Family Holidays
My German manager and friend Markus Bröhl told me today on the phone that finally I sounded happy again and wanted to know what the problem was before. Nothing, I replied, I was as miserable and sad as always :) My situation is exactly the same like the weeks before, except that I am a bit nervous since I haven't touched the cello for 6 days, and in 2 days there is a Haydn D Major in Nashville to play.
On Tour with my son János
For the first time ever I had to take my son János to concerts with me, because his mother has some on her own somewhere near Miami.
"Tristan" for a 7-year-old
Just got back from "Tristan and Isolde" at the Staatsoper unter den Linden (in Berlin), and I wanted to write about this, because I went with my 7-year-old son János. After going with him on our motorbike to watch our local soccer team Hertha BSC win at the Olympic Stadium (where the world cup finals took place) three days ago, I took him today to his first "real" opera, not counting Hänsel and Gretel or Pinocchio. And it was for real: four and a half hours of music, intense, beautifully conducted by the living legend Daniel Barenboim, and this little son of mine was sitting through the whole thing with red cheeks, even getting the orgastic climaxes throughout the opera. I was all prepared with a pillow in case he wanted to sleep on my lap, had brought his drawing papers and pens in a bag, food, water, anything he would have liked, but no, he sat there more silent than most of our neighbours and enjoyed. Oh, it made me so happy, because I think nowadays it's even harder to get your kids off the TV hooked to something else but electronics and games, and obviously this meant something to him. He has always been somewhat fascinated by death, and this opera is full of it.
Airhead
While practicing I received a text message from my friend Annette, the singer, if she could invite herself for a ride on my new motorbike - since I looked for a good excuse not to practice too much, I told her to come over. We had a little coffee first (I just got into self-roasting my espresso beans, which is a science for itself, but what can I do - I love coffee so much. No, don't need it, doesn't really do anything to me, but I love the taste!), talked about the day, Hertha BSC (the Berlin soccer club) and what airheads both of us are. I was even wondering if this had anything to do with some kind of depression, because sometimes I don't manage to do the most easy things, like picking up a sweater from the floor, or, my worst nightmare, bringing down the garbage. I pile it up until it reaches the ceiling (well, not quite), even though it would take me 2 minutes to bring it down.
Motorbike
Yesterday I bought my first motorbike. Yes, on some of the photos I am riding a scooter, and yes, this was mine, and yes, I did ride it with my cello on the back. But now, just after summer, I made my motorbike licence, checked out autoscout24 and got myself a Yamaha XJ600N. His mother doesn't really want me to take Janos more than once a week, but I guess this is going to be difficult, since it is sooooooo much fun to drive around Berlin, especially having your kid behind you. I would have loved my father do anything like that with me...
Willkommen zu Alban's Blog
Since a while I started thinking of starting my own blog in order to get some more feedback from fellow musicians or general audiences about the way I see, feel and understand music making, the music "scene" or business as well as general things in culture. I have no idea if there is a real interest for this, but I thought I'd check it out and see what happens...