Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert
20 March 2020
Last Friday afternoon I received a text message to say that one of the horn players in Milton Keynes Sinfonia was self-isolating after displaying symptoms of Covid-19 and asking if I could help them out. Just over 24 hours later I had the unexpected pleasure of playing in the orchestra’s Beethoven concert at the Chrysalis Theatre in Milton Keynes. It was a wonderful concert: there was a strange atmosphere of nervousness about the rapidly worsening Coronavirus situation, a strong expectation that this might be one of the last live concerts any of us experiences for quite a while, but also a determination to celebrate being together to enjoy some inspirational music. We opened the concert with the ‘Overture to Fidelio’ – Beethoven’s only opera, followed by his ‘Piano Concerto No 5’ – the ‘Emperor Concerto’, brilliantly played bt the Russian pianist, Alexander Karpeyev. The climax of the concert was Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 5’ – the world’s most famous symphony. The journey from the ominous knocking of fate in the first movement to the gloriously triumphant finale felt particularly moving in the current climate. Conductor David Knight spoke about his vision of the symphony as a ‘mushroom cloud’, gradually expanding towards the exuberant ending, with the third movement Scherzo forming the heart of the work, in which the tension builds and builds before leading into the release of the major key climax in the fourth movement. It was an incredibly enjoyable evening – a bright moment of hope in dark times.
Labels: Concerts, Music
‘Hoa Am Xu’a’ by Saigon Soul Revival
13 March 2020
I’m really enjoying the debut album by Saigon Soul Revival – a Vietnamese band that celebrates the bolero scene in South Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s. ‘Hoa Am Xu’a’ is a mixture of covers of classic songs and new tracks in this vintage style. It’s funky rock that sounds both strangely familiar and refreshingly different – the same 'parallel universe syndrome' that I associated with 'the very best of éthiopiques' (Francis Falceto’s wonderful collection of Ethiopian popular music from the 1960s and 70s, reviewed here in 2007). There’s a distinct psychedelic retro feel to the songs but the addition of a young rapper on one of the tracks makes it seem surprisingly modern.
Labels: Albums, Music
'King Lear' by William Shakespeare, adapted by Paul Morel
6 March 2020
On Thursday we were at The Place in Bedford to see the Oddbodies production of ‘King Lear’. This is a remarkable one-man version of Shakespeare’s play, adapted and performed by Paul Morel, and directed by John Mowat. In a similar way to Kizzy Dunn’s wonderful ‘Hamlet: Horatio’s Tale’ which saw Horatio recounting the tragedy of his friend (which we saw at the Edinburgh Fringe two years ago, reviewed here in August 2018), this was the story of ‘King Lear’ recounted by the Fool. Paul Morel plays the Fool playing all the other characters. Without any costumes or props he manages to distinguish clearly each of the cast purely through posture and voice. This is a much more light-hearted approach than ‘Hamlet: Horatio’s Tale’: each speech from the play is delivered seriously but he then immediately drops back into the character of the Fool to comment on what was meant and to point out the many oddities of the play. (The Fool himself inexplicably disappears in the final act, perhaps because the same actor in the original production may also have played Cordelia.) The Irish-accented Fool’s contemporary ad-libs and banter with the audience reminded me of one of our Fringe favourites, comedian and actor Owen O’Neill (reviewed here in August 2018 and August 2014). Interspersing the text of the play with the Fool’s analysis of each speech provides a great way to understand the complexities of the plot. It’s like seeing the play with live footnotes – but more entertaining than that sounds! You can get a flavour of the production from this video trailer:
https://vimeo.com/328008891 Labels: Drama, Theatre
