Isula Rossa – L’Ile Rousse
When I park my car in Isula Rossa along the side of the road (just off the main road N197) there is enough time to visit the town. Last year I had asked, in an ice cream shop In Isula Rossa, where the concert would take place, and the ice cream tasted so good that I definitely wanted to return this year. Moreover, it seemed like a friendly little town, actually nicer than Calvi, so I would like to look around a bit longer.
But when I turn around the corner to enter the main street, I see -to my amazement- Alain Bernardini walking in the distance, accompanied by someone from the crew. Because I think that Alain should be able to walk freely around without having being bothered by fans all the time, I greet him briefly and want to move on. But that does not really succeed. “Tiens, tiens” (“Wait, wait”), he says smiling broadly, but he is very determined. With his arm he literally stops me. “What do you think of the concerts? Do you have a nice vacation?”, he asks me, and I can only answer these two questions positively. “Fantastique!” I hear myself saying loudly in the middle of the street. We continue walking smilingly, having each our own way, he to the concert site, I to the bookstore.
COSEC
When I arrive later in the area of the town hall where they will play tonight, everything has been set up already. But Mickey welcomes me with bad news: some people from both the crew and the band must have eaten something wrong the night before and have become very sick. Knowing everything has been set up already is almost a miracle. In any case, it is questionable whether the concert will take place tonight. It would obviously be a nasty blow, but what is not possible, is not possible.
A little later violinist Laurence Dupuis and drummer Thomas Simmerl drive into the ground. and walk to the back of the stage. From guitarist Mickey Meinert I have understood that of the band Laurence and Thomas in particular are suffering from gastroenteritis (stomach flu). The fact that they have arrived makes me guess it will be all right.
But Jean-Francois has not arrived yet. A little later I understand that he is visiting the exhibition I Culori d’Umani in a gallery in Isula Rossa, and that a camera team from the television is there to register it . The exhibition I Culori d’Umani is an initiative of the AFC, an association of which Jean-François is the chairman. At home I had read somewhere that the vernissage of the exhibition would take place on the day of the concert in Bastia, some days ago. And today, I assumed that I would probably arrive too late to be able to visit the gallery, so I had not written down the address. So, I was fed up with it. But on the other hand, there is not enough time left to go back to the center. Moreover I have already dressed for the evening and in this heat is not an attractive idea to go running while I’m wearing long trousers. So, a great pity, but yes, there is also plenty to enjoy, so there is no reason to mope for a long time.
The sound check starts without Jean-François. Meanwhile the sound has been adjusted so often that his presence is no longer really very necessary. Violinist Laurence Dupuis is sitting on the edge of the platform and singer Stephane Mangiantini asks her if she is all right. She nods so I get relieved: the concert will go on.
Jean-François enters at almost the end of the sound check. When he sits down behind his piano on stage to check his instruments he is looking tired and rubs his hand over his face. It is all very understandable and even inevitable when one is getting in late every night. Fortunately he soon is happy about the sound, so they can all can go off for a quick dinner together.
It will still take a while before the concert begins. I do not want to sit at my chair already and hang around on the border of the stage. I see that the list of songs they will play tonight is already taped to the ground where Mickey stands. I seize my opportunity and write down the entire set list in my diary, so I have at least all the titles and their spelling. I write them on the two pages in my diary of that particular week.
Suddenly my friend Claudine le Madec is standing beside me. She is attending every concert of the Giru, many evenings she is laying down the programme books on the chairs. She wants to introduce me to Gerda-Marie Kühn, the translator of the texts I Muvrini in German. I am honored that I am proposed to her. In my best German I try to tell her that I have met her husband last year on a dirt road when my navigation system had told me over and over again to take that road. Because my navigation system did not succeed in finding an asphalt road to San ‘Antoninu, I decided in desperation to take that dirt road. But first I wanted to examine the holes in the road after the curve up the mountain to find out if there would be more. When I was halfway there, a man suddenly showed up behind the bend. He turned out to be Walter Kühn, who immediately presented himself as the spouse of the translator for I Muvrini. I thought to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, and even there I had met somebody who had close ties with I Muvrini. After we had discussed the possibilities of the dirt road, that also led to San ‘Antoninu, and Walter had told me the holes in the road weren’t too bad, he wryly asked “Do you know there is also a normal road to San “Antoninu?” “No,” I said, ‘that is why am I here now, because I cannot find that road. He told me that I still had to drive about 10 or 14 kilometer. “Because, in Corsica you can never be sure about distances! ,” he said. I had to continue on the asphalt road, and then I would see a sign where I had to turn left. He was right. The distance that I had to take was indeed 10 to 14 kilometers, and it was also clearly stated where I had to go to the left. But on the other hand, I had not seen earlier any sign that told me about the direction of San Antoninu, which is strange because it is a very famous village, lying on top of a mountain.
The concert, just like last year at this place, is a great success. Then it was almost the last concert of the Giru, after a rest day. Without being sick, tired, and with the knowledge that the job was almost done, they all seemed to be more relaxed on stage. The situation now is completely different, but it’s all more than good. At the beginning of the concert the audience seems a little bit lukewarm, and what is happening exactly I cannot say, but it is a fact the public are going crazy at the end.
Tonight they play once again the new song “Notte” ( “Night”) which for me stood out already at the first hearing in Ajaccio. What a beautiful melody, and actually so simple that I cannot imagine that it have never sounded earlier somewhere, although I would not know where exactly. It is the melody that makes it so wonderful, but it is also the special sound that keyboardist Achim Meier to conjure from his instrument, the guitar of Mickey Meinert which meanders through it, and especially the violin Laurence Dupuis which must seduce you to surrender to that beautiful melody! Jean-François also. Watch it here!
When they have already performed the encore, the audience has gone so mad that they decide to sing an extra bonus. The three singers, Alain and Jean-François Bernardini and Stephane Mangiantini stood once again on the back of the stage, as if ready to start singing a polyphonic song. Fortunately, that is true! They start singing the “Diu vi salvi Regina”, the Corsican anthem. I cannot believe my ears and am thrilled that after all the years I have followed them, they finally sing this song again, and even on Corsican ground!
In the afternoon at the sound check they had practiced this song very briefly, but it was so short that it was not reasonable to assume that they would sing it tonight. Halfway they invite the audience to sing along. That is very nice, I think, to sing the Corsican anthem along with the Corsicans! As they tried to start the second verse something went wrong; the organ part of Achim Meier is not in sync with the vocals. Well, this can all happen when you sing live, even though you have sung it already very often. And anyway, in my opinion real mastery shows itself more in how you recover after an error, than in a perfect performance itself, and they recover very well. Judge this for yourself:
Like every night there are still people waiting after the concert for Jean-François and Alain be able to obtain a signature or simply just talk to them. But I decide to drive back directly. The return route takes almost 1.5 hours, and tomorrow I will have to go to San Ciprianu in the south, and that drive will last more than 1.5 hours to complete. In itself it is not such a very long drive, but every minute you can sleep during the Giru is one extra!
For the pictures of the sound check and this concert in Isula Rossa, click here.
Moriani – Isula Rossa= 84 km, 1 hours 22 minutes
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