'Sunrise Orchestral Suite' by Ida Moberg
6 September 2024
This week I've been very much enjoying listening to the music of Ida Moberg, a Finnish composer (1859-1947), who was a direct contemporary of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), but was a new discovery for me. Like many female composers of the period her music remains largely unknown and underappreciated. Moberg studied composition at the Orchestra School of the Helsinki Philharmonic Society where her teachers included Sibelius. She became particularly interested in understanding music through movement. I've been listening to her 'Sunrise Orchestral Suite', a beautiful four-movement piece which builds from the gentle strings of the sunrise, through the activity of the day, to the evening and finishing in stillness. You can listen to the lovely 'Sunrise Orchestral Suite' at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-8xrak2p_E&list=OLAK5uy_nuS5_Y-zZpC_WQmLnBO01zuhvY-hj-6k8&index=5
Labels: Albums, Music
Edinburgh Festivals 2024
29 August 2024
Our visit to the Edinburgh Festivals last week was the 30th anniversary of our first trip there in 1994. We haven't been every year but I think we've now done the festivals at least 20 times. As always, our 2024 visit was brilliant and exhausting: we saw 22 shows in four and a half days in a total of 17 different venues. In the Edinburgh International Festival we were at the Usher Hall to see the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra (who we last saw in Edinburgh in 2016, reviewed here in September 2016) conducted by Thierry Fischer, playing the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss. This was the first time I've seen a performance of the symphony since I played it with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in 2019 (reviewed here in June 2019). We also went to the opening night of 'Assembly Hall' at the Festival Theatre - an intriguing mixture of drama and dance performed by the Kidd Pivot company, directed and choreographed by Crystal Pite and written by Jonathon Young. 'Assembly Hall' shows a group of medieval battle re-enactors gathering for their Annual General Meeting in a crumbling community hall. As the group start to argue about whether to disband or continue, the argument morphs into a vicious battle, complete with swords and armour. It's a peculiar, beautiful, funny and puzzling piece of theatre, with the dancers syncing exaggerated movement to the recorded dialogue to indicate which character is speaking. Crystal Pite uses the dancers to create some stunning tableaux and mesmerising effects but we found it difficult to completely follow what was going on. We really enjoyed another chance to see the philosopher Julian Baggini at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, this time speaking about his new book 'How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy'. In the Edinburgh Festival Fringe our favourite shows included 'Nation' written and performed by Sam Ward - a clever and disturbing tale about a town gripped by fear and hatred, which reminded us of the unsettling theatre made by Tim Crouch (such as 'The Author', reviewed here in September 2010). We also loved 'Same Team' by Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse at the Traverse Theatre - a funny, moving and inspiring play about a women's football team from Scotland playing in the Homeless World Cup which was told by five actors in a style reminiscent of John Godber's plays for the Hull Truck Theatre company (such as 'Teechers', reviewed here in September 2010). And once again I am grateful to Kelly for her brilliant Fringe recommendations which included the wonderful 'Sawdust Symphony' a bizarre but strangely beautiful circus piece from Germany that was essentially live woodwork - the sort of thing you could only see at the Edinburgh Fringe. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uThKVDvZqCY
Labels: Books, Concerts, Dance, Drama, Festivals, Music, Theatre
'Pericles' by William Shakespeare
15 August 2024
It is 16 years since we saw 'Pericles Redux' at the Edinburgh Fringe - an amazing production of Shakespeare's play by physical theatre ensemble Not Man Apart (reviewed here in August 2008) but I still fondly remember that performance. And until last weekend that was the only time I had seen this rarely performed play. On Saturday we were at the Swan Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon to see Tamara Harvey’s new RSC production of ‘Pericles’. ‘Pericles’ is Shakespeare doing Homer, an epic story set in ancient Greece involving numerous sea voyages and almost as many shipwrecks. It’s not a great play: much of the opening two acts feel more like a series of tableaus with a narrator. But I hadn’t realised it is widely believed that ‘Pericles’ was co-written with George Wilkins and that it seems he wrote the opening parts. The second half of the play certainly felt more Shakespearean and built towards a moving ending. The RSC production was very impressive, with Alfred Enoch as Pericles and Rachelle Doedericks as Marina standing out. And Christian Patterson was very funny as Simonides (played with more than a hint of Brian Blessed).
Labels: Drama, Theatre
‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ by Kate Trefry
9 August 2024
When it launched in 2016 ‘Stranger Things’ - the Duffer Brothers’ homage to 1980s sci-fi/horror films - was the first big breakout hit made by the Netflix streaming platform. I loved ‘Stranger Things’ (reviewed here in August 2016 and November 2017) so I was excited to learn that the new stage version of the show was to premiere in London’s West End. Last Saturday we were at the Phoenix Theatre to see ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ written by Kate Trefry from an original story by the Duffer Brothers, Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry, directed by Stephen Daldry. When it opened last year the play got a glowing 5-star review in The Guardian but only 2-stars in The Times: I felt it sat somewhere between these extremes. It is certainly a spectacular theatrical experience which starts with a stunning opening scene set on a US Navy ship in 1943, showing off the amazing set design by Miriam Buether, lighting by Jon Clark, (deafening) sound by Paul Arditti and visual effects by Jamie Harrison, Chris Fisher and 59 Productions. After this prologue the action of the play is set in 1959, acting as a prequel to the TV series and featuring some of the adult characters in the original (including Joyce and Hopper) as teenagers. Deciding to base the stage version around the preparations for a high school drama production was a nice idea but ended up feeling like a distraction from the main plot. And focusing purely on teenage characters lost some of the charm and humour of the gang of younger children who were the main protagonists of the TV series. Like the later episodes of season 4 ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ was incredibly long (more than 3 hours) and very loud. The stage effects were jaw dropping but tended to squeeze out the plot and acting. This is definitely a show for existing fans: it was noticeable that the biggest cheer from the audience was for the first appearance of the ‘Stranger Things’ theme tune and credit sequence.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
WOMAD 2024
31 July 2024
The 2024 WOMAD Festival, at Charlton Park near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, took place over a gloriously sunny weekend. I saw 17 full performances and sampled many more, seeing artists from countries including Brazil, Bulgaria, India, Mongolia, Morocco, Taiwan, Tanzania and Tibet.
It was fascinating to see the Bhutan Balladeers at the Taste the World Stage, demonstrating how to cook a traditional Bhutanese curry (containing a massive bowl of chillies which they told us was half the amount they would normally use!) while singing traditional religious songs written in a language that nobody in Bhutan now speaks. None of the members of the band had ever been out of Bhutan before (and had never previously been on a plane) but they were wonderful ambassadors for this small, remote Himalayan country which has a population of around 800,000.
I was intrigued to see Sangjaru, a trio from South Korea who claimed to stitch together the swing of gypsy jazz with the folk traditions of their Korean homeland. They turned out to be even more eccentric than their description suggested, and great fun - though a little less gipsy jazz than I had hoped.
The Pankisi Ensemble are Cechens from Eastern Georgia - four women singing in achingly beautiful scrunchy harmonies. They were clearly more used to formal recitals than outdoor festivals but the rapturous reception they received from a packed crowd seemed to relax them and they began to smile and even offered an occasional dance move.
I really enjoyed Saigon Soul Revival, from Vietnam, and their very cool take on 60s psychedelia. But my favourite moment of this year's WOMAD was the performance by Duo Ruut - two Estonian women who have invented a completely new way to play the traditional Estonian plucked zither. Rather than sitting with the zither on the lap, the two of them stand facing each other across the instrument (on a high stand) and jointly pluck, bow and strum the single instrument (a bit like a four-handed piano piece) while singing into microphones placed above the zither. They perform their own, beautiful contemporary compositions. And, much like the Estonian zombie-folk duo Puuluup, who I saw at last year's WOMAD Festival (reviewed here in August 2023) Duo Ruut's patter between the songs was genuinely hilarious - and reinforced the idea that the only thing Estonians sing about is the weather! Fortunately WOMAD 2024 had near perfect weather.
You can see a selection of my photos from WOMAD 2024 at: https://culturaloutlook.blogspot.com/search/label/WOMAD2024
Labels: Concerts, Festivals, Music
London Athletics Meet 2024
25 July 2024
On Saturday we were back at the London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London for the Diamond League London Athletics Meet. We were part of a crowd of 60,000 watching some of the top athletes in the world in their final warm-up for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. As at last year’s London Athletics Meet (reviewed here in July 2023), the stand-out performance was Femke Bol of the Netherlands in the Women's 400m Hurdles who looks on course both to win the Olympic title and to break the world record. Among the British Olympic hopefuls, Keely Hodgkinson ran the fastest 800m time since Caster Semenya in 2018, with Jemma Reekie and Georgia Bell making a British 1-2-3. And Matthew Hudson-Smith beat his own European 400m record to move to the top of the world rankings. It’s going to be interesting to watch them all compete in Paris.
Labels: Sport
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
19 July 2024
The Northampton Symphony Orchestra Friends Concert is always a lovely end-of-season party. Last Sunday the NSO gave Callie Rich, Callie Scully, Ian Jones and me the opportunity to reprise our performance of the 'Konzertstück for four Horns' by Heinrich Hübler which we first played with the orchestra in our concert in Grantham last year (reviewed here in November 2023). It’s a fun piece and we really enjoyed ourselves. The concert also featured a brilliant young flute soloist from Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts trust playing the first movement of the ‘Flute Concerto’ by Carl Nielsen - a fiendishly difficult piece beautifully performed, which also included impressive solos by Kate Bradshaw on bass trombone and Christine Kelk on clarinet. We opened the concert with ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ Overture by Otto Nicolai and also played the Intermezzo from 'Fennimore And Gerda' by Frederick Delius which featured lovely solos from Helen Taylor (flute) and Harriet Brown (oboe). We finished with Hamish MacCunn’s ‘The Land of the Mountain and the Flood’ concert overture. It was a very enjoyable concert and a lovely way to say thank you to the Friends of the Orchestra at the end of our 2023-24 season.
Labels: Concerts, Music, NSO23-24
Wimbledon 2024
19 July 2024
In 2006 we saw 35 minutes of Kim Clijsters’ opening match on Number One Court at Wimbledon before spending 5 hours sheltering from the rain (reviewed here in June 2006). So last Saturday felt like long-awaited closure as we returned to Number One Court (with the retractable roof remaining open) to see Kim Clijsters win her match in the Ladies Invitation Doubles, playing with Martina Hingis against Sam Stosur and Cara Black. We had seen Martina Hingis playing in the Invitation draw in 2011, when she was barely old enough to be considered a senior player (reviewed here in June 2011) and it was lovely to see her still going strong 13 years later. We were also treated to a brilliantly entertaining Mens Invitation Doubles match between Bob and Mike Bryan & James Blake and Bruno Soares. We had previously seen the Bryan brothers win two of their Wimbledon Men's Doubles titles (reviewed here in July 2009 and July 2013) and, in retirement, they are still a formidable partnership. But this was a much less serious match, with some great clowning by all four players, all the more funny because of the incredible power and speed they brought to the trick shots and endless rapid-fire rallies at the net.
Labels: Sport
‘Sense and Sensibility’ by Jane Austen, adapted by Frances Poet
19 July 2024
When we took our seats at the outdoor Roman Theatre of Verulamium in St Albans the Saturday before last we were hopeful that we had avoided the predicted showers. But just before the show was due to start the sky darkened and an incredibly loud rumble of thunder was followed by a brief but torrential downpour. And, because of the potential dangers from an electrical storm, the performance was then delayed by 20 minutes while we sat in our wet clothes! Fortunately that was the worst of the rain and we were then able to enjoy the joint Pitlochry Festival Theatre and OVO Theatre production of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ by Jane Austen, adapted by Frances Poet. Like previous OVO productions we have seen at Verulamium (such as 'Much Ado About Nothing', reviewed here in July 2023 and 'The Importance of Being Earnest', reviewed here in July 2022) the scenes were interspersed with versions of modern pop songs - here sung in impressive harmony by the cast. But in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ this quirky insertion of songs by Beyoncé, Olivia Rodrigo and Sophie Ellis-Bextor felt out of keeping with what was otherwise a fairly straight, well-acted, period dramatisation. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable performance with Kirsty Findlay and Lola Aluko impressing as the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
