From good to better and better

The festival En Blanc et Noir in Lagrasse is drawing to a close.  We've been treated to piano and vocal performances ranging from Bach to Jerome Kern, with accompaniments of strong wind, thunder and lightning, plus the dulcet tones of the doctor's elderly Toyota, which he doubtless had good reasons to drive into and out of the square during performances.  There hasn't been a single disappointing performance, except by the piano, rented from an outfit in Carcassonne.  OK: it's standing outdoors with changing temperature, humidity and barometric pressure; and it has been taking quite a hammering.  But it doesn't hold its tune at all well: though tuned this morning, the upper end of the right hand was sounding by lunchtime like a neglected church hall upright.  As it has throughout the festival, if I'm to be candid.  It has detracted only a little from the uniformly excellent performances.

Turning to tiny details, I cared less for a performance by a delightful young pianist who felt bound to improve on what the composers had written; variations, fine.  Ornamentation: discuss.  Similarly I was not taken with a performance in which the performer overdid the rubato to the extent that each phrase seemed isolated.  Tastes evolve: composers used to invite improvised cadenzas, and it was once the fashion to take a fermata on a climactic chord at the end of a Bach fugue as an invitation to embark on a spirited improvisation.  But here we are, and this is now: de gustibus non est discutandum.  And if I could play a single note, I might be entitled to have my uninformed opinion taken into account.
 
Part of the charm of the thing is its intimacy: neighbours get together to chat over a glass of wine from the buvette during intervals; most of the musicians seem to be staying for the whole bash, so I've had a chance to chat with a lot of them in their free moments.  Artistically, it has been just one treat after another, and I find myself wishing my life away until the next one. Just hope the last two performances don't get washed out by the forecast storms.