eating beans for breakfast always seemed like a bizarre British eccentricity.” - Yotam Ottolenghi

A substantial vegetarian dish that is healthful, tasty and filling. Perfect for those cold Winter nights, or even hot Summer lunches! It’s interesting how in tropical climates people like eating very hot, spicy food.

VEGETARIAN ENCHILADAS
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, chopped
300 g carrots, finely grated
2-3 tsp chilli powder (mild or hot, according to taste)
1/2 tsp of ground allspice
Salt, pepper to taste
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
2 x 400g cans pulses in water, drained (mixed beans and lentils)
6 wholemeal tortillas
200 g Greek yogurt

100 g extra-mature cheddar cheese finely grated

Method
Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Cook the onions and carrots for 5-8 mins until soft – add a splash of water if they start to stick. Sprinkle in the chilli powder and cook for 1 min more. Pour in the tomatoes and pulses and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 5-10 mins, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Remove from the heat and season well.
Heat grill to high. Spread a spoonful of the bean chilli over a large ovenproof dish. Lay each tortilla onto a board, fill with a few tablespoons of chilli mixture, fold over the ends and roll up to seal. Place them into the ovenproof dish. Spoon the remaining chilli on top.
Mix the yogurt and grated cheese together with some seasoning, and spoon over the enchiladas. Grill for a few mins until the top is golden and bubbling. Serve with a green salad.

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KHALIL GIBRAN

“Faith is an oasis in the heart, which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.” – Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran (1883 – 1931) the Lebanese author and artist was born on 6th January in the mountain village of Bsharri, now in Northern Lebanon and then Syria, part of the Ottoman Empire. The area is inhabited by Christians predominantly and is close to the beautiful and famous Holy Valley and Cedars of Lebanon.

Gibran’s family had originally been of some means but became impoverished due to the father’s gambling. As a result, Gibran received no formal education, but rather is taught by his mother, Kamila, whose deep religious beliefs were instilled in him from an early age. A local priest continued his education and soon he recognised Gibran’s inquisitive and active mind and taught his student the Syriac and Arabic languages and also fundamental religious precepts. Through this informal teaching, Gibran developed an interest in science, languages and history.

Seeking a better future, the family (excepting the father) migrated to America in 1895. They joined relatives and shared a tenement dwelling in South Boston, Massachusetts. Kamila Gibran sold lace to support her four children and opened a small dry goods store. While registering for public school, Gibran's name was shortened and changed. A Boston patron of literature and fine arts who was also an “artistic” photographer, Fred Holland Day used Gibran, his younger sisters Marianna and Sultana, half-brother Peter, and Kamila as models. After discovering Gibran’s aptitude for literature and art, Day proclaimed him a “natural genius” and became his mentor.

Gibran returned to Lebanon, spent some time there getting an Arabic education and then returned to the USA where he continued his education in English. Diverse influences, including Boston’s literary world, the English Romantic poets, mystic William Blake, and philosopher Nietzsche, combined with his Besharri experience and shaped Gibran’s artistic and literary career. Gibran opposed Ottoman Turkish rule and the Maronite Church's strict social control. After “Spirits Rebellious”, an Arabic poem, was published in 1908, Gibran was called a reformer and received widespread recognition in the Arabic world. Other Arabic writings, including “Broken Wings” (1912), were published in New York where a large Syrian-Lebanese community flourished.

His first work in English appeared in 1918 when his “The Madman” was published by the American firm of Alfred A. Knopf. The sometimes cynical parables and poems on justice, freedom, and God are illustrated by three of Gibran’s drawings. In 1919 Knopf published Gibran’s “Twenty Drawings”; in 1920 “The Forerunner” appeared. Each book sold a few hundred copies. In October 1923 “The Prophet” was published and this established its author’s success by having over 1,000 copies sold in three months. It has since then been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies.

Gibran considered “The Prophet” his greatest achievement. He said: “I think I’ve never been without The Prophet since I first conceived the book back in Mount Lebanon. It seems to have been a part of me... I kept the manuscript four years before I delivered it over to my publisher because I wanted to be sure, I wanted to be very sure, that every word of it was the very best I had to offer.”

“The Prophet” is a book of 26 poetic essays, which has become a classic of its kind. It is a philosophical book, it is a book of faith, a book of simple eloquence, one of timeless truths. Ostensibly, its plot (if one can call it that) is about a Prophet, who has lived in a foreign city 12 years, and who is about to board a ship that will take him home. He is stopped by a group of people, to whom he talks and reveals the mysteries of life. Each person asks a question and the Prophet’s wisdom is the gift he receives, for the Prophet possesses nothing material. The themes of marriage, children, friendship, work, pleasure are all explored and the life advice the Prophet offers is free of dogma, free of power structures and metaphysics. In simple prose, Gibran expresses life as something to be enjoyed in as many ways as possible. The message of the book is that life is short and must be lived without regrets.

Some people have accused Gibran of being a ‘cheap philosopher’. A man who panders to the needs of the masses. But most of the world’s chief religions do the same. The masses’ needs must be catered to and the ones most in need have the least funds to spend in order to buy hope. In this respect, Gibran’s philosophy is populist and it is cheap. Simple words to comfort those who need it the most and who have little else except the hope that the Prophet delivers.

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself”, the Prophet says.  “Your joy is your sorrow unmasked, And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears”. And he goes on: “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.”

The whole of the text of “The Prophet” is available online here: http://leb.net/gibran/works/prophet/prophet.html

POETRY JAM - QUIET

“Quiet is better than loud.” - Dieter Rams

Poetry Jam this week has set the theme of “quiet” for the participants of the weekly poetry challenge. My poem below is dedicated to the Northern Hemisphere readers who find themselves in the beginning of Winter…

Winter Reverie

Winter has arrived
Bringing with him,
The smell of decay: Rotting leaves,
Wet soil and the perfume of daphne.

Milky-white, still dawns,
With argent sun, feebly shining;
Plumes of grey smoke, evoking
Warm grates, hot buttered toast.

Lucidly cold nights,
Wet, shiny streets, on which
Only your footsteps echo, meandering
On the deserted, quiet, desolate footpaths.

Winter has arrived,
Clutching in his bony fist
Silken silences, fog-enveloped loneliness,
Cold, pure sheets and long, white nights.

LITERARY TUESDAY - JAROSLAV HAŠEK

“Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew.” - John Greenleaf Whittier

On Tuesdays I often post about books, literature and writing, so I dub it “Literary Tuesday”. I pay homage to this meme by considering today one of my favourite books, which I first read in Greek translation when I was about 12 years old. I have subsequently read it in English but unfortunately cannot read it in the original, as it was written in Czech. Sadly, it is ever topical, especially in the wake of the news of continuing warfare around the world…

The book is “The Good Soldier Schweik” by Jaroslav Hašek (1883-1923). Hašek was a Czech novelist, humorist, prankster, natural storyteller, and journalist. He was with Franz Kafka one of the key figures of literary Prague of the early 20th century, but much more colourful, blasphemous and with a sense of humour when one compares him to Kafka! Once, when Hašek was prevented from throwing himself off the Cech’s Bridge (Cechuv Most), he founded a political party called “The Party of Slight Progress Within the Limits of Law”, and spent the cash collected from this activity in his local pub. More details about his short but eventful life can be found here, in the Wikipedia entry.

“The Good Soldier Švejk” (transliterated to Schweik in English) is the abbreviated title of the unfinished novel written between 1921-22. It was fully illustrated by Josef Lada (his illustrations above) after Hašek’s death. The original Czech title of the work is “Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války” (The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War). It was meant to be a six-volume work, but unfortunately Hašek died of TB after had only completed four volumes that are now merged into one book.

The novel is a biting satire of the army, soldiers’ life and one of the first anti-war novels to be written. It begins with news of the assassination in Sarajevo that precipitated WWI. Schweik is a Czech army veteran who is immediately enthused over the prospect of joining the army once again and fighting in this new war. His gung-ho attitude puzzles officials who can’t decide whether Schweik is serious (and thus an idiot), or whether he is a subversive antiestablishmentarian (and hence extremely clever) who is intent on sabotaging the Austro-Hungarian empire’s war effort.

It is a delightful work full of lively incident and Schweik charms and wins us over with his antics. The novel ends before Schweik has a chance to be involved in any front line action, but the message of pacifism is still very strong. I was rather pleased when I visited Prague a few years ago to be able to buy a Good Soldier Schweik puppet from a local market and it still graces one of my study walls.

A review by Bob Hicks in “the Oregonian” of a new English translation of the novel can be foundhere and is good reading, whetting your appetite to read this wonderful work.

MOVIE MONDAY - GRAND HOTEL

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.” - William Shakespeare

One of the things I love doing when the opportunity arises is to sit in the foyer of a big international hotel, in some exotic location around the world, and watch the people coming and going. One can tell a lot about people just by observing them, listening to the way they talk, how they are dressed, their manners (or lack of them!), the company they keep and the way they walk, stand, sit.  My mind is forever manufacturing stories around the people I see in those hotel foyers and I am busily concocting names, occupations, the relationships between them, the reasons why they are staying at the hotel, and so on and so forth…

We watched Edmund Goulding’s “Grand Hotel” (1932 – Won Oscar for Best Picture) last weekend) on an excellent digital transfer on DVD and I was able to play my game, but in a rather more restricted way, as the stories were all there for me and my imagination had to atrophy somewhat while I watched this film.  The Grand Hotel of the film title is Berlin's most expensive and luxurious hotel. It is the setting of (in the words of one of the cast, Dr. Otternschlag: “People come, people go. Nothing ever happens.”).

However, the good doctor seems to have missed some of the nefarious goings-on. For example, Baron von Geigern is broke and trying to steal eccentric dancer Grusinskaya’s pearls. Powerful magnate Preysing confronts the lowly Kringelein, one of his company’s bookkeepers, but it is the terminally ill Kringelein who manages to stand up to him. Flaemmchen, Preysing’s stenographer, is in love with the Baron, but she is willing to sell her favours to the highest bidder, or is she?

The cast is well-chose and they act superbly: The charming, desperate, vulnerable Baron played by John Barrymore; the cynical, sad, sexy stenographer, Joan Crawford; the pathetic, whining, but courageous Kringelein, Lionel Barrymore; the coarse, selfish, cruel Preysing, Wallace Beery; and of course, the great Greta Garbo as the ballet dancer, Grusinskaya (uttering her most famous line: “I want to be alone”). The art deco sets are fantastic and even the smallest details have been convincingly rendered.

The film won the 1932 best picture Academy Award and it is still a wonderful movie to watch. It is a soap opera, but the brand of the soap is the best and the suds last the whole wash through. The success of this movie led to a remake in 1945, the “Weekend at the Waldorf” with Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, the story being given a timely post-war take. However, this later version is somewhat more cinematic but pedestrian. It lacks the 1930s glamour evident in the earlier film.

This is a film from the golden age of Hollywood, well worth watching it!

ART SUNDAY - GILBERT STUART

“What a business is this of a portrait painter! You bring him a potato and expect he will paint you a peach.” - Gilbert Charles Stuart

For Art Sunday, an American painter active in the late 18th to early 19th century. Gilbert Stuart, in full Gilbert Charles Stuart (born December 3, 1755, Saunderstown, Rhode Island colony [now in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, U.S.] died July 9, 1828, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.), was an American painter who was one of the great portrait painters of his era and the creator of a distinctively American portrait style.

Stuart grew up in Newport, Rhode Island, where he learned the rudiments of painting. In 1775 he went to London and entered the studio of the expatriate American artist Benjamin West, with whom he worked for about six years. His mature style owes more, however, to the work of Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds than to West. In 1782 Stuart opened his own London studio, and for five years he received portrait commissions from some of England's most distinguished gentlemen.

After his apprenticeship, Stuart became London's leading portrait painter, next to Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, whose style he emulated, as in a rare full-length portrait of William Grant of Congalton as The Skater (ca. 1782). For a while Stuart lived in splendour, but being a bad businessman and a profligate spender, he was in constant debt. He fled to Dublin in 1787 to escape his creditors. He lived in Ireland from 1787 to 1792 and then returned to America to make a fortune, he said, by painting Washington's portrait.

This last phase of his career was so successful that Stuart had more work than he could handle. He'd developed his own distinctive style (emulated by the next generation of painters) that led to the title, “Father of American Portraiture”. After living in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., he settled in Boston in 1805, and spent the next 24 years painting Presidents, First Ladies, important figures in early American history and - of course - wealthy people from all along the Eastern seaboard.

Though he is best known today for his portraits of George Washington, Stuart is credited with well over 1,000 bust-, three-quarter- and full-length works. Many of these were unfinished and attribution is somewhat problematic at times, as he almost never signed his work. And, despite these many, hefty commissions, he never did develop any business sense. Ironically, the artist whose work is seen millions of times each day (on the U.S. $1 bill) died broke.

Stuart was known for working without the aid of sketches, beginning directly upon the canvas. This was very unusual for the time period. His approach is suggested by the advice he gave to his pupil Matthew Harris Jouett: “Never be sparing of colour, load your pictures, but keep your colours as separate as you can. No blending, tis destruction to clear & bea[u]tiful effect.”  Stuart's works can be found today at art museums and private collections throughout the United States and Great Britain, including the University Club in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

His daughter, Jane Stuart (1812-1888), also a painter, sold many of his paintings and her replicas of them from her studios in Boston and Newport, Rhode Island. A life mask of Stuart was created by John Henri Isaac Browere around 1825. In 1940, the U.S. Post Office issued a series of Postage stamps called the “Famous Americans Series” commemorating famous Artists, Authors, Inventors, Scientists, Poets, Educators and Musicians. Along with the artists James McNeil Whistler, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Daniel Chester French and Frederic Remington, Gilbert Stuart is found on the 1 cent issue in the Artists category.

Today, Stuart's birthplace in Saunderstown, Rhode Island is open to the public as the Gilbert Stuart Birthplace and Museum. The museum consists of the original house Stuart was born in, with copies of paintings from throughout his career hanging throughout the house. The museum opened in 1930.

Stuart painted George Washington in a series of iconic portraits, each of them leading in turn to a demand for copies and keeping Stuart busy and highly paid for years. The most famous and celebrated of these likenesses, known as “The Athenaeum” (shown here), is currently portrayed on the United States one dollar bill. Stuart, along with his daughters, painted a total of 130 reproductions of The Athenaeum. However, Stuart never completed the original version; after finishing Washington's face, the artist kept the original version to make the copies. He sold up to 70 of his reproductions for a price of US$100 each, but the original portrait was left unfinished at the time of Stuart's death in 1828.

MUSIC SATURDAY - ST NICHOLAS' DAY

“A good conscience is a continual feast.” - Robert Burton

Today is St Nicholas’ Feast day and it is also my Name Day. In Greek culture, one’s name day is personally equally important to one’s birthday celebration. While all of one’s friends and acquaintances may not be aware of the date of one’s birthday, there is no excuse for neglecting one’s Name Day as the date is widely known by everyone. Traditionally one has an open house” for all well-wishers who visit and are treated with sweets and cakes, while they wish one a Happy Name Day and generally bring one more sweets and/or flowers. If they are on more intimate terms they usually bring presents too.

In Northern Europe St. Nicholas’ Day is a big occasion. Traditional celebrations included gifts left in children’s shoes (from which English Christmas stockings developed). Good children receive treats: Sweets, biscuits, apples and nuts, while naughty children receive lumps of coal. In Germany, children still put a shoe outside their bedroom doors on the eve of Saint Nicholas’ Day, and hope to find sweets, coins and maybe a small gift in them on December 6. In The Netherlands, children put their shoes in front of their chimneys in hopes of finding chocolate or a small toy in their shoe when they wake.

For most children in The Netherlands, the most important day during December is 5th December, when Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) brings them their presents! Although St. Nicholas' day is on the 6th December, in Holland, the major celebrations are held on the 5th December. The name Santa Claus comes from the name Sinterklaas. On the morning of St. Nicholas’ Day, Sinterklaas travels to every city or town in The Netherlands, wearing his red bishop’s robes. He travels with his servants called “Zwarte Pieten” (Black Peters). When Sinterklaas and the Black Peters come ashore from the boat, all of the local church bells ring in celebration. Sinterklaas then leads a procession through the town, riding a white horse. When he visits Amsterdam, he meets the Royal Family in the Palace.

On December, 5th children leave clogs or shoes out, by the fireplace or sometimes a windowsill, and sing Sinterklaas songs. They hope that Sinterklaas will come during the night with some presents. They also believe that if they leave some hay and carrots in their shoes for Sinterklaas’ horse, they will be left some sweets. They’re told that, during the night, Sinterklaas rides on the roofs on his horse and that a Zwarte Piet will then climb down the chimney (or through a window) and put the presents and/or candy in their shoes.

Children are also told that the Zwarte Pieten keep a record of all the things they have done in the past year. Good children will get presents from Sinterklaas, but bad children will be put in a sack and the Zwarte Pieten take them to Spain for a year to teach then how to behave! Dutch tradition says that St. Nicholas lives in Madrid, Spain and every year he chooses a different harbour to arrive in Holland, so as many children as possible get a chance to see him. Every town in Holland has a few Sinterklaas helpers, dressed the same as Sinterklaas who help give the presents out.

To celebrate, here is Joseph Haydn’s “Missa Sancti Nicolai” (Mass no. 6 in G major, Hob XXII:6, also known as the “Nicolaimesse” or St Nicholas’ Mass). This is a mass by Joseph Haydn, composed around 1772 and revised in 1802. The work is scored for SATB soloists and choir, two oboes, two horns, strings, and organ. The revision added trumpets and timpani. It is believed to have been composed for a celebration on St Nicholas’s Day.

Missa Sancti Nicolai in G major “Nikolaimesse”, H. 22/6
1 Kyrie
2 Gloria
3 Credo
4 Sanctus
5 Agnus Dei

FOOD FRIDAY - VEGGIE QUICHE

“Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche.” - Bruce Feirstein


A vegetarian quiche recipe to serve to your real man. Easy enough for a real man to cook it too.

Vegetarian Quiche
Ingredients
2 sheets frozen ready-rolled shortcrust pastry, thawed
400g butternut pumpkin, peeled, cubed
1 small capsicum, sliced
1 small parsnip, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
Olive oil cooking spray
4 eggs
1/4 cup pure cream
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves (optional)
Ground nutmeg, pepper, salt.

Method
Preheat fan-forced oven to 180°C. Place a baking tray on the top shelf of the oven. Line another baking tray with baking paper.Use pastry to line base and sides of a 4 cm-deep, 25 cm fluted tart pan. Prick base with a fork. Freeze for 15 minutes or until firm.Place pumpkin, capsicum, parsnip and onion on lined baking tray. Spray with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place on lower shelf of oven. Place tart pan on hot baking tray in oven.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until pastry is golden and vegetables are just tender. Remove tart pan and vegetables from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 160°C.
Place eggs, cream and cheese in a large jug. Whisk to combine. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Arrange vegetables in pastry case. Pour over egg mix. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden and just set. If desired, top with parsley before serving.
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CUMIN FOR ST BARBARA

“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

Today is the anniversary of the birth of:

Julius II, pope (1443);

André Campra, French composer (1660);

Thomas Carlyle, Scottish essayist (1795);

Samuel Butler, English author (1835);

Rainer Maria Rilke, poet (1875);

Hamilton Harty, composer (1879);

Francisco Franco Bahamonde, Spanish dictator (1892);

A. D. Hershey, Nobel laureate (1969) virologist (1908);

Deanna Durbin (Edna Mae Durbin), actress (1921);

Ronnie Corbett, comedian (1930)

Jeff Bridges, actor (1949);

Pamela Stephenson, actress (1949);

Nick Vujicic, author, religious leader (1982).

The birthday plant for this day is cumin, Cuminum cyminum.  It has a long history of culinary use and its ground seeds are an essential ingredient of curry powder and mixed spice mixtures. The seeds are also used to flavour breads, cakes, cheese, sausages and other sweet and savoury dishes.  The cumin symbolises renewed affection and the seed in the language of flowers implies: “I shall await your arrival”.

St Barbara was beautiful young princess who was imprisoned in a high tower so that her many suitors were discouraged.  One of handmaidens smuggled in some Christian books to her and she embraced the Christian faith with much fervour.  When her father learned of her conversion he handed her over to be tortured as she would not renounce her new faith.  In the end, he beheaded her himself, upon which he was instantly struck dead by lightning.  Therefore, she is invoked against tempests and storms and she is the patron saint of artillery men and gunners, makers of fireworks and explosives.

Died on this day: John XXII (Jacques Duäsne), Pope of Rome (1334); Thomas Hobbes, Philosopher (1679); George Peabody, philanthropist (1869); Hannah Arendt, philosopher (1975); Benjamin Britten, English composer (1976); Frank Zappa, Musician (1993).