Ho sempre pensato che viaggiare non fosse solo un semplice modo per abbandonare la sistematica consuetudine giornaliera per gettarsi in nuove esperienze, a contatto con nuove culture e nuove società, ma anche un cammino introspettivo grazie al quale l'uomo può scoprire ed attraversare nuove strade per il suo spirito; la scoperta non è esclusivamente empirica, ma può riflettersi nel cuore e nella mente di colui che la sperimenta, la vive come una parte di sè, la fa sua, e questa scoperta diventa così l'uomo stesso, perchè alle volte non è necessario scoprire cercando, ma cercare scoprendo.
Ben pochi riescono a scavare a fondo nelle proprie radici e in quelle dell'uomo. Ancora più difficile è esprimerlo a parole. Figuriamoci con la musica.
Loreena McKennitt ci è sempre riuscita e questo dono ha voluto offrirlo a noi, immortalando i frutti delle sue esperienze di vita con ogni sua nuova uscita ed in particolare con questo cd/dvd girato dal vivo all'Alhambra (Granada, Spagna). Un'ora e mezza di concerto dove Loreena e circa altri dieci musicisti danno veramente il meglio del meglio. L'esibizione è perfetta ed immacolata, praticamente identica alla produzione in studio. La scaletta comprende tutti i brani più importanti (e ovviamente più belli) della discografia dell'artista e può essere definita come una completa sintesi della sua carriera, dal 1985 fino ad oggi.
Non mancano certo i brani più tradizionali ripescati dal passato, come l'indimenticabile "Stolen Child" e la celeberrima "She Moved through the Fair", eseguiti subito dopo la magistrale 'ouverture' di "The Mystic's Dream": preziose melodie senza tempo eseguite brillantemente si susseguono fino ad arrivare alla solare "The Mummer's Dance", ed in certi frangenti si può notare come i dieci musicisti non siano lì solo per suonare, ma anche per divertirsi, quasi come se stessero giocando tra loro in uno spensierato girotondo di note e ritmiche incalzanti. Loreena gironzola per il palco a ritmo di musica, sorride timidamente, gli sguardi dei musicisti si incrociano di tanto in tanto e si scambiano cenni d'intesa, strimpellano con disinvoltura i loro strumenti e ridono -come ad esempio nell'eccellente "Marco Polo" o, meglio ancora, durante l'esecuzione di "Santiago" dove Loreena saltella tutta arzilla, contenta come non mai.
E così prosegue il resto del concerto, alternando parti più movimentate ed irresistibili a momenti strappalacrime: "Penelope's Song", "Never Ending Road" e "Dante's Prayer" sono eseguiti da una Loreena rannicchiata al pianoforte e coperta dalla sua cascata di capelli rossi, persa nei suoi pensieri, con un volto stanco ed affaticato e dagli occhi lucidi per le lacrime a stento trattenute. Altre canzoni sono ben più impegnative, seppur di minore carica emotiva: "The Bonny Swans" lascia di stucco per gli acuti toccati dalla cristallina voce di Loreena e "Bonny Portmore" mescola lirismo e veemenza risultando decisamente intenso e mozzafiato. L'austerità si diffonde nell'aria con "The Lady of Shalott" e "Caravanserai" regala ancora brividi di emozione con la sua mistica e fatata armonia dal sapore orientale.
Tra cambi d'atmosfera e di ritmi, tra i sorrisi dei musicisti e la tenera commozione della nostra Musa e dopo alcuni suggestivi scorci della città di Granada, il concerto si conclude immancabilmente con la limpida "Cymbeline": triste ed angelica, si dissolve gradualmente per chiudere con grazia uno dei concerti più belli che abbia mai visto (senza contare che sia dal vivo o no). Il pubblico si leva in piedi, applaude ed acclama, alcuni portano mazzi di fiori a Loreena. Sicuramente quello qui descritto è stato molto più di un semplice concerto: è la storia di una donna, un'artista che racconta di gioie e di dolori, di curiose scoperte e di profonde riflessioni attraverso la magia di una musica tutta sua che non ha e che non avrà mai rivali. E il viaggio continua...
"When the dark night seems endless,
please, remember me..."
Grazie Loreena. Non ti dimenticheremo.
Elenco tracce e testi
01 The Mystic's Dream (06:35)
A clouded dream on an earthly night
Hangs upon the crescent moon
A voiceless song in an ageless light
Sings at the coming dawn
Birds in flight are calling there
Where the heart moves the stones
It's there that my heart is longing for
All for the love of you
A painting hangs on an ivy wall
Nestled in the emerald moss
The eyes declare a truce of trust
And then it draws me far away
Deep in the desert twilight
Sand melts in pools of the sky
When darkness lays her crimson cloak
Your lamps will call, call me home
And so it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
And now I feel you move
And every breath is full
So it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
Even the distance feels so near
All for the love of you.
03 Stolen Child (04:17)
Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water-rats
There we've hid our fairy vats
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Chorus:
Come away, oh human child
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim grey sands with light
By far off furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles
While the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep.
Chorus
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Chorus
Away with us he's going
The solemn-eyed
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.
04 The Mummers' Dance (04:26)
When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair
When owls call the breathless moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light
CHORUS:
We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay
Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year
The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days
CHORUS
And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone
A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of our Lord's hand
Chorus
05 Penelope's Song (04:25)
Now that the time has come
Soon gone is the day
There upon some distant shore
You'll hear me say
Long as the day in the summer time
Deep as the wine dark sea
I'll keep your heart with mine.
Till you come to me.
There like a bird I'd fly
High through the air
Reaching for the sun's full rays
Only to find you there
And in the night when our dreams are still
Or when the wind calls free
I'll keep your heart with mine
Till you come to me
Now that the time has come
Soon gone is the day
There upon some distant shore
You'll hear me say
Long as the day in the summer time
Deep as the wine dark sea
I'll keep your heart with mine.
Till you come to me
07 The Bonny Swans (04:45)
A farmer there lived in the north country
a hey ho bonny o
And he had daughters one, two, three
The swans swim so bonny o
These daughters they walked by the river's brim
a hey ho bonny o
The eldest pushed the youngest in
The swans swim so bonny o
Oh sister, oh sister, pray lend me your hand
with a hey ho a bonny o
And I will give you house and land
the swans swim so bonny o
I'll give you neither hand nor glove
with a hey ho a bonny o
Unless you give me your own true love
the swans swim so bonny o
Sometimes she sank, sometimes she swam
with a hey ho and a bonny o
Until she came to a miller's dam
the swans swim so bonny o
The miller's daughter, dressed in red
with a hey ho and a bonny o
She went for some water to make some bread
the swans swim so bonny o
Oh father, oh daddy, here swims a swan
with a hey ho and a bonny o
It's very like a gentle woman
the swans swim so bonny o
They placed her on the bank to dry
with a hey ho and a bonny o
There came a harper passing by
the swans swim so bonny o
He made harp pins of her fingers fair
with a hey ho and a bonny o
He made harp strings of her golden hair
the swans swim so bonny o
He made a harp of her breast bone
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And straight it began to play alone
the swans swim so bonny o
He brought it to her father's hall
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And there was the court, assembled all
the swans swim so bonny o
He laid the harp upon a stone
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And straight it began to play lone
the swans swim so bonny o
And there does sit my father the King
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And yonder sits my mother the Queen
the swans swim so bonny o
And there does sit my brother Hugh
with a hey ho and a bonny o
And by him William, sweet and true
the swans swim so bonny o
And there does sit my false sister, Anne
with a hey ho and a bonny o
Who drowned me for the sake of a man
the swans swim so bonny o
08 Dante's Prayer (05:07)
When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone
I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars
Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and fire
Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Though we share this humble path, alone
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars
Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares
Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Please remember me
09 Caravanserai (06:58)
This glancing life is like a morning star
A setting sun, or rolling waves at sea
A gentle breeze or lightning in a storm
A dancing dream of all eternity
The sand was shimmering in the morning light
And dancing off the dunes so far away
The night held music so sweet, so long
And there we lay until the break of day
We woke that morning at the onward call
Our camels bridled up, our howdahs full
The sun was rising in the eastern sky
Just as we set out to the desert's cry
Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you
The tents grew smaller as we rode away
On earth that tells of many passing days
The months of peace and all the years of war
The lives of love and all the lives of fears
Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you
We crossed the river beds all etched in stone
And up the mighty mountains ever known
Beyond the valleys in the searing heat
Until we reached the caravanserai
Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you
Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you
What is this life that pulls me far away
What is that home where we cannot reside
What is that quest that pulls me onward
My heart is full when you are by my side
Calling, yearning, pulling, home to you
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