Intermezzo

Aaaaaah, the orchestral Intermezzo from Mascagni's opera "Cavalleria Rusticana". What a perfect piece to remind oneself that the best music is the music which makes you smile, even when you are hurrying down the escalator at the metro station during the morning rush hour. It takes only that first grand melodic phrase - the violins over the lush harp accompaniment - to sweep you off your feet. Suddenly everything smells good, the colours you see look richer, and everyone at the platform - the sharp office workers, the irritating schoolchildren, the Somali immigrants (on the opposite platform), the smelly drunkards and the phlegmatic cleaning lady start singing their heart out along with you. What better piece to play on an endless loop of repeats when you are in love - - which I'm not, but preparing is half the fun!

It's been a great day. The sun showed itself for some moments, and at sunset (16:09), when I was coming home for a short breather, the sky turned violet above my house. I seem to have found some supernatural telepathic channel to people's minds and they kept telling me just the things I wanted to hear and agreed with everything I said.

Ruoholahti just after sunrise.

At work in the evening, I don't know what magical button I pressed, but suddenly, everyone sang cleaner and sounder than ever before. And with what emotion! While rehearsing one of the prettiest Finnish folk songs I know, the choir just let it all out, and suddenly we were surrounded by thick green birches, a cuckoo called in the distance, the lake was a shimmering blue, it was spring in Karelia, and everything outside our room, the trams rumbling by on the other side of the windows and the people playing ice hockey on the sports field, was like something from a different planet.

This is not Karelia, but Graz's Schlossberg, my own lost paradise :)

I want my singers to feel proud of their hobby and be happy that, in addition to sitting in an office all day (or whatever it is they do), their week includes three hours where they can leave their everyday worries, pressures and careers outside together with their coats, and become artists. Music is the best form of escapism. Who could do without it. Listening to Mascagni's wonderful Intermezzo is easier, cheaper and has a faster effect on the mind than booking a flight to Mexico City to "revive oneself far from home at these low prices and watch the world awake from winter" (I'm still getting these "Spring Moment" emails from Lufthansa).

And this is me flying to Frankfurt just over a year ago!

Oh God, what is this Danish pop which suddenly started playing on my iTunes library - Anne Linnet? Seriously, it sounds like someone having a go at a minority language from the remote mountains of Bhutan with a local plucked instrument from the middle ages for accompaniment. Now I remember, my fellow blogger friend from Århus sent me this piece. Well, I just nominated her as most likely to have the best taste in music on Facebook, so maybe I'll get to like this eventually :)

Music is great. Sleeping, too. Good night!