G's Gems

Thursday, April 10. Today was craziness on the metro due to student "manifestations" (protests). These are high school aged kids protesting reforms. Metro mobbed and noisy. I watch the news tonight to see the report.

Grammar class. Once again, Thierry in rare form. Since I'm trying not to use any "identifying information" in this blog (e.g. last names of people), I am calling this entry "G's Gems" because I decided I liked that better than "Thierry's Treasures." His last name begins with "G" so "G's Gems" it is for the moment. (Other suggestions welcome!)

Here's our dictee for today (he speaks, we write!):

La peste soit des gens qui, par desinvolture,
Conservent les bouquins qui vous ont empruntes!
J'ai perdu tous les miens dans semblable aventure:
Il ne me reste plus que ceux qu'on m'a pretes.

Roughly translated:
A plague on all who, by neglect,
Keep the books that you have loaned them!
I have lost all of mine that way
And have left only those loaned to me by others.

(OK, I was doing a good job with the cadence until the last line.)

How funny is that? :) You can see why I love this man!

There's a young-ish Romanian man (Sylvio) in our class who is a physician (anesthesiologist) and who will begin working at a hospital in Chateau-Thierry in a couple of weeks. So into our general class conversation comes the name of a Romanian pianist, Radu Lupu, who (of course) I've never heard of but now (of course) want to find out more about. Apparently, he (Lupu) lives in France. After class, Thierry (prof) suggests that I look for a CD of his performance of Shubert's Impromptus. I love having these little goals. I'm glad that I have a CD player in the apartment.

Later: Google Radu Lupu. He's giving a concert in Paris on April 29th. Tickets are expensive but I'm considering. In Wikipedia (that ever-realiable source of information (!), it says his concert appearances are not frequent and that he is a somewhat reclusive figure. Hasn't given interviews for 30 years. Sounds intriguing: someone who actually shies away from celebrity. He won the Van Cliburn in 1966. There's a lovely description of him by Alex Ross in a New Yorker review of a 2005 concert which you can read here:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/02/28/050228crmu_music

And here's an excerpt by Thomas May from a review of a 2001 recital in Seattle:

"Part of the mystique surrounding Radu Lupu arises precisely from his lack of interest in cultivating one. Considered by critics to be a holy man of the keyboard, the Romanian pianist could easily hype his own personality but refuses to do so. Aside from a few eccentricities, a Lupu performance keeps the spotlight resolutely on the music rather than the performer. Yet the result is often a form of communion so gripping that the term "recital" sounds inadequately prosaic and limiting."