Merck, a significantly large life sciences conglomerate, has its own Formula 1 team and its own philharmonic orchestra which (in a truncated form) performed a concert yesterday afternoon at the (protestant) Stadtkirche (City Church) in Darmstadt (NQM but I figure that anything within a 3 hour cycle radius is fair game).

Very very very good and what impressed – apart from the fact that the church (dating to prior 1200) had been completely rebuilt post WW2, having been forced to sell the church bells (which were requisitioned for the war effort but somehow avoided the smelter) to finance it – was the plexiglas crucifix suspended from the ceiling, turning gently and refracting random light sources into a changing spectrum of colours

But visiting Darmstadt is always tinged with sadness (and yesterday especially)

The Stadtkirche was Rainer and Gloria Hasse’s church, best friends who died much too young.

Rainer a nuclear physicist and a co-discoverer of element 108 (Hassium….!), Gloria a galleriste for ceramic art, 2 really neat kids and the smallest things remind me of them.

Rainer’s aversion to the Dornfelder grape and his explosive and frequently repeated “Why does everyone bring me a bottle of Dornfelder?”, Gloria’s aversion to the Aldi discounter chain and the ability to wind her up mercilessly. And a mature lady at the Liesbeth cafe in Mainz who is Gloria’s spitting image and the telling her of that bringing me close to tears.

Just the finest people.

Maybe it’s the melancholic time of year, maybe it’s just missing them more than almost anyone.

But balance that with having known them and we’re even on points.

Sort of.

But not quite.

15 Dec This entry was published on 15 December, 2024 at 12:45. It’s filed under Art, Culture, Music, NQM (Not quite Mainz), People and tagged darmstadt, gloria hasse, merck, rainer hasse, stadtkirche. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.