Cruise to Greece and Turkey
30 May 2024
We got back this week from an amazing cruise to Greece and Turkey on the Cunard cruise ship Queen Victoria. I had never previously been to either country and the cruise was a great way to sample a number of different places. During lockdown we got hooked on ‘Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics’ on BBC Radio 4 (reviewed here in July 2020) and it was wonderful to bring the classics to life as we visited the sites of the three of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We are also big fans of the ‘Empire’ podcast (reviewed here in January 2023) and we were looking forward to exploring aspects of the Ottoman Empire. We had a day on the island of Rhodes, visiting the huge Palace of the Grand Masters, home of the Knights of St John until they were thrown out of Rhodes by Suleyman the Magnificent in 1552 and fled to Malta. We were astounded by the ancient city of Ephesus - one of the biggest archeological sites in the world. We visited the beautiful island of Santorini and ancient Olympia, where we walked along the running track of the original Olympic stadium. In Athens we had a great day at the Acropolis, admiring the Parthenon (which is much bigger than I had imagined). It was all very interesting and impressive and it was a beautiful day (which made for some great photos). But I think the highlight of our trip was our two days in Istanbul where we visited the Blue Mosque - an enormous domed hall with beautiful tiling and stained glass windows, quite unlike anything I'd previously seen - a real 'wow' moment. We really enjoyed the Basilica Cistern - a huge underground reservoir, built by the Romans in the 6th century AD. And the Hagia Sofia Cathedral/Mosque is an incredible building - a vast nave beneath a huge dome with golden mosaics from the original Byzantine church alongside giant circular 'medallions' containing Arabic script. The room feels enormous, dark and mysterious, like something from 'Game of Thrones'. We also walked around the Grand Bazaar - a seemingly endless maze of covered lanes of shops which was almost impossible to navigate, with each corridor looking almost identical and apparently containing the same shops. Istanbul was very different to anywhere we had been before, but not exactly in the way we had expected. The city felt busy and vibrant but not intimidating. And its history and strategic importance are fascinating.
Labels: Holidays
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
12 May 2024
When we last played the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra, accompanying Lucy Parham in 2007, I wrote here (in November 2007) that the piece always reminds me how nervous I was playing the exposed horn solos in the first and second movements as a teenager with the Didsbury Symphony Orchestra in 1983, accompanying Peter Donohoe, and how relieved I was this time to be leaving those solos to the NSO Principal Horn David Lack. Now that Dave is sadly no longer with us, last Saturday it was my turn again, for the first time since 1983. Our NSO concert, in. St Matthews Church in Northampton, featured the brilliant young Russian soloist, Victor Maslov. There is a wonderful video on YouTube of Victor playing the Grieg Piano Concerto 15 years ago at the age of 11: https://youtu.be/ITJZEN2B87Y?si=5ZVVXUsn_tNwSV8t The 2024 version was even more spectacular: it was a genuinely thrilling performance by one of the most exciting soloists we have accompanied in recent years. Victor seemed to be playing this most famous of concertos neither in a lush romantic style nor in a disciplined classical approach, instead managing to make it feel much more contemporary - a fascinatingly inquisitive modern take on a work that can feel over familiar - but without losing any of the passion. In contrast to my teenage self, this time I found the short horn solos really enjoyable and I was pleased with how they went. But mine was a minor contribution to an incredible performance that will live long in the memory of everyone who was there. Victor Maslov's encore, a short Prelude by Scriabin, was delicate and mesmerising. It was a challenge for the NSO to follow this in the second half of the concert but Brahms' 'Symphony No 4' is a work that deserves to stand alongside the Grieg concerto. It's a lovely piece that demonstrates how Brahms continued and developed Beethoven's symphonic style - built on meticulous syncopated rhythms, driving chord progressions and controlled power. Brahms 4 is one of my favourite symphonies. This was the first time I had played it for more than 25 years but I was surprised how well I still knew the horn parts. It's a lovely symphony, incredibly satisfying to play, in which every note feels carefully crafted. NSO conductor John Gibbons shaped a beautifully controlled performance which was incredibly moving - with Graham Tear's gorgeously measured flute solo in the last movement exemplifying this. We opened the concert with the 'Froissart Overture' by Edward Elgar and also played Laura Rossi's witty musical journey through Italy, 'Jailhouse Graffiti' which was commissioned by John Gibbons to celebrate an April Fools prank he and Laura played on the Ealing Symphony Orchestra in 2005.
Labels: Concerts, Music, NSO23-24
'Nye' by Tim Price
10 May 2024
On Thursday we were at the Library Theatre in Leighton Buzzard to see the NTLive broadcast of ‘Nye’ by Tim Price, directed by Rufus Norris, live from the National Theatre in London. This was the 100th NTLive performance since this innovative model of broadcasting live theatre to cinemas around the world started in 2009. I think I’ve seen 34 of the 100 broadcasts which have become an artform in their own right. It’s not better or worse than being in the theatre - it’s just different. You don’t quite get the same atmosphere as being in the auditorium with the live actors, but you do get close-ups and viewing angles that you wouldn’t have in the theatre, and you can hear every word much more clearly. ‘Nye’ dramatises the life of the Labour politician Aneurin Bevan and the founding of the National Health Service. Tim Price’s play starts with Bevan (played with wide-eyed wonder by Michael Sheen) in hospital himself, being treated for the stomach cancer that will kill him, and then tells his story through flashbacks and delirious dream sequences (as the morphine kicks in) with the doctors, nurses and other patients in the hospital taking the parts of Nye’s family, friends, colleagues and political opponents. The patient dropping in and out of consciousness, reliving incidents from his life, reminded me a lot of Denis Potter’s TV masterpiece ‘The Singing Detective’: there is even a fully staged song and dance number led by Michael Sheen. Vicki Mortimer’s set constantly reminds you we are in a hospital, with beds tipped on their sides to form the desks of the Tredegar Council chamber and the green benches of the House of Commons conjured up by surgical curtains. Michael Sheen brings a fascinating mixture of naivety, passion and mischief to his Nye Bevan. He is on stage throughout, playing out scenes from various chapters of Nye’s life but always dressed in his hospital pyjamas - reminding me of Arthur Dent in ‘The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. Sharon Small is great as Jennie Lee, Nye’s colleague and wife. Also impressive are Kezrena James, as the nurse who morphs into Nye’s sister Arianwen, and Tony Jayawardena, as the doctor who becomes Winston Churchill. But the lasting impression of ‘Nye’ is its moving tribute to the NHS and the amazing statistics projected across the stage at the end of the play which show how many lives were saved in the first few years of the new National Health Service.
Labels: Drama, Film, Theatre
'Real Tigers’, ‘Spook Street’ and ‘London Rules’ by Mick Herron
3 May 2024
I’m still working my way through Mick Herron’s Slough House series of spy novels. Having enjoyed ‘Slow Horses’ (reviewed here in November 2023) and ‘Dead Lions’ (reviewed here in January 2024) I have now raced through the next three books in the series, determined to finish reading the novels before I start to watch the ‘Slow Horses’ TV series. Book 3 ‘Real Tigers’ ratchets up both the comedy and the violence, with the Slough House team of disgraced former spies ending up in a major gun battle (and an amusing episode with a double decker London bus). Book 4 ‘Spook Street’ has the most thrilling plot so far and I think is my favourite to date. And Book 5 ‘London Rules’ is a brilliant exercise in black comedy, featuring a truly farcical political assassination. Mick Herron manages to make the books comically ridiculous while keeping the plots (just about) believable enough that you care about the outcome. And his descriptive writing, conjuring up Dickensian descriptions of contemporary London, is very impressive. I’m looking forward to reading the final three books in the series.
Labels: Books
