After my whirlwind spontaneous trip to the ancient city of Pompei, I still had a flight to catch in Rome to Milan for the next leg of my tour. I had to get up at 5am, barely got any sleep. The hostel guy said goodbye to me as I slipped out the door, and I headed to the bus stop. I had to catch the train at 630 at Naples Station so I didn't have a lot of room for error. Thankfully I caught the bus right on time and I was on my way. Got to the station, figured out how to buy the ticket...for only 10,50 euros to Rome? Not complaining! But then I got back to Rome and found the train to Fiumicino at the other end of the station...damn this heavy backpack...and it was 15 euros to go to the airport!!! WTF?? How do you figure that? Anyways, made it to the airport...after all that my flight was running behind a bit, so I had time for a small meal.
So I flew to Milan-Malpensa. Malpensa, like Fiumicino, is also nowhere near the city centre. So I bought a shuttle ticket to the central station, that took an hour, then hopped on the metro. Changed lines at one point too. Finally, I find my hostel, in a pretty nice neighbourhood too. Sigh of relief, I can relax.
If you've been counting, that's a bus, 2 trains, a plane, another bus, and 2 metro trains. Holy crap.
But talk about a night and day difference from Naples. Milan is just the opposite; clean, upscale, trendy, and clearly has money...that Naples could use. The cars drive in an orderly fashion, and there's plenty of room in the wide streets. No piles of smelly garbage...all in all really nice. But the hostel; well, it was clean, and....quiet. Really quiet. The young chinese guy at the desk didn't speak much english other than what was needed to check in guests. I mean, everything I asked, he or his mother (I'm assuming) were helpful. But what was missing was the overall warmth and welcome I just experienced in Naples. Crappier hostel aesthetically, poor town etc...but I got a great vibe from Naples. They instantly told me what to do, how the hostel worked, what I need to do in Naples etc..a genuine desire to see me enjoy myself there and get the most out of it. The feeling I got right away in Milan, not just from the hostel, was much more...composed. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. But maybe things would change...
So I went out and grabbed the ol' kebab...I kinda like having kebabs in each city, to determine the best one. I should have started a kebab blog maybe. If I do, I shall call it "Keblog"*. Or "Kebablog"*. (* Copyright 2010 SartorialSaga. All rights reserved." I called up my friend Pietro who I hadn't seen since my trip with Kristen. Now, I may not have mentioned, I had visited Milan before in 2004 with Kristen and saw these friends, but I was extremely ill at the time. Kristen had to drive the car thru the Swiss Alps alone while I was unconscious in the passenger seat from the flu or whatever. So I was still sick in Milan and didn't get to do much.
My friend Laura, who was still busy working that day, said Pietro, who is a piano teacher, was giving a seminar on Gustav Mahler's 5th Symphony at the Auditorium di Milano, and following the seminar was a concert. He invited me to come see, so I made my way across a town I didn't know in a hurry to the place I marked on my map. Made it just in time to see Pietro's speech. Now my italian isn't THAT good; I have a feeling I would have trouble following a speech on that subject in english, let alone italian...far too esoteric, but really interesting. I understood parts of it, and he had audioclips to back it up so it was great. Took some pics for him, thought he might like to have some, as he doesn't do that very often. The crowd was quite a bit older, the types you would expect to be Mahler conoisseurs. But he did a great job.
After, I went up and said hi to Pietro, it had been so long! I met his friend Martina who I was told to call and meet up with...turns out I could have stayed with her that night instead of the hostel...but too late. We talked for a bit, then I went and bought my ticket just before it started...it was only like 12 euros...and they put me front row centre, right behind the piano! Whoa! It was like my own private concert! I would never expect to get the chance to see a classical concert with a full orchestra in Milan...so cool.
The first "opening act" before Mahler was an interlude by a young pianist, 30s, doing Mozart. Extremely talented man. With first 3 notes I instantly had chills. Not many things make me feel like that. I got a little emotional for a minute; the piano supported by a full orchestra, right in front of me. So beautiful. Made me realize first, how much I love the piano, but also, that I wish I continued with it when I was really young. Chances aren't as good now I suppose to be great, but it's still something I NEED to learn how to do.
This young man had a bit of arrogance to him, a bit like he was showing off....but I suppose Mozart was like that too. To be a young prodigy that everyone revered. I suppose I can't blame the guy; there's always that fine line between humbly accepting love and affection, and drawing it and feeding off of it by showing off. I dunno, I'd love to discuss this sometime, always been an interesting subject...
(Damn, I had to stop writing, now I'm in an internet cafe in Dublin and the keyboard keys are all sticky...this is gonna be challenging)
So anyways, the piano part ended. To be honest I thought that was the end of the show. I got up to leave and indicated to my friends who weren't sitting with me that I would be outside the hall. Went downstairs and got an espresso. Then the lights flashed as they tried to get everyone back inside. No one had left. Oh. That was just the intro act! So I went back to my seat, front row centre again. This time, the piano was replaced by a conductor's platform.
The conductor came out...such a cliche. He had big crazy grey hair sticking straight up. Wearing all black and a simple collarless shirt, he seemed a little less formal. But almost more exclusive as he was afforded these comforts for what he was about to do.
Silence after the applause. A pause. Then, he raised hands and made a WOOOOOSSHHH noise as he brought in the wind and string instruments. Chills again down my back. There must have been about 200 people who made up this orchestra. So cool. So many talented, flawless professionals.
I could see just the cellists and violinists from my seat. I like how everyone is dressed their best for this night. I spotted this attractive young violinist in an evening dress. I only saw her face at the beginning, my view was blocked by the conductor and other players. But I could just hear her, and see her beautiful arms caressing and holding this amazing instrument. So graceful the way she holds it. But the men are different; the lead violinist was an older man, who held it more aggressively, and it wasn't feminine at all. So interesting. Being this close I could also pick out a certain person to listen to, if you look at them and watch their movements.
The conductor was hilarious and amazing at the same time. He almost seemed out of timing with the music and therefore kindof out of place. But I guess it makes sense to everyone there, and he had full control of them. He would cross his hands and gesture with a flat hand, and raise it up high, and with the other hand form a claw that he would shake with authority at another section. He would slice and dice back and forth with his wand to the strings, and STAB the wind instruments, and pound the ground for the percussion. So much passion.
Then all the strings started plucking their instruments. The simple motion combined with the sound made it really funny. But I could really visualize things with the music; images of all kinds, without knowing the story. Makes me wonder how you would even begin to compose something of this scale, with so many elements. These composers are frickin geniuses. Their full understanding of music and its intricate parts is so vastly beyond my comprehension.
When I looked up at him I was also looking right into the lights on the ceiling, partially blinding me sometimes. The energy picked up; I had a huge grin on my face as I would look left at the violinists and right at the cellists. Flashes of light from the middle reminded me to look at the conductor, as he convulsed and swung his arms around occasionally blocking the lights from the ceiling. Being this close I could hear all his movements, and breathing...and I could see big gobs of sweat falling from his face...
I was reminded often this evening of my friend Kenzo, who's so damned skilled with the violin. I appreciate that skill so much. I want to understand it more.
This man was insane, but was so passionate about what he did. I'm beginning to realize that we call some things "cliche" because we might never see these things for real, and the cliche is our only undertanding of it. The word sort of has a dismissive connotation, naive and ignorant. But now I've seen the real deal, and it just makes sense in my head now.
After the concert ended, which was almost an hour of straight playing and flailing and singing etc, we went to Martina's for dinner; me, Pietro, Martina, Nelson her husband, and a couple other friends. She cooked some amazing chorizo meat pasta, AND gorgonzola sauce, with the cheese from the town of the same name just outside of Milan! SO delicious. We had some wine and had homemade pound cake for dessert and a dessert wine too. I stayed so late I didn't even make it back to my hostel, and slept there, like a rock. Whew.
The next day I would discover Milan with Pietro, and see my friend Laura after many years...
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