Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

15 June 2014

I don't think I've ever opened an orchestral concert by playing an unaccompanied horn solo, before last Saturday's Northampton Symphony Orchestra performance - and it's not an experience I am particularly keen to repeat! Have a listen to the start of Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Suite from the film 'On The Waterfront' on Spotify or YouTube and you might appreciate the terror I experienced on first seeing the music. The solo horn passage occurs three times in the piece and I can take some comfort from the fact that I think I played the second (slightly easier) solo perfectly, but my high notes in the other two solos came out strained and warbled. This being the opening piece of the concert, I can't blame any lack of stamina - it was pure nerves. I was slightly embarrassed to be asked to take an individual bow at the end - particularly as there were several other people (including Mara Griffiths, Kathy Roberts, Simon Cooper, Sian Bunker, Stephen Hague, Peter Dunkley, Ben Drouit and Naomi Muller) whose far more impressive solos in Saturday's concert did not receive such recognition. 

Fortunately, my trials and tribulations were completely overshadowed by a remarkable performance by the stunning young Latvian pianist, Arta Arnicane, whose playing in two Gershwin pieces, 'Rhapsody in Blue' and the 'I Got Rhythm' Variations for piano and orchestra, brought the house down. Her encore, 'The Serpent's Kiss' - a Rag Fantasy by William Bolcom drew gasps, laughter, rapturous applause and a standing ovation. Do take a look at this recording of Arta Arnicane playing 'The Serpent's Kiss' to get an idea of what we experienced on Saturday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s08a4OeB_YY. 

The American composer Ferdy Grofé is best remembered for being the orchestrator of the most commonly played version of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' and for his lovely 'Grand Canyon Suite'. I first discovered the 'Grand Canyon Suite' in 2002 when we were driving from Washington State in the North West corner of the United States, through Idaho to Montana, with nothing to listen to in the car. We stopped at a service station and bought a cassette of American orchestral music which we played over and over on this long journey. Although it wasn't the terrain Grofé was writing about, I will always associate the 'Grand Canyon Suite' with the stunning scenery of Montana. We finished Saturday's concert with an impressive performance of the 'Grand Canyon Suite' with the donkey leading us 'On The Trail' recreated by a violin, a bass clarinet and two halves of a coconut. 

'A Small Family Business' by Alan Ayckbourn

13 June 2014

On Thursday we were at Cineworld in Milton Keynes to see the NT Live broadcast of Adam Penford's National Theatre production of 'A Small Family Business' by Alan Ayckbourn. This performance, live from the stage of the Olivier Theatre in London, was simultaneously broadcast to 1100 cinemas in 40 countries around the world - the largest audience yet for a NT Live screening. We first saw 'A Small Family Business' about 20 years ago in an amateur production at Uppingham Theatre, produced by our friend Brian Stokes who had himself taught the young Ayckbourn. The National Theatre production faithfully recreated 1987 period details which felt all the more real in the close-ups on the cinema screen. The kettle, phone and other household items were incredibly recognisable and nostalgic. Though surrounded by a large cast, this is Nigel Lindsay's play. Lindsay, who we last saw as Henry Bolingbroke in Greg Doran's RSC production of Richard II (reviewed here in December 2013), demonstrated a very believable descent, in the space of the week in which the action of the play takes place, from honest upright citizen to criminal Godfather. There appears to be a rule that all professional productions of Alan Ayckbourn plays have to involve Matthew Cottle. We have seen him in Ayckbourn’s ‘Just Between Ourselves’ at the Theatre Royal in Bath in 2002, in the same play at the Royal Theatre Northampton (reviewed here in May 2009) and in Ayckbourn’s ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ at the Palace Theatre in Watford (reviewed here in March 2012). In the National Theatre production of 'A Small Family Business' Matthew Cottle played the incredibly creepy private detective Benedict Hough - it was an uncomfortably sleezy performance. The other standout performance was Alice Sykes, perfect as the stroppy teenage daughter. Like many of Alan Ayckbourn's plays 'A Small Family Business' starts with the appearance of a straightforward farce but gradually reveals a much darker, more serious tone. The final poignant image, as the lights fade to black, has stuck in my mind from that Uppingham production 20 years ago and was just as affecting this time.

Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté

11 June 2014

I wrote here in May 2008 about the Malian kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté who represents the 71^st generation of a line of griots that has passed on songs forming the oral history of the Mandé Empire of West Africa from father to son. Last Thursday I was at The Stables in Wavendon to see this remarkable hereditary process in action, as generations 71 and 72 performed together – Toumani playing kora duets with his son Sidiki Diabaté. Sidiki is already a star in his own right – a hip hop performer who regular plays to crowds of 20,000 or more in football stadia in Mali. But he is also a very accomplished kora player and the interplay between father and son was fascinating. The 21-string kora is a delicate, mesmerising instrument but recordings sometimes feel a bit tame compared to the excitement generated by a live performance. I had been listening to the new 'Toumani & Sidiki' album but seeing them playing the pieces at The Stables was a completely different experience. Toumani is an extraordinary performer – surely one of the greatest musicians in the world today. The concert ended with a standing ovation – it was a stunning performance.

'Glow' by Ned Beauman

4 June 2014

I'm a big fan of the young novelist Ned Beauman: his second book 'The Teleportation Accident' (reviewed here in July 2013) was my Pick of the Year for 2013 and I also really enjoyed reading his debut 'Boxer, Beetle' (reviewed here in September 2013). So I eagerly pounced on his latest novel 'Glow' as soon as it was published last month and I have just finished reading it (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Jamie Parker). It felt wonderful to be back in the company of Beauman's idiosyncratic authorial voice and it was great to spot some similar themes and characters from his earlier books. 'Glow' is set mainly in contemporary London and is a complicated tale of recreational drugs, a pirate radio station, appallingly powerful multinational companies, unusual sleep patterns, fakes and replicants – and foxes. The prose is careful, precise, complicated and very funny and there are numerous plot twists and an excessive number of underlying themes. 'Glow' is more of a straightforward thriller than the previous books but is still a complex read. I loved it while I was reading it but, on reflection I don't think it was quite as successful as his earlier novels. If you haven't experienced Ned Beauman yet I would urge you to start with 'The Teleportation Accident' but I'm really looking forward to whatever he writes next.

Miles Jupp

4 June 2014

I was familiar with the comedian Miles Jupp from his numerous BBC Radio 4 appearances and his role in Tom Hollander and James Wood's excellent BBC Two sitcom 'Rev'. On Sunday I got a chance to see his stand-up show at the Alban Arena in St Albans. He performed a very slick, polished set, playing on his posh accent and public school education. Self deprecating, with constant asides and digressions, he focused mostly on domestic, observational humour and was very impressive, building to a nice set-piece finale.

'Dealer's Choice' by Patrick Marber

4 June 2014

I first saw Patrick Marber's debut play 'Dealer's Choice' in an excellent student production at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2000. It's a cleverly constructed drama with the muscular masculinity of Harold Pinter, tempered with humour and poignant sadness that could have come from an Alan Ayckbourn play. It was great to re-encounter 'Dealer's Choice' last weekend in Michael Longhurst's new production at the Royal Theatre, Northampton. The play gathers six men around a poker table to explore dreams, addiction and friendship. This production had a universally strong cast who made you care about a set of characters who, on the face of it, are not the most likeable. In particular Cary Crankson gave the irrepressibly cheerful Mugsy a loveable vulnerability and was very funny.

Julie Fowlis

30 May 2014

Regular readers will be aware of my crush on the Scottish Gaelic folk singer Julie Fowlis. I recommended her first album 'Mar A Tha Mo Chridhe (As My Heart Is)' here in February 2006, just a few months after it was released, and I have written about her here several times since. On Thursday I made the short journey to The Stables in Wavendon to see Julie Fowlis and her band who are currently touring to promote her new album 'Gach Sgeul (Every Story)'. It was an excellent concert. Julie Fowlis has an amazing voice – beautiful, delicate and precise – which gives slow ballads a haunting, ethereal quality (enhanced by the sibilant Gaelic consonants). She is also an impressive performer of traditional Gaelic mouth music, creating a bewildering chain of rapid-fire percussive rhythms with her voice. And then she picks up a tin whistle and demonstrates incredible technique that would be worth the price of admission on its own. She also surrounds herself with amazing musicians, including her husband Eamon Doorley and Tony Byrne on guitars. Byrne's playing in particular was exquisite. And it was a fantastic bonus to discover that her band includes the Scottish fiddle player Duncan Chisholm. I wrote here about Duncan Chisholm in December 2010. He creates a velvety melancholy sound from his violin and his excellent albums 'Farrar' and 'Canaich' are two of my favourite folk recordings of recent years. Chisholm has the ability to make the fiddle sound like a human voice while Julie Fowlis can make the voice sound like an instrument: the combination of these two effects was truly magical.

'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' adapted by Simon Stephens from the novel by Mark Haddon

30 May 2014

When I heard that Mark Haddon's novel 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' was to be made into a stage play, my first reaction was that it felt like a mistake. Haddon's novel seemed a perfect miniature masterpiece, showing the world through prose written by a fifteen-year-old autistic boy and playing with the format of the written word story. Any stage adaptation would surely dilute the effect and end up as a poor substitute for the original novel. So I didn't get around to seeing the National Theatre production of Simon Stephens' adaptation. But last week I was persuaded to watch the NT Live cinema broadcast of the play (at Cineworld in Milton Keynes) and quickly realised the error of my lazy assumptions. This was an excellent theatrical experience, played in the round with a very clever set (by Bunny Christie), inventive use of physical theatre and movement (by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett for Frantic Assembly) and wonderfully directed by Marianne Elliott. The play managed to be true to its source while inventing a theatrical frame for the story. I think this succeeded because the temptation to break the fourth wall was indulged very sparingly: most of the action was a careful and precise portrayal of events from the point of view of Christopher. Similarly, some brilliant moments of humour were all the funnier for their scarcity, with a serious tone set from the opening tableau of the eponymous dog impaled on a garden fork, brutal in its reality. The cast were all very strong and worked extremely hard in a variety of individual roles and crowd scenes but Luke Treadaway's performance as Christopher deservedly stole the show – 'A' star!

BBC Young Musician 2014

19 May 2014

This is the fifth time I have written here about the biennial BBC Young Musician competition. Reading through my previous posts (you can read them all at: http://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search/label/BBCYoungMusician) I think I have probably done enough moaning about the TV coverage. I have some sympathy for the points made in this article in The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/bbc-young-musician-2014-forget-the-format-give-us-the-music-9364814.html but, apart from my ongoing sadness that we are no longer treated to five concerto performances in the final, I really enjoyed this year's competition. Possibly for the first time, I managed to watch every minute of the coverage on BBC Four (which is no mean feat if you want to be ready to watch the concerto final live!). And my record of spotting the winners is improving: this year I picked three of the five category winners, correctly predicted the three who would make it through to the final and identified the overall winner before the start of the semi-final. More importantly, the 2014 concerto final was the best I can remember. All three performances were worthy of winning the title and all were immensely enjoyable – showcasing three teenagers with a very special blend of technical virtuosity, personality, musicality and emotion. It's a cliché but it is incredibly difficult to compare Elliott Gaston-Ross's performance of the percussion concerto 'African Rise/Manhattan Rave' by Dave Heath, Sophie Westbrooke playing Gordon Jacob's 'Suite for Recorder and Strings' and Martin James Bartlett performing the 'Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini' by Rachmaninov. But I think the young pianist was the correct winner – an astounding performer in an outstanding concert.

'The Shock of the Fall' by Nathan Filer

19 May 2014

'The Shock of the Fall' by Nathan Filer, which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Oliver Hembrough, won the Costa first novel award last year. Matt, a young schizophrenic is conducting his own writing therapy by typing the tale of his life. Gradually, through a non-linear series of episodes and digressions, his story becomes clear to the reader and we learn how the death of his brother defined Matt's life. It's a sad tale, beautifully written. Matt's voice is totally believable and his narrative is often very funny. 'The Shock of the Fall' reminded me of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' by Mark Haddon, 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' by Lionel Shriver (reviewed here in August 2006), 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey and ‘Stuart: A Life Backwards’ by Alexander Masters (reviewed here in August 2010). It's not always a comfortable read, but it is a cleverly constructed book and is, ultimately rather uplifting. 

'Henry IV Part 2' by William Shakespeare

16 May 2014

On Thursday we were back at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Greg Doran's RSC production of 'Henry IV Part 2'. Seeing the play in sequence after 'Richard II' (reviewed here in December 2013) and 'Henry IV Part 1' (reviewed here in April 2014), the historical backdrop was much clearer. But I was struck by the fact that 'Part 2' is a play without much plot and which is not remembered for its poetry. What it does, perhaps better than any other Shakespeare play, is to provide a deep and searching exploration of character. While 'Part 1' is Hal's play, in 'Part 2' Falstaff dominates, with a series of opportunities, alone on stage, to address the audience directly. Anthony Sher's Falstaff was wicked and mischievous, funny and despicable, with an earnestly precise diction suggesting his frustration at having to address a bunch of idiots. Sher is a brilliant physical actor and Falstaff became a hobbling, unsteady presence, constantly shifting from one leg to the other, as if trying to balance himself on the rolling deck of a ship. Falstaff can sometimes be a very unfunny clown, but the scenes where he was reunited with Justice Shallow (the ever-wonderful Oliver Ford Davies) were hilarious (with an unnervingly odd performance from Jim Hooper as Silence adding to the effect). I must also mention the amazing physical performance by Leigh Quinn as Wart (one of the members of Falstaff's Scarecrow Army), bent into the most remarkable shape but still managing to move around the stage. This RSC production used a sparing stage set but created a series of realistic worlds through incredibly imaginative lighting and sound design (by Tim Mitchell and Martin Slavin, respectively). It was a very impressive production and the climax, where the newly crowned Henry V publicly rejects Falstaff was a stunning moment.

'The Cuckoo's Calling' by Robert Galbraith

16 May 2014

I really enjoyed 'The Cuckoo's Calling' – J. K. Rowling's first foray into crime fiction, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Though set in contemporary London, it's quite an old fashioned private eye novel. The detective, Cormoran Strike, takes his place in a line descending from Sherlock Holmes through Philip Marlowe and Dirk Gently. 'The Cuckoo's Calling' is in a very similar vein to Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels, such as 'Started Early, Took My Dog' (reviewed here in April 2011). Both detectives have an army background, a troubled love-life, an assistant who is more capable than they expect and a strong sense of moral justice. The plot of 'The Cuckoo's Calling' is a little more conventional than Kate Atkinson's multi-strand narratives, and it's not the most literary detective novel, but it was a very enjoyable puzzle. Best of all 'The Cuckoo's Calling' obeys my first two rules of detective fiction – 1. The Reader should not know any more than the detective and 2. The detective should work out 'who done it' from the clues they unearth, rather than being handed the solution on a plate by a turn of events. I look forward to the next Cormoran Strike novel which is due to be published this summer.

Antwerp

9 May 2014

We had a lovely holiday in Antwerp last week. Antwerp is Belgium's second largest city and the de facto capital of Flanders. It was also the main port in Northern Europe until overtaken by Amsterdam. The historic centre of the city is very pretty and the main square, Grote Markt, has a lot of similarities to the Grand Place in Brussels (which we visited in May 2013) and the main square in Bruges (which we visited in June 2009). Antwerp was the home of the painter Peter Paul Rubens and it was interesting to see several of his works in their original setting in Antwerp Cathedral, and to visit the Rubenshuis museum to see the building where he lived and worked. We also visited the Antwerp Opera House to see the Vlaamse Opera production of Bela Bartok's one-act opera 'Bluebeard's Castle' combined with a staged version of Schubert's 'Winterreise'. This was a spectacularly bizarre evening in the theatre, which demonstrated the incredible visual imagination of the director, Kornel Mundruczo. It incorporated close-ups of the singers captured by an actor with a video camera and projected on a large screen at the back of the stage, an impressive model railway, two large flying fish and a huge stage set which gradually exploded into its constituent parts. It was fascinating to watch but somewhat distracted from the music – which was excellent. All three singers (Stefan Kocan, Asmik Grigorian and Toby Girling) and the orchestra (conducted by Martyn Brabbins) were very impressive. Antwerp is also known for its restaurants and we had some excellent meals, sampling French, Italian and Flemish cuisine in some amazing old buildings. We also enjoyed a visit to Antwerp Zoo which sits directly alongside the fantastic Antwerp Central Station – one of the most beautiful railway stations in the world and the setting for that brilliant 'Sound of Music' flashmob performance in 2009 (well worth another look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k).

'Henry IV Part 1' by William Shakespeare

25 April 2014

On Wednesday I was in Stratford-upon-Avon, as a guest of the Royal Shakespeare Company, to celebrate Shakespeare's 450^th birthday. The evening culminated in a spectacular fireworks display outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre after we had watched Greg Doran's production of Henry IV Part 1. Many people (including The Guardian's Michael Billington) claim Henry IV Part 1 is Shakespeare's greatest play. I'm not really in a position to judge but I have had a soft spot for the work since I studied it for 'O' level. Watching it again for the first time since seeing the National Theatre production in 2005 (which featured Michael Gambon as Falstaff) I thought about what makes this Shakespeare so special. Comparing it to the other history plays, I think the balance between the macro political story and the personal development of the characters is more even. The contrast between the scenes at court and the inn scenes is so stark they sometimes seem to have come from different plays. This makes the crossover between these two worlds particularly fascinating and, for all the inevitable focus on the wonderful character of Falstaff, this is Hal's play. In the RSC production, Alex Hassell showed us a very convincing transition between the playboy prankster and the warrior prince, maturing before our eyes. In contrast, Trevor White's peroxide blonde Hotspur was a manic, grinning adolescent – easily over-excited and bouncing all over the stage. It was interesting to see Henry IV so soon after watching Greg Doran's Richard II (reviewed here in December 2013). Jasper Britton, as Henry, started proceedings on Wednesday by placing the crown upon his head as the shadowy figure of Richard (with David Tennant's flowing locks) appeared briefly on a balcony, before fading from view – reminding us of Henry Bolingbroke's violent coup at the end of the previous play. But it is Falstaff who is naturally the centre of attention in Henry IV Part 1 and Anthony Sher's portrayal of the portly knight was compellingly brilliant. Sher managed to make Falstaff both incredibly funny and unnervingly unlikeable. The battlefield scene in which he offers a desperate unarmed Prince Hal the loan of his pistol, only for Hal to discover that the holster merely contains a bottle of sack, was truly chilling – with Falstaff's childish giggling completely out-of-place with the Prince's frustrated fury. Anthony Sher is an electric presence on a stage and it is very hard to take your eyes off him. But he makes Falstaff more than a mere clown, giving us a much more complex character – one we long to see again whilst also despising him. 

'An Intervention' by Mike Bartlett

22 April 2014

I worried a little when I discovered that Mike Bartlett's new play 'An Intervention', which we saw at Watford Palace Theatre last Saturday, runs without an interval, takes place mostly in front of curtains (“like Morecambe and Wise or Abbott and Costello”) and has just two characters, designated 'A' and 'B' – who “can be played by actors of any age, gender or ethnicity”. But 'An Intervention' is a very accessible, clever and impressive piece of theatre. It's a funny, thought-provoking and disturbing two-hander – excellently acted by Rachael Stirling and John Hollingworth in a Paines Plough and Watford Palace Theatre production, directed by James Grieve. We last saw Rachael Stirling in Mike Bartlett’s contemporary version of ‘Medea', also at Watford Palace Theatre (reviewed here in November 2012), and she is a wonderful stage actor. 'An Intervention' looks at what happens when you hate your best friend. Can friendship survive when one of you supports the proposed military intervention in a Middle East conflict and the other is on the anti-war protest? And how much of the ensuing argument is really personal rather than political? Mike Bartlett's play has plenty of dark humour and a contemporary everyday ordinariness that reminded me of Patrick Marber's 'Closer', but it is a serious work that looks at its themes in a very theatrical way. Intriguing and entertaining – an excellent production.

Feydeau's 'Every Last Trick' in a new version by Tamsin Oglesby

22 April 2014

I first encountered the inspired lunacy of Spymonkey through their wonderfully silly stage show 'Oedipussy' (reviewed here in February 2012). Last Friday I was back at the Royal Theatre, Northampton, to see two of the four members of Spymonkey tackling a classic Feydeau farce in a new version by Tamsin Oglesby. 'Every Last Trick' was a Royal and Derngate production, directed by Told by an Idiot's Paul Hunter. It was a very impressive combination of physical theatre, clowning, dancing and singing. There were some incredibly funny moments (and some hilarious corpsing!). But 'Every Last Trick' felt a little like a work in progress and I wonder whether there were simply too many creative cooks involved in its preparation. The strict rules of farce seemed to get a bit lost along the way. Nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable experience which was rapturously received by a packed audience.

'Longbourn' by Jo Baker

17 April 2014

Jane Austen's novels must have generated more sequels, prequels, parodies and imitators than any others, but Jo Baker's wonderful novel 'Longbourn' stands out from the crowd. 'Longbourn', which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book narrated by Emma Fielding, revisits characters and scenes from 'Pride and Prejudice' from the point of view of the Bennetts' servants. As with Tom Stoppard's 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead', for everyone familiar with the original, there is great pleasure to be had from discovering what happened in between the bits we know. And Jo Baker is very good at demonstrating how little those below stairs notice or understand about events which appear so momentous in Austen's story. But 'Longbourn' succeeds so well because it is a complete novel in its own right, with a self-contained plot – an achingly painful love story – that would make it an enjoyable and satisfying read even if you had never heard of 'Pride and Prejudice'. 'Longbourn' is a very modern novel, but completely true to its period setting. It is beautifully written, without succumbing to the temptation to imitate Austen's prose style. Jo Baker evokes the harsh realities of a servant's life and explores some of the darker questions beneath the polite society of Jane Austen's world. Revealing that Mr Bingley's wealth comes from sugar, she explores the role of slavery – which makes for interesting comparisons with those in service in England. The arrival of the army in Meriton takes us on a journey into the horrors of an ordinary soldier's experiences in the European wars. But all this is done without any knowing, contemporary sneering: 'Longbourn' tells it how it was and allows the readers to draw their own conclusions. One of the most intriguing revelations concerns the relationship between Mr and Mrs Bennett. From 'Pride and Prejudice' (and more so in many of its film and TV adaptations) Mr Bennett appears to be a saint, while his wife is an incredibly irritating comic character. It is tempting to wonder how they ever got together. Jo Baker paints a much more sympathetic portrait of Mrs Bennett and shows a darker, but sadly believable, side to her husband. 'Longbourn' is a clever, fascinating and moving novel – highly recommended. 

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

11 April 2014

Accompanying a soloist in a concerto is always a difficult discipline for an orchestra. Maintaining balance often requires considerable restraint from the orchestra and the need to follow the soloist's fluctuations of speed can be a significant challenge for the conductor. In the Northampton Symphony Orchestra's concert last Saturday we had the privilege of accompanying the amazing violinist Clare Howick in a performance of Elgar's 'Violin Concerto'. Less well-known but very similar to the Elgar Cello Concerto, this romantic and dramatic work twists and turns the tempo in almost every bar. Clare Howick gave a stunning performance, and it was very exciting to accompany her, but the concentration required throughout the concerto (which lasts nearly 50 minutes) was exhausting. In the second half of the concert we performed Brahms' 'Symphony No. 1', a very 'classical' symphony that feels like supercharged Beethoven. There is a deceptive simplicity to the piece which reveals more and more as you get to know it and builds to a very exciting finale. I think we gave a very strong performance and it was an extremely enjoyable concert.

Milton Keynes Sinfonia workshop - ''Sinfonietta' by Leoš Janácek

3 April 2014

As regular readers may remember, I first came across the 'Sinfonietta' by Leoš Janácek in 2007 (reviewed here in October 2007). Last weekend I finally got the opportunity to play the Sinfonietta, in a workshop day at the Open University, organised by Milton Keynes Sinfonia. Following the success of last year's workshop on 'The Rite of Spring' (reviewed here in May 2013), players from Milton Keynes Sinfonia and other local orchestras gathered on Sunday morning to tackle the very different demands of the Janácek work, under the guidance of conductor David Knight. It was a very enjoyable and sociable day – with plenty of tea and cake! - and it was lovely getting to know this wonderful piece of music better by playing it. We finished the afternoon with a very passable informal performance of the Sinfonietta. I'm looking forward to the next MKS workshop.

The Lake District

3 April 2014

We had a lovely week in the Lake District. The weather was cold but mostly sunny and we enjoyed some stunning walks. We were staying in a cottage in the village of Uldale, near Caldbeck, North of Keswick, so we mainly explored the Northern parts of the Lake District. We walked around Buttermere and up Sale Fell, overlooking Bassenthwaite Lake. We did a coastal walk at Silloth and visited the popular tourist haunts of Grasmere and Rydal. We particularly enjoyed driving over the spectacular Honister and Kirkstone passes. We also enjoyed some wonderful meals and would recommend the Quince & Medlar vegetarian restaurant in Cockermouth and the Overwater Hall Hotel restaurant near Ireby.

'Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities’ adapted by Mike Poulton

18 March 2014

On Saturday we were at the Royal Theatre in Northampton to see 'Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities’ – a new adaptation by Mike Poulton, with incidental music by Rachel Portman. This was the first production we have seen directed by the Royal & Derngate’s new Artistic Director, James Dacre, and it was great to see him building on some of the key characteristics of his illustrious predecessors – creating a set which appeared to have escaped from the stage and started to colonise the auditorium (much like Rupert Goold might have done), and using a ‘community cast’ of local students and amateur actors to provide crowds and extras to support the professional leads (a feature of many of Laurie Sansom’s Northampton productions). ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ was impressive, effective and enjoyable – whipping through the story at a rapid pace with a swagger and well-judged humour that never detracted from the seriousness of the situation. I particularly liked the sinister appearance of Mairead McKinley’s Madame Defarge in one of the theatre’s boxes, overlooking events on the stage, and knitting furiously throughout.

St Albans Symphony Orchestra concert

13 March 2014

I've played 'An Alpine Symphony' by Richard Strauss twice - in a workshop day with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 2000 and last year in a workshop in Bedford (reviewed here in October 2013) but I've never seen the piece performed. This is hardly surprising, given the gargantuan forces the symphony requires. It's an incredibly ambitious undertaking for any orchestra, so I was intrigued to see how the St Albans Symphony Orchestra would cope with the challenge in St Albans Abbey last Saturday. The concert opened with 'From the Apocalypse' - a dramatic piece based on 'The Book of Revelation' - by Anatoly Liadov, a Russian composer who was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov. We were then treated to a stunning performance of Mendelssohn's 'Violin Concerto' by the exciting young violinist Charlotte Scott, who brought a mixture of passion and delicacy to the concerto. In the loudest passages she arched her back and leaned her head back in the manner of the lead guitarist in a rock band with one foot on the amp. And in the fiendishly difficult quiet waterfalls of notes she bent forward over her violin in intense concentration, her bow bouncing across the strings in perfect metronomic rhythm. The second half of the concert saw the stage packed with extra players for ' An Alpine Symphony'. Merely scaling Strauss's mountain of a symphony and descending again safely without having to stop and restart would represent a considerable achievement. This was a very impressive performance which built to several jaw-dropping climaxes at which it must have been amazing to be conductor Bjorn Bantock, with both arms aloft, unleashing an avalanche of sound. I naturally took a particular interest in the orchestra's horn section and I was very impressed by the principal horn player, Stephen Orriss, who played the impossibly high solo lines wonderful, even towards the end of this  mammoth work.

'Piano Trio in E minor' (Op 118) by Edwin York Bowen

7 March 2014

This week I have been playing Brahms and listening to York Bowen – and being struck by the similarities. The Northampton Symphony Orchestra has started to rehearse Brahms' 'Symphony No 1', which we are to perform in Northampton at the beginning of April. I'm enjoying the final movement horn solo and practising hard to ensure I am ready for it. I've long had a soft spot for the chamber music of the early 20^th century English composer Edwin York Bowen, perhaps because he played the horn (among other instruments). His 'Quintet in C minor for Horn & String Quartet' is a lovely piece – gentle, romantic and tuneful. This week I have been listening to his splendid 'Piano Trio in E minor' (Op 118) (from the album York Bowen Chamber Works Volume 2 by Endymion) which has touches of both Brahms and Rachmaninov. 

'The Goldfinch' by Donna Tartt

28 February 2014

“Life is catastrophe” – that certainly seems to be true for Theodore Dekker, the hero of Donna Tartt's third novel 'The Goldfinch'. Theo is 13 years old when a visit to the Metropolitan Museum in New York changes his life, as a terrorist bomb destroys a section of the museum and kills Theo's mother. Theo emerges from the wreckage carrying a famous painting, Carel Fabritius' 1654 masterpiece 'The Goldfinch'. Theo's future becomes intertwined with the fate of the painting, and his journey from New York to Las Vegas and Amsterdam, through a succession of guardians, finding and losing friends and soulmates, is thrilling and emotional. 'The Goldfinch', which I read as an unabridged audio book narrated by David Pittu, is an epic work, even longer than 'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton (reviewed here in December 2013). If Eleanor Catton was channelling Wilkie Collins, Donna Tartt is definitely a contemporary Charles Dickens. I felt her wonderful second novel 'The Little Friend' – one of my favourite recent American novels – created a Dickensian cast of characters. 'The Goldfinch' continues this approach, combining slightly exaggerated but entirely believable characters with a Dickensian coming of age plot. The orphaned Theo Dekker is a modern day Pip, David Copperfield or Oliver Twist. His best friend, Boris, is his Herbert Pocket – or maybe The Artful Dodger. Donna Tartt writes beautifully with the adult Theo's first person narration reflecting on his childhood in a way that makes you feel exactly what it must have been like for him. This is often a harrowing experience as you really feel Theo's pain, loneliness and despair. Tartt creates empathy rather than sympathy so that, even when Theo commits indefensibly stupid, cruel or criminal acts, you feel you would have done exactly the same in his position. But 'The Goldfinch' is not a miserable novel – it has a slow-burning thriller plot that builds to a terrifying climax. And there is a wonderful twist about three quarters of the way through, which I was terribly satisfied to have spotted when the seeds were planted much earlier in the story. 'The Goldfinch' is a long, and sometimes deliberately slow, novel but expertly constructed, beautifully written and well worth investing your time in.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

20 February 2014

Marking the weekend of St Valentine's Day with a concert about death (the theme was actually love and death, but frankly it was mostly death) didn't appear to be the Northampton Symphony Orchestra's wisest marketing strategy. But we managed to attract a reasonable size of audience who really seemed to appreciate our weighty, romantic repertoire. I think this was the most ambitious programme we have attempted for some time and it was incredibly enjoyable to play. Rachmaninov's symphonic poem 'Die Toteninsel' ('The Isle of the Dead') was inspired by a black and white photograph of a painting by Arnold Böcklin which shows Charon, boatman of the Underworld, rowing a coffin across the river Styx to a lonely island. The relentlessly hypnotic 5/8 rhythm disconcertingly shifts from patterns of 2+3 to 3+2 as the boat shifts in the flow of the river. It's a gently emotional meditation on death. We were then joined by the Australian soprano Helena Dix to perform Mahler's song cycle 'Rückert Lieder' – five settings of poems by Friedrich Rückert. The five songs are each very different, varying from the playful to the dramatic to the achingly beautiful. There is a style and a beauty in several of the 'Rückert Lieder' that is echoed in the 'Four Last Songs' by Richard Strauss, written nearly 50 years later. The second half of our concert started with the 'Prelude and Liebestod' from Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde' with Helena Dix signing the part of Isolde – the apogee of romantic music, a heart-rending climax of ecstasy and tragedy. After which we had to dig deep in our reserves of emotional stamina to perform the Richard Strauss tone poem 'Tod und Verklärung' ('Death and Transfiguration'). This remarkable piece, representing the dying hours of a man reflecting on his past life before the soul leaves his body, was written when the composer was barely 25 years old. When we started rehearsing 'Tod und Verklärung' I mistook references to 'the Superman motif', assuming that this somehow related to Nietzsche and his concept of Übermensch from Also Sprach Zarathustra (itself the subject of a tone poem by Richard Strauss). I soon realised I had been somewhat over-intellectualising and that we were actually talking about the bit that sounds remarkably like John Williams' theme for the 1978 film 'Superman'! This heroic phrase, with its glorious, drawn-out octave leap provides a stunning climax in the middle of 'Tod und Verklärung' and then becomes the basis for an ethereal, haunting, slow canon as life begins to seep away. It was an emotionally exhausting performance that I thoroughly enjoyed being part of.

'Through the Eyes of the Sun' by Belonoga

14 February 2014

The peculiarly beautiful vocal harmonies of Bulgarian choral music gained widespread attention in the UK in 1986 with the release of 'Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares' - a Grammy award winning album of Bulgarian folk songs performed by the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir. I first encountered this magical sound in 1989 when Kate Bush featured the Trio Bulgarka on her album 'The Sensual World'. The songs 'Deeper Understanding' and 'Rocket's Tail' make gorgeous use of those strange scrunchy Bulgarian harmonies. My favourite example of the Bulgarian vocal sound is the 2003 album 'Bulgarian Soul' in which the classical opera singer Vesselina Kasarova revisits Bulgarian folk songs, backed by the Cosmic Voices from Bulgaria – it's a really beautiful set of songs. More recently I discovered the Eva Quartet – four young singers from the Mystère Des Voix Bulgares choir. This week I have been listening to 'Through the Eyes of the Sun' by Belonoga – a solo project by Eva Quartet member Gergana Dimitrova. This album uses the Bulgarian singing style in a sparse, new-age musical environment, mixing wordless vocals with electronic and acoustic instruments, a variety of percussion and even a didgeridoo! The effect is gentle, laid-back, mysterious and beautiful but I missed the close harmonies of the multi-voice choirs and the tunes are not so immediately catchy as the Bulgarian folk songs featured in the earlier albums. Nevertheless this is an interesting and very different collection of music.

'Tin Star' by Lindi Ortega

7 February 2014

A Canadian singer of Mexican and Irish descent might not seem an obvious candidate to become a major star of American country music but on her new album ‘Tin Star’, Lindi Ortega manages to sound both like the "love child of Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash" and a Nashville version of Amy Winehouse. She has a distinctive voice with a compelling mix of power and vulnerability. ‘Tin Star’ is a country rock album that encompasses a variety of styles from gentle country ballad to jaunty rockabilly (‘All These Cats’) to powerful rock’n’roll that has more than a hint of Arctic Monkeys about it (‘I Want You’). This is instantly likeable music that also seems to have staying-power. 

'The Bridge'

31 January 2014

Of the current wave of Scandi-crime TV series I think the Danish/Swedish co-production ‘The Bridge’ (the second series of which comes to its conclusion on BBC4 this weekend) is my favourite. Despite being very violent and macabre it’s also incredibly funny. Detective Saga Noren from Malmo County Police is a brilliant character: her Asperger traits take the quirkiness of Sherlock to another level but we are never laughing at her condition – she is a sympathetic, strong and impressive centre to the story. Her professional relationship with her Danish counterpart, Martin Rohde, is warm and believable and it is really interesting to see how it has developed in this second series. The writing is clever and witty, the photography and direction are stunning and the plot is fantastically convoluted, littered with the corpses of a trawlerful of red herrings. I love the way we follow the lives of a host of seemingly unconnected characters for ages before their link to the crimes under investigation is revealed. It is very tempting to suspect each new character to be the criminal mastermind behind everything that has happened. I’m very much looking forward to the final two episodes and the subsequent analysis on Stuart Jeffries excellent series blog on the Guardian website at: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/series/the-bridge-episode-by-episode

'Traces Of You' by Anoushka Shankar

24 January 2014

'Traces Of You', the new album from Anoushka Shankar, is an intriguing collaboration with brings together Ravi Shankar's daughters, Anoushka and Norah Jones, and the British producer Nitin Sawhney. The resulting mixture of styles is hard to categorise as Anoushka Shankar's sitar plays alongside Norah Jones' vocals, Nitin Sawhney's excellent flamenco guitar and a variety of other instruments from piano to tabla. It's a compelling mix with touches of jazz, Indian classical music, pop and more. Gentle, attractive, thoughtful and innovative music.

'Die tote Stadt' by Eirch Korngold

17 January 2014

I really enjoyed listening to the violinist Nicola Benedetti on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 this week. She displayed an infectious enthusiasm and inspirational passion for each of the pieces of music she chose which sent me straight to Spotify to listen to them at greater length. In particular I was taken with her love of Korngold, an underrated composer who I have written about here before (in April 2008 and October 2008). I had not previously listened to his opera Die tote Stadt (from which Nicola Benedetti chose an aria) but I am now a big fan. This is lush, romantic music, achingly beautiful, dramatic and tuneful.

'Mark Steel's In Town'

10 January 2014

It was great to see the return of ‘Mark Steel’s In Town’ this week (BBC Radio 4, Wednesdays at 6.30 pm). As I wrote here in March 2007: “the real test of a stand-up comedian’s skill is playing a small-town arts centre on a weekday evening”. I spoke then about a particular young comedian I had seen many years ago at the arts centre in Grantham: “demonstrating how little she knew her audience she started to tell a joke set in a nightclub and asked us to name the best nightclub in Grantham. After several minutes of discussion the audience concluded it didn’t know of any nightclubs in Grantham and, somewhat reluctantly, the comedian agreed, as a compromise, to set her joke in a nightclub in nearby Nottingham.” The excellent Mark Steel (reviewed here in June 2006 and May 2009) conversely demonstrates the greatest respect for his audiences by constructing each show in his ‘Mark Steel’s In Town’ series to be specifically about the relevant town. Undertaking extensive research he creates 30 minutes of material that reflect the idiosyncrasies, prejudices and peculiarities of each location back to its residents. And then he tests the results by trying to make an audience of locals laugh about themselves. It’s invariably incredibly funny but this week’s show, focussing on Glastonbury in Somerset, was a particularly good one. I can’t remember an episode in which the audience answered back quite so much, resulting in a splendid argument between the comedian and the collective voice of Glastonbury. Well worth a listen at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03nt9w6

'Various Pets Alive & Dead' by Marina Lewycka

3 January 2014

I've previously compared the novelist Marina Lewycka to David Lodge and Anne Tyler (in reviewing 'We Are All Made of Glue' here in January 2011 and ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian’ in April 2006). She writes entertaining contemporary comic novels with a lightness of touch that acts as a Trojan horse for some serious themes. I really enjoyed Marina Lewycka's latest novel 'Various Pets Alive & Dead' which deals with the financial crisis of 2008. Mathematician Serge is a 'quant' (quantitative analyst) at Finance and Trading Consolidated Alliance at the heart of the London banking world but his mother, Doro, thinks he is completing his PhD in Cambridge. Doro still lives in Doncaster where she brought up her family in a socialist commune. Her daughter Clara is a primary school teacher who lives in Sheffield. Each chapter is told through the eyes of one of these three characters. Gradually we piece together their stories, the history of the commune and the contrast between political ideals and the pragmatic modern world. Short chapters create a real pace to the intertwined narratives which builds to some wonderful comic set pieces as the separate lives of the main characters come together. There are some mysteries buried in this family history, not all of which are neatly tied up. 'Various Pets Alive & Dead' is an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

'The Luminaries' by Eleanor Catton

20 December 2013

Eleanor Catton broke two records this year, becoming the youngest ever winner of the Man Booker Prize with the longest winning novel, 'The Luminaries'. An 832-page novel is a daunting prospect for the reader but I was intrigued by the reviews and decided to tackle it as an unabridged audio book (lasting more than 29 hours!), narrated by Mark Meadows. 'The Luminaries is a complicated crime mystery set in the New Zealand gold rush of the 1860s. The story opens with Walter Moody, newly arrived in the small town of Hokitika, walking into the lounge of the Crown Hotel to discover an odd assortment of twelve men gathered to discuss a series of violent and puzzling recent events. The truth about what has happened is gradually revealed through the eyes of these twelve witnesses before the remaining gaps in the story are filled in from the point of view of its main protagonists. 'The Luminaries' is written in the style of a Victorian thriller that could have come from the pen of Wilkie Collins (such as 'The Moonstone', reviewed here in June 2009, or 'The Woman in White', reviewed here in October 2012). On the face of it the story is simple tale of love, deceit, greed and treachery, made complicated by its length, the large number of characters, the unreliability of some of its narrators and the non-linear way in which we encounter the main events. Beneath this narrative Eleanor Catton sets herself a remarkable challenge, aligning her characters with astrological signs and planets and relating their interactions with each other to the relevant star charts. The lengths of her chapters get shorter as the book progresses, emulating the waning of the moon as the two principal characters representing the sun and moon (The Luminaries) are drawn apart and then together. The thriller plot is intriguing enough to hold your attention without attempting to understand the astrological underpinning and Catton creates a massive cast of distinctive characters whose names seem to take on a poetic quality. There are quite a few loose ends that do not appear to be tied up (Who did kill Francis Carver? And what role did Adrian Moody play in the events?). But I enjoyed my 29 hours in Hokitika, Kanieri and the Arahura.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

20 December 2013

I was nine years old when the original Star Wars film came out. My friend Anthony won tickets, in a Manchester Evening News competition, to the Manchester première of the film, which made us the first kids in our school to see it. Needless to say, I was a big Star Wars fan. When I got a copy of the original soundtrack album featuring the London Symphony Orchestra (a double LP in a gatefold sleeve containing a free poster – ah, those were the days!), I poured over and over John Williams' detailed sleeve notes and the full list of orchestral players – I can still recite most of the names of the LSO brass section. So it was a dream come true to perform the 'Star Wars Symphonic Suite' by John Williams at the Northampton Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Cracker concert last Sunday. The theme of this year's concert was 'Christmas at the Movies' and the programme also included a medley from 'The Sound of Music' by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Danny Elfman's music for the Tim Burton film 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and a selection of James Bond themes. Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, famously said of the experience: “Acting in this movie I felt like a raisin in a giant fruit salad. And I didn't even know who the coconuts or the cantaloups were.” I felt very similarly about our Christmas Cracker concert: there was so much going on it was hard to take it all in. We had a capacity audience of 600 in the Spinney Hill Theatre at Northampton School for Girls. The stage was packed with a huge orchestra bedecked in tinsel, Santa hats and reindeer antlers. Quite a few members of the audience (and some of the orchestra) had come dressed as their favourite film characters – there was a Clint Eastwood, a Harry Potter, two Batmans and an assortment of Princess Leias! At the interval Imperial Stormtroopers were on hand to guide the audience towards the mulled wine and mince pies. Our excellent compère, Graham Padden, opened the second half of the concert stripped to the waist to bang a gong in the manner of the Rank opening credits. And, two seats to my right, Darth Vader was playing the third Horn part! It was a challenge to concentrate on playing the music amongst everything else going on but I think our performance went well and it was certainly a fantastic, festive occasion.

'Richard II' by William Shakespeare

20 December 2013

On Saturday we were at the Barbican in London to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of 'Richard II'. I think we got some of the last available tickets when I booked, way back in March. David Tennant's return to the RSC in the title role in Gregory Doran's first production as the new RSC Artistic Director made this a very hot ticket. I had worried that more than eight months of anticipation might have made for an anticlimax but we were not disappointed. This was a great production of an unusual Shakespeare play. I had not seen 'Richard II' before but I studied 'Henry IV Part 1' at school and it was fascinating finally to fill in the gaps in the back-story to a play I am very familiar with. David Tennant was excellent as the Messiah-like king, with flowing robes and extremely long hair: his lightning-quick mood turns and comic asides are amazing to watch. When we saw him as Berowne in 'Love's Labour's Lost' (reviewed here in October 2008) I said he was “an electric stage presence - very hard to take your eyes off him”. The same was true in 'Richard II' but this was much more of an ensemble piece and there were also fantastic performances by Michael Pennington as John of Gaunt, Nigel Lindsay as Bolingbroke (who becomes Henry IV) and the magnificent Oliver Ford Davies as the Duke of York. Doran's production was very beautiful with a minimal set designed by Stephen Brimson Lewis making great use of video projection and amazing lighting by Tim Mitchell. And I loved the music by Paul Englishby which featured a choir of three sopranos constantly present on a balcony above the stage together with a band of off-stage trumpeters. 

'Sleeping Beauty' by Sue Sachon

13 December 2013

It’s that time of year again – oh yes it is! On Sunday we were back at the TADS theatre in Toddington for this year’s pantomime. ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was written and directed by TADS stalwarts Sue and David Sachon. This was a magical and charming rendition of the traditional fairy story with all the usual pantomimic elements in evidence. It was an excellently acted and impressively produced show which thrilled an audience packed with very young children. (Though it’s interesting to note that handing out sweets to the audience always makes for the most exciting moment of the afternoon!) In a large cast Judy Palmer’s gormless palace guard, Emily Venn’s twinkly fairy godmother and the ever-wonderful Janet Bray (as both a guard and a fairy) stood out for me. And it was great to see Leanne Lyndsey White – who was excellent as Audrey in the TADS production of Little Shop of Horrors earlier this year (reviewed here in May 2013) – giving another impressive performance as Prince Ferdinand.

'Dodger' by James Benmore

6 December 2013

Great works of fiction create characters that appear to have an existence beyond the particular tale being told. It's always fascinating to wonder what happened to those characters before or after our brief encounter with them. Literary sequels and prequels have an honourable tradition (from 'The Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys to the Gregory Maguire's novels 'Wicked' and 'Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister' (reviewed here in March 2008) and Andrew Motion's 'Treasure Island' sequel 'Silver' (reviewed here in May 2012)). There's something particularly compelling about those works that take relatively minor characters from an earlier story and put them centre stage (such as Tom Stoppard's 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'). So I was pleased to discover James Benmore's novel 'Dodger' which brings Jack Dawkins – the Artful Dodger – back to London six years after having been transported to Australia for the theft of a silver snuff box at the end of 'Oliver Twist'. Dawkins discovers that London has changed in his absence: Fagin, Bill Sikes and Nancy are all dead and the introduction of the Peelers has made the business of picking pockets much more hazardous. 'Dodger' takes us back into Dickensian London but it's not Dickens. The characters are great fun and there's an intriguing mystery to be solved but this is an easy and enjoyable read that doesn't attempt a Dickensian style or much social comment. Still, Dawkins is an engaging young adult and his first-person narration (with its cockney accent) is entertaining and often very funny. 

Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

28 November 2013

On Saturday I took part in a concert with Milton Keynes Sinfonia which celebrated the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten with two works which opened and closed the performance. Britten’s ‘Sinfonia da Requiem’ is a serious, complex, challenging piece – both to play and to listen to. It required huge concentration from the orchestra and our tight, clear performance was a significant achievement which owed much to our conductor, David Knight. We concluded the concert with a very different piece of Britten, his joyous ‘Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’ with its variations on a theme by Purcell culminating in a glorious fugue and triumphant finale. In between the two works by Britten were a stunning performance of the Elgar ‘Cello Concerto by Jacqueline Johnson and Holst’s ‘Ballet Music from The Perfect Fool’ – a lively, tuneful piece with a playfully lopsided 7/8 rhythm. It was an interesting and varied programme which brought an enthusiastic response from a packed audience. 

'Crimson/Red' by Prefab Sprout

22 November 2013

I've always had a soft spot for Prefab Sprout, the 1980s band that gave us 'Faron Young', 'When Love Breaks Down' and 'The King of Rock 'n' Roll'. The new Prefab Sprout album 'Crimson/Red' could be described as completely stripped down. Frontman Paddy McAloon has now dispensed with all the other members of the band and plays all the instruments himself. And yet it still sounds exactly the same – distinctive, melancholic, symphonic pop that could have come from 1988, whilst simultaneously sounding refreshingly, inventively new. All the more remarkable when you learn that McAloon now has impaired hearing and vision. 'Crimson/Red' is a classic Prefab Sprout album – catchy, beautiful, poignant and clever. Caroline Sullivan's review in The Guardian called it “a kind of truculent, Geordie Pet Sounds”. I've been struck by the similarities to another of my favourite 1980s bands The Blue Nile and the influence both may have had on The Divine Comedy (reviewed here in September 2005, July 2006 and June 2010).

Bellowhead at Bedford Corn Exchange

15 November 2013

As I wrote here in February 2009, “you can’t beat a band that dances to its own tunes”. That band was the amazing English folk big band, Bellowhead (who I have also written about here in October 2006, July 2008 and October 2010). I am pleased to report that they are still dancing and their infectious enthusiasm is still whipping audiences into a frenzy. On Thursday night I was among a standing audience of over 1000 people in the cavernous  Bedford Corn Exchange to see a stunning performance by Bellowhead. About to celebrate their tenth anniversary, Bellowhead have always been a very slick band, mixing inspired lunacy and chaos with strict rhythmic precision. Many of the eleven members of the band play multiple instruments and all participate in dance moves clearly derived from Morris traditions. The mix of musicians from folk, jazz and classical background and the unusual instrumentation (including fiddles, cello, oboe, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, helicon, bagpipes, melodeon and concertina) make for a unique signature sound. Bellowhead rarely put a foot wrong and seem to bring a smile to everyone’s face. Go and see them live if you get the chance – they are truly brilliant.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

14 November 2013

The Northampton Symphony Orchestra’s November concert invariably coincides with the weekend of Bonfire Night and/or Remembrance Sunday. This year we made the most of this coincidence with a remembrance-themed concert at St Matthews Church in Northampton. The music was interspersed with war poems by Wilfred Owen, George Fraser Gallie and Konstantin Simanov, beautifully read by three members of the orchestra – Virginia Henley, Maria King and Nick Bunker. As Virginia stepped forward to start the concert with Owen’s ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, the church bells rang the half hour and she waited a moment for the sound to die away before reading “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” – it was a perfect opening to the evening.

The first piece of music was the beautiful pastoral work ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ by George Butterworth – a charming piece with an aching poignancy in this context as Butterworth was killed at the Battle of the Somme at the age of 30. Another delicate, pastoral English work completed the first half of the concert as the orchestra’s leader Stephen Hague gave a stunning performance of ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams. That some of the desperately quiet passages were interrupted by the explosions of fireworks outside only served to emphasise the contrast between the peaceful idyll of the countryside and the brutal reality of war.

In the second half of the concert we played the mighty ‘Leningrad Symphony’ by Dimitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich’s seventh symphony was composed during the Siege of Leningrad in 1941-42 and powerfully evokes the horror of the 872 day isolation of the city which saw almost a third of the population (around a million people) die of starvation. Despite being offered the opportunity to escape the siege Shostakovich decided to stay in the city to work on a one-movement symphony which he wanted to dedicate to Leningrad. I can imagine the look on Mrs Shostakovich’s face when he later announced that it now felt like the work actually needed four movements! Shostakovich did complete the composition elsewhere but after the premiere of the symphony by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in March 1942, there was a determination to stage a first performance in Leningrad itself, while the siege continued. With many of its players dead or away fighting the war, The Leningrad Radio Orchestra could muster only 14 musicians. Extra players were brought back from the front line and posters were displayed around the city appealing for anyone with a musical instrument to join in. At the end of July an orchestra of professionals and amateurs played the symphony in the Leningrad Philharmonic Hall with the performance broadcast on loudspeakers throughout the city. In a show of defiance there were speakers relaying the concert to German troops stationed outside the city. The NSO concert programme notes suggest that the senior Russian officer on the front was issued with a copy of the score so that he might order his troops to cease fire during the quieter passages!

The Leningrad symphony is a mammoth work, lasting 70 minutes and requiring a large orchestra. In our performance in Northampton, conducted by Alexander Walker, I was one of nine horn players, alongside six trumpets, six trombones, tuba and extensive percussion. This was the first time, as an orchestral musician, that I have genuinely regretted not wearing earplugs for a performance. It was incredibly loud and immensely dramatic – a realisation of the brutality of war in music, though the conflict is contrasted with passages of delicate beauty. There were a host of great solos by Andrea Patis (flute), Kimberley Chang (piccolo), Kathy Roberts (oboe), Simon Cooper (cor anglais), Naomi Muller (clarinet), Peter Dunkley (bass clarinet), Sian Bunker (bassoon) and Nick Bunker (trumpet). And the side drum playing of Matt Butler through the long, relentless, repetitive march that dominates the first movement was truly amazing – controlled, precise and devastating all in its path. For me that famous tune still conjures up childhood memories of the 1978 BBC TV adaptation of John Buchan’s ‘Huntingtower’, but heard in the heart of the symphony it evokes the horror of war, starting as a simple fife and drum melody then growing ever more insistent and grotesque until the bombardment is overwhelming. It was a stunning, moving, exhausting performance and one I will remember for a long time. 

'I Am The Secret Footballer: Lifting the Lid on the Beautiful Game' by The Secret Footballer

8 November 2013

When you hear an interview with a retired politician it's remarkable how often they seem suddenly more knowledgeable, reasonable and sensible than they ever did when they were in office, regardless of where they come from in the political spectrum. The modern media age has bred a generation of people in the public eye who work hard to never say anything of interest. Perhaps the most extreme example of this is the post-match interview with a professional football player who has been extensively trained in the art of clichés and platitudes. Even retirement is no guarantee of openness in the football world as Sir Alex Ferguson's recent, very guarded, memoirs demonstrate. So it is a refreshing change to read an insight on the sport which is genuinely honest and candid. 'The Secret Footballer' started as an anonymous column in The Guardian, exposing the inner workings of the professional game through the eyes of someone still playing at the highest level. The anonymity of the columnist has so far survived investigation, rumour and clue-hunting. Reading the book 'I Am The Secret Footballer: Lifting the Lid on the Beautiful Game' the anonymous author gives a fascinating view of what it is actually like to 'live the dream'. I loved the fact that, when he joined his first professional club, nobody told him that he was only required to train from 10 am – 12 pm each day. At noon he was sitting along in the dressing room waiting to be told what to do next, not realising everyone else had gone home. His perspective on the incredible financial rewards that football brings to a select group of young men, counterbalanced with the insecurity, boredom and depression prevalent within the profession are fascinating. Occasionally the disguise necessary to keep the author's identity secret makes anecdotes quite hard to follow but this is a small price to pay for such an unusually frank read.

'Symphony No 4 (Arctic)' by George Lloyd

1 November 2013

I'm grateful to Alan Garriock for drawing my attention to the work of the British composer George Lloyd (1913 – 1998). I hadn't previously heard of Lloyd – a symphonist and opera composer whose lush, accessible, melodic music seems to have been overlooked (particularly in the 1950s and 60s) by a musical establishment more interested in the avant garde. I've been listening to George Lloyd's fourth symphony, 'The Arctic', which he finished in 1946. It's a lovely piece – tuneful, delicate, rousing and heroic. The style is romantic and a little old-fashioned for the period, recalling earlier British composers such as Holst, Bax and Bantock. It's a very enjoyable work and I'm looking forward to seeking out other pieces by George Lloyd.

'An Alpine Symphony' by Richard Strauss

25 October 2013

It feels somewhat indiscreet to start by revealing a lady’s age, but my good friend Catherine Rose has hardly made any secret about achieving her first half-century. Rather than hiding away and pretending it wasn’t happening, Catherine chose to celebrate her fiftieth birthday by realising her ambition to conduct ‘An Alpine Symphony’ by Richard Strauss. Last Sunday I was part of an orchestra of 125 players which assembled in the hall of Bedford School to spend an incredibly enjoyable day tackling the Alpine peaks of this rarely performed work. The musicians were mainly drawn from three local amateur orchestras (Bedford, Milton Keynes and Northampton) together with professional orchestral players from across the country. The Alpine Symphony requires massive forces, including a wind machine, pipe organ, four Wagner tubas, cow bells and a heckelphone. Perhaps someone should have advised Strauss that this is not a recipe to get your work performed regularly. Nonetheless the Alpine Symphony is a piece held in great affection, particularly by horn players (including Catherine and myself). Instead of the usual four French horns, Strauss asks for eight on-stage players plus twelve offstage horns. On Sunday we managed to assemble a total of fifteen horn players and it was a fantastic experience to play as part of such a huge section. The Alpine Symphony is a glorious piece with some stunning, joyful climaxes. It must be amazing to be commanding such enormous forces by wielding the conductor’s baton – though it must also be completely terrifying. We ended the day with a performance of the symphony to an audience of family and friends. I think it was a pretty impressive rendition – particularly on a single day of rehearsals. It was a wonderful day – which also raised a significant amount of money for Catherine’s three chosen charities. A great way to celebrate a landmark birthday.

'One Summer: America 1927' by Bill Bryson

18 October 2013

Bill Bryson write two kinds of book – the travelogues which detail his first-hand encounters with countries, communities and people across the world, and his extensively desk-researched explorations (of Shakespeare, science, domestic life etc). I think my favourite Bryson is his childhood reminiscences 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' (reviewed here in 2007) which (just about) fits into the second category. I particularly enjoyed his ability to conjure up the characters of a different era. So I was looking forward to Bill Bryson's new book 'One Summer: America 1927' which looks at five remarkable months in which America changed the world. Reading 'One Summer: America 1927' as an unabridged audio book, narrated by the author, I was initially a little underwhelmed. While there was nothing wrong with Bill Bryson's narration, I had just finished listening to the stunning performance of Julian Rhind-Tutt reading Jonathan Coe's novel 'Expo 58' (reviewed here in September 2013) and I'm afraid anyone would have sounded a bit flat after that. Also Bill Bryson's excessive use of statistics is particularly hard to take in without seeing the numbers in front of you. But once he got beyond the statistics and started to build pictures of the key individuals in his story I became gripped. The summer of 1927 in America was witness to an amazing array of events and an incredible cast of characters. Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic. In baseball Babe Ruth was breaking every record in the books. The boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney drew the largest crowd to any sporting event ever. The lazy President, Calvin Coolidge, (about whose death Dorothy Parker would later ask “How could they tell?”) decided not to run for office at the end of his (unelected) term while future President Herbert Hoover built his reputation co-ordinating the relief effort after the great Mississippi flood. Al Capone presided over an empire of corruption and extortion in Chicago. Henry Ford ended production of his Model T and embarked on a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to create a rubber-producing city in the Amazon (Fordlandia). And talking pictures arrived with Al Jolson in 'The Jazz Singer'. It was quite a summer. Bill Bryson takes us chronologically through those summer months – with digressions to fill in the before and after to many of the stories. Lindbergh, Ruth and some of the other main protagonists provide overarching narratives which hold the book together. It's a powerful evocation of an era of prohibition, gangsters, anarchist terrorists, adventurers and celebrities. 

Jeremy Hardy

16 October 2013

We first saw Jeremy Hardy in about 1997 in Lowestoft. I’ve written here before about that performance (in March 2007): “while on holiday in Suffolk, we were surprised to see the enormous old seaside theatre in Lowestoft advertising an evening with Jeremy Hardy. This theatre, which had Ken Dodd the previous week and Jimmy Tarbuck the following week – seemed an odd setting for a left-wing political alternative comedian. We booked our tickets and, on the night, found ourselves lost in a sea of empty seats with only about a dozen other people but Jeremy Hardy dealt with a potentially embarrassing situation extremely impressively. Quickly abandoning his prepared material he probably worked harder than ever that night and completely won his tiny audience over – one of the most impressive comedy performances I’ve seen.”  Last week we caught up with Jeremy Hardy again at Kettering Arts Centre, as part of his 30^th anniversary tour, and he was even better. He is a very assured performer. Not needing to rely on any theme, props or onstage persona, he simply walks onto the stage and talks continuously for nearly two and half hours (with a 20 minute interval). His delivery sounds like a seamless stream of consciousness, mainly focussing on politics and current affairs. If you look closely you can detect a few prepared sections but mostly it feels improvised rather than scripted. Jeremy Hardy’s politics are uncompromising but his thoughtful, logical, self-deprecating style is very winning, and incredibly funny. It felt like he could have gone on all night, and we would have been delighted if he had.

'Floating Letters' by Tsuumi Sound System

10 October 2013

I'm very much enjoying 'Floating Letters', the new album by Finnish folk/rock group Tsuumi Sound System. I reviewed 'Hotas', the previous Tsuumi Sound System album, here in April 2008. Their music is cheery and inspiring with a rhythmic complexity that demands syncopated toe-tapping. At first it sounds a lot like Scottish folk but the instrumentation, harmony and style continually shifts. Hard to categorise but easy to enjoy. The playing is slick and impressive but always wearing a smile. Here's a taster: http://vimeo.com/53798510

‘Life and Death: Pompeii and Herculaneum’

3 October 2013

Almost a year ago we visited Pompeii for the first time and were bowled over by the scale of the site and the size of the preserved buildings. So we had been looking forward to seeing the exhibition ‘Life and Death: Pompeii and Herculaneum’ at The British Museum. It was so difficult to get tickets for the exhibition when we booked, in May this year, that we ended up going on the final day last Sunday. There were huge crowds waiting for a last chance to see the well-preserved relics of Roman life and, even with the timed ticket system, you had to be very patient to get close to each of the exhibits. The excellent audio guide proved a very useful way to pass the time while queuing. ‘Life and Death: Pompeii and Herculaneum’ wasn’t a very big exhibition but that meant it was possible to explore everything it contained – and this took us a good ninety minutes. The exhibition was laid out in rooms equating to the rooms of a typical Roman villa, making sense of the context of the many artefacts. The quality of preservation of the wooden objects from Herculaneum was amazing. We were also struck by how overtly sexual (by modern standards) many of the pictures and sculptures were. There was one particularly explicit piece (if you’ve seen the exhibition you will know the one I mean!) that was located in a small side room with a notice by the entrance suggesting it wasn’t suitable for children. While I was there one father was getting exasperated by the enthusiasm of his young son (who must have been 7 or 8 years old) to see whatever it was his dad didn’t want him to see. In response to the boy’s pleading “why?” the man eventually shouted “because I’m your father and I’m exercising moral judgement!”. The casts of the bodies of some of the volcano’s victims, captured in agonising poses at the moment of death, provided an eerie and moving end to the exhibition. 

'Othello' by William Shakespeare

27 September 2013

On Thursday we were part of an audience of more than 100,000, in cinemas across the world, to watch a live broadcast from the National Theatre in London of Nicholas Hytner's production of Shakespeare's 'Othello'. This latest NT Live broadcast demonstrated the growing popularity of live screenings of theatre: at Cineworld in Milton Keynes, where we watched the performance, it was being shown simultaneously on three screens, each of which was almost sold out. Hytner's production sets the play in a contemporary military base which could be in Iraq or Afghanistan. The prosaic background of the soldiers' quarters made the action feel more real and the violence was particularly shocking. The scene in the gents toilets, with Othello hiding in a cubicle to overhear Iago and Cassio, was especially effective. 'Othello' is very much a two-hander and both the lead performances here were fantastic. Adrian Lester showed Othello's power and vulnerability in a wonderfully physical performance and Rory Kinnear's Iago was twitchy, shifty, sinister and incredibly funny. Olivia Vinnall was great as a tiny but powerful Desdemona whose despair towards the end of the play was palpable. Watching the production on the big screen showed every minute facial expression as the cameras kept close to the action in a series of small, claustrophobic rooms and it is so satisfying to be able to hear every word of the text so clearly. 

'Expo 58' by Jonathan Coe

27 September 2013

Jonathan Coe obviously has a fascination with the Swiss composer Arthur Honegger (reviewed here in December 2005). Honegger's symphonies feature in Coe's novel ‘The Closed Circle’ and 'Pastoral d'ete' by Honegger provides the backdrop to a key scene in 'Expo 58', the latest novel by Jonathan Coe, which I have just finished reading (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Julian Rhind-Tutt). The 1958 World's Fair in Brussels was one of the first major international gatherings after the end of the Second World War and the exposition, in the shadow of the gleaming new Atomium, provided both an opportunity for optimism about the rebuilding of international relations but also a focus for growing concerns about the development of atomic weapons and the increasing menace of the Cold War. Coe places into this setting a naïve Englishman abroad in the shape of Thomas Foley – a junior clerk from the Central Office of Information, recently married and with a baby daughter – who is sent to work at the Expo for six months. 'Expo 58' is a beautifully constructed comic novel which displays many of Coe's trademark elements but also feels remarkably like a David Lodge book. The civil servant being drawn into a world of international espionage also reminded me of Ian McEwan's 'Sweet Tooth' (reviewed here in January 2013). Jonathan Coe constructs some delicious comic moments as well as a host of easily missed throw-away gags. But he also manages to inject pathos – often between the lines. So much is implied by what characters don't say to each other: the chapter of letters between Foley and his wife is beautifully done. The novel concludes with some cleverly believable revelations but I could have done with a few more twists. Like all good novels I didn't want it to end.

'Daytona' by Oliver Cotton

20 September 2013

Last Saturday we were at Watford Palace Theatre to see 'Daytona' – a new play by Oliver Cotton. 'Daytona' is set in a Brooklyn apartment in the early 1990s – a New York Jewish family environment familiar from the work of Neil Simon and Woody Allen. It is a play about growing old, memory, forgiveness and atonement. The cast consists of three characters – all in their seventies. When Joe's brother Billy reappears out of the blue after an absence of more than 30 years it is an uncomfortable reminder to Joe and his wife Elli of difficult times in their past. 'Daytona' has an almost Chekhovian feel – the dramatic action all happens off stage and is recounted by the characters. Joe thinks he has recognised, by a poolside in Florida, a man who was a Nazi officer in the wartime concentration camp that Joe, Billy and Elli survived. As we begin to wonder whether or not Joe might be mistaken in his assumptions it feels like Cotton is creating a version of Ariel Dorfman's 'Death and the Maiden' in which the ambiguity of identity might never be resolved. Then I began to question whether the dramatic off-stage events had actually happened: we only have the word of one obviously unreliable narrator to go on. But as the play unfolded I realised that Cotton's focus was actually on questioning assumptions of motivation. The characters challenge each other about why they really took the actions they did – today and 30 years ago – and the cleverness of the play is how it shows the dawning realisation as each individual becomes aware of the extent to which they have been fooling themselves. 'Daytona' is a complex and subtle play and was excellently acted by Harry Shearer, Maureen Lipman and, particularly John Bowe as Billy.

'Boxer, Beetle' by Ned Beauman

12 September 2013

Having been so bowled over by Ned Beauman’s novel ‘The Teleportation Accident’ (reviewed here in July 2013) I quickly got hold of his first novel ‘Boxer, Beetle’ (which I have just read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Dudley Hinton). The two books have much in common – a cast of grotesque characters, a fascination with Nazi Germany, a big country house, a rare and extremely peculiar illness, a jigsaw-puzzle plot with a ridiculous number of underlying themes and some great comic set-pieces. And, as with ‘The Teleportation Accident’, Beauman’s writing is delicious and rich in elaborate metaphors. Reading the two books in reverse order ‘Boxer, Beetle’ feels like a practice ground for what would become the later, greater novel but it is still incredibly enjoyable with a macabre humour that makes you both laugh and cringe. The country house murder mystery at the heart of the book reminded me of Jonathan Coe’s ‘What a Carve Up’ but Ned Beauman’s is a unique voice and I can’t wait to see what he writes next.

'The Impressionist' by Hari Kunzru

12 September 2013

Hari Kunzru’s debut novel ‘The Impressionist’ was highly praised on its publication in 2002 and I the reviews made me keen to read it but for some reason it has taken me more than 10 years to get around to doing so. I wasn’t disappointed. ‘The Impressionist’ is an epic tale that starts in India in the early years of the 20^th century and looks at empire, race and identity against a backdrop of real historical events. The use of comic characters and farcical plots set against extremely serious and often horrific history is carried off remarkably effectively. The tone of the book reminded me a lot of Matthew Kneale’s marvellous ‘English Passengers’. And ‘The Impressionist’ also had echoes of two other debut novels by contemporary British writers – David Mitchell’s ‘Ghostwritten’ with episodes in different settings, and with completely different sets of characters, linked by a single constant but evolving figure; and ‘White Teeth’ by Zadie Smith with its exploration of how Britain’s colonial past is evident in modern Britishness. ‘The Impressionist’ is a brilliant tour-de-force – well worth waiting for.

Norway

12 September 2013

We had a wonderful holiday in Norway on board the P&O cruise ship Adonia. Our two-week cruise took us as far north as Tromso – well above the Arctic Circle – and visited a varied range of fjords and islands. Particular highlights were the beautiful Lofoten Islands and the stunning scenery of Geirangerfjord – surely one of the most beautiful places in the world. We were very lucky with the weather and managed to do a lot of walking. We also really enjoyed our time on board the ship, attending 5 recitals by the excellent pianist Dominic John, a very impressive performance of Noel Coward’s ‘Private Lives’, doing plenty of ballroom dancing and taking part in a playreading of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. You can see a few photos from our holiday at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Norway2013 

'Sherlock Holmes' by Mark Hayward

19 August 2013

We were back in the gardens of Woburn Abbey last Friday to see The Pantaloons' production of 'Sherlock Holmes'. This new adaptation, written and directed by Pantaloon Mark Hayward, combined several Conan Doyle stories (including 'The Speckled Band', 'The Blue Carbuncle' and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles') with the usual Pantaloons mixture of pantomimic clowning and audience interaction (“there is no fourth wall!”, “Watson, stop narrating!”). It was lots of fun. There were just four actors – two playing Holmes and Watson and the other two playing everyone else. As with the wonderful Patrick Barlow stage adaptation of ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’, half the fun is in anticipating how they are going to cope with the challenges this throws up. I particularly enjoyed Holmes turning his powers of observation and deduction on a member of the audience: I suspect his amazingly accurate conclusions may have been influenced by some pre-show research with the audience member's friends and family but the little boy sitting to my right was genuinely amazed (“how did he do that?!”). And The Pantaloons are very good at planting an idea very early in the show that returns triumphantly to resolve the plot at the end. It was a very enjoyably silly evening but it was incredibly manic and overplayed (even by the standards of The Pantaloons) and I wondered whether it might actually have been funnier if more of it had been played straight.

'After the Fire, a Still Small Voice' by Evie Wyld

12 August 2013

I've just finished reading 'After the Fire, a Still Small Voice' by Evie Wyld (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by David Tredinnick). This debut novel tells the parallel story of two generations of an Australian family, with alternating chapters dealing with Frank Collard – escaping, in the present day, to the remote shack that had belonged to his grandparents on the North coast of Australia – and Frank's father Leon, growing up in Sydney several decades earlier. This is a tale of parallels between fathers and sons: Leon's own father's life was irreparably damaged by his experience of fighting in the Korean War and Leon then suffers a similar fate when he is called up to serve in Vietnam. 'After the Fire, a Still Small Voice' is a book about loneliness and the plot moves very slowly, with both main characters spending long stretches of the novel alone. The writing is beautiful and delicate but it's a sad, gentle tale of broken relationships.

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by William Shakespeare

12 August 2013

I really enjoyed the open air production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by The Pantaloons that we saw last August (reviewed here in August 2012) so I was looking forward to their return to the gardens of Woburn Abbey last weekend. The Pantaloons are a group of five young actors who bring a comedy-sketch-group approach to open air theatre, full of backchat, audience interaction, improvisation, original music and infectious silliness. Their production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' played well to these strengths but also demonstrated their more serious acting skills. It was a very funny and enjoyable evening. I particularly liked the impromptu use of three members of the audience to play the fairies – Cobweb, Peaseblossom and Mustardseed. While the acting was excellent, the limitations of such a small cast meant that I am not sure anyone who wasn't already familiar with the play would have been able to follow all the intricacies of the plot. Nevertheless it was great fun and I can't wait for The Pantaloons production of 'Sherlock Holmes' which is at Woburn this Friday.

Madrid

8 August 2013

We had a lovely few days in Madrid last week but boy it was hot! The temperature peaked at 41 degrees on Thursday but fortunately it was a very dry heat, so not quite so horrendous as that sounds. Nobody goes to Madrid in August (it's too hot!) and the Madrileños all head off to the coast so the city was very quiet and we were able to visit all the main tourist attractions without having to queue for anything. We took an excellent guided walking tour of the centre, visited the wonderful Prado and Thyssen-Bornemisza art galleries and looked at the state rooms of the magnificent Royal Palace. You can see a few of our photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Madrid2013.

WOMAD 2013

8 August 2013

With so much exotic and unusual music from all over the world on show, it might seem surprising to pick a brass band from Manchester as my highlight of the 2013 WOMAD Festival at Charlton Park in Wiltshire. But Riot Jazz are a brass band in the New Orleans tradition of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band or the The Hot 8 Brass Band (reviewed here in January 2013) and their set in the Big Red Tent at WOMAD was thrilling and incredibly engaging. Riot Jazz come with their own irrepressible compere, MC Chunky, whose persuasive patter in a strong Manchester accent had an audience of around two thousand leaping up and down for an hour. Wonderful cover versions of 'Don't You Want Me Baby?' and 'Living on a Prayer' sent us all away smiling (have a listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JVSpjpkZ4U). Other high points of my weekend at WOMAD included the amazing ethereal Tuvan throat singing of Huun Huur Tu, impressively competitive duets of Indian classical music from Debapriya Adhykary and Samanwaya Sarkar, another chance to see the great Malian singer Rokia Traore (reviewed here in December 2008) and Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino – an excitingly energetic band from the heel on Italy's boot who play (and dance) traditional pizzica folk music with an infectious enthusiasm. I wasn't able to stay to see Brazilian legend (and former Minister of Culture) Gilberto Gil (reviewed here in July 2010) close the festival on the Sunday evening so it was great to have had the chance to see Gil and Peter Gabriel in conversation on BBC Radio 4's 'Loose Ends' on the Radio 3 stage on Saturday. Like going to see BBC Radio Scotland's 'MacAulay & Co' before a day at the Edinburgh Fringe, 'Loose Ends' provided the chance to sample several acts performing at the festival in bite-sized chunks and reminded me of Charlie Gillet's much missed Radio London broadcasts from WOMAD. I saw a total of 18 complete performances over the weekend. I really enjoyed Bwani Junction – an indie rock band from Edinburgh who play with an African guitar sound that makes them seem like a cross between Vampire Weekend, Arctic Monkeys and Big Country. These Scottish lads have some authentic African links – the father of guitarist Dan Muir was the manager of the Bhundu Boys (who played at the very first WOMAD Festival, 31 years ago) and Dan has apparently been playing alongside the Bhundus' Rise Kagona since he was 10 years old (which can't have been that long ago as all four members of Bwani Junction looked about 12 to me!). I should also give a special mention to David Wax Museum from Boston, Massachusetts, who play an upbeat mix of old-fashioned Americana with a Mexican influence. The band, who put out their recordings on their own label and have only just managed to arrange distribution to Europe, were making their first visit to England and played a fantastic set on the Charlie Gillett stage on the Saturday evening just as torrential rain arrived. At any other point in the weekend (which was dominated by glorious sunshine) they would undoubtedly have attracted a crowd numbering in the thousands. Instead, they performed to around 200 people huddling under umbrellas. Nevertheless they put on a magnificent show and deserve a much bigger audience. You can see a selection of my photos from the 2013 WOMAD Festival at: http://www.culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/WOMAD2013.