Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

17 December 2008

Last Sunday’s Northampton Symphony Orchestra ‘Christmas Cracker’ concert marked the end of an era, with our conductor of more than seven years, Graham Tear, wielding the baton for the final time. It was an emotional occasion in the enormous atrium of Unity College, Northampton, spoiled only by the lack of heating as the result of a flood at the college earlier in the week. While it was quite cold, the sight, on Sunday afternoon, of a packed audience in hats, coats and gloves under the vast glass ceiling of atrium as the sun sank slowly away, somehow seemed even more Christmassy – creating an image of massed carol singers assembled in a town square. The ‘Christmas Cracker’ concert has become a valued Northampton tradition and all the usual elements were present: classical music with a Christmas theme (including the ‘Sleigh Ride’ by Delius), carols for the audience to sing, a narrated work (Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’) and an orchestra dominated by Santa hats and tinsel. The climax, as always, was provided by trumpeter Nick Bunker’s entrance at the beginning of the second half of the concert to play the ‘Sleigh Ride’ by Leroy Anderson: this year, with several younger members of the audience still traumatised by the cries of the eaten-alive duck in the wolf’s stomach at the end of ‘Peter and the Wolf’, Nick appeared in a 6-foot Daffy Duck costume, with one arm in a sling! A lovely afternoon, ending with an encore of Ronan Hardiman’s ‘Lord of the Dance’, providing a great send-off for Graham Tear.

'Junctions' - The Tacet Ensemble with Spiers and Boden

10 December 2008

John Spiers and Jon Boden are two of the stars of the current young wave of English folk music - a fantastic duo and the foundations of the wonderful folk big band Bellowhead (reviewed here in October 2006 and July 2008). On Saturday we were at The Stables to see Spiers & Boden in 'Junctions' - a fascinating new collaboration with the classical chamber group, the Tacet Ensemble. Over the past few months, the Tacet players, Spiers & Boden and the composers Alison Kay and Ed Hughes have taken part in a series of 'collaboration days' resulting in four compositions (by Kay, Hughes, Spiers and Boden) for these combined folk and classical forces. These new works were performed on Saturday alongside traditional English folk music from Spiers & Boden and chamber works by contemporary English classical composers including Graham Fitkin, Michael Finnissy and Julian Anderson. It made for an interesting and varied evening though the comparisons between folk and classical sometimes seemed a little unfair: by their nature the traditional folk tunes were much more instantly accessible whereas the classical pieces, whilst not 'difficult' listening, probably needed to be heard several times to be fully appreciated. Nevertheless it was an enthralling evening with some wonderful performances: I think my pick of the new compositions was Jon Boden's arrangement of the traditional song 'Barbara Allen' which seemed most effectively to present something with clear folk origins as serious, thoughtful, contemporary music.

    

‘Tchamantché’ by Rokia Traoré

5 December 2008

Rokia Traoré is a Malian musician, now based in Paris, who sings in the Wassoulou style, using traditional instruments, rhythms and harmonies to create a remarkably innovative, modern sound. I love her 2003 album ‘Bowmboi’ – I think it’s my favourite African CD – and have been looking forward to its long-awaited successor, ‘Tchamantché’. It’s probably a little too early to say but on a first listen ‘Tchamantché’ sounds just as good, if not better. It’s a fascinatingly varied collection of songs with the traditional Malian instruments augmented by a range of unlikely partners. But all the tracks are dominated by Rokia Traore’s distinctive, haunting, intimate, breathy voice. It’s strangely both shocking and completely natural when, towards the end of the album, she sings, in English, Billie Holiday’s ‘The Man I Love’. A sophisticated, engaging and beautiful CD.

'The Uncommon Reader' by Alan Bennett

26 November 2008

In 'The Uncommon Reader' Alan Bennett imagines The Queen happening upon a mobile library and developing a passion for reading books. As she becomes less interested in her royal duties and more interested in getting back to her latest novel her staff begin a battle to discourage her new obsession with the printed word. In a mere 120 pages of light, humorous prose, Bennett manages to say a lot about monarchy, the royal household, the benefits of reading and the importance of writing. Novelist Lionel Shriver described it very accurately as "A beguiling bedtime story for grown-ups."

'New Europe' by Michael Palin

25 November 2008

  

I've just finished reading 'New Europe' - Michael Palin's book from the TV series of the same name. Quite strange reading the book having not seen any of the programmes but it's a fascinating series of snapshots of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, nonetheless. It was particularly interesting to read Palin's thoughts about Slovenia, having been there myself in June - but slightly disappointing that this familiar territory was dealt with in the first chapter, rather than being something to look forward to. Because of the scale of the expedition - covering 20 countries from the Mediterranean to the Baltic - some countries are covered very briefly. And I think the book suffers a bit from the nature of the TV programme which clearly requires plenty of 'set piece' events and meetings: where I would have liked a bit more general background, the limited time allotted to some locations is dominated by meeting a local celebrity. Nevertheless Michael Palin's voice and personality come through clearly and are very easy to read. And I now feel much clearer about the differences between all those Eastern European countries we tend to lump together: I now know the difference between Macedonia and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova and Moldavia, Republica Serbska and Republika Slovenija etc. Education with a light touch.

 

Tim Minchin

25 November 2008

 

Whenever I hear a comic song I always think of Harris: "Well, you don't look for much of a voice in a comic song. You don't expect correct phrasing or vocalisation. You don't mind if a man does find out, when in the middle of a note, that he is too high, and comes down with a jerk. You don't bother about time. You don't mind a man being two bars in front of the accompaniment, and easing up in the middle of a line to argue it out with the pianist, and then starting the verse afresh. But you do expect the words." ('Three Men in a Boat' by Jerome K. Jerome, 1889) Australian comedian Tim Minchin is a modern master of the comic song (and has no problem remembering the words!). We had heard a lot about Tim Minchin at the Edinburgh Fringe but we hadn't managed to see his show so we took the opportunity last Saturday to see him closer to home at The Stables at Wavendon. Every time we go to The Stables I get nervous, as we enter the car park, that we're going to be part of a select few - it's a big auditorium that can often look embarrassingly empty. On Saturday I was relieved to see the car park stewards at full stretch to pack us in: it was almost a full house and clearly most of the audience were already much more familiar with Tim Minchin than we were. There were cheers of recognition at the beginning of most of his songs and plenty of people singing along. To his credit Minchin didn't play on this adulation, treating each lyrical 'reveal' as if it was the first time he had sung it. He is a brilliant pianist - demonstrating some of the most amazing boogie woogie piano playing I've seen. And he incorporates a wide range of musical styles/pastiches. I'm very wary of sounding a critical note given the vitriolic revenge Tim Minchin took on a savage review by the Guardian journalist Daoust, which is now an integral part of his show - but actually that song is a good case in point. Maybe I'm just getting old, but it seems a shame that much of Minchin's witty wordplay and excellent observational humour is undermined by resorting to unnecessary bad language to generate a cheap laugh. Modern stand-up comedy seems to have established a culture where it cannot be edgy and cool unless it involves swearing. Tim Minchin is by no means the worst offender but I think he'll be much funnier when he gets his own Radio 4 series and has to ditch the bad language.

 

Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

17 November 2008

On Saturday I played with Milton Keynes Sinfonia in a concert which contrasted early and later works by those near contemporaries Richard Strauss and Ralph Vaughan-Williams. We started with the delightful ‘Serenade for Wind’ by Strauss – described by our conductor, David Knight, as ‘super-charged Haydn’. We were then joined by the wonderful soprano, Zoe South, for a thrilling performance of Strauss’s ‘Four Last Songs’ – delicate, powerful and immensely moving. (‘Beim Schlafengehen’ must be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.) After the strings played Vaughan-Williams’ ‘Variations on Dives & Lazurus’, we finished with his ‘Symphony No 6’ – a fiendishly difficult piece which manages to echo Shostakovich without ever straying from the distinctive VW sound. I thought we gave an impressive performance of an ambitious and interesting programme.

‘Alex’by Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor

17 November 2008

Investment banker ‘Alex’ is the star of a Daily Telegraph strip cartoon by Charles Peattie and Russell Taylor. Opportunely milking the current financial turmoil, Peattie and Taylor have adapted ‘Alex’ for the stage as a one-man show, currently touring with Robert Bathurst, which we saw last Friday at the Royal Theatre, Northampton. The show ingeniously combined Bathurst’s performance with animated characters from the cartoon, projected on an assorted series of screens around the stage (the second week running where projected animations threatened to steal the show). Robert Bathurst’s interaction with his two-dimensional co-stars (for whom he provided all the voices) was very slick. It was also interesting to see the integration of the four-frame gags from the strip cartoon with over-arching plot and characters development (also so effectively achieved by Harry Venning and David Ramsden in the ‘Clare in the Community radio series, reviewed here in January 2007 and December 2007). ‘Alex’ reminded me a lot of Radio 4’s excellent ‘Weak at the Top’ sitcom by Guy Browning – though I think Alexander Armstrong’s John Weak was slightly more cynically ruthless. Great fun.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

14 November 2008

Saturday was Graham Tear’s penultimate appearance as conductor of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra. After seven years on the podium Graham is stepping down, to be replaced in the New Year by Alexander Walker. Our programme on Saturday was an ambitious one but the orchestra rose to the occasion. Elgar’s Second Symphony is a long and complex piece: when we started to rehearse in September, I wasn’t convinced we were going to get to grips with it. I think we really benefited from the different perspectives of the four conductors who worked with us on the symphony as their audition piece. By the time we reached the concert it felt like the orchestra understood the work well and I think we gave a good account of it. I enjoyed Walton’s ‘Johannesburg Festival Overture’ which opened the concert, at St Matthew’s Church in Northampton, and I was pleased to be able to enjoy Lucy Parham’s impressive performance of Ravel’s ‘Piano Concerto in G’ from the audience – it’s a fiendishly difficult piece but the slow movement, in particular, is beautiful.

‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ apapted for the stage by Clive Francis

14 November 2008

Last Friday we were at the Royal Theatre, Northampton, to see ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ with Peter Egan as Holmes and Philip Franks as Watson. It was a very enjoyable evening but the star of the show was undoubtedly the set. The stage was dominated by two open pages of an enormous book, onto which a variety of pictures, animation and text was projected. As the pages appeared to turn over, using the sort of animation you see in an e-book, we dived further into the story – looking out of the window of 221B Baker Street, racing across Dartmoor or recoiling from the rapidly advancing silhouette of the hound. While most of the acting happened in front of the pages, back-lighting was used occasionally to reveal actors behind (or within) the book. It was a very inventive and effective mix of technology and live action. Unfortunately, I don’t think the production had really settled on whether or not to play it for laughs. It reminded me at times of the wonderful Patrick Barlow stage adaptation of ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ – particularly with just three actors playing all the subsidiary parts. But, whereas ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ was entirely tongue in cheek (and very funny), ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ seemed to veer between melodrama and spoof. Franks’ Watson was a little too much in the Nigel Bruce, bumbling buffoon, line for me. And I was particularly puzzled to see Egan holding his violin and bow in the wrong hands – was he doing this for a bet or were we actually watching a mirror image? Good fun and visually stunning but we came out humming the set.

'Night Must Fall' by Emlyn Williams

6 November 2008

Torrential rain last Saturday deprived the Woburn bonfire of our company. Instead we made the short journey to Toddington to see a performance of Emlyn Williams' 'Night Must Fall' by the Toddington Amateur Dramatic Society (TADS). TADS operates from its own 75-seat theatre and has just secured a grant of £50,000, from the Landfill Communities Fund of the Waste Recycling Group, which will fund a major programme of refurbishment. 'Night Must Fall' is a psychological thriller written in 1935 in which the focus is more on the mind of the killer rather than on a 'whodunnit' plot. This makes it a fairly ambitious undertaking for an amateur company - added to which it is quite a long play - but the TADS production was very impressive with some outstanding individual performances.

BBC Philharmonic concert

30 October 2008

Erich Wolfgang Korngold is now remembered principally as a film composer from the golden age of Hollywood – one of those Jewish artists exiled from Europe by the rise of fascism. A few years ago I first discovered his wonderful later works for the concert hall – particularly the lovely ‘Violin Concerto’ which the Northampton Symphony Orchestra performed with Thomas Gould (reviewed here in April 2008). But I had not appreciated that Korngold was also a remarkable child prodigy. The ‘Schauspiel Overture’, which opened the BBC Philharmonic concert we attended at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester last Friday, was Korngold’s first published orchestral work, composed at the age of 14. (By this age he had already completed two piano sonatas, a two-act ballet and a piano trio!) The overture was performed across Europe by nearly every great conductor of the day and Henry Wood introduced it at The Proms in London in 1912 – making Korngold, to this day, the youngest composer ever performed at The Proms. The ‘Schauspiel Overture’ (‘overture to a drama’ – though with no specific play in mind) is a sumptuous piece, already demonstrating what would become the Korngold sound. The BBC Philharmonic followed the overture with the world premiere of ‘Beautiful Passing’ – a violin concerto by the American composer Steven Mackey. Violinist Leila Josefowicz gave a very physical performance of this challenging work which reflects on the finals days of Mackey’s dying mother. There were some beautifully moving quiet passages and lots of fascinating sound effects from the percussion department – including bowed cymbals and tennis balls being dropped onto the skin of the timpani. The concert concluded with Dvorak’s ‘Symphony No 9 – From the New World’ with the BBC Phil in fine form under the young Slovakian conductor Juraj Valcuha.

 

'The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul' by Douglas Adams

23 October 2008

If you loved the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Douglas Adams novel 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' (reviewed here in November 2007) half as much as I did, then I'm probably enjoying the sequel, 'The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul' (currently being broadcast at 11 pm on Thursdays - listen again at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dp6hx) twice as much as you. Dirk Maggs and John Langdon have done a wonderful job of realising this equally bemusing and entertaining novel as a radio serial. Wonderful cast, excessive use of sound effects, great music and a totally incomprehensible plot. You really need to listen to each episode at least twice to have any idea what's going on. The title is a quotation from an earlier Douglas Adams novel, 'Life, The Universe and Everything': "...it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in ... as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul...". Marvellous! 

 

'Love's Labour's Lost' by William Shakespeare

15 October 2008

We didn't manage to get gold-dust tickets to see David Tennant as Hamlet but we were organised enough to book (back in February!) to see him in the Royal Shakespeare Company's parallel production of 'Love's Labour's Lost'. So on Saturday we made our way through the Stratford Mop Fair, which had taken over the streets of Stratford-upon-Avon, to the Courtyard Theatre - the temporary home of the RSC while the Royal Shakespeare Theatre is being renovated. I hadn't seen 'Love's Labour's Lost' before: it's a relatively early Shakespeare and not the most complete of his plays. The plot is more or less over by the interval, leaving the second half to a series of set-piece dances and pageants. You can clearly see elements that will become 'As You Like It' and 'Much Ado About Nothing' (as well as a flavour of 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'). David Tennant was a great Benedick in BBC Radio 3's production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' a few years ago, so it it was fascinating to see him as Berowne - very much the prototype for Benedick. He was fantastic - an electric stage presence - very hard to take your eyes off him - and extremely funny. A very enjoyable production with a great cast - I particularly liked Mariah Gale as the Princess of France and Nina Sosanya as Rosaline and it was lovely to see a familiar face from the Northampton Royal Theatre, Natalie Walter, in her RSC debut season. But it was very much David Tennant's show.

Kings Place opening festival

7 October 2008

Kings Place is London’s newest concert venue – a gleaming glass and steel block round the back of Kings Cross station, overlooking Regent’s Canal. It houses two concert halls, two galleries and the new offices of The Guardian. The building opened last weekend with a festival of a hundred short concerts over five days. We dropped in on Sunday afternoon and saw two performances. ‘Sound Walk’ was a collaboration between sound artists Tony Whitehead and Matthew Sansom, presented by the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Tony Whitehead had spent a day in and around Kings Cross, keeping a sound diary in which he wrote descriptions of the noises he heard, then honing these descriptions into a poem. Whitehead’s words were projected, verse by verse, onto a screen while we listened to Matthew Sansom’s composition – a soundscape constructed from recordings he had made of the ambient sounds of Kings Cross. This was serious, contemplative work which benefited from being presented in a concert hall: had I encountered it in a gallery or on a CD my attention span might not have been long enough to appreciate it, but sitting in a darkened room, concentrating on the patterns of sounds and words, it was fascinating how things were gradually revealed. We then moved to the main concert hall to hear the Brodsky Quartet, and clarinettist Mark van de Wiel, perform Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ ‘Hymn to Artemis Locheia’, introduced by the composer. Max explained that the work had been commissioned by the head of the London Fertility Clinic, to commemorate his father, and dealt with the idea of creation, the creative process and the cycle of life. A fairly long piece (around thirty minutes) it was often difficult and challenging listening but I found the quieter, slower passages very beautiful. It was a very impressive performance with virtuosic playing, particularly by Mark van de Wiel. There was a compelling moment, a few minutes from the end of the piece, when one of the violinists broke a string, as a result of a particularly violent pizzicato, but kept going seamlessly – the only clue that anything was wrong being the additional furrowing of his brow as he concentrated on working out how to play the remaining notes on his three remaining strings. Kings Place is an impressive venue – a monument to the new.

'Lost in a Good Book' by Jasper Fforde

3 October 2008

Another week, another Jasper Fforde novel. Time travelling my way backwards through the Thursday Next canon at an increasing rate of daypers, this week I've read 'Lost in a Good Book' - the second novel in the series. It is fun to see how many hidden nuggets there are in Fforde's books that could only really make sense with the benefit of hindsight, having read the later works - though it does remove some of the tension to know, for example, that the world doesn't end next Thursday (having been saved, of course, by Thursday Next). I'm now really looking forward to finally getting the full picture by reading the first book, 'The Eyre Affair'.

'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' by Muriel Spark, adapted for the stage by Jay Presson Allan

29 September 2008

Another trip to the Royal Theatre in Northampton last Saturday to see another excellent in-house production. I had seen clips of the celebrated 1961 film of 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' but had never watched it in full, nor read the original novel by Muriel Spark. Nevertheless it felt quite familiar so it was exciting to discover, through the stage adaptation by Jay Presson Allan, that the story was much darker and more complex than I had expected. I was surprised to discover how much Alan Bennett's 'The History Boys' owes to 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' - and, in a neat reciprocation, how much Laurie Sansom's Royal & Derngate production was indebted to Nicholas Hytner's staging of the Alan Bennett play. I loved the set - apparently constructed entirely from blackboards covered in the chalked memories of earlier lessons. And it was fantastic to see Sansom once again integrating local amateur performers into the cast (as he did in Follies - reviewed here in November 2006 - and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - reviewed here in February 2008). This time the senior chamber choir of Northampton School for Girls, 'Madrigalis', was used to populate Miss Brodie's class and provide musical interludes. Anna Francolini was great as Brodie - confident, charismatic, quirky, inspirational yet strangely naive: truly the crème de la crème.

'Ivanov' by Anton Chekhov, in a new version by Tom Stoppard

24 September 2008

On Saturday we were in London to see Kenneth Branagh in ‘Ivanov’ – Chekhov’s first play in a new version by Tom Stoppard. It was an impressive production with a starry cast and it was wonderful to see this rare appearance on the London stage by Branagh. His naturalistic performance subtly gripped rather than punching you between the eyes – resisting the temptation to wear his technique on his sleeve – and you had to look closely to see the small mannerisms betraying his character’s developing depression. It was very much an ensemble piece with a show-stealing comic performance from Kevin McNally and excellent contributions from the wonderful Gina McKee and the Andrea Riseborough as young Sasha. I’m not sure I was convinced by the play – I found the tone uneven and the allusions to Hamlet a bit laboured – but there were some stunning moments and it was often very funny.

‘The Well of Lost Plots’ by Jasper Fforde

24 September 2008

If you’ve been swept along by my enthusiasm for the bizarre comic crime novels of Jasper Fforde you’ll love ‘The Well of Lost Plots’, but if you’ve not developed the taste you’re probably getting fed up with me going on about him. (I’d still recommend starting by reading ‘The Big Over Easy’.) ‘The Well of Lost Plots’ is the third novel in the ‘Thursday Next’ series and I feel it is completely appropriate to Fforde’s surreal time-travelling narrative to be reading the books out or order. Having already read the book which follows it (‘Something Rotten’ – reviewed here in August 2008) ‘The Well of Lost Plots’ made much more sense and it was great fun following certain storylines with the benefit of hindsight. This novel involves Thursday Next trying to keep order within works of fiction – counselling the characters in ‘Wuthering Heights’ and trying to prevent them from changing the ending. There are quite a few gags which you might miss if you are not familiar with the relevant books but the humour is enjoyably corny rather than pretentious. As always, Fforde plants a few ideas early on which return satisfyingly at crucial moments, just when you had forgotten them. And it was wonderful to see the emerging explanation of a link between the Thursday Next stories and Fforde’s Nursery Crime series of novels. Incredibly silly fun.

Warsaw Village Band

16 September 2008

The Warsaw Village Band were one of my highlights of the 2007 WOMAD Festival (reviewed here in August 2007) so I jumped at the chance to see them closer to home at The Stables last Sunday. WVB are six young, classically-trained musicians on a mission to seek out and learn traditional, rural, Polish folk music and re-interpret it for a generation raised on rock 'n' roll. Seriously authentic and reverent to their sources they manage to create a nonetheless modern and distinctive sound. Traditional acoustic instruments (violins, 'cello, cimbalom and a variety of percussion), amplified with plenty of echo, create rapid, repetitive, pulsing textures. Sudden shifts of rhythm and time signature add interest and uncertainty. The three female voices are strong and piercing, their jarring harmonies placing them, geographically and musically, between the distinctive Bulgarian choral sound and the Finnish folk vocals of groups like Värttinä (reviewed here in August 2006). The contrasting timbres of the three vocalists add interest as they take turns with the melody and create an effect of harmony even when they are in unison. WVB are very musically slick, bringing precision to the rough folk sound without losing any of its edginess. They are very exciting to watch - though sometimes a little overly serious: it would be nice to see a bit more interaction with the audience and the occasional smile! I particularly enjoyed some of the tracks from their new album, 'Infinity', which used pizzicato violin and 'cello to conjure up beautifully hypnotic music - an entrancing contrast to their usual excitingly frantic whirl. ‘Uprooting’ (2004) was the album that brought them to international attention but, after listening to it this week, I think ‘Infinity’ is even better.

‘Keep Your Silver Shined' by Devon Sproule

11 September 2008

I didn’t manage to see Canadian-born singer songwriter Devon Sproule at WOMAD but I have been listening to her album, ‘Keep Your Silver Shined’. It’s a lovely acoustic blend of country-flavoured swing – featuring Sproule’s gentle, whispered vocals over delicately picked guitar, pedal steel guitar, brushed snare drum, bass and occasional fiddle or clarinet. At times it sounds a lot like Fairground Attraction – but with a Virginia accent rather than a Scottish one. A consistently slick album, though I would have liked more of the exuberance of its stand-out track ‘Old Virginia Block’.

‘The Invention of Everything Else’ by Samantha Hunt

5 September 2008

Five years ago we saw a great show at the Edinburgh Fringe called ‘Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla’ by The Electric Company Theatre. This told the amazing story of the life of Serbian physicist, inventor, and electrical engineer, Nikola Tesla – the inventor of alternating current. Largely forgotten now, Tesla’s brilliance and vision was hampered by a combination of his altruistic attitude to wanting share his inventions with mankind and the more capitalist and self-serving approach of his rivals, particularly Thomas Edison. Tesla was a fascinatingly eccentric character with few close human relationships but a particular passion for pigeons. I’ve just been reading ‘The Invention of Everything Else’, a new novel by Samantha Hunt which fictionalises Tesla’s final days and tells the remarkable story of his life. It’s a wonderfully ‘inventive’ novel, eschewing linear narrative and piecing together Tesla’s story like a jigsaw puzzle. Hunt also creates a number of fictional characters whose lives overlap with the 86-year old Tesla at the Hotel New Yorker in 1943. These characters’ own stories echo the main themes of Tesla’s life and (unknowingly) visit various places that were significant to him. It’s great fun – a really enjoyable and unpredictable read. My only criticism was that, knowing a little about Tesla from the play, mixing his biography with fictional elements might lead you to believe Hunt has made it all up. But the true story of Nikola Tesla is truly incredible: in this case truth is stranger than fiction.

'The Rain Before It falls' by Jonathan Coe

26 August 2008

Jonathan Coe is one of my favourite contemporary authors: I loved his novels 'What a Carve Up!', 'The House of Sleep', 'The Rotters' Club' and its sequel 'The Closed Circle'. Coe's latest novel, 'The Rain Before It Falls' is quite a different kind of book. It feels more conventional and straightforward though it does use an interesting narrative device: most of the story is told as the main character reflects on her life by describing a series of twenty photographs. This creates an episodic telling of a dramatic family saga focusing mainly on mothers and daughters. It's a sad tale without any of the set-piece comedy or the political links to current events of Coe's earlier books. The story kept my attention and was very moving but I was hoping for something more. After finishing the novel I began to wonder whether I was missing a subtle twist. Were we not supposed to trust the narrator through whose eyes we have been looking? Was there something she wasn't telling us? Or was this simply what it seemed - a well-written, gripping, melancholy tale?

Edinburgh Festivals 2008

26 August 2008

Despite the endless rain and the notorious box office software failures, we had a really good week in Edinburgh. We packed in 25 shows in 6 days and saw some wonderful things (and only one turkey!). Particular highlights included: Prokofiev's second violin concerto played by Leonidas Kavakos with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Usher Hall - stunning; 'Are There More of You' - a one-woman play written and performed by Alison Skilbeck (who a very long time ago was Polly Perks in The Archers!) at the Quaker Meeting House; and I am very grateful to Kelly Donaldson for pointing us towards 'Pericles Redux' - an amazing production of Shakespeare's play by physical theatre ensemble Not Man Apart at The Pleasance - enthralling, beautiful, hysterically funny and moving to the point of tears - totally brilliant! We also enjoyed the one-woman shows 'One Day I'll Go To Compostela' and 'Another Kind of Silence' (about the environmentalist Rachel Carson) - both at Hill Street Theatre - and 'ABFCAP: the life and rhymes of Ian Dury' at The Zoo. We always try to take in a concert at the Festival of British Youth Orchestras at Central Hall, Tollcross, and saw a great performance there by the RSAMD Junior Academy Orchestra. We were lucky enough to get tickets to see Denis Healey - a week before his 91st birthday - speaking in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament about his life in politics as part of the Festival of Politics. Lord Healey is still a very entertaining raconteur and had some interesting reflections on current political issues. It was fascinating to be sitting in an audience with many well-known faces including Tam Dalyell, Clive James and Brian McMaster (who we saw at several shows during the week - I think he is following me!). And no visit to the Fringe is complete for us without starting the day at the Spiegel Tent in George Square Gardens to see the live broadcast of BBC Radio Scotland's 'MacAulay & Co' - a great way to see the best bits of this year's comedy shows, without the swearing.

'Bleak Expectations' by Mark Evans

15 August 2008

I was delighted to see the return of 'Bleak Expectations' - Radio 4's wonderful Dickens spoof by Mark Evans which started a second series last week (listen again at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bleakexpectations). Mixing its metaphors and Dickensian clichés in an enormous Victorian cauldron of gruel, Bleak Expectations creates a hilarious surreal world that could only exist on radio. Our hero Pip Bin is now a wealthy man - having made his fortune inventing the waste paper bin - but is still being pursued by the dastardly evil, and erroneously named, Mr Gently Benevolent - with only his one remaining sister, Pippa, and his best friend, the eternally optimistic Harry Biscuit, to help him. This week Pip and Harry find themselves building an entire railway network in their bid to catch Benevolent. Harrumble!

'Low Culture' by Jim Moray

7 August 2008

Jim Moray is one of the young stars of the current English folk music revival. I enjoyed his 2003 debut album, ‘Sweet England’: armed with his fine folk voice and a laptop computer he reinterpreted some of the best known traditional songs in a very modern way. What seemed like the natural reaction of someone from a generation that grew up with rock and pop provoked some controversy amongst folk ‘purists’. In his new album, ‘Low Culture’, Jim Moray takes this approach further, including electronic beats, rock drums and a rapper. But coming after some of the pillars of the folk establishment entered similar territory in The Imagined Village (reviewed here in August 2007) the shock value has diminished and Moray can be appreciated for his honest attempt to make traditional music relevant today. ‘Low Culture’ is a more varied and interesting album. It features an eclectic mix of styles and instrumentation – including strings and brass that make some tracks sound remarkably like Bellowhead (reviewed here in October 2006). Moray includes the song ‘Three Black Feathers’ by Bella Hardy (reviewed here in March 2008) – fast becoming a modern folk classic. And having made traditional folk songs sound like rock music, he stunningly reverses the trick with a re-interpretation of XTC’s ‘All You Pretty Girls’ which transforms Andy Partridge’s pop classic into a centuries-old sea shanty – joyous, rhythmic and incredibly catchy, I can’t get it out of my head.

World Music Celebration Prom

1 August 2008

On Wednesday I was back at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the World Music Celebration Prom – a concert by five of the winners of this year’s BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music. It was a very hot evening but one which built in musical intensity as the temperature cooled. We heard slick Latin-flavoured African pop from Mayra Andrade from Cape Verde and dramatic flamenco from Spain’s Son de la Frontera (including the most amazing display of flamenco dancing from Pepe Torres). China’s rising star Sa Dingding gave a visually spectacular performance – though I would rather have heard more of the traditional Chinese instruments and less drums and synthesisers. The ‘culture crossing’ award winners, British rock guitarist Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara from Gambia who plays the riti (a one-string fiddle) showed that ‘fusion’ need not be a bland dumbing down. Their music is a genuine partnership – uncompromising, infectious and rhythmic – dominated by the other-worldly sound of the riti. I recommend their album ‘Soul Science’. But the night belonged to Bassekou Kouyate and his band Ngoni Ba (reviewed here in December 2007). Winners of both the Africa and ‘album of the year’ awards, they provided a wonderful finale – virtuoso playing, joyous dancing, a fantastic sound – they brought the house down. (The Independent called them “the best rock'n'roll band in the world”) You can watch the World Music Celebration Prom on BBC4 on Monday 4 August and Monday 11 August or catch it on iPlayer.

'Something Rotten' by Jasper Fforde

1 August 2008

Having really enjoyed Jasper Fforde’s ‘Nursery Crime’ novels featuring Inspector Jack Spratt – ‘The Big Over Easy’ (reviewed here in April 2007) and ‘The Fourth Bear’ (reviewed here in October 2007) – I turned to Fforde’s other series of novels. These feature the literary detective Thursday Next and I’ve been reading the latest, ‘Something Rotten’. Whereas the Jack Spratt books create a surreal parallel world – familiar yet inhabited by characters from nursery rhymes, Greek gods and aliens – ‘Something Rotten’ takes things considerably further. This felt more like Terry Pratchett than Douglas Adams (which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your point of view). I was amused, confused and exhausted by the combination of characters from fiction, characters in fiction, time travellers, Neanderthals, clones, genetic experiments, dodos and much more. It probably didn’t help that I had started with the fourth book in the Thursday Next series but it did feel like Fforde was throwing in everything including the kitchen sink. Having decided not to bother trying to make sense of it all and just going with the flow, I began to enjoy the journey – and it is very funny. And as we headed towards the dramatic conclusion it gradually all began to make some sense. Despite the silliness, Jasper Fforde is a master plotter and it is very satisfying when numerous early episodes and references return towards the end of the book and fall into place. Whereas Jack Spratt lives in a version of Reading, Thursday Next is based in a kind of Swindon. It was the weirdest experience, last weekend, to be reading the chapter about Leigh Delamare services on the M4 being a hidden gateway to the underworld while sitting in Leigh Delamere services! Don’t worry, I didn’t cross to the ‘northside’ …

WOMAD 2008

29 July 2008

The weather was the star at this year's WOMAD Festival at Charlton Park in Wiltshire. After the rain and mud of last year we enjoyed a very hot weekend of almost unbroken sunshine. At first the positioning of the BBC Radio 3 stage in the arboretum, with a tree directly in front of part of the stage, seemed bizarre. But by Saturday afternoon, as the temperature soared, this leafy shade was much appreciated. Everything seemed to work effectively this year and it became apparent how much more room there is at Charlton Park compared to the previous festival site in Reading - a much more pleasant experience all round.

Pacing myself more carefully than in some previous years (it was hot!) I still saw 12 full performances and dipped in and out of many more – seeing a total of 28 bands in 3 days! Highlights included the wonderful Israeli Ladino singer Mor Karbasi, Malian diva Mamani Keita, the mighty Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba (reviewed here in December 2007) and the legendary Orchestra Baobab. It was a great nostalgic thrill to see recently reunited Squeeze singing 'Up the Junction', 'Cool for Cats', 'Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)' etc. And Martha Wainwright gave an amazing performance on Saturday evening: very much the rock star, looking like Debbie Harry and sounding like The Pretenders - I'm really enjoying her new album, 'I know you're married but I've got feelings too'. But my pick of the festival were the six-piece male polyphonic vocal group from Marseille, Lo Cor de la Plana - unaccompanied singing (except for a collection of hand drums, foot stomps and hand claps) in the Occitan language of southern France. Their close harmony singing and solos with drone-like accompaniment are reminiscent of the singing shepherds of Sardinia (reviewed here in June 2007). Lo Cor de la Plana are incredibly rhythmic and exciting, weaving a trance-like quality into songs that build ever more frantically to thrilling conclusions.

BBC Proms Folk Day

21 July 2008

The last time I saw Bella Hardy she was performing to an audience of 18 people in the bar at the Queen's Theatre in Barnstaple (reviewed here in March 2008): on Sunday she was standing in the middle of the Royal Albert Hall singing, unaccompanied, to an audience of thousands. We were in London for the BBC Proms Folk Day - an enjoyable and varied innovation in the Proms calendar. Firstly we joined the crowds in Kensington Gardens to see live music on the bandstand, dancing round the maypole and much more, culminating in an electrifying performance from the wonderful Bellowhead (reviewed here in October 2006). Bellowhead went on to conquer the Albert Hall in the Sunday evening Prom (broadcast live on BBC Four and available on iPlayer) but being part of the crowd dancing in the sunshine in front of the bandstand to 'London Town' was very special. We then crossed the road to the Albert Hall for the free afternoon Prom which featured a huge cast of performers including Bella Hardy, the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta conducted by Martyn Brabbins, the mezzo-soprano Monica Bacelli and the amazing Hungarian folk group Muzsikas. The concert compared and contrasted traditional performances of folk melodies (by Bella Hardy and Muzsikas) with classical settings of the same tunes by Vaughan Williams, Grainger, Berio and Bartok. I particularly enjoyed Monica Bacelli's theatrical approach to Berio's hauntingly sparse 'Folk Songs' and the perfect joins between the Muzsikas insertions in the London Sinfonietta's performance of Bartok's 'Romanian Dances' (with the orchestra augmented by young musicians aged 14 - 18 from the Camden and Hertfordshire Music Services). Muzsikas were fantastic - amazingly precise and polished performers of a very rough village folk band sound. But the show was stolen by the young players of Folkestra - an ensemble of 13 - 19 year olds based at the Sage, Gateshead. Their set was the most exciting thing on the programme - toe-tapping, virtuosic and fascinating to watch - with wonderful clarsach playing by Emily Hoile and a thrilling moment when Sarah Norris put down her whistle and, amid the frenzied playing of her colleagues, walked slowly to the small dance square at the front of the stage to add her clogs to the frantic rhythm of the piece - magical. The concert finished with the premiere of 'Confluence' - a work for the joint forces of the London Sinfonietta, Muzsikas and Folkestra by Folkestra's Musical Director, Kathryn Tickell. It was a super day.

'The Damned Utd' by David Peace

21 July 2008

David Peace's novel 'The Damned Utd' is an unusual book: it tells the tale of Brian Clough's ill-fated 44 days in charge of Leeds United Football Club in 1974, reimagining events through Clough's eyes in a first person narration that reads like a very candid diary or autobiography. This narrative is interspersed with Clough's back story (bizarrely told in the second person) taking us from his playing days, through his early managerial experience, forward to meet the main story in 1974. Peace brings the familiar character of Clough back to life so vividly it is often difficult to remember you are reading fiction. The short alternating sections gripped my attention and whipped me through the book in two sittings. There is an enormous amount of swearing, drinking and smoking and anyone who is not interested in football might find it hard-going but, for me, it was completely compelling. Read alongside Gary Imlach's wonderful 'My Father and Other Working-Class Football Heroes' (reviewed here in January 2007) and Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch', 'The Damned Utd' completes a detailed social history of football in England. In Brian Clough, David Peace creates (or re-creates) that most fascinating of characters - someone who is unredeemably unpleasant and unlikeable but for whom you find yourself totally rooting. Early 1970s football is just beyond my childhood memories and though I had a vague idea of the sequence of events in Brian Clough's career there was much for me to fill in. The structure of the book made for a very satisfying experience as the pieces gradually began to fall into place as I raced towards the bitter-sweet conclusion. An amazing book.

'Dangerous Obsession' by N J Crisp

21 July 2008

It's Summer Rep time again at the Little Theatre, Sheringham so we made our annual pilgrimage to North Norfolk last week to see 'Dangerous Obsession' - a thriller by N J Crisp. The ingredients suggested familiar territory - a three-hander with comings and goings through the French windows - but this was cleverer and more thought-provoking than it first appeared. Well cast and well acted by Georgina Carey, Richard Sandells and Andrew Castell.

'Pieces of Light' by Adam Thorpe

21 July 2008

Adam Thorpe first came to my attention when his incredible debut novel 'Ulverton' received glowing praise from the critics. This tale of an imaginary English village over centuries of history through a series of 'discovered' documents is a tour-de-force but I'm afraid the painstaking use of historically accurate dialect made many sections of the book unbearably difficult for this reader to plough through. It was with some trepidation, therefore, that I approached Adam Thorpe's third novel 'Pieces of Light' - but I needn't have worried. 'Pieces of Light' starts as the story of a young boy growing up in a English missionary family in Cameroon in the 1920s. This is an interesting, if fairly unremarkable, tale but when the narrative shifts at the end of the first section you realise you're entering a much more complex and satisfying work. Without the difficult-to-read dialect to wade through I realised how much I had forgotten about the strengths of 'Ulverton': Thorpe is an intricate plotter and can be very funny. In 'Pieces of Light' he continues to use the narrative device of 'found documents' so, while the novel is all told in the first person, you begin to appreciate that it is very important in each section to work out who is telling the story and when they are telling it. It reminded me at times of 'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell (which it pre-dates). 'Pieces of Light' is maybe a bit long (nearly 500 pages) and drags a little in the middle but I found it compulsive reading - desperate to try to work out its riddles before being left puzzled by its remaining ambiguities. Now I want to read it all again! In particular Thorpe very cleverly evokes both the confused world-view of a young boy and the adult's less than perfect reinterpretations of mis-remembered childhood events.

Wimbledon 2008

8 July 2008

We've been extremely lucky in the Wimbledon ballot for the last few years but this year was even better as we landed centre court tickets for the Ladies' Singles Final. Knowing that this chance might not come around again for some time creates a fair amount of anxiety as you scour the weather forecasts to see whether your big day is going to be wiped out by rain. Again we were remarkably lucky and were treated to six and a half hours of continuous tennis. The Ladies' Final between Venus and Serena Williams was high quality, hard-fought and extremely close with Serena initially looking like she would walk it before Venus found her form and began to edge ahead. The Men's Doubles Final was exciting but dominated by strong serving with Daniel Nestor and, particularly, Nenad Zimonjic worthy winners. And as the light started to fail we were treated to the most entertaining match of the day as the Williams sisters returned to claim the Ladies' Doubles title. My centre court debut was a brilliant day - I hope to be back next year.

'The Winter's Tale' by William Shakespeare

8 July 2008

The only thing I knew about 'The Winter's Tale' was "exit pursued by a bear" so it was great fun to discover unfamiliar Shakespeare last Friday - and the bear was great fun too! For a second year running we were very fortunate that our visit to the open-air Shakespeare in the gardens of Woburn Abbey benefited from wonderful weather. This year we saw the Globe Touring production of 'The Winter's Tale'. The team at Shakespeare's Globe know a thing or two about acting in the open-air and the there was a high standard of acting throughout and a welcome volume of projection. A very silly plot but a very enjoyable evening.

Danesborough Chorus concert

1 July 2008

On Saturday we were at Woburn Church for the Danesborough Chorus summer concert. It was a lovely evening and a very enjoyable concert - with an extended interval for a picnic outside the church. I particularly enjoyed the 'Berliner Messe' by Arvo Pärt. Pärt creates a very distinctive, delicate, ethereal sound which must be very difficult for the singers but the effect was hauntingly beautiful. We were on easier ground in the second half with John Rutter's 'Magnificat'. Rutter always looks like great fun to sing and is invariably tuneful, varied and enthusiastically received. Ian Smith and the Danesborough Chorus were joined by the Milton Keynes City Orchestra and the excellent Soprano, Claire Seaton.

Slovenia

27 June 2008

We had a brilliant week in Slovenia – it’s a fantastic country. We spent a few days at Lake Bled in the North West of Slovenia – a fairytale lake overlooked by a clifftop castle – beautiful scenery reminiscent of Austria or Switzerland. We then headed to the capital, Ljubljana, a beautiful old city, small enough to walk around but with plenty to see. We had a day trip to the medieval town of Piran on the Adriatic coast where everything is bilingual Slovene/Italian. Slovenia is the size of Wales – and has a similar dislike of vowels in its place names! The people were friendly and helpful and English is spoken almost universally. It’s a confident, proud and modern young country. We’ll be back …

'Pies and Prejudice' by Stuart Maconie

27 June 2008

Stuart Maconie comes from Wigan and is therefore a ‘pie-eater’. In his very funny and fascinating travel book ‘Pies and Prejudice’ he revisits Wigan and everywhere else between Merseyside and Tyneside to cut through the clichés and paint the real picture of the North of England. Bill Bryson fans will recognise Maconie’s style – though like Bryson he sometimes wears his research on his sleeve and tends to ramble engagingly from one topic to another leaving this reader amazed by a myriad of incredible facts but almost completely unable to remember any of them! I particularly enjoyed his accounts of the places I already knew but the real strength of the book is the clear distinction drawn between places that too many Southerners tend to lump together as ‘The North’.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

27 June 2008

Our latest Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert included the ‘Tuba Concerto’ by Vaughan-Williams featuring our regular tuba player, Nick Tollervey. Because he had been preparing for this solo performance, Nick has not been attending rehearsals but came along a couple of weeks ago for the orchestra’s Annual General Meeting which was held at the start of a rehearsal. At the end of the AGM, under ‘any other business’, Nick stood up to make a plea for the orchestra to improve its communications with members. Over the past year, Nick said, he had often turned up at rehearsals to be told he wasn’t required as we were rehearsing a piece with no part for the tuba. Couldn’t we make sure that players were told what pieces were going to be rehearsed each week to avoid them making unnecessary journeys. Having been in the same position myself on several occasions I agreed wholeheartedly with Nick and was very pleased he had brought this up. The AGM finished and Nick made his way to a seat at the front of the orchestra so that we could rehearse the tuba concerto – at which point I thought “hang on a minute, I’m not in this!” and had to sit for half an hour twiddling my thumbs: the revenge of the tuba! Nevertheless I really enjoyed Nick’s magnificent performance in our concert of English music which also featured the wonderful ‘Peterloo Overture’ by Malcolm Arnold, ‘Song of Summer’ by Delius and Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’. A less ambitious programme than some of our recent concerts and I think this paid off with one of our best performances for some time.

'Wild Wild Women' by Nola York and Michael Richmond

10 June 2008

At the end of a week where I had been pre-occupied with arguing that the voluntary arts can be excellent, it was a delight to attend an amateur performance that was one of the funniest and most enjoyable evenings in a theatre I've experienced in a long time. On Saturday we were at the Trestle Theatre Space in St Albans - home of the celebrated Trestle Theatre Company - to see local amateurs MeMe Productions perform 'Wild Wild Women' - a musical by Nola York and Michael Richmond. This Romeo & Juliet story set in the Wild West in the 1880s was great fun with some wonderful individual performances and big set-piece ensemble numbers. The show itself was a little varied in tone and the music was mainly in a 1980s rock-ballad style. There were a few problems with balance - some performers being drowned out by the musicians. But none of this detracted from a splendid romp that had me smiling throughout. And the show stealing performance from Dawn Travell as Sister Priscilla included a hilarious death scene to rival Sam Hayward in Little Me (reviewed here in August 2007). Excellent!

'Laurel and Hardy' by Tom McGrath

3 June 2008

On Saturday we were at the Royal Theatre in Northampton to see Tom McGrath's 1976 play 'Laurel and Hardy'. Ben Fox and Christian Patterson gave wonderful performances as Stan and Ollie re-telling the story of their careers - with the assistance of Greg Palmer at the piano. Incorporating affectionate and impressive impersonations of the duo's screen personas alternating with the real world Stan and Babe literally at the drop of a hat. A touching story but also genuinely funny - slapstick truly never dates! There were recreations of some of their most famous routines - all the more impressive for being performed live on stage without the benefit of re-takes - wonderful physical comedy. But best of all ending with a perfect copy of the dance from 'Way Out West' - ridiculous, serious, graceful - a joy!

'Olivier Messiaen: Chamber Works’ by the Hebrides Ensemble

29 May 2008

I first encountered the ‘Quartet for the End of Time’ by Olivier Messiaen many years ago in a hot, packed hall in the Pump Rooms during the Bath Festival. It was a mesmerising experience. The quartet was written in a German prison camp in 1940 for a performance by the composer (on piano) with three of his fellow prisoners (a clarinettist, a violinist and a ‘cellist). The eight-movement work was premiered in the camp in front of 5000 prisoners. It is a difficult, serious, quiet and extremely moving piece of music – not easy listening but completely compelling. Best listened to as part of a massive audience holding its collective breath. The marvellous Hebrides Ensemble make their Wigmore Hall debut tomorrow with a performance including the ‘Quartet for the End of Time’. Unfortunately I’m not able to be there but I have been enjoying their new CD ‘Chamber Works’ by Messiaen, marking the composer’s centenary – more details at www.hebridesensemble.org.uk

'Music Hole' by Camille

27 May 2008

French singer/songwriter Camille Dalmais is an amazing vocal gymnast. I was impressed by her 2005 album ‘Le Fil’ which wove a series of inventive, quirky songs (mostly in French) around a single continuous drone note (‘the thread’). ‘Le Fil’ put Camille squarely in Kate Bush/Bjork territory but sometimes felt a little too coldly intellectual. Her new CD ‘Music Hole’ is much warmer and funkier. Sung almost entirely a capella – with ‘human percussion’ of clicks, claps, snaps, smacks and beatboxing plus occasional piano (by Jamie Cullum) – it’s a playful collection. There is some inventive use of stereo - listen on headphones with plenty of bass. Her (mostly English) lyrics are witty and clever. The songs encompass a variety of styles and are catchy, pretty and funny. Songs to admire and enjoy.

'Hamlet': a ballet by David Nixon

23 May 2008

Last night we were at Milton Keynes Theatre to see 'Hamlet': a ballet by David Nixon performed by Northern Ballet Theatre. Setting the story in occupied Paris in 1940 gave the ballet a distinctive, ominously dark style with period costumes, references to Berlin cabaret and ever-present Nazi regalia (and incorporating some brutal torture scenes). There was some great dancing, particularly from Nathalie Leger as Gertrude and Darren Goldsmith as Claudius, and Ophelia's mad scene was performed with beautiful delicacy by Georgina May. I very much enjoyed the music by Philip Feeney – a varied and impressive orchestral score. But I thought there were some substantial problems with the plot: by adding new elements (such as the use of written death warrants) and cutting some key scenes, an already complicated plot became quite confusing. And in some cases the changes just didn't make sense: why would Laertes seek out Hamlet to avenge his sister's death when, in this version, Ophelia has not committed suicide but has instead been raped and murdered by Nazi officers? Nevertheless, a stylish and enjoyable production.

'The Thirty Nine Steps'

20 May 2008

The Rex in Berkhamsted was described by the BBC as "possibly Britain’s most beautiful cinema": after our first visit on Sunday I am inclined to agree. This beautiful art deco picture house is celebrating its 70^th anniversary and looks glorious following its recent refurbishment. With cabaret tables and large, high-backed swivel chairs in the stalls and rows of the most comfy cinema seats with masses of legroom in the gallery, it’s a luxurious experience. But it’s the décor and lighting that make the occasion. We went to see a new print of the 1935 Hitchcock classic ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’. It was wonderful to see it on a big screen, framed by a proscenium arch and elegant curtains: we could almost have been in the London Palladium watching ‘Mr Memory’ ourselves. And it was very exciting to discover that the audience at the Rex on Sunday included Joanna, the daughter of the film’s star Robert Donat, accompanied by her family including her great grandchildren. The film bears its age well: while there are some awkwardly long pauses and unintentionally funny exchanges (and the plot never made much sense!) it has great style (with camera angles that could have been from ‘Citizen Kane’) and some fantastic comic performances. Hitchcock combines exciting chases and serious menace with screwball comedy and a memorable set-piece finale. But it’s the scenes with John Laurie and Peggy Ashcroft as the crofter and his wife that stand out – Laurie’s wide ‘Private Frazer’ eyes flitting from suspiciously from side to side across the straightest of faces. “Am I right sir?”

BBC Young Musician of the Year 2008

13 May 2008

As I said here in May 2006 "I love the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition" so it was eager anticipation that I sat down to watch the broadcast of this year's concerto final. I don't think I would go as far as Susan Tomes who says on the Guardian website "the BBC ruined the Young Musician of the Year" but it was a major disappointment not to be able to watch the five concerto performances in full. This year the concertos were performed un-broadcast on Saturday (though later available on Radio 3 and can now be watched in their entirety at www.bbc.co.uk/youngmusician) and the finalists then returned on Sunday to each play an unaccompanied piece followed by a movement from their concerto. Apart from depriving us of the luxury of five full back-to-back concertos, it also reduced the fun of trying to guess the judges' decision as they had seen more of the finalists than we had. Nevertheless I maintained my record of failing to pick the winner. The performance by twelve-year-old trombonist, Peter Moore (the youngest ever winner) was actually the one I enjoyed the most but I was convinced he wouldn't be the judges' choice. I had narrowed it down to two - neither of whom won! As usual I enjoyed discovering some fantastic pieces of music. I really liked the Tomasi Trombone Concerto and the Flute Concerto by Ibert - neither of which I had heard before - and it was wonderful to hear the Rachmaninov 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini'. Do watch the full performances online while you can but don't bother with the 'Grand Final' programme. How sad that the impact of this landmark musical event should be so watered down in its thirtieth anniversary year - I do hope we can return to a full live broadcast of the concert in two years' time.

Toumani Diabaté

6 May 2008

For nearly 400 years, from around 1235 to 1600, the Mandé Empire covered a massive area, extending (at its peak) from central Africa (today's Chad and Niger) to West Africa (today's Mali and Senegal). With no written tradition, the archivists of the Empire were the 'griots' - hereditary musicians whose songs chronicled history and tradition. The Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté, who we saw performing at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester last Saturday, claims to be able to trace his lineage back through 71 generations of kora players. The kora is the West African 21-string harp-lute built from a large calabash cut in half and covered with cow skin and Toumani Diabaté is the outstanding kora player of his generation, described by BBC Radio 3 as "on a par with Glenn Gould or Rostropovich - the sort of musician you only encounter once or twice in a lifetime". His new solo album, 'The Mandé Variations', sets out to make a case for Malian griot music as 'African classical music' - equivalent to Western or Indian classical music. It was fitting, therefore, to see him in a classical concert hall where the (amplified) delicacy of his playing received rapt attention and concentration from a packed audience. Toumani's technique is amazing - using only four fingers (the thumb and index finger of both hands) to pluck the strings, he manages to generate the most intricate effects, tunes, accompaniments and rhythms. You really need to see him live to convince yourself it is only one person playing! The pieces from 'The Mandé Variations' build slowly and quietly - each lasting around 10 minutes and certainly bear comparison with the steady, repetitive development within an Indian raga. The kora is more an equivalent of a harp than of a fretted instrument such as the sitar, requiring the most amazing dexterity. I had heard many recordings of Toumani Diabaté and had been impressed but not moved: seeing him live I was gripped - perhaps because the concert hall atmosphere allowed me to give the music the concentration required to understand, appreciate and be entranced by it. Toumani is a regular visitor to Manchester as his uncle has lived there for 20 years and I was delighted to hear that they will both be rooting for Manchester United in the forthcoming European Cup final! Toumani himself lived briefly in London in 1986: I loved the piece 'Elyne Road' which is based on his time in London and built around a quote from the UB40 song 'Kingston Town'. A magical evening.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

29 April 2008

The latest Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert took place on Saturday at Christ Church in Northampton. We started with the 'Swedish Rhapsody No. 1' by Hugo Alfven - a strange mixed bag of a piece with a very well-known jaunty main theme. It contains some lovely moments - occasionally sounding very like Dvořák to me - but doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind what it wants to be - slipping too often towards the twee. We then tackled the lovely 'Violin Concerto' by Erich Korngold: a lush, tuneful work with many of the qualities of Korngold's best film scores (and showing how he influenced many later film composers - I think John Williams must have been a fan). But also a fiendishly difficult piece with constantly changing time signatures. Although it had gone very well in our final afternoon rehearsal, the performance was a bit hair-raising - particularly in the slow movement - and it is a great credit to the soloist, Thomas Gould, that he didn't catch the orchestra's nervousness and managed to pull us through to the finale. As we embarked on Sibelius' 'Symphony No. 1', our nerves were soothed by an assured opening clarinet solo by Naomi Muller and I think we gave an effective account of the symphony. It was very interesting, having played a couple of Tchaikowsky symphonies recently, to be immersed in Sibelius - a complete contrast in styles and, particularly, in orchestration. The Sibelius symphony is like a jigsaw puzzle where you need all the parts before you can see the whole wonderful picture.

‘Welcome to Everytown’ by Julian Baggini

25 April 2008

Julian Baggini is the editor of The Philosophers’ Magazine and a leading proponent of popular philosophy. I really like his pieces for The Guardian and a few years ago I went to see him speak at the Edinburgh Book Festival. On that occasion he explained that one of the difficulties of becoming known as an articulate spokesperson for the liberal intelligentsia was that he was often being asked to appear on Radio 4’s Today Programme but then proved unable to satisfy their requirements for a polarised debate because he kept finding that he could see both points of view: sometimes he was just too reasonable for his own good! This struck a chord with me – I often feel that I should probably have stronger opinions on key topics up my sleeve. I think I also relate to Baggini as we are a similar age: I knew I was on comfortable ground when I started to read his excellent guide to the meaning of life, ‘What’s It All About’ and discovered a quote from ‘The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ on the first page. Julian Baggini’s latest book, ‘Welcome to Everytown’, which I have been reading this week starts with a quote from Alan Partridge. In ‘Welcome to Everytown’ Baggini sets out to uncover the English character by spending six months living in England’s most typical town – which, from demographic analysis, turns out to be Rotherham (or, more precisely, the S66 postcode area). His immersion in working class life, mainstream media and local culture produces a challenging and thought-provoking analysis – both of the people he encounters and of his own liberal, middle class attitudes and prejudices. Never poking fun, he is honest, frank and respectful – apart from his vitriolic dislike of the Daily Mail. I found his observations on mass culture especially interesting in relation to Arts Council England’s recent work on segmenting the population according to their cultural participation. Fascinating and important stuff.

'Elevate' by Fiona Mackenzie

17 April 2008

I've been enjoying 'Elevate' - an album by Scottish folk singer Fiona Mackenzie. Apart from the three Gaelic songs this is more acoustic pop than folk. The opening track 'When The Sunny Sky Has Gone' sounds like it could be by Jack Johnson. Fiona Mackenzie's voice has some of the childlike fragility of Joanna Newsom (reviewed here in November 2006) - though without the more strident moments. 'Elevate' is a gentle, likeable collection of songs.

'This Earthly Spell' by Karine Polwart

17 April 2008

A new album by Karine Polwart (reviewed here in November 2005 and April 2006) is always a pleasure: I've been enjoying her recent CD of traditional songs, 'Fairest Floo'er', but the new collection of her own compositions, 'This Earthly Spell', is even better. Karine's thoughtful, poignant lyrics, distinctive voice, catchy tunes and lush vocal harmonies are a compelling mix. She creates an air of melancholy with a subtle hint of optimism - and then throws in a laid-back swing number ('The News') that could have been by Fairground Attraction.

'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' by Susanna Clarke

15 April 2008

When it came out in 2004, some reviewers suggested that Susanna Clarke's incredible debut novel 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' was "Harry Potter for grown ups". This epic tale of two magicians in 19th century England certainly has some similarities with Harry Potter but it's much more than that. Clarke creates a world that is both historically accurate but surreally magical - a parallel universe more like those of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' novels. But she has also written a 19th century novel - with explanatory chapter titles, plate illustrations, peculiar (but wholly consistent) spellings and masses of footnotes. The footnotes are essential reading - filling in a comprehensive back-story of several centuries of 'English magic'. In case this all sounds a bit scholarly, I should emphasise that 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' is a very funny book - with some of the 19th century whimsy of 'Three Men in a Boat'. It has a great cast of characters and intricate plotting worthy of Dickens. At more than 1000 pages it is a mammoth achievement - with some seeds planted very early on which satisfyingly flourish as the tale reaches its climax. I am wary of saying anything about the plot as part of the joy of the book was having no idea where it was heading - or even what period it was going to cover. There are some great 'Zelig' moments where the magicians brush against actual historical events - though more in the fashion of 'Doctor Who'. But best of all is Clarke's ability to judge the fine line between dropping clues to the direction of the story and risking signalling it too obviously. For me she was just about spot on: time and again I had the satisfaction of realising that I had seen something coming without having guessed it too early. 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' is an amazing, wonderful book - it is very long but I really didn't want it to end and now I want to read it all again. Brilliant!

'As You Like It' by William Shakespeare

7 April 2008

On Saturday we made a first visit to the Watford Palace Theatre to see 'As You Like It'. The Palace is currently celebrating its centenary: it reopened following a substantial refurbishment in 2004 which restored the period splendour of the auditorium while creating a gleaming modern foyer - much like the development of the Royal Theatre in Northampton. 'As You Like It' is the first Palace Shakespeare production since 1976 and it was a very enjoyable evening. Well cast and well acted throughout with some great mugging from Lisa Jackson as Rosalind and a show-stealing scene from Claire Prempeh as Phebe. We'll definitely be revisiting Watford soon.

'Hotas' by Tsuumi Sound System

4 April 2008

Regular readers will know of my enthusiasm for all things Finnish: this week I've been listening to 'Hotas', the album by Finnish folk/rock group Tsuumi Sound System. At first it's almost a Celtic sound - could easily be a Scottish group - but the occasional unexpected rhythms and time-shifts betray its Scandinavian origins. The tunes are dominated by frantic, furious fiddles backed by accordion, guitar, bass, drums and pleasingly unobtrusive soprano saxophone. It's a nicely varied set of tunes but maintains a cheerful optimistic air throughout. Fiona Talkington called it "a lesson in how to make the perfect album".

Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

2 April 2008

On Saturday I played in a concert by Milton Keynes Sinfonia which included Tchaikowsky's fourth symphony - a fantastic work-out! Tchaikowsky is great for developing your stamina and a wonderful crowd pleaser - and we had a packed audience at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone in Milton Keynes, though I suspect quite a few were there primarily to see Peter Bussereau play the first violin concerto by Bruch. We started the concert with the overture 'Les Franc-Juges' by Berlioz - not a particularly memorable piece other than for the tune that was used for John Freeman's 'Face to Face' interviews which, coincidentally, I had been thinking about a lot last week after watching Ken Stott as Tony Hancock in BBC Four's 'Hancock and Joan'.

Bella Hardy

26 March 2008

The young folk singer, Bella Hardy, from Edale in Derbyshire was recently nominated for a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award and provided harmony vocals on the excellent debut album by Ruth Notman (reviewed here in February 2008). Last week we took the opportunity to see Bella perform in the newly refurbished bar at the Queen's Theatre in Barnstaple. The unusual surroundings ("like performing in Ikea") and small audience (18 people) made for an intimate gig. Bella was accompanied on the Anglo concertina by Chrs Sherburn and Chris's experience and laid-back comic personality made for plenty of gentle banter - an entertaining double act. Bella has a beautiful and impressive voice. She sings traditional English folk songs that tell a story - mostly grim tales, even when the music is uplifting. I would have welcomed a little more variety of style - it would have been good to hear her voice in a more modern idiom occasionally - but it was a lovely evening and I've been enjoying her CD 'Night Visiting'.

'In the Valley of Elah'

26 March 2008

Last Monday we were at the delightful little cinema in Lynton, North Devon, to see 'In the Valley of Elah' - a film with Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron about American soldiers returning from Iraq. Although dealing with an extremely grim subject this was a clever and enjoyable film which repeatedly avoided the many traps it could easily have fallen into. Most of the horrors are recounted rather than shown and I think the message is more powerful for it.

Exmoor

26 March 2008

We had a lovely week at Brendon on Exmoor, exploring the moor, coast and valleys of North Devon (and parts of Somerset). We did lots of walking and had plenty of cream teas. The countryside is very pretty, varied and (during March at least) extremely quiet. We particularly enjoyed the coastal path near Woody Bay and the beautiful Doone Valley - though we discovered the dangers of assuming that 'bridlepath' is the same thing as 'footpath' when our route pointed straight across a busy river! (Not having a horse with us we enjoyed a lengthy and fruitless search for a footbridge followed by a rather adventurous crossing!) We were lucky with the weather which was cold but mostly clear and sunny - having avoided the storms of the previous week and the snow that followed our return. A relaxing break.

'Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister' by Gregory Maguire

26 March 2008

Some time in 2001 I heard someone on the radio talking about a novel that was going to tell the story of the childhood of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. Even though the book had not yet been published in the UK, I was hooked by the concept. During a trip to Seattle in 2002 I bought a copy of 'Wicked' by Gregory Maguire at the wonderful Elliot Bay Book Company store and I loved it. It has since become a bestseller and spawned a Broadway musical. So it was with some expectation that I started reading Gregory Maguire's 'Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister' which attempts a similar trick with the Cinderella story. 'Wicked' is a strange and peculiar book which travels into the realms of magical realism: 'Confessions' is less ambitious - more a straightforward historical novel - and better for it. Both take the 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' approach - showing you familiar events from the point of view of previously minor characters. But I thought 'Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister' had more in common with those other Tom Stoppard plays (such as 'Travesties' and 'The Invention of Love') where the more familiar story that the characters inhabit only gradually reveals itself. By the time 'Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister' resolves itself into the events around Cinderella's appearance at the ball it is almost a surprise. It's a very neat and satisfying story and has a lot to say about appearances and transformations.

Eilís Kennedy and Pauline Scanlon

13 March 2008

Spellbinding session from the beautiful west of Ireland voices of Eilís Kennedy and Pauline Scanlon on Charlie Gillett's Radio 3 show this week. You can listen again here and hear the first few tracks from their forthcoming album at: http://www.myspace.com/dinglewhitefemales.

Milton Keynes City Orchestra concert

12 March 2008

On Sunday night we were at Milton Keynes Theatre to hear the Milton Keynes City Orchestra conducted by Sian Edwards. The first half of the concert was a performance of Beethoven's 'Triple Concerto' with Diana Cummings (violin), Nigel Clayton (piano) and the wonderful show-stealing Oleg Kogan ('cello) who was a late replacement for the injured Gerard Le Feuvre. After the interval the MKCO were joined by the Milton Keynes Music Service Symphony Orchestra for a joint performance of the overture 'The Italian Girl in Algiers' by Rossini. With nearly 100 players on the stage it looked and sounded amazing: the playing was incredibly tight and precise and my only disappointment was that (with one notable exception) all the woodwind solos were taken by the professional players rather than the local youngsters. Before they completed the concert with Haydn's 'Symphony No. 103 - Drum Roll', I was pleased to see MKCO take on something a little out of the ordinary with the strange, atmospheric 'Nostalgia' by Takemitsu - a tribute to the Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

10 March 2008

Saturday's Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert was an exciting but exhausting challenge for those of playing in it. We started with the 'Symphonic Dances from West Side Story' by Leonard Bernstein - an incredibly difficult piece. While it might not have been perfect, I thought our performance was an impressive achievement with many of the complex rhythmic challenges mastered and some stunning passages. The orchestra then accompanied the excellent David Le Page in the Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber - one of my favourite works. We finished with Tchaikowsky's 'Symphony No. 6 - Pathetique' - both emotionally and physically draining but well worth the effort. There is nothing quite like the moment where the euphoria of the triumphant conclusion of the rousing third movment march is shattered by the devastating onslaught of the heart-wrenching final movement (particularly when the marathon third movement has left you feeling like you'll never be able to play another note!).

'Rafta, Rafta ...' by Ayub Khan-Din

4 March 2008

I very much enjoyed the National Theatre production of 'Rafta, Rafta ...' by Ayub Khan-Din which we saw at Milton Keynes Theatre last Saturday. It was based on the 1953 play 'All in Good Time' by Bill Naughton (which was filmed as 'The Family Way' with Hywel Bennett and John Mills) but updated to focus on an Indian family in modern day Bolton. A young couple, unable to afford their own home, start their married life sharing the groom's parents' small terraced house. The original plot worked remarkably well in its new setting - some things don't change that much and have a kind of universality across cultures! Michael Coveney, writing in the programme, suggested that Naughton sits on a line of popular playwriting from the likes of Harold Brighouse to Alan Bennett and Alan Ayckbourn. There are clear echoes of 'Hobson's Choice' here and 'Rafta, Rafta ...' definitely has the look and feel of an Ayckbourn play - and is similarly extremely funny. Like Ayckbourn it is accessible and entertaining while gradually revealing its deeper, darker themes. There was a great central performance from Harish Patel as the comical patriarch, and a wonderful set showing a dolls-house cross-section of his two-up, two-down.

'There Will Be Blood'

29 February 2008

Paul Thomas Anderson's film 'There Will Be Blood' has received rave reviews - particularly for its tour-de-force performance by Daniel Day Lewis - with some daring to compare it with 'Citizen Kane'. It therefore had a lot to live up to when I went to see it yesterday and, while it didn't entirely succeed, it is a very impressive work. From the start it has the feel of an epic with wide open landscapes, long silences and a gritty visceral portrayal of the realities of digging for oil at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. There is some great cinematography - you really need to see it on a big screen for those scenes where the camera fixes on a long view of the countryside in which something important is happening between two tiny figures in the bottom left hand corner. The plot is intriguingly unpredictable whilst, paradoxically, almost everything that happens seems to have been telegraphed by a casual comment much earlier in the film. And while we clearly spend much of the film rooting for Daniel Day Lewis's character, Daniel Plainview, - particularly in his battles with the extremely creepy preacher played by Paul Dano - we never really like him. Is he a monster? - or just an ordinary man trying to achieve his goals? Is he lonely? - or just manipulative? An impressive film that generates more questions than it answers - and probably needs to be seen several times.

'Vampire Weekend' by Vampire Weekend

27 February 2008

My new favourite band is Vampire Weekend. Their eponymous debut CD combines the cocky swagger of Arctic Monkeys (reviewed here in February 2006 and April 2007) with the American indie sound of bands like Tilly and the Wall (reviewed here in March 2007), a liberal use of strings and harpsichord and South African and West African guitar sounds - a unique and infectious concoction.

'Mary Shelley's Frankenstein' adapted by Lisa Evans

25 February 2008

Having read Mary Shelley's original novel for the first time last year (reviewed here in May 2007), I was particularly looking forward to the new stage version of 'Frankenstein' adapted by Lisa Evans for the Northampton Royal & Derngate and Frantic Assembly. Laurie Sansom's ambitious production awakened memories of Rupert Goold's stagings of 'Faust', 'Paradise Lost' and 'Hamlet' which built the Royal Theatre's reputation for innovation. 'Frankenstein' was another impressive show with much to admire. Victor Frankenstein's story was set within a modern tale in which a woman visits her sister, Mary, in a secure psychiatric hospital where she is being held following her conviction for murdering her baby. This invites consideration of the term 'monster' and echoes Mary Shelley's themes of birth, creation and death. In her hospital room Mary is reading 'Frankenstein' and it is a magical moment when she first opens up the book and the characters explode through a trap door onto the stage to play out the drama in front of her. The links between Mary's story and the book are subtly strengthened as she takes on some of the roles in Frankenstein's narrative. But the main coup-de-theatre is the decision to cast the dancer Richard Winsor as the monster. Winsor has been one of the principal dancers in Matthew Bourne's company (playing the title role in 'Edward Scissorhands', reviewed here in January 2006) and gives an amazing physical performance as the monster: the scene in which he comes to life is truly incredible. He is compelling throughout, commanding the stage and acrobatically cantering up and down the set. Having said that, I'm not sure he was quite scary enough: I don't think his physical appearance would have created such a strong instant reaction from everyone he encountered and there were times when the tension was punctured by the audience seeing too much of the monster too soon. I also thought the framing device of Mary's story wasn't quite substantial enough: given that 'Frankenstein' is already a series of 'nested narratives', I think we needed something more unpredictable to draw us into the framing story. Perhaps it was because I had read the book quite recently but this very faithful adaptation lacked some elements of surprise and shock. Nevertheless there were some great moments and much food for thought - and it was wonderful to see Laurie Sansom continuing the practice of using a 'community cast' of local amateurs in the supporting roles (as he did in 'Follies' reviewed here in November 2006).

'One Good Turn' by Kate Atkinson

22 February 2008

Reading the blurb at the front of Kate Atkinson's latest novel, 'One Good Turn', I realised that I have read all her published books. While this obviously suggests that I like her writing, I think what has kept me reading is her exploration of a variety of styles - from the wonderful family saga of 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' to the comedy thriller ('Emotionally Weird'), dalliances with magic realism (in 'Human Croquet' and the short story collection 'Not the End of the World') and an innovative take on the detective novel ('Case Histories'). Jackson Brodie, the hero of 'Case Histories', gets a second outing in 'One Good Turn' which is subtitled 'A Jolly Murder Mystery' but I found it quite a different book with a complex but subtle structure. The story is told in the third person but the point of view rotates, chapter by chapter, through at least half a dozen main characters. In many cases the switch of viewpoint at the start of the chapter allows the author to skip back a few minutes and replay the latest action from a different perspective. This creates a gradual unveiling of what has happened. As with many of Atkinson's books, clever twists are sufficiently signposted for the reader to guess them just before the characters do - making for an extremely satisfying and enjoyable read. Intriguing, gripping, not too demanding but cleverer than it first appears. There is a running theme about Russian dolls and you gradually realise that the stories of each of the main characters do not just overlap but actually seem to fit inside each other. While the resolution of numerous loose ends is deftly achieved, the plot does seem to rest on a few enormously unlikely coincidences but, as long you don't take it too seriously, it's lots of fun. And, having seen Kate Atkinson at the Edinburgh Book Festival some years ago, it was particularly interesting to find her writing a scene about an author appearing at the Edinburgh Book Festival ...

Matthew Bourne's 'Nutcracker'

19 February 2008

On Saturday we were at Milton Keynes Theatre to see Matthew Bourne's 'Nutcracker' - a modern dance realisation of the Tchaikowsky ballet. Colourful, witty, playful and larger than life this was more like a dance version of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' than Victorian whimsy. Very much like Bourne’s dance version of 'Edward Scissorhands' (reviewed here in January 2006), I would have preferred more direct connection with the music but it was lots of fun and enthusiastically received by a packed house. I particularly liked the liquorice allsorts and a stunning leap onto the oversized pillow at the back of the set.

'Juno'

11 February 2008

I used to love watching 'Hill Street Blues' but it usually took me up to the first ad-break to tune into what they were saying - I found the fast, cross-talking, American accents extremely hard to follow. I felt a bit the same on Sunday watching 'Juno' - the new Canadian comedy film directed by Jason Reitman. The universal language of the North American teenager with its rapid mumbling appears, like, totally incomprehensible, dude. But it was well worth sticking with it and tuning into the dialogue because the script, by Diablo Cody, is one of the wittiest I've come across in a long time. Juno is a 16-year old schoolgirl - a bravura performance by Ellen Page - who decides to see through her accidental pregnancy and to allow her baby to be adopted by a childless couple. Not to be confused with other lesser recent films on the unwanted pregnancy theme, 'Juno' is charming, quirky, witty and strangely beautiful. All the main characters are well-drawn, well-acted and sympathetic. It's an extremely funny and poignant film. 'Juno' has been much praised and received several five star reviews (maybe slightly over generous but it's definitely worth at least four stars) so we were surprised to find that, just two days after it was released, we had the whole cinema to ourselves at the early evening showing on Sunday - though perhaps this says more about the Odeon in Milton Keynes than the film. At least the audience was remarkably well-behaved!

'The Clean House' by Sarah Ruhl

11 February 2008

On Saturday we were at the Royal Theatre in Northampton to see their production of 'The Clean House' by Sarah Ruhl. This is a quirky comedy reflecting on the therapeutic powers of housework and comedy. Lane is a successful doctor with no time to clean her own house. Her young Brazilian cleaning lady, Matilde, hates housework and dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. Lane's sister, Virginia, fills her empty life with cleaning. It's an unusual play with nice touches of surrealism and you're never quite sure where it's going. It's quite short and I worried that it might end too suddenly, proving more slight and inconsequential than it promised - but in the end there is resolution - an enjoyable, thought-provoking, funny, refreshingly different evening at the theatre. Patricia Hodge and Eleanor Bron are dependably strong but I really enjoyed Natalia Tena as Matilde (she was Tonks in the latest Harry Potter film - a name to watch). 'The Clean House' is now touring - well worth catching.

'Threads' by Ruth Notman

7 February 2008

I am very grateful to Steve Heap for alerting me to the wonderful debut album by 18-year-old folk singer Ruth Notman, 'Threads' is released on Steve's own label, Mrs Casey Music, and he is rightly proud of it. Ruth is from Nottingham and her Northern vowels give her more than a passing resemblance to Kate Rusby (reviewed here in June 2006) but her amazing vibrato gives her voice a distinctive quiver. 'Threads' is an engaging and interestingly varied collection of songs and got a four star review from Robin Denselow in The Guardian (see http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2215420,00.html). Some of the original songs reminded me of Karine Polwart (reviewed here in November 2005 and April 2006) and I particularly liked the jaunty piano-backed waltz 'Limbo' which sounded a lot like Nerina Pallot (reviewed here in May 2006). You can listen to a couple of tracks from 'Threads' at http://www.myspace.com/ruthnotman1. Do have a listen - then buy the CD and support this rising young star.

The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008

6 February 2008

On Monday evening I was the guest of Steve Heap and Folk Arts England at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 in London. It was brilliant! I could tell it was going to be an exciting occasion from the moment I walked into the reception at The Brewery. Scanning the crowd for someone I knew I came face to face with a very familiar figure: just before I started to say "where do I know you from" I realised it was Bob Hoskins! The room was full of famous people (and me!) - from the aristocracy of the folk world (including the likes of Martin Carthy, Maddy Prior and Shirley Collins) to Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Edmondson, Aled Jones, Alexei Sayle and Romeo Stodart from The Magic Numbers (reviewed here in July 2007). At one point I was standing between Kate Rusby (reviewed here in June 2006) and Eliza Carthy. Just as I was thinking I knew everyone but no-one knew me I was approached by someone who recognised me from the recent VAN Trustees event in Birmingham. When the show started the A-list celebrity count continued to escalate with awards being presented by Sean Bean, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Steve Harley, Graham Coxon from Blur, Brenda Blethyn and Phil Collins. But the fun of celebrity-spotting was quite properly eclipsed by the music. Steve Heap was delighted to see family friend (and no relation) Martin Simpson pick up the awards for best original song and album of the year and Martin's performance (with Kate Rusby on backing vocals) was a highlight. There were also performances by The Imagined Village (who I saw at WOMAD - reviewed here in August 2007), Seth Lakeman (reviewed here in April 2006 and August 2007), Rachel Unthank and The Winterset and John Martyn who received the lifetime achievement award. But my favourites were the electrifying Lau who brought the house down (and won the best group award) and the completely gorgeous Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis (reviewed here in February 2006 and April 2007) who was named folk singer of the year. It was wonderful to hear John Spiers (collecting the best live act award on behalf of Bellowhead - reviewed here in October 2006) using his acceptance speech to stress that the best thing about folk music is that anyone can do it and encouraging everyone to have a go. The show was very slickly compered by Mike Harding. You can find more details, video clips and listen again to the Radio 2 broadcast at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/events/folkawards2008/ I had a wonderful time - many thanks Steve.

'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'

1 February 2008

Watching the dark, gritty BBC TV serialisation of 'Oliver Twist' just before Christmas, it seemed the most bizarre subject to have been made into a musical. Lionel Bart's 'Oliver!' is a grim, gruesome thriller turned twee. To see what it could have been you need to watch Tim Burton's new film of the Stephen Sondheim musical 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' which I saw this week. Strange, then, that the film features Johnny Depp channelling Anthony Newley - though Depp's Sweeney Todd is Bill Sikes rather than the Artful Dodger - an older, more world-weary and surly Edward Scissorhands. Burton's film is a stunning, mostly monochrome vision of Victorian London. He pulls off a rare trick in creating a musical that is truly scary. There is just about enough plot to carry us through but the pace is a bit variable: at times it feels like this gloriously designed film is stopping to gaze at itself. But once we got to the Viennese waltz of the pie song it hooked us into an increasingly frantic dance of death. From the opening deafeningly sinister chords of the Rugby School Chapel organ, the music is wonderful - a rare occasion to welcome the excessive volume that most modern cinemas seem to favour. And Helena Bonham-Carter is grotesquely, gothically gorgeous as Mrs Lovett: the quintessential Corpse Bride. I also loved the chair - straight out of Wallace and Gromit! 'Sweeney Todd' is definitely not for the squeamish but it's not really 'horror' - more a Shakespearean tragedy - with oodles of blood and tray upon tray of meat pies.

Kaznowski Quartet concert

21 January 2008

For only the second time in the eight years we have lived in Eversholt, on Sunday there was a concert in our village church. The excellent local Kaznowski Quartet (Jan Kaznowski, Caroline Waters, Martin Gough and David Knight) gave us a mixed programme ('From Bach to the Beatles') based around the 'Petite Suite' by Debussy. We heard great arrangements for string quartet by Carlo Martelli and Bill Thorp of works by Dvorak, Grieg, Mozart and Bach interspersed with the four Debussy movements together with 'Penny Lane' and 'The Folks Who Live on the Hill'. It was a lovely afternoon and it was great to see the church absolutely packed.

‘May Contain Nuts’ by John O'Farrell

21 January 2008

The literary career of John O'Farrell seems to be following a course plotted by Nick Hornby. Having found success with a heartfelt and very funny memoir ('Things Can Only Get Better'), O'Farrell's first novel ('The Best A Man Can Get') was extremely enjoyable and cleverer than it initially appeared. He followed this with a similar second novel ('This is Your Life') and a couple of collections of his newspaper columns. Now, just as Nick Hornby did in 'How to be Good', John O'Farrell has written a novel where the first person narrator is female. 'May Contain Nuts' is the cutting edge tale of rich families in Chelsea desperate to get their children into a good school. He has lots of fun at the expense of four-wheel-drives, private tutors etc but I found it a bit predictable and I wasn't really convinced by O'Farrell as a woman.