'Our Friends in the North' by Peter Flannery
24 March 2022
The 1996 BBC TV adaptation of Peter Flannery’s ‘Our Friends in the North’ would be one of my ‘Desert Island TV serials’ (see my review here in April 2006 for the others). It is an epic tale of the lives of four friends from the 1960s to the 1990s (and through them the recent political history of the country). Now Peter Flannery has adapted the story for BBC Radio 4 as a series of 45-minute radio plays, with the promise of a new final episode set in the year 2020, 25 years after the original series finale. I’ve only listened to the first episode (1964) so far but already I’m hooked. The structure, with most episodes set in the year of a UK general election and all featuring substantial doses of pop music from the year in question, nicely balances the personal journeys of the four lead characters from youth to middle age with the macro political context. ‘Our Friends of the North’ takes on the high-rise planning scandal in the North East, corruption in the Metropolitan Police, the miners’ strike and much more. But ultimately it’s a moving study of four friends, their ambitions and failures. I’m really looking forward to revisiting their stories over the coming weeks. You can listen to ‘Our Friends in the North’ at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0015b7p
Labels: Drama, Radio
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
15 March 2022
Saturday’s Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert was both a glorious celebration of being back together in person for live music-making on a grand scale, and a reflection of our lockdown experience. In 2020, unable to meet as normal, the NSO experimented with online rehearsals using Jamulus (open source low latency software). Each week a small group of us played through orchestral repertoire together online. There were plenty of frustrating technical issues and the sound quality was not wonderful but, in the height of lockdown, it was a really enjoyable and rewarding experience (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK4JrGDc7AA). As it was impossible to assemble a full symphony orchestra on Jamulus we were limited to playing orchestral pieces for which our Music Director, John Gibbons, had a piano transcription so he could fill in the missing parts. One of the works I most enjoyed playing on Jamulus was ‘Symphony No. 2’ by Sergei Rachmaninoff - a huge romantic masterpiece. It was a particularly emotional experience to be sitting in my dining room, with headphones on, playing the achingly beautiful slow movement with friends across the Internet, during such a strange and unsettling period in all our lives.
When we were finally able to return to face-to-face orchestra rehearsals in 2021, albeit with social distancing and other safety measures, we started by playing through a series of shorter pieces each week. One of the works John Gibbons selected for these first tentative steps to bring the orchestra back together was Carl Nielsen's ‘Helios Overture’ - a lovely evocation of a day - from sunrise to sunset - on a Greek island.
Last Saturday, in the third concert of our 2021-22 season, the NSO played both the ‘Helios Overture’ and Rachmaninoff’s ‘Symphony No 2’ at St Matthew’s Church in Northampton, together with the ‘Piano Concerto No 2’ by Dimitri Shostakovich. I was really looking forward to the concert but wary that this was going to be an ambitious and exhausting programme. To make sure we would be able to cope with the sheer stamina needed to get through the hour-long symphony, and being particularly nervous that it was still all too possible that we might lose some players at the last minute with positive tests for Covid-19, I assembled seven horn players rather than the usual four, enabling us to share the pieces between us. Fortunately all seven horn players were able to take part in the concert, though we did lose several other members of the orchestra because of Covid and had to find some late replacements who did a fantastic job. This meant we were able to play the ‘Helios Overture’ with seven horns doubling up the four parts, which I thought sounded wonderful (though I may be a little biassed!).
I didn’t play in the Shostakovich concerto but I really enjoyed listening to a stunning performance by the pianist Maria Marchant. Shostakovich wrote the concerto for his teenage son Maxim to play and it’s a very playful, personal piece with a particularly gorgeous romantic second movement. It was an emotional concert in many ways, starting with the Ukrainian national anthem and with Maria Marchant playing a Ukrainian folk song as her encore.
Rachmaninoff’s ‘Symphony No 2’ provided a rousing romantic finale, featuring a beautiful clarinet solo by Naomi Muller. It was great fun to perform the symphony as part of a large orchestra in front of a packed audience, in contrast to the experience of playing it in a small group, each isolated in our own homes.
Our next NSO concert, on 21 May, features the ‘Symphony in D minor’ by Cesar Franck - another of the pieces we played on Jamulus. I’m really looking forward to it.
Labels: Concerts, Music
Buckingham Palace Garden
10 March 2022
On Sunday we were in London for a guided tour of the Buckingham Palace Garden. While large crowds gathered in front of the Palace for the Changing of the Guard It was fascinating to be part of a small group taken around the 39 acre garden behind the Palace. This large green space in the centre of the city was much more like one of the London Royal Parks than the formal gardens I had been expecting. Our guide told us about the work of the Palace gardeners and recent changes to the garden to improve biodiversity. It was also interesting to see the Royal Mews and the back of Buckingham Palace at close quarters - a rare glimpse into a hidden world.
Labels: Heritage
'The Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage' by Philip Pullman, adapted by Bryony Lavery
4 March 2022
Nicholas Wright’s two-part stage adaptation of Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ novels, premiered in Nicholas Hytner’s production at the National Theatre in London in 2004, felt like a landmark theatrical moment. The use of puppets, operated on stage by black-clad puppeteers, as the animal daemons - the physical manifestation of the human soul - was beautifully done, preceding the National Theatre production of Michael Morpurgo’s ‘War Horse’ by three years. The cast, led by Anna Maxwell Martin as Lyra, included three young actors who would star in Nicholas Hytner’s National Theatre production of ‘The History Boys’ by Alan Bennett later in 2004 and have since become very familiar names - Samuel Barnett, Dominic Cooper and Russell Tovey. ‘His Dark Materials’ was also the professional stage debut for Ben Wishaw, who was about to be thrust into the limelight as the lead in Trevor Nunn's 2004 production of Hamlet at the Old Vic. I have fond memories of our trips to the National Theatre in 2004 to see both parts of ‘His Dark Materials’, so when I learned that Nicholas Hytner was to direct an adaptation, by Bryony Lavery, of Philip Pullman’s prequel ‘La Belle Sauvage’ (reviewed here in November 2017) I quickly bought tickets as a Christmas present for Jeannie - only to discover that she had bought tickets to the same show as my Christmas present! Having returned one set of tickets, last Saturday we made our first visit to the Bridge Theatre - Nick Starr and Nicholas Hytner’s new commercial theatre on the south bank of the Thames next to Tower Bridge. ‘La Belle Sauvage’ is the first of Pullman’s new trilogy of novels ‘The Book of Dust’. It tells the story of Lyra as a baby, through the eyes of twelve-year-old Malcolm Polstead. Malcolm lives with his parents at the Trout Inn outside Oxford, across the river Thames from Godstow Priory where Lyra has been given sanctuary to hide her from the Magisterium. The whole story takes place on or around the River Thames, with a biblical flood taking Malcolm and Lyra as far as our actual location next to London’s Tower Bridge. Whereas the 2004 production of ‘His Dark Materials’ featured a spectacular revolving set on the huge stage of the Olivier Theatre, ‘La Belle Sauvage’ makes brilliant use of the amazing recent technological advances in video projection, turning a bare black stage into the flowing river and much more. The interplay of the actors, Malcolm’s canoe and the swirling projections is visually stunning. And Nicholas Hytner has once again turned to a group of young actors whose progress it will now be fascinating to watch. Samuel Creasey - who plays Macolm Polstead very much in the style of that other History Boy, James Corden - is making his first professional stage appearance, as is Heather Forster - who plays his daemon, Asta. They are joined by Ella Dacres as Alice Parslow - who is a comparable veteran, having previously appeared in one professional production at the National Theatre. They are all excellent, giving a real emotional heart to the story. The puppet daemons seem less surprising than they did 18 years ago but they are still very effective, their glowing eyes dragging our attention around the darkened stage. Above all it was wonderful to be back in a theatre for the first time in ages. ‘La Belle Sauvage’ was gripping, beautiful, funny and incredibly emotional - a perfect Christmas present.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
