Since German trains are quite often delayed, Maria Portela Larisch and Jou-an Chen would be in Zutphen at 11am on Sunday morning nice and early! But I started to get a bit worried about the recital scheduled for 3pm on Sunday afternoon. On Friday evening, I sent an email to Maria and get a decided reply: no problem at all, we will be in Zutphen on Sunday morning!
On Saturday, visitor cancellations start coming in because of the bad weather. Well, soon I will have musicians but no listeners. I consult Dinant Krouwel, who is also on the visitors' list and, after all, knows all the ins and outs of the VvhL; his tip is: allow people from the neighbourhood in for free, who knows, this might even yield new members! And indeed a few apps yield new registrations, but Saturday evening Maria sends a message: it will be later, hopefully 11.30 a.m. and Sunday morning the train turns out to be defective and it will be later and later again ... Soon I will have a room full of listeners and no musicians. Time to start thinking of an alternative! I know there are singers and pianists among the Zutphen members, so I called Dinant again: if there are scores, he's willing to accompany! Menno Slagter called and he is immediately enthusiastic and willing to sing some liederen, takes scores with him! Marieke Lodder also appears willing to sing some liederen. Great! Then I called the pianists I know, Koen Hilbrink and Frank Fahner, and both were happy to play some! How wonderful that they responded so positively to my last-minute requests!
It is past two when Maria and Jou-an catch sight of the towers of Zutphen. I pick them up from the station and on the way to our regular address at the Zaadmarkt we make a plan: they will start singing right away, then disappear upstairs to recover from a long, stressful journey with a hot cup of tea and change. We simply start at three o'clock with Menno and Marieke both accompanied by Dinant singing a lied, after which Maria and Jou-an will stage their programme minus one section.
The more than 30 listeners are now in their seats, free or not, Menno sings a beautiful lied about Martin Luther King and the much-desired peace, Marieke very sensitively sings a poem by Hans Lodeizen, Dinant accompanies, after which the ladies take over and spoil us with works by female poets set to music by well-known and lesser-known composers. Sung so soulfully by Maria with her beautiful voice, while Jou-an makes the grand piano sing along with her supple fingers ... we listen breathlessly. And the Chinese lied we get as an encore has many a tear trickling down a cheek. In the break and during the drinks afterwards, Koen Hilbrink improvises on the grand piano ... We have a fantastic afternoon together! Who knows, maybe there will be a sequel because careful plans were made during the drinks ...
Elsa van Willenswaard,
contact Zutphen
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