Bliss with ancient music

Although I had just seen Elfenthal at the end of December, I traveled to a place near Celle to see them again on Saturday. I arrived a little early and joined a queue already waiting. When I read on the poster that the concert was sold out I felt very lucky I had bought an online ticket just a few days earlier!

 

As the first rows were completely reserved I was lucky to get a seat beside the aisle from where I had a good view to the stage, even from the 10^th row. The sound at the culture club was fantastic.

There was a guitar player/singer with a kind of country & western music first as support, but he couldn't really catch the audience. I truly felt pity for him.

Shortly after 8 pm Maite Itoiz and John Kelly came on stage and started the program with a very slow song from Hildegard von Bingen, a German medieval healer. Although most of the audience was there just because they like music without knowing the 2 persons on stage, everybody listened closely and was obviously impressed. Most of the songs were from different ages and different countries, mostly collected by ancient kings and monks. Some are on the Elfenthal CD, some I had heard at the last indoor concert in Lichtenberg in 2014, but there were also some brand new songs I had never heard before.

The audience seemed to clap longer with every song and when Maite had finished the song for her book, the applause would hardly stop. Her smile proved her joy!

Her German is improving with every concert, but whenever she misses a word in German, John has to help as a walking and talking dictionary. Their little conversations and explanations about the songs were so cute and by the end of the concert everyone just loved them. I let myself get carried away by the music, forgetting everything around me and just felt the peace and beauty of the sounds of the opera voice, harp, lute and guitar as well as soft drums, played by John.

If it had not been for some friends hoping for some captured moments as photos or videos, I would have let the camera in it's bag, as I didn't feel like watching through the lenses. Still – now I'm happy I have some lovely memories of that evening.

Listen to one of my favorite songs here 

The last song of the evening here

Suddenly the concert ended but with clapping constantly we got an extra song before we had to return to reality. As I was in no hurry I had a coffee and talked to some other visitors, expressing our gratitude for the concert and finally I could even talk to Maite & John, telling them how much everyone had enjoyed the concert – and getting a good advice from John to keep practicing on my harp.

Luckily I have a nav gear to lead me safely home over country roads, through spooky forests and motorways.