the Grand Tour blog

A Long Day at the Bauhaus

Another day out yesterday, to visit the Bauhaus building and the Bauhaus Masters' Houses in Dessau. I caught the 08:00 train from Leipzig for the 45 minute journey, and walked slowly through the apparently deserted city to arrive at the main building at 09:00, an hour ahead of visitors' opening time. I knew in advance that I wanted blue sky, green grass and bright sun; and that's the way it was.

I walked around the outside trying to make some arty pics using the 12-24mm lens on the Nikon D300, and naturally working hard to properly record that iconic end view of the building, with 'BAUHAUS' running down it. The building is not as tall as I'd imagined. Then a 600m stroll to the Masters' Houses for a few photos from the road.

Back at the main building I sat outside in the sun with a cappuccino from the Bauhaus cafe, until going in at opening time to buy my day ticket, and a photo pass, giving me guided tours of the main building and the Masters' Houses, and entry to the temporary exhibition. This is currently a large and well laid out display of the commercial design work, mainly in glass and ceramic, of Wilhelm Wagenfeld, one of the founding Bauhaus designers.

The two tours lasted more than an hour each and were most interesting, even though I couldn't follow very much of the German! Plenty of photos to aid my memory. Spent some time and not too much money in the shop, which must stock every Bauhaus book ever, before a fairly brief visit to the permanent exhibition. I had my eye on the clock as the trains back to Leipzig run only every two hours: I arrived just before 5:00pm, nearly nine hours after leaving.

After some final brief visits in the city – today I move on to Berlin – I sat outside Kandler, the tea specialists, sheltering from the warmth of the late afternoon sun in the shadow of the Thomaskirche, with a pot of properly made tea (Darjeeling, since you ask) with the leaves held in a fabric bag.

Too Long on the Slow Train

Today the day for Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, not to see Martin Luther but his friend, painter and printer Lucas Cranach. I had a choice of two trains: the Regional 08:11, which takes an hour and four minutes, or the later Intercity Express (ICE), taking half the time but at almost twice the price.

I chose the slow train, not just to save €8.00 but also as a dry run for my 08:00 train to Dessau tomorrow. But I thought I would treat myself to the ICE for the return journey.

When I'd finished in Wittenberg I walked the kilometre or so back to the station and was pleased to find that there would be a 14:35 ICE as expected (I knew there was a 15:35). But when I went to buy the ticket I was told that the 14:35 would go now via Halle not Leipzig, so that my only option is another slow train, arriving 45 minutes later than I'd anticipated.

So here I am, chugging along, stopping at every little station in Saxony.

Felix, Robert and Applied Art

As today is Sunday - and the half-way point of the trip - I didn't set the alarm last night and had a lie-in until 07:00. But there's work to be done, so after breakfast I spent time writing the last blog post before heading off on foot in my posher togs for the nearby Mendelssohn-Haus.

The apartment where Felix Mendelssohn lived for the last few years of his short life was an unexpected highlight of my last visit to Leipzig, but I wasn't here on a Sunday when there is an 11:00 a.m. concert. This time I'd booked in advance, for a programme of piano music by Carl Maria von Weber and others, accompanied by readings from Weber's letters home to his wife when he was travelling to London and Vienna during his last thee years.

Sadly I didn't understand much of the German, but the music was superb and sounded wonderful on a modern copy of Mendelssohn's piano, in the salon where so many of his contemporaries joined him to make music. The 46 of us were arranged in a semicircle around the piano and the husband and wife letter-readers, and the whole performance was excellent.

After chatting for a while to some fellow travellers, I went home to change into my touring clothes, then walked the shorter distance to the Schumann-Haus (at last!) where Robert and Clara lived very happily for the first four years of their married life. It's smaller than the Mendelssohn-Haus, and some of the rooms are now used for other purposes, but a lot of interesting information is squeezed into the space.

I should have been at the Schumann-Haus on Friday but was delayed by interesting things in the printing museum, so today I was running late for my next visit: the Museum für Angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Art) and the Museum of Musical Instruments, both part of the Grassi Museum complex.

The Museum of Applied Art covers 2,500 years of art history, from ancient China, Iran, Turkey and Japan, and I've heard it described as one of the richest collections of it's type in Europe. Currently it finishes around the end of the 19th century; the section 'Art Nouveau to the Present Day' is due to open by the end of this year.

It is beautifully and perfectly arranged and displayed, the best museum I've ever seen, I'm sure, and there is a real 'Wow!' moment round every corner. I paid extra for a photo pass and took plenty of pictures; they will not be good due to reflections in the glass cases and other technical difficulties, but will be a good memory. I was aware of the time and moving fast, but stayed for two hours.

The to the Musical Instrument Museum for another hour. It starts with clavichords in the Renaissance, and goes on from there. The display not as dramatic as the applied art museum, but many familiar and not-so-familiar instruments. And some that didn't make it: I was attracted by the travelling harpsichord in three hinged sections, and the triple clavichord with two manuals and a footboard.

Fine Art, Fine Music

I started yesterday at the Museum der bildenden Kunste, the Museum of Fine Arts, in its huge 36 metre high glass cube at the north edge of the old Leipzig city centre. Inside the space is vast and simple, with exposed concrete walls and floor, and massive oak stairs and doors. Originally, the museum was founded in 1858 by merchants, bankers and publishers, and I think that all or most of the collection has been assembled by gifts and foundations.

Spread over four exhibition floors, contemporary galleries sit alongside 19th century and Romantic art. Occasionally they encroach on each other's space; it works. The Bühler-Brockhaus Donation, in its own gallery, has the feel of a personally assembled collection of 19th century paintings. There are galleries for 15th/16th century, 16th-18th century and Dutch / Flemish paintings.

And I ran out of time to visit the dedicated galleries for Leipziger Max Klinger as I had to get to the temporary exhibitions in the basement: Matthias Weischer 'Arbeiten auf Papier' and Ben Willikens 'Der Raum als Bild', both of which I really liked. Willikens 2010-2011 paintings especially: huge almost monochrome graphic canvases.

After two and a quarter hours I retired to the enormous cafe for an expensive €4.00 pot of tea; but properly made with the tea leaves held in the pot in a removable mesh. Then a 5 minute walk to the station to buy my ticket for the half hour train journey to Halle.

Walked the 1km into Halle city centre along the pedestrianised streets – been here before so no problem knowing where to go – and went straight to the Tourist Office to collect my pre-booked ticket for a 3:00pm tour of the Haussmansturm, one of the towers of the super Marktkirche Unser Lieben Frauen (see the Grand Tour website for details!). Sat outside to eat my lunchtime bun, then into the church where I was shown Martin Luther's gruesome death mask by the nice man on duty.

The tour of the tower was in German, but the guide kindly gave me a potted version in English. Interesting information about Halle's history, and good views with plenty of photos from the top. By the time I came down the Saturday market had cleared and I could get some photos of the church with a clear foreground.

Then round the corner to Handel's birthplace in the much refurbished Händelhaus. The exhibition was larger than I'd expected and gave a good account of Handel's professional life - his private life being notoriously secret - though since he left Halle as a young man there's not a lot of material to display, and much of it is contemporary pictures of relevant people and places. But interesting information none the less.

Finally a trudge back to the station for the journey home, a later-than-normal dinner and a well-earned beer.

From Bach to Print in Leipzig

Yesterday was the day to visit the rebuilt Bach Museum, opposite the Thomaskirche, which was closed for the building work last time I was here in 2008. Thursday's sunshine and humidity had given way to rain over breakfast, but the sky was merely dark grey as I arrived at the 10:00 opening time.

The museum is very spacious and elegant, if tending slightly towards being clinical, but many of the visitors are school parties so it has to be robust. A good overview of Bach's life, very well presented, with the final large room naturally being about his life and work here in Leipzig. Much additional and fascinating information behind the main story is available on pull-out panels. Touch screen listening stations with headphones provide access to recordings of all of Bach's works.

Outside the Bach timeline a small display describes some of the recent scientific techniques used by researchers to analyse paper and inks to work out when a manuscript was created, and which of Bach's copyists, or Bach himself, produced it.

After an hour and three-quarters of Bach I rested over a coffee in the nice Gloria cafe attached to the museum before taking a couple of trams out of the city centre to the Museum für Druckkunst (Museum for the Printing Arts). This is in a very pleasant area to the south west of the centre where I've not been before, close to the huge Clara-Zetkin-Park. The sky was now blue and the sun was shining.

The museum has a huge collection of working printing presses - more than 90 apparently - plus hot-metal typesetting machines and hand setting stations, all housed in a listed industrial building that has been in use as a print works since the late 19th century. I was free to wander among them, taking in the smell of printing ink and oil. Well, this is a print junkie's dream!

But the highlight came when I and the two other visitors yesterday afternoon were given an impromptu and incredibly informative tour of an area not normally open, where top class facsimiles are produced of historically important documents that are too fragile to be handled or displayed, using the traditional collotype method - sometimes printing just one sheet from a huge and painstakingly prepared glass plate. Our guide speaking in German and my two colleagues kindly translating for me.

The three of us emerged nearly two and a half hours after I arrived, better informed and in need of coffee. Later I went back for another 30 minutes to see the temporary 'Typography in Contemporary Art' exhibition on the top floor, which was excellent; contemporary art I can understand! Much of it very clever and inventive.

It was too late, again, to visit the Schumann-Haus as planned, so I spent half an hour and €3.00 going up to the 27th floor of the Panorama Tower, near the Gewandhaus, for some views over the city in the late afternoon sun.

Understanding Contemporary Art

Before leaving Weimar for Leipzig yesterday, I took the short trip down the hill from the station – where I'd left my suitcase – to the splendid Neues Museum, to see their small permanent collection of contemporary art, and a temporary exhibition called 'D-206: Die Thüringer Sezession' (the Thuringian Secession, I think). I was the only visitor. I tried, very hard, to understand.

Arriving in Leipzig I visited the two sections of the Galerie für Zeitgenössiche Kunst (GfZK), the Museum of Contemporary Art. In GfZK-1, an exhibition about mounting and publicising an exhibition, showing blown up emails and other documentation, which was an interesting idea. Nearly all of it text, in German, so sadly I missed a lot. In GfZK-2, projects from about 10 artists, all now working in Leipzig, influenced by trips abroad or because the artists came from abroad. Again, the only visitor. And again, I tried.

Leipzig weather forecast: dull and wet

Oh dear. The normally reliable yr.no weather forecast is showing cloudy and wet weather in Leipzig and the surrounding area for much of the week up to Monday 11 July. Perhaps a little respite on Wednesday afternoon 6 July, but quite a lot of rain the following day when I'm due to arrive in Leipzig itself.