Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
27 October 2021
Last Saturday I played in my first live concert since the moving experience of performing Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 5’ with Milton Keynes Sinfonia just before the start of the first lockdown in March 2020 (reviewed here in March 2020). This was the first Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert since we played Bruckner’s ‘Symphony No 4’ in February last year (reviewed here in February 2020) and it felt wonderful to be back in front of a live audience again. Saturday’s concert at St Matthew’s Church in Northampton was a spectacular return for the NSO, marking the centenary of the birth, in Northampton, of the composer Sir Malcom Arnold - who actually played in the NSO himself as a young man. We started with Arnold’s ‘A Grand Grand Festival Overture’, a notorious piece which features three vacuum cleaners and a floor polisher. It was quite an achievement - by several members of the orchestra - merely to track down the vintage vacuum cleaners needed to make the required sound. Our four soloists did a great job cleaning the floor of the church in precise formation, co-ordinated by elaborate hand signals from conductor John Gibbons, before all four were felled by rifle shots aimed by the NSO’s newly appointed President - our recently retired principal trumpet, Nick Bunker. Quite what the new orchestra leader Emily Groom made of this eccentric introduction to the NSO I am not sure but the audience certainly enjoyed the bizarre spectacle. We followed the overture with a completely different example of Malcolm Arnold’s orchestral writing, his ‘Symphony No 2’, composed in 1953. Although the symphony features some of Arnold’s trademark jollity (particularly in the final movement) it is quite a serious piece with a stunning, bleak, Mahlerian slow movement. The symphony, and especially the slow movement, has really grown on me during our rehearsals. I think our performance went very well, with beautiful playing from Naomi Muller on clarinet in the sparse opening to the first movement and a very impressive bassoon solo from Sian Bunker at the beginning of the third movement. We finished the concert in more familiar territory with the ever-popular ‘Symphony No 3’ by Camille Saint-Saens - the ‘Organ Symphony’. It’s a lovely piece with a surprisingly challenging Third Horn part, wonderfully played by Callie Scully. The famous moment when the thunderous organ chords, played by Justin Miller, herald the start of the finale felt incredibly emotional: it was so good to return to live music after the long break caused by the pandemic.
Labels: Concerts, Music
‘Redhead by the Side of the Road’ by Anne Tyler
21 October 2021
Regular readers will remember I am a big fan of the novels of Anne Tyler (see, for example, 'Noah's Compass' reviewed here in May 2010, 'The Beginners Goodbye' reviewed here in March 2013 and 'Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant' reviewed here in July 2014). In 2015 she suggested that her new novel, 'A Spool of Blue Thread' (reviewed here in March 2015) might be her last, but she has subsequently published two more short novels - 'Vinegar Girl' (reviewed here in July 2016) and ‘Redhead by the Side of the Road’ which I have just finished reading. ‘Redhead by the Side of the Road’ feels like a return to vintage Anne Tyler: it features suburban Baltimore life, polite but strained family relationships and a quirky small business. Much like Macon Leary in ‘The Accidental Tourist’, Micah Mortimer is a thoughtful, sensible, slightly dull and lonely protagonist, dominated by his more extroverted siblings. The unexpected arrival on his doorstep of a teenage boy threatens to upset the balanced equilibrium of Micah’s life and makes him reassess his choices. As always, Anne Tyler writes a gentle, poignant, humorous and heart-warming story. My only disappointment was that this short book (less than 200 pages) feels like an extract from a much longer novel. I longed to see more of Micah’s eccentric family and to see what happened to him next.
Labels: Books
'Fargo' by Noah Hawley
15 October 2021
I have written here before (in October 2017) about my love of ‘Fargo’, Noah Hawley’s superlative TV series inspired by the 1996 Coen Brothers film. Each season of the show is a self-contained story with a completely different set of characters in a different place and a different time - but always eerily familiar to the previous seasons and the film. The fourth season, which I’ve just finished watching, takes us further back in time, to 1950 in Kansas City, Missouri, and almost acts as an origin story for the other three - showing the early development of gang warfare between various immigrant communities. It’s possibly the most violent ‘Fargo’ (and that’s saying something!) but it’s also incredibly funny - a very darkly comic version of ‘The Godfather’. Chris Rock gets lead billing as the head of the African-American crime syndicate, Jason Schwartzman is wonderful as the hopelessly out-of-his-depth leader of the Sardinian Fadda family and Ben Wishaw is the sole survivor of the Irish family that previously ruled the city. But, as usual, Noah Hawley gives the women the best parts with E'myri Crutchfield playing the still, calm, sensible teenager at the heart of the storm, J. Nicole Brooks fearsome as a gang leader’s wife protecting her children and Jessie Buckley stealing the show as the gloriously deranged serial-killer nurse Oraetta Mayflower. This season’s beautiful surreal digression is (for no particular reason) a very subtle homage to ‘The Wizard of Oz’. There is also one magnificent moment of simple slapstick which completely punctured the violent tension of the plot and had me roaring with laughter, leaving me totally unprepared for the brutal sting in the tale that follows. It was great to spot some recurring ‘Fargo’ motifs and more New Orleans brass bands on the soundtrack. But the real pleasure of ‘Fargo’ is the delicious slow plotting which gradually reveals clarity from confusion and very satisfyingly brings comeuppance to those who deserve it, in the most unexpected ways.
Labels: Drama, TV
'Going Gently' by David Nobbs
7 October 2021
David Nobbs is a celebrated comic writer whose many successes include the TV series ‘The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin’, ‘A Bit of a Do’ and ‘Love on a Branch Line’. I’ve just finished reading his novel ‘Going Gently’, first published in 2000. Framing the story of someone’s life by having them reflect on their journey while lying on their deathbed is not a particularly original technique, but David Nobbs uses it to create an entertaining and poignant family saga. Kate lies paralysed in a hospital bed, approaching her 100th birthday, but although she cannot speak her mind is still alert and she spends her time reliving her long and eventful life. Her reminiscences - of her strict presbyterian upbringing in South Wales, her (many) husbands and children and her rise to celebrity status - are interspersed with the conversations happening around her bed between doctors, visitors and other patients. Kate’s life is a remarkable tale, verging on the ridiculous, but which manages to keep just on the right side of plausibility to draw the reader’s sympathy. Nobbs creates a vast cast of comic characters who we warm to despite their quirks and faults. ‘Going Gently’ is a really enjoyable read.
Labels: Books
Stirlingshire
1 October 2021
35 years ago, in September 1986, I walked the West Highland Way long distance footpath from Milngavie on the outskirts of Glasgow to Fort William. This 96-mile route was then fairly new: it officially opened in 1980, becoming Scotland's first officially designated Long Distance Route. Last week was a trip down memory lane for me as we had a lovely holiday in a cottage situated on the early part of the West Highland Way at Gartness in Stirlingshire, near to the south end of Loch Lomond. All week there was a steady stream of walkers past our front door and it was great to walk a few sections of the route again after so many years. Loch Lomond is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and it’s huge - nearly 23 miles long and between 1 and 5 miles across. We walked along the east shore of the loch from Cashel to Sallochy, and from Balmaha up Conic Hill for the view back across the loch. We also enjoyed walks in the Great Forest of Loch Ard, near the start of the River Forth at Aberfolye, and from the remote Stronachlachar Pier along the shore of Loch Katrine. We were very lucky with the weather, seeing plenty of sunshine and only a little drizzle. It was wonderful to return to this stunning part of the country after so long.
Labels: Holidays
