21 October 2016
On Saturday we returned to Blackpool Tower Ballroom for an evening of ballroom, Latin and sequence dancing with a group of friends from Milton Keynes Dance Centre. We first danced at the Tower a year ago (reviewed here in October 2015) and it was great to be back. This year the organiser, Philip Hurst, had restricted numbers so there were was more room on the dance floor. It’s a very special room to dance in and we certainly got our money’s worth with almost five hours of dancing. The skill and style of hundreds of amateur dancers who had travelled to Blackpool from across the country was very impressive and the sight of so many people dancing together in such stunning surroundings was wonderful. We’ll be back next year!
Friday, October 21, 2016
Friday, October 14, 2016
'Let Them Eat Chaos' by Kate Tempest
14 October 2016
When I first discovered the poet/rapper/playwright/novelist Kate Tempest, two years ago, I described her album 'Everybody Down' (reviewed here in October 2014) as “a radio play, written in verse, with background music”. Kate Tempest’s new album ‘Let Them Eat Chaos’ feels like a maturing of this particular form of spoken word, musical narrative. It’s 4.18 am and, on a street somewhere in London, “seven different people in seven different flats are wide awake – they can’t sleep”. ‘Let Them Eat Chaos’ tells each of their stories in turn. Kate Tempest again conjures up a cast of compellingly real characters, drawing their lives in an intricate mosaic of witty wordplay that is always erudite while also reflecting the language the individuals themselves would use. Considering the album as a collection of songs, there are some catchy tracks but this is an audio play that demands attention rather than background music. ‘Let Them Eat Chaos’ introduces us to a diverse set of personalities, pulled together by Kate Tempest’s distinctive South London voice. It is a measure of her cultural standing that she was able to launch this new album by performing the whole thing live on BBC2 last Saturday evening. Her word-perfect performance was a tour-de-force and you can still watch it at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07yc9ms/performance-live-kate-tempest
When I first discovered the poet/rapper/playwright/novelist Kate Tempest, two years ago, I described her album 'Everybody Down' (reviewed here in October 2014) as “a radio play, written in verse, with background music”. Kate Tempest’s new album ‘Let Them Eat Chaos’ feels like a maturing of this particular form of spoken word, musical narrative. It’s 4.18 am and, on a street somewhere in London, “seven different people in seven different flats are wide awake – they can’t sleep”. ‘Let Them Eat Chaos’ tells each of their stories in turn. Kate Tempest again conjures up a cast of compellingly real characters, drawing their lives in an intricate mosaic of witty wordplay that is always erudite while also reflecting the language the individuals themselves would use. Considering the album as a collection of songs, there are some catchy tracks but this is an audio play that demands attention rather than background music. ‘Let Them Eat Chaos’ introduces us to a diverse set of personalities, pulled together by Kate Tempest’s distinctive South London voice. It is a measure of her cultural standing that she was able to launch this new album by performing the whole thing live on BBC2 last Saturday evening. Her word-perfect performance was a tour-de-force and you can still watch it at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07yc9ms/performance-live-kate-tempest
Friday, October 07, 2016
'Jonathan Unleashed' by Meg Rosoff
7 October 2016
Seeing the American author Meg Rosoff at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August made me keen to read her latest book, ‘Jonathan Unleashed’. This is her first novel for adults, after considerable success as an author of young adult fiction. ‘Jonathan Unleashed’ (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Luke Kempner) is a gentle, comic novel about a young man struggling to find his way in the world. Despite having an apartment in New York, a job and a girlfriend, Jonathan Trefoil feels strangely dissatisfied. Pondering the transition between between childhood and adulthood “he'd always assumed it would just happen one day he will wake up and find himself on the other side but no, here he was month after month still floundering in no man's land”. And Jonathan does a lot of pondering: he is prone to Walter Mitty-ish daydreams, worrying himself into a string of ‘what-if’s’ that seem to prevent him from making even the most basic decision. But when Jonathan’s brother moves to Dubai and asks Jonathan to look after his two dogs things begin to change. The challenges and companionship of these four-legged friends transform Jonathan’s life. ‘Jonathan Unleashed’ is a very enjoyable read that will particularly appeal to anyone familiar with looking after dogs. The New York setting and Jonathan’s angst-ridden interior monologues take us into Woody Allen territory and there are some very funny lines. When Jonathan tells his best friend Max that he is getting married because “it seemed like the right decision at the time”, Max asks in disbelief “Was someone threatening to throw a baby off a roof?!”
Seeing the American author Meg Rosoff at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August made me keen to read her latest book, ‘Jonathan Unleashed’. This is her first novel for adults, after considerable success as an author of young adult fiction. ‘Jonathan Unleashed’ (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Luke Kempner) is a gentle, comic novel about a young man struggling to find his way in the world. Despite having an apartment in New York, a job and a girlfriend, Jonathan Trefoil feels strangely dissatisfied. Pondering the transition between between childhood and adulthood “he'd always assumed it would just happen one day he will wake up and find himself on the other side but no, here he was month after month still floundering in no man's land”. And Jonathan does a lot of pondering: he is prone to Walter Mitty-ish daydreams, worrying himself into a string of ‘what-if’s’ that seem to prevent him from making even the most basic decision. But when Jonathan’s brother moves to Dubai and asks Jonathan to look after his two dogs things begin to change. The challenges and companionship of these four-legged friends transform Jonathan’s life. ‘Jonathan Unleashed’ is a very enjoyable read that will particularly appeal to anyone familiar with looking after dogs. The New York setting and Jonathan’s angst-ridden interior monologues take us into Woody Allen territory and there are some very funny lines. When Jonathan tells his best friend Max that he is getting married because “it seemed like the right decision at the time”, Max asks in disbelief “Was someone threatening to throw a baby off a roof?!”
Thursday, September 29, 2016
‘Undermajordomo Minor’ by Patrick deWitt
29 September 2016
Patrick deWitt’s novel ‘The Sisters Brothers’ (reviewed here in October 2015) is a quirky Western that draws on a wide range of influences. I have just finished reading his latest book ‘Undermajordomo Minor’, a strange fairytale set in a medieval middle-European country which also seems to combine a rich variety of literary sources. This is a novel which feels allegorical with its many unnamed characters (The Baron and The Baroness, The Count and the The Countess etc) and relishes its folk tale clichés. It’s a very dark fairytale with plenty of sex and violence but with an old fashioned politeness of language. The Ruritanian setting reminded me of Wes Anderson’s film ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, itself inspired by the short stories of Stefan Zweig. ‘Undermajordomo Minor’ is a distinctly odd but incredibly engaging and funny book. I found it hard to work out what it is really about but very much enjoyed reading it.
Patrick deWitt’s novel ‘The Sisters Brothers’ (reviewed here in October 2015) is a quirky Western that draws on a wide range of influences. I have just finished reading his latest book ‘Undermajordomo Minor’, a strange fairytale set in a medieval middle-European country which also seems to combine a rich variety of literary sources. This is a novel which feels allegorical with its many unnamed characters (The Baron and The Baroness, The Count and the The Countess etc) and relishes its folk tale clichés. It’s a very dark fairytale with plenty of sex and violence but with an old fashioned politeness of language. The Ruritanian setting reminded me of Wes Anderson’s film ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, itself inspired by the short stories of Stefan Zweig. ‘Undermajordomo Minor’ is a distinctly odd but incredibly engaging and funny book. I found it hard to work out what it is really about but very much enjoyed reading it.
Kitzbuhel
29 September 2016
We had a wonderful holiday in Kitzbuhel in the Austrian Tyrol last week – surely one of the most beautiful places in the world. We stayed in an amazing hotel on a hill overlooking the town. Our room was in a 400-year-old castle while the modern part of the hotel included a 46m swimming pool on the top floor with stunning panoramic views of the valley. We arrived in heavy rain but after the first day we hardly had any more showers and the week just got sunnier and sunnier. I can highly recommend visiting the Austrian ski resorts in the summer: the cable cars take you quickly up the mountains where there are extensive networks of well-marked paths. We did lots of walking with the most incredible views: you really feel part of a vast three-dimensional landscape. We walked on the Kitzbuheler Horn mountain and on the Hahnenkamm – site of the famous downhill ski race. We also walked along the valley to the pretty town of St Johann. Kitzbuhel itself is a fairytale town of brightly painted buildings and cobbled streets. It’s a beautiful place: you can see a selection of my photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Kitzbuhel2016
We had a wonderful holiday in Kitzbuhel in the Austrian Tyrol last week – surely one of the most beautiful places in the world. We stayed in an amazing hotel on a hill overlooking the town. Our room was in a 400-year-old castle while the modern part of the hotel included a 46m swimming pool on the top floor with stunning panoramic views of the valley. We arrived in heavy rain but after the first day we hardly had any more showers and the week just got sunnier and sunnier. I can highly recommend visiting the Austrian ski resorts in the summer: the cable cars take you quickly up the mountains where there are extensive networks of well-marked paths. We did lots of walking with the most incredible views: you really feel part of a vast three-dimensional landscape. We walked on the Kitzbuheler Horn mountain and on the Hahnenkamm – site of the famous downhill ski race. We also walked along the valley to the pretty town of St Johann. Kitzbuhel itself is a fairytale town of brightly painted buildings and cobbled streets. It’s a beautiful place: you can see a selection of my photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Kitzbuhel2016
Friday, September 16, 2016
‘Suku: Your Life is Your Poem’ by Nils Kercher
16 September 2016
Nils Kercher is a classically trained musician from Germany who has developed a keen interest in West African music. Having studied the kora with Djelimady Sissoko, Kercher has created an album of beautifully gentle music called ‘Suku: Your Life is Your Poem’. He blends traditional West African, instruments including kora, ngoni and balafon, with violin, viola and ‘cello, acoustic guitar and vocals. Many of the tracks have a repetitive, pulsing quality that suggests the minimalist contemporary classical music of Michael Nyman, Philip Glass or Steve Reich. But ‘Suku’ also reinforces the case made by Toumani Diabaté in his 2008 album, 'The Mandé Variations' (reviewed here in May 2008), for Malian griot music to be considered 'African classical music' – equivalent to Western or Indian classical music. And I was particularly reminded of the Malian singer Rokia Traoré’s wonderful 2003 album ‘Bowmboi’ which includes two amazing tracks with the Kronos string quartet. ‘Suku’ features musicians from Mali, Senegal, Martinique, Finland and Australia – but it is firmly focussed on West Africa and has a quiet, restrained beauty.
Nils Kercher is a classically trained musician from Germany who has developed a keen interest in West African music. Having studied the kora with Djelimady Sissoko, Kercher has created an album of beautifully gentle music called ‘Suku: Your Life is Your Poem’. He blends traditional West African, instruments including kora, ngoni and balafon, with violin, viola and ‘cello, acoustic guitar and vocals. Many of the tracks have a repetitive, pulsing quality that suggests the minimalist contemporary classical music of Michael Nyman, Philip Glass or Steve Reich. But ‘Suku’ also reinforces the case made by Toumani Diabaté in his 2008 album, 'The Mandé Variations' (reviewed here in May 2008), for Malian griot music to be considered 'African classical music' – equivalent to Western or Indian classical music. And I was particularly reminded of the Malian singer Rokia Traoré’s wonderful 2003 album ‘Bowmboi’ which includes two amazing tracks with the Kronos string quartet. ‘Suku’ features musicians from Mali, Senegal, Martinique, Finland and Australia – but it is firmly focussed on West Africa and has a quiet, restrained beauty.
Thursday, September 08, 2016
'The Essex Serpent' by Sarah Perry
8 September 2016
The new, and much admired, novel by Sarah Perry, ‘The Essex Serpent’ (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book narrated by Juanita McMahon) is set in London and Essex in the 1890s. Encompassing both the social problems of Victorian East London and the mysterious foggy world of the Essex marshes, the book naturally invites comparison with Dickens. Sarah Perry writes beautifully and her scene-setting descriptive overviews had much in common with ‘Bleak House’ (reviewed here in October 2007 when I noted Dickens’ “technique of 'floating' over the streets and buildings of the Inns of Court”). Perry’s prose is beautifully read by Juanita McMahon, becoming atmospherically poetic when read out loud. The setting of ‘The Essex Serpent’ also reminded me of 'Mr Mac and Me' by Esther Freud (reviewed here in May 2015) – another historic tale of an Eastern coastal community. ‘The Essex Serpent’ uses superstitious fears of the return of a terrifying winged serpent as the backdrop to a battle of ideas between science (represented by the amateur palaeontologist Cora Seaborne) and religion (represented by the rector of Aldwinter, William Ransome). These characters are joined by a pioneering surgeon, a social campaigner and a politician as the novel tackles a range of issues facing Victorian society. But I felt this novel of ideas seemed unsure what it’s real focus was. Like ‘Mr Mac and Me’ it was beautifully written but the pace was slow and I longed for more of a driving plot.
The new, and much admired, novel by Sarah Perry, ‘The Essex Serpent’ (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book narrated by Juanita McMahon) is set in London and Essex in the 1890s. Encompassing both the social problems of Victorian East London and the mysterious foggy world of the Essex marshes, the book naturally invites comparison with Dickens. Sarah Perry writes beautifully and her scene-setting descriptive overviews had much in common with ‘Bleak House’ (reviewed here in October 2007 when I noted Dickens’ “technique of 'floating' over the streets and buildings of the Inns of Court”). Perry’s prose is beautifully read by Juanita McMahon, becoming atmospherically poetic when read out loud. The setting of ‘The Essex Serpent’ also reminded me of 'Mr Mac and Me' by Esther Freud (reviewed here in May 2015) – another historic tale of an Eastern coastal community. ‘The Essex Serpent’ uses superstitious fears of the return of a terrifying winged serpent as the backdrop to a battle of ideas between science (represented by the amateur palaeontologist Cora Seaborne) and religion (represented by the rector of Aldwinter, William Ransome). These characters are joined by a pioneering surgeon, a social campaigner and a politician as the novel tackles a range of issues facing Victorian society. But I felt this novel of ideas seemed unsure what it’s real focus was. Like ‘Mr Mac and Me’ it was beautifully written but the pace was slow and I longed for more of a driving plot.
Friday, September 02, 2016
'King Lear' by William Shakespeare
2 September 2016
On Thursday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Greg Doran’s new RSC production of ‘King Lear’ starring Anthony Sher. I first saw ‘King Lear’ at the old RST in 1993 with Robert Stephens in the title role and I was interested to discover that, like Anthony Sher now, Robert Stephens had also recently played Falstaff in ‘Henry IV Parts 1 & 2’ for the RSC. Watching Anthony Sher I was struck by the similarities between Lear and Falstaff: if you extended the scene in ‘Henry IV Part 1’ where Falstaff pretends to be the King to imagine him actually ruling you might conclude that his reign would have ended in the disastrous way depicted in ‘King Lear’. Sher’s Lear looks like Charlton Heston as Moses, particularly in the storm scene on a spectacularly elevated heath. Anthony Sher is always a compelling actor and his journey from belligerent tyrant to whimsical madman is fascinating to watch. It was also great to see David Troughton back at the RSC as Gloucester – losing his eyes in an excruciatingly brutal scene set within a transparent box whose walls dripped with blood. This was a fairly bare production with little staging, leaving the focus on the actors themselves. And one of the main beneficiaries was rising RSC star Paapa Essiedu (who we last saw in ‘Hamlet’, reviewed here in April 2016) whose performance as Edmund very nearly stole the show.
On Thursday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Greg Doran’s new RSC production of ‘King Lear’ starring Anthony Sher. I first saw ‘King Lear’ at the old RST in 1993 with Robert Stephens in the title role and I was interested to discover that, like Anthony Sher now, Robert Stephens had also recently played Falstaff in ‘Henry IV Parts 1 & 2’ for the RSC. Watching Anthony Sher I was struck by the similarities between Lear and Falstaff: if you extended the scene in ‘Henry IV Part 1’ where Falstaff pretends to be the King to imagine him actually ruling you might conclude that his reign would have ended in the disastrous way depicted in ‘King Lear’. Sher’s Lear looks like Charlton Heston as Moses, particularly in the storm scene on a spectacularly elevated heath. Anthony Sher is always a compelling actor and his journey from belligerent tyrant to whimsical madman is fascinating to watch. It was also great to see David Troughton back at the RSC as Gloucester – losing his eyes in an excruciatingly brutal scene set within a transparent box whose walls dripped with blood. This was a fairly bare production with little staging, leaving the focus on the actors themselves. And one of the main beneficiaries was rising RSC star Paapa Essiedu (who we last saw in ‘Hamlet’, reviewed here in April 2016) whose performance as Edmund very nearly stole the show.
Edinburgh Festivals 2016
2 September 2016
We had a great week in Edinburgh where we saw a total of 26 shows in the Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A week at the Edinburgh Festivals always serves as a cultural top-up for the year. There is so much to do that you don’t really have the opportunity to reflect on it until you get home – but then what you’ve seen acts a spur to further investigation and cultural exploration.
Since I got back from Edinburgh I’ve been reading some of the witty, dark short stories of Saki – the pen name of the author Hector Hugh Munro who died in the trenches in the First World War and was the subject of the excellent new play ‘Life According to Saki’ by Katherine Rundell which we saw performed by Atticist at C venue. I’ve been re-listening to one of my favourite albums – Michelle Shocked’s 1989 rock & roll/Big Band masterpiece ‘Captain Swing’ – which it was a genuine thrill to discover she was performing in its entirety at the New Town Theatre.
I’m looking forward to reading Meg Rosoff’s first novel for adults ‘Jonathan Unleashed’, which we saw her discussing at the Book Festival. I’ve set a reminder for the broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Thursday 15 September of the stunning concert by the Russian National Orchestra that we saw at the Usher Hall – featuring Kirill Karabits conducting Scriabin’s triumphant ‘Symphony No 2’. And I’ve been inspired to start practising Shostakovich’s ‘Symphony No 5’, which I am due to perform with Northampton Symphony Orchestra in November, after seeing an amazing performance of the piece by the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop.
Other highlights from our Edinburgh week included brilliantly bizarre stand-up from Simon Munnery, a fascinating lecture from Melvyn Bragg on the Peasants’ Revolt and a return visit to the surreal world of Kenny Young and The Eggplants (‘Eggplantis’).
Two of the best shows we saw this year shared a similar format – plays featuring solo performers using a mixture of poetry, spoken word, storytelling, songs and physical theatre. Tom Gill’s ‘Growing Pains’ and Lotte Rice’s ‘Exactly Like You’ (both at Underbelly) were both bravura performances by young rising stars.
We had a great week in Edinburgh where we saw a total of 26 shows in the Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A week at the Edinburgh Festivals always serves as a cultural top-up for the year. There is so much to do that you don’t really have the opportunity to reflect on it until you get home – but then what you’ve seen acts a spur to further investigation and cultural exploration.
Since I got back from Edinburgh I’ve been reading some of the witty, dark short stories of Saki – the pen name of the author Hector Hugh Munro who died in the trenches in the First World War and was the subject of the excellent new play ‘Life According to Saki’ by Katherine Rundell which we saw performed by Atticist at C venue. I’ve been re-listening to one of my favourite albums – Michelle Shocked’s 1989 rock & roll/Big Band masterpiece ‘Captain Swing’ – which it was a genuine thrill to discover she was performing in its entirety at the New Town Theatre.
I’m looking forward to reading Meg Rosoff’s first novel for adults ‘Jonathan Unleashed’, which we saw her discussing at the Book Festival. I’ve set a reminder for the broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Thursday 15 September of the stunning concert by the Russian National Orchestra that we saw at the Usher Hall – featuring Kirill Karabits conducting Scriabin’s triumphant ‘Symphony No 2’. And I’ve been inspired to start practising Shostakovich’s ‘Symphony No 5’, which I am due to perform with Northampton Symphony Orchestra in November, after seeing an amazing performance of the piece by the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop.
Other highlights from our Edinburgh week included brilliantly bizarre stand-up from Simon Munnery, a fascinating lecture from Melvyn Bragg on the Peasants’ Revolt and a return visit to the surreal world of Kenny Young and The Eggplants (‘Eggplantis’).
Two of the best shows we saw this year shared a similar format – plays featuring solo performers using a mixture of poetry, spoken word, storytelling, songs and physical theatre. Tom Gill’s ‘Growing Pains’ and Lotte Rice’s ‘Exactly Like You’ (both at Underbelly) were both bravura performances by young rising stars.
Friday, August 19, 2016
'Guilt Trip' by Katherine Jakeways, Felicity Montagu and Olivia Nixon
19 August 2016
‘Guilt Trip’ is a great example of the kind of gentle, funny, clever and moving comedy drama that BBC Radio 4 does so well. This four-part series, which finished this week, stars Felicity Montagu and her real-life daughter Olivia Nixon as mother and daughter Ros and Laura who are walking the Thames path, from the source of the river to Tower Bridge, to raise money for charity in memory of Laura’s father (Ros’s ex-husband) who has recently passed away. Thrown together for two weeks of strenuous physical exercise, the pair make a great odd-couple and their episodic encounters with a range of characters along the river path are reminiscent of the meandering stories of ‘Three Men in a Boat’. ‘Guilt Trip’ is written by Katherine Jakeways (who also appears as Laura’s stepmother, Ruth) with Felicity Montagu and Olivia Nixon. All four episodes are still available to listen to for the next seven days at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mhzqx/episodes/player
‘Guilt Trip’ is a great example of the kind of gentle, funny, clever and moving comedy drama that BBC Radio 4 does so well. This four-part series, which finished this week, stars Felicity Montagu and her real-life daughter Olivia Nixon as mother and daughter Ros and Laura who are walking the Thames path, from the source of the river to Tower Bridge, to raise money for charity in memory of Laura’s father (Ros’s ex-husband) who has recently passed away. Thrown together for two weeks of strenuous physical exercise, the pair make a great odd-couple and their episodic encounters with a range of characters along the river path are reminiscent of the meandering stories of ‘Three Men in a Boat’. ‘Guilt Trip’ is written by Katherine Jakeways (who also appears as Laura’s stepmother, Ruth) with Felicity Montagu and Olivia Nixon. All four episodes are still available to listen to for the next seven days at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07mhzqx/episodes/player
Friday, August 12, 2016
'Stranger Things' by The Duffer Brothers
12 August 2016
I’m a recent convert to Netflix, joining the online streaming service just in time to watch the gripping new sci-fi/horror serial ‘Stranger Things’. This eight-part drama, written and directed by the Duffer Brothers and starring Winona Ryder, is a homage to 1980s films such as ‘E.T.’, ‘The Goonies’ and ‘Stand By Me’. It is set in 1983 in a small town in Indiana and starts with the disappearance of a local boy near a mysterious government research establishment. Flickering lights herald the arrival of a monster from an alternative dimension, a child with telekinetic powers and masses of armed suits in transit vans. The focus on a gang of kids on bikes trying to outwit the authorities recalls some of those children’s films, but ‘Stranger Things’ is quite an adult drama. It builds to a truly thrilling climax and, unlike so many modern TV series, actually draws the story to a conclusion – merely hinting at the possibility of a second series, which would be most welcome.
I’m a recent convert to Netflix, joining the online streaming service just in time to watch the gripping new sci-fi/horror serial ‘Stranger Things’. This eight-part drama, written and directed by the Duffer Brothers and starring Winona Ryder, is a homage to 1980s films such as ‘E.T.’, ‘The Goonies’ and ‘Stand By Me’. It is set in 1983 in a small town in Indiana and starts with the disappearance of a local boy near a mysterious government research establishment. Flickering lights herald the arrival of a monster from an alternative dimension, a child with telekinetic powers and masses of armed suits in transit vans. The focus on a gang of kids on bikes trying to outwit the authorities recalls some of those children’s films, but ‘Stranger Things’ is quite an adult drama. It builds to a truly thrilling climax and, unlike so many modern TV series, actually draws the story to a conclusion – merely hinting at the possibility of a second series, which would be most welcome.
Thursday, August 11, 2016
'Scorched' by Lisle Turner
11 August 2016
‘Scorched’, written by Lisle Turner, produced by Open Sky and playing at Zoo Southside as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, is a play with one actor which deals with themes of ageing, reminiscence and play. We encounter an elderly man watching TV in his living room. As he remembers key incidents from his life he acts them out, using the domestic furniture to represent vehicles and buildings in the same way children often do – emphasising the idea of a ‘second childhood’ in older age. It’s a very impressive physical performance which demonstrates some incredibly inventive stagecraft, including projection, puppetry and animation. I loved the moment when Jack is sitting in his armchair thinking about his time in the army fighting Rommel in the Sahara and remembering having a tattoo on his arm – at which point a projected image appears on his bare upper arm, looking convincingly like a tattoo until it starts to move as an animated cartoon. I also enjoyed the beautiful sculpture created in front of our eyes from sand, sugar and shortbread. But I felt the need for a little more narrative thread to hold the audience’s attention for an hour. And it was a shame that what was clearly a very creative sound design, mixing the soundtrack of the TV programmes Jack is watching with sound effects and voices from his past, was often obscured by the noisy dance show going on in the venue upstairs. Nevertheless ‘Scorched’ is a high quality show which presents an interesting take on ageing and is available, in abridged version, for performance in care homes with associated workshops for residents.
‘Scorched’, written by Lisle Turner, produced by Open Sky and playing at Zoo Southside as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, is a play with one actor which deals with themes of ageing, reminiscence and play. We encounter an elderly man watching TV in his living room. As he remembers key incidents from his life he acts them out, using the domestic furniture to represent vehicles and buildings in the same way children often do – emphasising the idea of a ‘second childhood’ in older age. It’s a very impressive physical performance which demonstrates some incredibly inventive stagecraft, including projection, puppetry and animation. I loved the moment when Jack is sitting in his armchair thinking about his time in the army fighting Rommel in the Sahara and remembering having a tattoo on his arm – at which point a projected image appears on his bare upper arm, looking convincingly like a tattoo until it starts to move as an animated cartoon. I also enjoyed the beautiful sculpture created in front of our eyes from sand, sugar and shortbread. But I felt the need for a little more narrative thread to hold the audience’s attention for an hour. And it was a shame that what was clearly a very creative sound design, mixing the soundtrack of the TV programmes Jack is watching with sound effects and voices from his past, was often obscured by the noisy dance show going on in the venue upstairs. Nevertheless ‘Scorched’ is a high quality show which presents an interesting take on ageing and is available, in abridged version, for performance in care homes with associated workshops for residents.
Friday, August 05, 2016
WOMAD 2016
5 August 2016
I had a lovely weekend at the WOMAD Festival at Charlton Park near Malmesbury in Wiltshire. After the rain and mud of 2015, this year’s festival was blessed with almost perfect weather. Although it rained just before I arrived at the festival site on Friday it then stayed dry until I left on Sunday, with a mixture of extremely hot sunshine and some welcome cloud cover. I saw 22 performances from almost every corner of the world. It was great finally to see the Hot 8 Brass Band from New Orleans (who I wrote about here in January 2013) live on stage: from the moment they opened their set with a high tempo version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Sir Duke’ I knew we were in for a treat. I also enjoyed seeing the charming young Brazilian singer-songwriter/cellist Dom La Nena (“the bossa nova Joanna Newson”), Scottish fiddle and harp duo Twelfth Day with their mixture of traditional and contemporary folk and classical, and Hollie Stephenson – an 18-year-old soul singer from North London with a powerful Amy Winehouse voice.
Long-time readers with good memories may recall my trip to the mountain village of Bitti in Sardinia in 2007, home to the famous singing shepherds, Tenores de Bitti. As I wrote here in June 2007: “the Sardinian canto a tenore tradition is an amazing sound. For centuries shepherds have gathered in mountain huts at the end of the working day to sing to each other (and drink!) through the night. Standing in a circle facing each other, this is very much participatory music – not designed for an audience. The four-part unaccompanied close-harmony singing imitates natural sounds: the bass (‘bassu’) is the sound of a cow, the ‘contra’ is the sound of a sheep and the ‘mesu ‘oche’ is the sound of the wind. Above these the soloist (‘voche’ – the human voice) leads the song and carries the text. The result is harmonically scrunchy, with a very low growlly bass – hypnotically repetitive and remarkably catchy.” It was a great pleasure, therefore, to get my first opportunity to see the tenore tradition live at the WOMAD Festival on Sunday. Cuncordu e Tenore de Orosei is a group that performs both secular tenore songs and the cuncordu religious vocal tradition. The five male singers make a spectacular deep polyphonic sound. They were also just about the least audience-friendly act I have ever seen at WOMAD! True to the traditional Sardinian style they stood in a close circle facing each other, around a single microphone, some way back from the front of the stage. At the end of each song they came out of their circle and stood briefly facing the audience to acknowledge the applause – but with very little attempt to engage the crowd, mostly staring straight ahead with hands in pockets or arms folded. This kind of behaviour only tends to provoke a WOMAD audience into even more vociferously enthusiastic reaction – enjoying the challenge of winning over such seriously unresponsive performers. Sure enough, as the performance progressed, the whooping and cheering of a huge crowd packed in between the trees of the arboretum at Charlton Park, began to elicit a few smiles and bows from the Sardinian singers.
It is hard to pick out a single highlight from a long weekend of live music but I especially liked the remarkable Indo-Scottish MC, Soom T, who really seemed to be enjoying herself on the stage of the Big Red Tent. And I loved the acoustic Canadian folk trio from Prince Edward Island, The East Pointers, whose music was slick, fast, catchy and extremely danceable and reminded me a lot of another Canadian group, The Bills (reviewed here in May 2006).
You can see a selection of my photos from the WOMAD Festival at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/WOMAD2016
I had a lovely weekend at the WOMAD Festival at Charlton Park near Malmesbury in Wiltshire. After the rain and mud of 2015, this year’s festival was blessed with almost perfect weather. Although it rained just before I arrived at the festival site on Friday it then stayed dry until I left on Sunday, with a mixture of extremely hot sunshine and some welcome cloud cover. I saw 22 performances from almost every corner of the world. It was great finally to see the Hot 8 Brass Band from New Orleans (who I wrote about here in January 2013) live on stage: from the moment they opened their set with a high tempo version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Sir Duke’ I knew we were in for a treat. I also enjoyed seeing the charming young Brazilian singer-songwriter/cellist Dom La Nena (“the bossa nova Joanna Newson”), Scottish fiddle and harp duo Twelfth Day with their mixture of traditional and contemporary folk and classical, and Hollie Stephenson – an 18-year-old soul singer from North London with a powerful Amy Winehouse voice.
Long-time readers with good memories may recall my trip to the mountain village of Bitti in Sardinia in 2007, home to the famous singing shepherds, Tenores de Bitti. As I wrote here in June 2007: “the Sardinian canto a tenore tradition is an amazing sound. For centuries shepherds have gathered in mountain huts at the end of the working day to sing to each other (and drink!) through the night. Standing in a circle facing each other, this is very much participatory music – not designed for an audience. The four-part unaccompanied close-harmony singing imitates natural sounds: the bass (‘bassu’) is the sound of a cow, the ‘contra’ is the sound of a sheep and the ‘mesu ‘oche’ is the sound of the wind. Above these the soloist (‘voche’ – the human voice) leads the song and carries the text. The result is harmonically scrunchy, with a very low growlly bass – hypnotically repetitive and remarkably catchy.” It was a great pleasure, therefore, to get my first opportunity to see the tenore tradition live at the WOMAD Festival on Sunday. Cuncordu e Tenore de Orosei is a group that performs both secular tenore songs and the cuncordu religious vocal tradition. The five male singers make a spectacular deep polyphonic sound. They were also just about the least audience-friendly act I have ever seen at WOMAD! True to the traditional Sardinian style they stood in a close circle facing each other, around a single microphone, some way back from the front of the stage. At the end of each song they came out of their circle and stood briefly facing the audience to acknowledge the applause – but with very little attempt to engage the crowd, mostly staring straight ahead with hands in pockets or arms folded. This kind of behaviour only tends to provoke a WOMAD audience into even more vociferously enthusiastic reaction – enjoying the challenge of winning over such seriously unresponsive performers. Sure enough, as the performance progressed, the whooping and cheering of a huge crowd packed in between the trees of the arboretum at Charlton Park, began to elicit a few smiles and bows from the Sardinian singers.
It is hard to pick out a single highlight from a long weekend of live music but I especially liked the remarkable Indo-Scottish MC, Soom T, who really seemed to be enjoying herself on the stage of the Big Red Tent. And I loved the acoustic Canadian folk trio from Prince Edward Island, The East Pointers, whose music was slick, fast, catchy and extremely danceable and reminded me a lot of another Canadian group, The Bills (reviewed here in May 2006).
You can see a selection of my photos from the WOMAD Festival at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/WOMAD2016
Thursday, July 28, 2016
'Moving' by Jenny Eclair
28 July 2016
We first saw the comedian Jenny Eclair at the South Holland Centre in Spalding about a year before she became the first female solo winner of the Edinburgh Fringe Perrier Comedy Award in 1995. We saw her stand-up show a few times over the next few years and have since enjoyed her appearances on radio and television but, until now, I hadn’t read any of her books. Her latest novel, ‘Moving’ (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Judith Boyd, Clare Willie and Andrew Wincott), is a surprisingly melancholy family tale in three parts. The first section of the book focuses on Edwina who is about to sell the house she has lived in for more than 50 years. As she shows the estate agent each room she is reminded of episodes from her family life, gradually building up a jigsaw-puzzle narrative of Edwina’s marriages and children. Moving from room to room with a series of flashback stories provides an intriguing structure but feels more like an extended Radio 4 Afternoon Play than a novel. The middle section of the book plunges the reader into the more straightforward story of a student at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre in the early 1980s (clearly drawing on Jenny Eclair’s own experience). But the fact that the protagonist here is not one of Edwina’s children but someone more obliquely connected to her family makes the novel much more interesting as the reader tries to work out how the events and characters are going to connect. Some apparently far-fetched coincidences turn out to have more believable connections that were subtly planted in the early chapters. The final section of the novel shifts to another previously peripheral character’s perspective and brings the narrative back to the present day. Echoing the structure of the novel’s first section, photographs in an album prompt memories that fill in another angle to many of the events covered in the first two parts of the book. Jenny Eclair cleverly makes us care about a previously unsympathetic character by showing us the story through his eyes. ‘Moving’ is an impressive and intriguing novel – carefully plotted and a sadder, more serious story than I had expected.
We first saw the comedian Jenny Eclair at the South Holland Centre in Spalding about a year before she became the first female solo winner of the Edinburgh Fringe Perrier Comedy Award in 1995. We saw her stand-up show a few times over the next few years and have since enjoyed her appearances on radio and television but, until now, I hadn’t read any of her books. Her latest novel, ‘Moving’ (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Judith Boyd, Clare Willie and Andrew Wincott), is a surprisingly melancholy family tale in three parts. The first section of the book focuses on Edwina who is about to sell the house she has lived in for more than 50 years. As she shows the estate agent each room she is reminded of episodes from her family life, gradually building up a jigsaw-puzzle narrative of Edwina’s marriages and children. Moving from room to room with a series of flashback stories provides an intriguing structure but feels more like an extended Radio 4 Afternoon Play than a novel. The middle section of the book plunges the reader into the more straightforward story of a student at the Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre in the early 1980s (clearly drawing on Jenny Eclair’s own experience). But the fact that the protagonist here is not one of Edwina’s children but someone more obliquely connected to her family makes the novel much more interesting as the reader tries to work out how the events and characters are going to connect. Some apparently far-fetched coincidences turn out to have more believable connections that were subtly planted in the early chapters. The final section of the novel shifts to another previously peripheral character’s perspective and brings the narrative back to the present day. Echoing the structure of the novel’s first section, photographs in an album prompt memories that fill in another angle to many of the events covered in the first two parts of the book. Jenny Eclair cleverly makes us care about a previously unsympathetic character by showing us the story through his eyes. ‘Moving’ is an impressive and intriguing novel – carefully plotted and a sadder, more serious story than I had expected.
Friday, July 22, 2016
'Sense and Sensibility' by Jane Austen, adapted by Laura Turner
22 July 2016
On Wednesday we took advantage of the hot weather to watch an open-air theatre performance at Wrest House in Silsoe. It was a beautiful setting for Chapterhouse Theatre's production of 'Sense and Sensibility', adapted by Laura Turner. We had actually seen this production before (reviewed here in September 2011) but it was still very enjoyable second time round – with a fresh and enthusiastic young cast and a packed audience on the tiered lawns beside the Orangery. When Marianne Dashwood was caught in a thunderstorm (leading to her development of a 'putrid fever') there was a moment when we all wondered whether the recorded thunder sound effect was the actual weather finally breaking but fortunately we stayed dry as the sun sank behind the trees.
On Wednesday we took advantage of the hot weather to watch an open-air theatre performance at Wrest House in Silsoe. It was a beautiful setting for Chapterhouse Theatre's production of 'Sense and Sensibility', adapted by Laura Turner. We had actually seen this production before (reviewed here in September 2011) but it was still very enjoyable second time round – with a fresh and enthusiastic young cast and a packed audience on the tiered lawns beside the Orangery. When Marianne Dashwood was caught in a thunderstorm (leading to her development of a 'putrid fever') there was a moment when we all wondered whether the recorded thunder sound effect was the actual weather finally breaking but fortunately we stayed dry as the sun sank behind the trees.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
20 July 2016
The annual Northampton Symphony Orchestra Friends' Concert is an opportunity for us to say thank you to the Friends of the NSO for their support over the past year. It is also a chance for the orchestra to play a variety of shorter, lighter pieces that wouldn't necessarily fit into our main concerts. This year's Friends' Concert – the first with our new conductor John Gibbons – featured waltzes by Johann Strauss and Aram Khachaturian, 'Entry Of The Gladiators' by Julius Fucik and two pieces by Eric Coates ('London Suite' and the 'Dambusters March'). We also played a suite of music by Nigel Hess written for the 2004 film 'Ladies in Lavender' with NSO leader Stephen Hague – who actually appeared in the film – playing the solo violin part. Our concert programme also included 'On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring' by Delius and Dvořák's 'Slavonic Dance No 1'. It was a lovely concert – followed by a wonderful buffet!
The annual Northampton Symphony Orchestra Friends' Concert is an opportunity for us to say thank you to the Friends of the NSO for their support over the past year. It is also a chance for the orchestra to play a variety of shorter, lighter pieces that wouldn't necessarily fit into our main concerts. This year's Friends' Concert – the first with our new conductor John Gibbons – featured waltzes by Johann Strauss and Aram Khachaturian, 'Entry Of The Gladiators' by Julius Fucik and two pieces by Eric Coates ('London Suite' and the 'Dambusters March'). We also played a suite of music by Nigel Hess written for the 2004 film 'Ladies in Lavender' with NSO leader Stephen Hague – who actually appeared in the film – playing the solo violin part. Our concert programme also included 'On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring' by Delius and Dvořák's 'Slavonic Dance No 1'. It was a lovely concert – followed by a wonderful buffet!
Friday, July 15, 2016
'Vinegar Girl' by Anne Tyler
15 July 2016
Anne Tyler said that 'A Spool of Blue Thread' (reviewed here in March 2015) was to be her last novel, so it was great to be able to discover a new Anne Tyler book in the form of 'Vinegar Girl: The Taming of the Shrew Retold', which I have just read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Kirsten Potter. 'Vinegar Girl' is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series in which contemporary novelists are invited to re-imagine Shakespeare plays. This being Anne Tyler, her 'Taming of the Shrew' is set in modern-day Baltimore and focusses, like most Anne Tyler novels, on the slightly quirky domestic life of a relatively normal family. In the manner of most Anne Tyler protagonists, Kate Battista contemplates a radical step that would change her comfortable, familiar life for ever. 'Vinegar Girl' is a fairly short novel which succeeds by concentrating on character development rather than slavishly following Shakespeare's plot. It's a gentle and very enjoyable book – an unexpected treat for Anne Tyler fans who feared there was no more to come.
Anne Tyler said that 'A Spool of Blue Thread' (reviewed here in March 2015) was to be her last novel, so it was great to be able to discover a new Anne Tyler book in the form of 'Vinegar Girl: The Taming of the Shrew Retold', which I have just read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Kirsten Potter. 'Vinegar Girl' is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series in which contemporary novelists are invited to re-imagine Shakespeare plays. This being Anne Tyler, her 'Taming of the Shrew' is set in modern-day Baltimore and focusses, like most Anne Tyler novels, on the slightly quirky domestic life of a relatively normal family. In the manner of most Anne Tyler protagonists, Kate Battista contemplates a radical step that would change her comfortable, familiar life for ever. 'Vinegar Girl' is a fairly short novel which succeeds by concentrating on character development rather than slavishly following Shakespeare's plot. It's a gentle and very enjoyable book – an unexpected treat for Anne Tyler fans who feared there was no more to come.
Wimbledon 2016
15 July 2016
We made our first visit for three years to the All England Tennis Championships at Wimbledon last week. We were very lucky to get Centre Court tickets for Ladies' semi finals day and had the best seats we have ever had – just three rows from the court. It was an incredibly hot day and we had a wonderful view of the action. Unfortunately neither semi final was a great match: Serena Williams' win over Elena Vesnina was so one-sided it felt like a first round match. The second semi final, between Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber, was more competitive but the result never really seemed in doubt. We did, however, get a great men's doubles semi-final which saw the eventual champions, Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, triumph over Max Mirnyi and Treat Huey in five tight sets. It was amazing seeing the lighting-fast rallies between all four players at the net so close-up. You can see a selection of my Wimbledon 2016 photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Wimbledon2016
We made our first visit for three years to the All England Tennis Championships at Wimbledon last week. We were very lucky to get Centre Court tickets for Ladies' semi finals day and had the best seats we have ever had – just three rows from the court. It was an incredibly hot day and we had a wonderful view of the action. Unfortunately neither semi final was a great match: Serena Williams' win over Elena Vesnina was so one-sided it felt like a first round match. The second semi final, between Venus Williams and Angelique Kerber, was more competitive but the result never really seemed in doubt. We did, however, get a great men's doubles semi-final which saw the eventual champions, Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, triumph over Max Mirnyi and Treat Huey in five tight sets. It was amazing seeing the lighting-fast rallies between all four players at the net so close-up. You can see a selection of my Wimbledon 2016 photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Wimbledon2016
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
'The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047' by Lionel Shriver
29 June 2016
It's a long time since I read Lionel Shriver's stunning novel 'We need to talk about Kevin'. Writing here about it in August 2006 I said “I found it completely compelling – very clever and well-written – a gripping and emotional ride that made me feel like I had been holding my breath throughout – and made me burst into tears after finishing the final page – brilliant!” So my expectations were high in approaching Lionel Shriver's new novel 'The Mandibles' (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by George Newbern). 'The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047' explores the economic crises of recent years through an inventive fantasy that follows the lives of a wealthy American family through a dystopian future in which the dollar crashes resulting in the unravelling of civilisation and the rule of law across the USA. Shriver has lots of fun imagining Mexico imposing border controls to stop US citizens fleeing South and Americans providing cheap labour to the new Chinese superpower. But the author's extensive research is rather blatantly displayed. This is a novel of ideas in which characters who are desperate for food and other essential supplies seem happy to spend most of their time having long intellectual conversations about economic theory and the role of cash in society. 'The Mandibles' often feels like one of George Bernard Shaw's more didactic plays, with far too many dinner party scenes of unrealistically eloquent expository debate. Strangely, for a story whose events span the breakdown of Western civilisation, there doesn't seem to be enough plot: the dramatic incidents tend to happen 'off-stage' (even a scene where the family is robbed at gunpoint descends into a theoretical discussion with the gunman). 'The Mandibles' is an interesting exploration of economic theory but ultimately a somewhat stilted novel.
It's a long time since I read Lionel Shriver's stunning novel 'We need to talk about Kevin'. Writing here about it in August 2006 I said “I found it completely compelling – very clever and well-written – a gripping and emotional ride that made me feel like I had been holding my breath throughout – and made me burst into tears after finishing the final page – brilliant!” So my expectations were high in approaching Lionel Shriver's new novel 'The Mandibles' (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by George Newbern). 'The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047' explores the economic crises of recent years through an inventive fantasy that follows the lives of a wealthy American family through a dystopian future in which the dollar crashes resulting in the unravelling of civilisation and the rule of law across the USA. Shriver has lots of fun imagining Mexico imposing border controls to stop US citizens fleeing South and Americans providing cheap labour to the new Chinese superpower. But the author's extensive research is rather blatantly displayed. This is a novel of ideas in which characters who are desperate for food and other essential supplies seem happy to spend most of their time having long intellectual conversations about economic theory and the role of cash in society. 'The Mandibles' often feels like one of George Bernard Shaw's more didactic plays, with far too many dinner party scenes of unrealistically eloquent expository debate. Strangely, for a story whose events span the breakdown of Western civilisation, there doesn't seem to be enough plot: the dramatic incidents tend to happen 'off-stage' (even a scene where the family is robbed at gunpoint descends into a theoretical discussion with the gunman). 'The Mandibles' is an interesting exploration of economic theory but ultimately a somewhat stilted novel.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
21 June 2016
The Cornish composer George Llloyd was born in 1913 – the same year as Benjamin Britten. In his heyday Lloyd was revered (with Britten) as one of England's two great contemporary composers. But his traumatic experiences while serving with the Arctic convoys in the Second World War led him to give up composing for some years and today he is largely overlooked. George Lloyd's 'Symphony No 9', which we performed in the Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert at St Matthew's Church in Northampton last Saturday, was written in 1969. The symphony shows a composer responding to the horrors of the 20th century by deciding to focus on the cheerier aspects of life. The music feels like a, sometimes odd, mixture of the seriousness of Vaughan-Williams and the jauntiness of Eric Coates. But, over the weeks we have been rehearsing it with our conductor John Gibbons who is a great champion of British composers, I think most members of the orchestra have grown very fond of the work and many of us are now beginning to listen to George Lloyd's other symphonies. The final movement of the ninth symphony is a tour de force for tuned percussion, requiring two xylophones, marimba, glockenspiel, vibraphone, tublar bells and celeste, and the NSO percussionists gave a truly stunning performance: congratulations to Keith Crompton, Ben Lewis, Oliver Lowe, Alex Taylor, William Thallon, harpist Alexander Thomas and Chris Henderson on timpani. The concert also featured a beautifully delicate performance of Rodrigo's 'Concierto de Aranjuez' for guitar and orchestra by Graham Roberts. Our programme (of pieces linked to various holiday destinations) also included Malcolm Arnold's 'Four Cornish Dances', 'L'Isle Joyeuse' by Claude Debussy, George Gershwin's 'Cuban Overture' and John Barry's theme from the film 'Out of Africa'. Like the Lloyd symphony, the concert as a whole felt like an odd mixture but proved hugely enjoyable for both orchestra and audience. There were some wonderful solos by Graham Tear (flute), Rob Reid (clarinet) and Nick Bunker (trumpet) in the Debussy, Gershwin and the slow movement of the symphony. But my main memory of the concert will be the thrilling finale of George Lloyd's 'Symphony No 9' with its rapid-fire xylophones. If you want to get an idea of the piece there is a recording of the symphony's premiere on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWCls9RNfxM
The Cornish composer George Llloyd was born in 1913 – the same year as Benjamin Britten. In his heyday Lloyd was revered (with Britten) as one of England's two great contemporary composers. But his traumatic experiences while serving with the Arctic convoys in the Second World War led him to give up composing for some years and today he is largely overlooked. George Lloyd's 'Symphony No 9', which we performed in the Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert at St Matthew's Church in Northampton last Saturday, was written in 1969. The symphony shows a composer responding to the horrors of the 20th century by deciding to focus on the cheerier aspects of life. The music feels like a, sometimes odd, mixture of the seriousness of Vaughan-Williams and the jauntiness of Eric Coates. But, over the weeks we have been rehearsing it with our conductor John Gibbons who is a great champion of British composers, I think most members of the orchestra have grown very fond of the work and many of us are now beginning to listen to George Lloyd's other symphonies. The final movement of the ninth symphony is a tour de force for tuned percussion, requiring two xylophones, marimba, glockenspiel, vibraphone, tublar bells and celeste, and the NSO percussionists gave a truly stunning performance: congratulations to Keith Crompton, Ben Lewis, Oliver Lowe, Alex Taylor, William Thallon, harpist Alexander Thomas and Chris Henderson on timpani. The concert also featured a beautifully delicate performance of Rodrigo's 'Concierto de Aranjuez' for guitar and orchestra by Graham Roberts. Our programme (of pieces linked to various holiday destinations) also included Malcolm Arnold's 'Four Cornish Dances', 'L'Isle Joyeuse' by Claude Debussy, George Gershwin's 'Cuban Overture' and John Barry's theme from the film 'Out of Africa'. Like the Lloyd symphony, the concert as a whole felt like an odd mixture but proved hugely enjoyable for both orchestra and audience. There were some wonderful solos by Graham Tear (flute), Rob Reid (clarinet) and Nick Bunker (trumpet) in the Debussy, Gershwin and the slow movement of the symphony. But my main memory of the concert will be the thrilling finale of George Lloyd's 'Symphony No 9' with its rapid-fire xylophones. If you want to get an idea of the piece there is a recording of the symphony's premiere on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWCls9RNfxM
Friday, June 17, 2016
Iberian cruise
17 June 2016
We had a wonderful holiday on board the P&O cruise ship Oriana, visiting Spain, Portugal and Morocco. We enjoyed two weeks of consistently glorious sunshine and remarkably calm seas. It was great fun exploring some beautiful cities, including Lisbon, Cadiz, Malaga and Porto. Visiting Tangier in Morocco was a fascinating, if slightly intimidating, experience. We wandered through the crowded, narrow alleyways of the Medina with its myriad of shops and stalls selling leather goods and spices, getting lost several times as we tried to retrace our steps from the Kasbah at the top of the hill back to the harbour. Another highlight was our first visit to the Frank Gehry's amazing Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao – an incredible building that has helped to transform an ailing industrial city into a major tourist destination.
You can see a selection of my holiday photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/IberianCruise2016
We had a wonderful holiday on board the P&O cruise ship Oriana, visiting Spain, Portugal and Morocco. We enjoyed two weeks of consistently glorious sunshine and remarkably calm seas. It was great fun exploring some beautiful cities, including Lisbon, Cadiz, Malaga and Porto. Visiting Tangier in Morocco was a fascinating, if slightly intimidating, experience. We wandered through the crowded, narrow alleyways of the Medina with its myriad of shops and stalls selling leather goods and spices, getting lost several times as we tried to retrace our steps from the Kasbah at the top of the hill back to the harbour. Another highlight was our first visit to the Frank Gehry's amazing Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao – an incredible building that has helped to transform an ailing industrial city into a major tourist destination.
You can see a selection of my holiday photos at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/IberianCruise2016
Friday, May 27, 2016
'Juliet, Naked' by Nick Hornby
27 May 2016
The writer Nick Hornby is well known for his fascination with popular music – from his brilliant first novel 'High Fidelity' (1995) to his compelling non-fiction book '31 Songs' (2003) (which leaves you desperate to listen to Stevie Wonder's 'Songs in the Key of Life'). In October last year I saw Hornby interviewing Elvis Costello at the Royal Festival Hall in London (reviewed here in October 2015). So I was fascinated recently to discover Nick Hornby's 2009 novel 'Juliet, Naked' which focusses on an obsessive fan of fictional singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe – a hybrid of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen who mysteriously disappeared into obscurity more than 20 years ago. I had somehow missed this Nick Hornby novel which came out before his tale of 1960s television 'Funny Girl' (reviewed here in January 2015). 'Juliet, Naked' is familiar Hornby territory, dealing with fandom, obsession and relationships. It's an easy, enjoyable and funny read which smuggles in some serious themes. It felt like a more mature work than some earlier Nick Hornby novels – with fewer hilarious set-piece comic scenes and not afraid of leaving some loose ends dangling. The ending left me wanting more but maybe that is a sign of the author's success.
The writer Nick Hornby is well known for his fascination with popular music – from his brilliant first novel 'High Fidelity' (1995) to his compelling non-fiction book '31 Songs' (2003) (which leaves you desperate to listen to Stevie Wonder's 'Songs in the Key of Life'). In October last year I saw Hornby interviewing Elvis Costello at the Royal Festival Hall in London (reviewed here in October 2015). So I was fascinated recently to discover Nick Hornby's 2009 novel 'Juliet, Naked' which focusses on an obsessive fan of fictional singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe – a hybrid of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen who mysteriously disappeared into obscurity more than 20 years ago. I had somehow missed this Nick Hornby novel which came out before his tale of 1960s television 'Funny Girl' (reviewed here in January 2015). 'Juliet, Naked' is familiar Hornby territory, dealing with fandom, obsession and relationships. It's an easy, enjoyable and funny read which smuggles in some serious themes. It felt like a more mature work than some earlier Nick Hornby novels – with fewer hilarious set-piece comic scenes and not afraid of leaving some loose ends dangling. The ending left me wanting more but maybe that is a sign of the author's success.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
'A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Play for the Nation' by William Shakespeare
19 May 2016
In September 2008 the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Festival, Michael Boyd, gave an interview to The Stage in which he spoke about his desire to use the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival to break down barriers between amateur and professional theatre. The following day we contacted him to ask how Voluntary Arts could help make this happen. The programme we set in motion – which became known as Open Stages – led me, nearly 8 years later, to The Barbican in London last night to see a group of amateur actors from the Tower Theatre Company stealing the show in a RSC production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Erica Whyman's production, subtitled 'A Play for the Nation', is a remarkable undertaking by the RSC. The show is touring to 14 theatres across the UK as a co-production with 14 amateur theatre companies who are providing local actors in each location to play the rude mechanicals alongside a professional RSC cast, with children from local schools playing Titania's fairies. A total of 84 amateur actors and 580 child actors are taking part. Achieving this logistical feat is clearly very impressive but there was always a risk it might have been merely a worthy enterprise. Magically, the show is also an artistic triumph. Erica Whyman has set 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in a dilapidated theatre with costumes that suggest Britain in the 1940s – a decade, as she points out in the programme, that saw the founding of the Arts Council, marking the beginning of “a fundamental split between the amateur and professional worlds” in the theatre. This narrative of amateur and professional going their separate ways for more than 60 years and now gradually starting to come back together has been the constant theme of the RSC Open Stages programme and it was wonderful to see this landmark production acknowledging it. It's a witty, playful production with a mesmerising Puck – played by a constantly grinning Lucy Ellinson, barefoot in black suit and top hat, moving with the grace of a dancer and bringing to mind Joel Grey in 'Cabaret', Marcel Marceau and the Child Catcher from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. The lovers' quarrels also had some amazingly acrobatic choreography and credit should be given to the show's Movement Director, Sian Williams. But the highlight of the evening was the performance of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' by the Tower Theatre Company actors, led by John Chapman as Bottom and directed by David Taylor. This play-within-a-play climax was achingly funny: people around me in the audience were squealing hysterically. It was one of the funniest things I've seen on stage for years. The amateur actors were clearly having a ball and were in total control of the situation. The final dance, involving the whole massive cast, was glorious and joyous – a life-affirming ending to a brilliant performance. Speaking in November 2009 at the RSC/Voluntary Arts Creative Planning Weekend at Stratford-upon-Avon where we first designed the Open Stages programme, Michael Boyd talked about doing something culture-changing. He said “something very radical is happening in theatre in this country … the combined forces of professional and amateur theatre provide potentially a massive engine of social cohesion and social intelligence”. This Thursday at The Barbican we saw this in action and I'm very proud to have played a small part in this magnificent journey.
In September 2008 the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Festival, Michael Boyd, gave an interview to The Stage in which he spoke about his desire to use the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival to break down barriers between amateur and professional theatre. The following day we contacted him to ask how Voluntary Arts could help make this happen. The programme we set in motion – which became known as Open Stages – led me, nearly 8 years later, to The Barbican in London last night to see a group of amateur actors from the Tower Theatre Company stealing the show in a RSC production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Erica Whyman's production, subtitled 'A Play for the Nation', is a remarkable undertaking by the RSC. The show is touring to 14 theatres across the UK as a co-production with 14 amateur theatre companies who are providing local actors in each location to play the rude mechanicals alongside a professional RSC cast, with children from local schools playing Titania's fairies. A total of 84 amateur actors and 580 child actors are taking part. Achieving this logistical feat is clearly very impressive but there was always a risk it might have been merely a worthy enterprise. Magically, the show is also an artistic triumph. Erica Whyman has set 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in a dilapidated theatre with costumes that suggest Britain in the 1940s – a decade, as she points out in the programme, that saw the founding of the Arts Council, marking the beginning of “a fundamental split between the amateur and professional worlds” in the theatre. This narrative of amateur and professional going their separate ways for more than 60 years and now gradually starting to come back together has been the constant theme of the RSC Open Stages programme and it was wonderful to see this landmark production acknowledging it. It's a witty, playful production with a mesmerising Puck – played by a constantly grinning Lucy Ellinson, barefoot in black suit and top hat, moving with the grace of a dancer and bringing to mind Joel Grey in 'Cabaret', Marcel Marceau and the Child Catcher from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. The lovers' quarrels also had some amazingly acrobatic choreography and credit should be given to the show's Movement Director, Sian Williams. But the highlight of the evening was the performance of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' by the Tower Theatre Company actors, led by John Chapman as Bottom and directed by David Taylor. This play-within-a-play climax was achingly funny: people around me in the audience were squealing hysterically. It was one of the funniest things I've seen on stage for years. The amateur actors were clearly having a ball and were in total control of the situation. The final dance, involving the whole massive cast, was glorious and joyous – a life-affirming ending to a brilliant performance. Speaking in November 2009 at the RSC/Voluntary Arts Creative Planning Weekend at Stratford-upon-Avon where we first designed the Open Stages programme, Michael Boyd talked about doing something culture-changing. He said “something very radical is happening in theatre in this country … the combined forces of professional and amateur theatre provide potentially a massive engine of social cohesion and social intelligence”. This Thursday at The Barbican we saw this in action and I'm very proud to have played a small part in this magnificent journey.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
'Broken Harbour' by Tana French
18 May 2016
All too often crime novels seem to sacrifice good writing for plot. Many years ago I saw Ian Rankin speaking at an Edinburgh Fringe event at which he said his motivation to start the Inspector Rebus novels had been to see whether he could bring his literary novelist skills to the world of crime fiction. Surely murder mysteries don't have to be badly written? So I was delighted recently to come across the novels of Tana French – a superior set of detective stories. Tana French has written a series of novels featuring members of the Dublin Murder Squad. Rather than focussing on a single detective, each novel has a different investigating officer, drawn from the Murder Squad pool. Characters from previous novels appear in the background but the main focus shifts each time. I've just finished reading 'Broken Harbour' (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Hugh Lee). It's an intriguing police procedural which follows most of Robin's rules for detective fiction. The reader only sees events through the eyes of the main detective: so we have the same chance of solving the mystery as the police. And the puzzle is solved by detection and deduction, rather than some lucky turn of events that presents the answer on a plate. After the initial discovery of a gruesome and bizarre crime scene there are no further melodramatic twists or revelations, just a painstaking piecing together of the evidence. The resulting explanations of the murderer's method and motivations were plausible though I wasn't completely convinced by the way the detective chose to wrap up the investigation. But as well as working as a crime plot, 'Broken Harbour' is beautifully written with poetic descriptions, believable characters and a haunting melancholy. I look forward to reading more by Tana French.
All too often crime novels seem to sacrifice good writing for plot. Many years ago I saw Ian Rankin speaking at an Edinburgh Fringe event at which he said his motivation to start the Inspector Rebus novels had been to see whether he could bring his literary novelist skills to the world of crime fiction. Surely murder mysteries don't have to be badly written? So I was delighted recently to come across the novels of Tana French – a superior set of detective stories. Tana French has written a series of novels featuring members of the Dublin Murder Squad. Rather than focussing on a single detective, each novel has a different investigating officer, drawn from the Murder Squad pool. Characters from previous novels appear in the background but the main focus shifts each time. I've just finished reading 'Broken Harbour' (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Hugh Lee). It's an intriguing police procedural which follows most of Robin's rules for detective fiction. The reader only sees events through the eyes of the main detective: so we have the same chance of solving the mystery as the police. And the puzzle is solved by detection and deduction, rather than some lucky turn of events that presents the answer on a plate. After the initial discovery of a gruesome and bizarre crime scene there are no further melodramatic twists or revelations, just a painstaking piecing together of the evidence. The resulting explanations of the murderer's method and motivations were plausible though I wasn't completely convinced by the way the detective chose to wrap up the investigation. But as well as working as a crime plot, 'Broken Harbour' is beautifully written with poetic descriptions, believable characters and a haunting melancholy. I look forward to reading more by Tana French.
BBC Young Musician 2016
18 May 2016
This is the sixth time I have written here about the biennial BBC Young Musician competition – a competition I have followed avidly since it started in 1978. You can read all my previous posts at: http://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search/label/BBCYoungMusician. Two years ago I proudly boasted that I had correctly managed to pick three of the five category winners while watching the category finals. This time I am even more smug, having correctly predicted all five – though I should acknowledge that if you watch the TV coverage very carefully you begin to pick up subtle clues from the cautiously non-committal comments of the presenters and judges after each performance. No such clues were necessary however to spot that, from his first appearance in the strings final, 'cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was clearly going to win the whole competition. Like another young 'cellist, Laura van der Heijden in 2012, there was something special about his performances – passionate, thoughtful, intelligent and incredibly mature for one so young. And his off-stage shyness, politeness and humility only made him an even more likeable winner. The 2016 BBC Young Musician competition felt like one of the best ever, with a concerto final at The Barbican in London that included a horn player for the first time in many years (Ben Goldscheider playing the 'Concerto No 2' by Richard Strauss) and a remarkably charismatic performance by the first saxophone player ever to reach the final, Jess Gillam from Ulverston in Cumbria (who played 'Where the Bee Dances' by Michael Nyman). But Sheku Kanneh-Mason's outstanding performance of the 'Concerto No 1' by Shostakovitch was a fitting climax to a wonderful competition.
This is the sixth time I have written here about the biennial BBC Young Musician competition – a competition I have followed avidly since it started in 1978. You can read all my previous posts at: http://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search/label/BBCYoungMusician. Two years ago I proudly boasted that I had correctly managed to pick three of the five category winners while watching the category finals. This time I am even more smug, having correctly predicted all five – though I should acknowledge that if you watch the TV coverage very carefully you begin to pick up subtle clues from the cautiously non-committal comments of the presenters and judges after each performance. No such clues were necessary however to spot that, from his first appearance in the strings final, 'cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was clearly going to win the whole competition. Like another young 'cellist, Laura van der Heijden in 2012, there was something special about his performances – passionate, thoughtful, intelligent and incredibly mature for one so young. And his off-stage shyness, politeness and humility only made him an even more likeable winner. The 2016 BBC Young Musician competition felt like one of the best ever, with a concerto final at The Barbican in London that included a horn player for the first time in many years (Ben Goldscheider playing the 'Concerto No 2' by Richard Strauss) and a remarkably charismatic performance by the first saxophone player ever to reach the final, Jess Gillam from Ulverston in Cumbria (who played 'Where the Bee Dances' by Michael Nyman). But Sheku Kanneh-Mason's outstanding performance of the 'Concerto No 1' by Shostakovitch was a fitting climax to a wonderful competition.
'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare
18 May 2016
It took 50 years for our local amateur theatre group, TADS, to pluck up the courage to perform a Shakespeare play. Now Shakespeare has become a regular part of their repertoire. After tackling the Bard for the first time in 2012, with a magnificent production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (reviewed here in May 2012) and repeating the feat with 'Henry V' (reviewed here in July 2014), they have added a third Shakespearean triumph with Sue Sachon's production of 'Romeo and Juliet' which we saw at the TADS Theatre in Toddington last Saturday. This 'Romeo and Juliet' is set in modern day Verona (with a magnificent set designed by Andrew Naish and David Sachon). Some years ago we saw an open-air 'Romeo and Juliet' (reviewed here in August 2006) in which the Montagues and Capulets wore colour-coded football shirts with the characters' names on the back. In the TADS production the two families were identified by T-shirts showing their allegiance to rival gyms – which provided the justification for their interest in fencing. There was some impressive sword-play, with incredibly realistic fight scenes choreographed by Jon Sachon. The lead actors – Steve Loczy as Romeo (who was a great Lysander in TADS' 'A Midsummer Night's Dream') and Jenna Kay as Juliet – were excellent, but the show was almost stolen by Peter Carter-Brown's Mercutio. In the 2014 TADS production of 'Henry V' I said “Peter Carter-Brown's performance as the King would not have been out of place at the RSC. There is little comedy in 'Henry V' but Peter Carter-Brown showed a lightness of touch in the occasional comic moments to suggest it would be fascinating to see him tackle a Shakespeare comedy”. As Mercutio he gave a wonderfully physical comic performance, standing out in a universally strong cast. And I should give a special mention to Unami Tenga as Benvolio – a really impressive performance from a 19-year-old actor. I liked the idea of showing Romeo as an aspiring poet, constantly scribbling his romantic thoughts in a notebook. This gave an explanation, in this modern setting, for his poetic pronouncements as he rehearsed phrases he would then write down. It also provided the opportunity for his parents to discover the notebook by his body at the end of the play and begin to piece together what had happened to him from his writing. At nearly three and a half hours this was an immense undertaking for an amateur theatre group but TADS pulled it off impressively. Once again they made their Shakespeare production feel like a significant event in the history of the company.
It took 50 years for our local amateur theatre group, TADS, to pluck up the courage to perform a Shakespeare play. Now Shakespeare has become a regular part of their repertoire. After tackling the Bard for the first time in 2012, with a magnificent production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (reviewed here in May 2012) and repeating the feat with 'Henry V' (reviewed here in July 2014), they have added a third Shakespearean triumph with Sue Sachon's production of 'Romeo and Juliet' which we saw at the TADS Theatre in Toddington last Saturday. This 'Romeo and Juliet' is set in modern day Verona (with a magnificent set designed by Andrew Naish and David Sachon). Some years ago we saw an open-air 'Romeo and Juliet' (reviewed here in August 2006) in which the Montagues and Capulets wore colour-coded football shirts with the characters' names on the back. In the TADS production the two families were identified by T-shirts showing their allegiance to rival gyms – which provided the justification for their interest in fencing. There was some impressive sword-play, with incredibly realistic fight scenes choreographed by Jon Sachon. The lead actors – Steve Loczy as Romeo (who was a great Lysander in TADS' 'A Midsummer Night's Dream') and Jenna Kay as Juliet – were excellent, but the show was almost stolen by Peter Carter-Brown's Mercutio. In the 2014 TADS production of 'Henry V' I said “Peter Carter-Brown's performance as the King would not have been out of place at the RSC. There is little comedy in 'Henry V' but Peter Carter-Brown showed a lightness of touch in the occasional comic moments to suggest it would be fascinating to see him tackle a Shakespeare comedy”. As Mercutio he gave a wonderfully physical comic performance, standing out in a universally strong cast. And I should give a special mention to Unami Tenga as Benvolio – a really impressive performance from a 19-year-old actor. I liked the idea of showing Romeo as an aspiring poet, constantly scribbling his romantic thoughts in a notebook. This gave an explanation, in this modern setting, for his poetic pronouncements as he rehearsed phrases he would then write down. It also provided the opportunity for his parents to discover the notebook by his body at the end of the play and begin to piece together what had happened to him from his writing. At nearly three and a half hours this was an immense undertaking for an amateur theatre group but TADS pulled it off impressively. Once again they made their Shakespeare production feel like a significant event in the history of the company.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
'Cymbeline' by William Shakespeare
11 May 2016
On Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Melly Still's new RSC production of 'Cymbeline'. I had only previously seen this rarely performed Shakespeare play once – in a 1993 touring production by Compass Theatre Company which I saw at Stamford Arts Centre. It's a peculiar, complex but very entertaining play: the final scene includes some 30 denouements which tend to baffle an audience unsure whether to cry, laugh or applaud each revelation. The RSC production was spectacular, moving and funny. Anna Fleischle's design places this tale of ancient Britain in a dystopian future of concrete and graffiti. In this production Cymbeline becomes a queen rather than a king, played with battle-hardened determination by Gillian Bevan. Many of the cast are also currently in Simon Godwin's production of Hamlet (reviewed here in April 2016). Hiran Abeysekera (Horatio) plays the flawed hero Posthumus Leonatus, but unusually for Shakespeare this play has a female lead. Innogen has the most lines and the greatest time on stage and Bethan Cullinane (Guildenstern) made her a compelling character – playful, tempestuous, distracted, brave and clever. There was great use of back projection, which allowed the scenes in Rome featuring a Dutchman, a Frenchman, a Spaniard and two Italians to be performed multi-lingually with surtitles. The interaction between Britain and Europe in 'Cymbeline' feels remarkably topical with its battle between the Britons and the imperial army of Rome. It's an odd work which contains many echoes of more famous Shakespeare plays but the RSC production is great fun.
On Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Melly Still's new RSC production of 'Cymbeline'. I had only previously seen this rarely performed Shakespeare play once – in a 1993 touring production by Compass Theatre Company which I saw at Stamford Arts Centre. It's a peculiar, complex but very entertaining play: the final scene includes some 30 denouements which tend to baffle an audience unsure whether to cry, laugh or applaud each revelation. The RSC production was spectacular, moving and funny. Anna Fleischle's design places this tale of ancient Britain in a dystopian future of concrete and graffiti. In this production Cymbeline becomes a queen rather than a king, played with battle-hardened determination by Gillian Bevan. Many of the cast are also currently in Simon Godwin's production of Hamlet (reviewed here in April 2016). Hiran Abeysekera (Horatio) plays the flawed hero Posthumus Leonatus, but unusually for Shakespeare this play has a female lead. Innogen has the most lines and the greatest time on stage and Bethan Cullinane (Guildenstern) made her a compelling character – playful, tempestuous, distracted, brave and clever. There was great use of back projection, which allowed the scenes in Rome featuring a Dutchman, a Frenchman, a Spaniard and two Italians to be performed multi-lingually with surtitles. The interaction between Britain and Europe in 'Cymbeline' feels remarkably topical with its battle between the Britons and the imperial army of Rome. It's an odd work which contains many echoes of more famous Shakespeare plays but the RSC production is great fun.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
'The Complete Deaths' adapted by Tim Crouch
10 May 2016
When I last wrote here about the extraordinary theatre-maker Tim Crouch (reviewing his show 'I, Malvolio' at the Brighton Festival in May 2010) I said “take any opportunity to see what Tim Crouch does next”. He is a really interesting and unusual writer, performer and director who specialises in breaking down the fourth wall and creating entertaining, provocative and unsettling theatre. I was intrigued, therefore, to be at the Royal Theatre, Northampton, on Saturday to see the results of his new collaboration with the superb quartet of clowns that is Spymonkey (who I reviewed here in February 2012 and April 2014). Produced to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, 'The Complete Deaths' – adapted and directed by Tim Crouch and performed by Spymonkey (in a co-production with Brighton Festival and Royal & Derngate, Northampton) – re-enacts all 75 onstage deaths from Shakespeare's plays. Crouch's research into Shakespeare's deaths (23 stabbings, 12 sword fights, 5 poisonings, 12 suicides etc) is impressive. The production fuses Crouch's tendency to blur the boundaries between actor and character with Spymonkey's trademark stepping out of character to portray a company at war with itself. The use of video cameras and projection is a familiar Tim Crouch trope and Spymonkey's excellent physical slapstick is well-used. There are some very funny moments as the deaths are ticked off, with a large digital display counting them down. But I'm not sure the conceit completely worked as a show and I found my attention wandering at various points. 'The Complete Deaths' was a little too close to the Reduced Shakespeare Company's version of 'The Complete Works', with elements of the National Theatre of Brent and the self-imposed challenge aspect of Chicago's 'Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind' (30 plays in 60 minutes). But I'm still looking forward to seeing what Tim Crouch and Spymonkey do next.
When I last wrote here about the extraordinary theatre-maker Tim Crouch (reviewing his show 'I, Malvolio' at the Brighton Festival in May 2010) I said “take any opportunity to see what Tim Crouch does next”. He is a really interesting and unusual writer, performer and director who specialises in breaking down the fourth wall and creating entertaining, provocative and unsettling theatre. I was intrigued, therefore, to be at the Royal Theatre, Northampton, on Saturday to see the results of his new collaboration with the superb quartet of clowns that is Spymonkey (who I reviewed here in February 2012 and April 2014). Produced to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, 'The Complete Deaths' – adapted and directed by Tim Crouch and performed by Spymonkey (in a co-production with Brighton Festival and Royal & Derngate, Northampton) – re-enacts all 75 onstage deaths from Shakespeare's plays. Crouch's research into Shakespeare's deaths (23 stabbings, 12 sword fights, 5 poisonings, 12 suicides etc) is impressive. The production fuses Crouch's tendency to blur the boundaries between actor and character with Spymonkey's trademark stepping out of character to portray a company at war with itself. The use of video cameras and projection is a familiar Tim Crouch trope and Spymonkey's excellent physical slapstick is well-used. There are some very funny moments as the deaths are ticked off, with a large digital display counting them down. But I'm not sure the conceit completely worked as a show and I found my attention wandering at various points. 'The Complete Deaths' was a little too close to the Reduced Shakespeare Company's version of 'The Complete Works', with elements of the National Theatre of Brent and the self-imposed challenge aspect of Chicago's 'Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind' (30 plays in 60 minutes). But I'm still looking forward to seeing what Tim Crouch and Spymonkey do next.
Friday, May 06, 2016
'Kiss Me Quickstep' by Amanada Whittington
6 May 2016
On Saturday we were at Oldham Coliseum Theatre to see 'Kiss Me Quickstep' – a new play by Amanda Whittington co-produced with the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, directed by Theresa Heskins. The play opens with a young man walking into an empty ballroom, gazing around awestruck and uttering a single word: “Blackpool”. This is the story of three couples competing at the British Amateur Ballroom and Latin Championships in the Empress Ballroom at the Blackpool Winter Gardens. It's a fairly slight tale but nicely told with a good balance between humour and poignancy – and the dancing was excellent. The action takes place on two consecutive days – the interval neatly dividing the ballroom from the Latin, and providing the opportunity for a complete change of costumes. When you know your dance steps, watching actors pretending to ballroom dance can be excruciating but the cast of 'Kiss Me Quickstep' were clearly all very accomplished dancers. The lead actors were joined by a community cast of local amateurs to provide several spectacular dance sequences which filled the Coliseum stage. Amanda Whittington's research (at Blackpool Dance Festival) was meticulous: even the conversations about dance steps and routines felt believable. And her script is very witty: at one point local girl Nancy insists that a rival couple whose car has broken down and can't get home must stay the night at her house. Nancy says “We'd be delighted to have you … Cos that's what we do here. We're Blackpool.” To which her father quickly adds “Well, strictly speaking, we're Lytham.” 'Kiss Me Quickstep' is a feel-good celebration of ballroom dancing, described by its author as “life caught in a mirrorball light”.
On Saturday we were at Oldham Coliseum Theatre to see 'Kiss Me Quickstep' – a new play by Amanda Whittington co-produced with the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, directed by Theresa Heskins. The play opens with a young man walking into an empty ballroom, gazing around awestruck and uttering a single word: “Blackpool”. This is the story of three couples competing at the British Amateur Ballroom and Latin Championships in the Empress Ballroom at the Blackpool Winter Gardens. It's a fairly slight tale but nicely told with a good balance between humour and poignancy – and the dancing was excellent. The action takes place on two consecutive days – the interval neatly dividing the ballroom from the Latin, and providing the opportunity for a complete change of costumes. When you know your dance steps, watching actors pretending to ballroom dance can be excruciating but the cast of 'Kiss Me Quickstep' were clearly all very accomplished dancers. The lead actors were joined by a community cast of local amateurs to provide several spectacular dance sequences which filled the Coliseum stage. Amanda Whittington's research (at Blackpool Dance Festival) was meticulous: even the conversations about dance steps and routines felt believable. And her script is very witty: at one point local girl Nancy insists that a rival couple whose car has broken down and can't get home must stay the night at her house. Nancy says “We'd be delighted to have you … Cos that's what we do here. We're Blackpool.” To which her father quickly adds “Well, strictly speaking, we're Lytham.” 'Kiss Me Quickstep' is a feel-good celebration of ballroom dancing, described by its author as “life caught in a mirrorball light”.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
26 April 2016
Last Saturday was the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death and the Royal Shakespeare Company marked the occasion with a star-studded gala performance at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, hosted by David Tennant and broadcast live on BBC2. I was thrilled to receive an invitation from the RSC but quickly remembered that I was already committed to playing in the Northampton Symphony Orchestra's own Shakespeare celebration – 'The Bard's Birthday Bash' – the same evening. Our Shakespeare-themed concert opened with music from Prokofiev's ballet 'Romeo and Juliet' followed by 'The Magic Island' – a piece by Northampton-born composer William Alwyn which was inspired by 'The Tempest'. Alwyn's score quotes Caliban's speech 'Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises' – the words spoken by Kenneth Branagh at the start of Danny Boyle's London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and which I used in ‘Island Race’ – the short choral piece I wrote with Robin Osterley and Evan Dawson to celebrate London 2012 (see: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/island-race.html). But the main event in Saturday's NSO concert was a performance of William Walton's music from the 1944 Laurence Olivier film of 'Henry V', arranged by Christopher Palmer as 'Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario' – in which the music is interspersed with key speeches from the play. For our performance actor Graham Padden and NSO Conductor John Gibbons had added even more of Shakespeare's text to turn the piece into a one-man performance of the play, accompanied by 80-piece orchestra. It was great fun to play and Graham Padden did an amazing job of conjuring up Shakespeare's scenes and characters. The shunning of Falstaff by the King was a really poignant moment, Henry's wooing of the French Princess was playful and touching and the Battle of Agincourt was powerful and brutal: 'Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'. There were many great woodwind solos, a mysteriously wandering off-stage trumpet and an army of percussionists. With a series of short movements carefully co-ordinated with narrative cues it felt more like playing for a show than an orchestral concert but it was a really enjoying and satisfying experience. I'm glad I decided to celebrate the Shakespeare anniversary with the NSO: when you've got Graham Padden, who needs David Tennant?
Last Saturday was the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death and the Royal Shakespeare Company marked the occasion with a star-studded gala performance at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, hosted by David Tennant and broadcast live on BBC2. I was thrilled to receive an invitation from the RSC but quickly remembered that I was already committed to playing in the Northampton Symphony Orchestra's own Shakespeare celebration – 'The Bard's Birthday Bash' – the same evening. Our Shakespeare-themed concert opened with music from Prokofiev's ballet 'Romeo and Juliet' followed by 'The Magic Island' – a piece by Northampton-born composer William Alwyn which was inspired by 'The Tempest'. Alwyn's score quotes Caliban's speech 'Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises' – the words spoken by Kenneth Branagh at the start of Danny Boyle's London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and which I used in ‘Island Race’ – the short choral piece I wrote with Robin Osterley and Evan Dawson to celebrate London 2012 (see: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/island-race.html). But the main event in Saturday's NSO concert was a performance of William Walton's music from the 1944 Laurence Olivier film of 'Henry V', arranged by Christopher Palmer as 'Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario' – in which the music is interspersed with key speeches from the play. For our performance actor Graham Padden and NSO Conductor John Gibbons had added even more of Shakespeare's text to turn the piece into a one-man performance of the play, accompanied by 80-piece orchestra. It was great fun to play and Graham Padden did an amazing job of conjuring up Shakespeare's scenes and characters. The shunning of Falstaff by the King was a really poignant moment, Henry's wooing of the French Princess was playful and touching and the Battle of Agincourt was powerful and brutal: 'Cry God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'. There were many great woodwind solos, a mysteriously wandering off-stage trumpet and an army of percussionists. With a series of short movements carefully co-ordinated with narrative cues it felt more like playing for a show than an orchestral concert but it was a really enjoying and satisfying experience. I'm glad I decided to celebrate the Shakespeare anniversary with the NSO: when you've got Graham Padden, who needs David Tennant?
Friday, April 22, 2016
Milton Keynes City Orchestra concert
22 April 2016
It feels quite old fashioned to start an orchestral concert by playing the national anthem but this week's Milton Keynes City Orchestra concert coincided with the Queen's 90th birthday on Thursday and the whole audience was on its feet singing 'God Save The Queen'. The concert, in the magnificent new auditorium at 'The Venue' at Walton High in Milton Keynes, featured 'Haydn's Symphony No 103 (The Drumroll)' followed by the 'Violin Concerto No 5' written by the 19-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and played exquisitely by the young violinist Aleksandra Li – a winner of this year's Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe competition. The performance finished with Prokofiev's 'Symphony No 1 (Classical)' – a short symphony written in 1916 that draws on the classical tradition of Haydn and Mozart but adds twentieth century harmonies. I hadn't heard the Classical Symphony for years and was reminded what a perfect piece it is. Hearing a small orchestra playing it at close quarters was really exciting. It felt like the professional players of the MKCO, precise and comfortable in the Haydn and Mozart, were much more on the edge of their seats for the Prokofiev: it was a thrilling and charming performance under their new Musical Director, Damian Iorio.
It feels quite old fashioned to start an orchestral concert by playing the national anthem but this week's Milton Keynes City Orchestra concert coincided with the Queen's 90th birthday on Thursday and the whole audience was on its feet singing 'God Save The Queen'. The concert, in the magnificent new auditorium at 'The Venue' at Walton High in Milton Keynes, featured 'Haydn's Symphony No 103 (The Drumroll)' followed by the 'Violin Concerto No 5' written by the 19-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and played exquisitely by the young violinist Aleksandra Li – a winner of this year's Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe competition. The performance finished with Prokofiev's 'Symphony No 1 (Classical)' – a short symphony written in 1916 that draws on the classical tradition of Haydn and Mozart but adds twentieth century harmonies. I hadn't heard the Classical Symphony for years and was reminded what a perfect piece it is. Hearing a small orchestra playing it at close quarters was really exciting. It felt like the professional players of the MKCO, precise and comfortable in the Haydn and Mozart, were much more on the edge of their seats for the Prokofiev: it was a thrilling and charming performance under their new Musical Director, Damian Iorio.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Heliotrope Chamber Ensemble concert
13 April 2016
On Saturday I made my third appearance with the Heliotrope Ensemble (following previous concerts reviewed here in April 2013 and May 2015). Once again we were at Abington Avenue United Reformed Church in Northampton to perform a programme of chamber music for large wind ensemble. The first half of the concert featured Mozart’s ‘Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments’ (the ‘Gran Partita’) – a legendary summit for wind players to climb. I've played the Gran Partita twice before – at a Music in the Brickhills concert in 2011 (reviewed here in May 2011) and last summer at Hartwell House in Buckinghamshire (reviewed here in July 2015). It's a beautiful piece but the horn parts are fairly straightforward: the intricate solos are in the oboes, clarinets, bassoons and basset horns and my Heliotrope colleagues gave an excellent performance, ably led by conductor Peter Cigleris. In the second half of the concert we tackled the 'Sonatina no. 2 for 16 Winds' by Richard Strauss ('From the Happy Workshop'). This rarely performed work is one of the last Strauss wrote and was intended as a tribute to the wind music of Mozart. There are many similarities and references to the Gran Partita but one of the most obvious differences from Mozart is the writing for the four horns, which is magnificent. I found the first horn part a major challenge – incredibly high, fast and intricate – but huge fun to play. I think our performance went really well: the decision not to rehearse on Saturday afternoon, as we normally would, left me with enough stamina to get through the concert. Any mistakes were down to lack of concentration rather than stamina. There was some brilliant playing throughout the ensemble and it was a privilege to be asked to be part of it. I look forward to the next Heliotrope project.
On Saturday I made my third appearance with the Heliotrope Ensemble (following previous concerts reviewed here in April 2013 and May 2015). Once again we were at Abington Avenue United Reformed Church in Northampton to perform a programme of chamber music for large wind ensemble. The first half of the concert featured Mozart’s ‘Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments’ (the ‘Gran Partita’) – a legendary summit for wind players to climb. I've played the Gran Partita twice before – at a Music in the Brickhills concert in 2011 (reviewed here in May 2011) and last summer at Hartwell House in Buckinghamshire (reviewed here in July 2015). It's a beautiful piece but the horn parts are fairly straightforward: the intricate solos are in the oboes, clarinets, bassoons and basset horns and my Heliotrope colleagues gave an excellent performance, ably led by conductor Peter Cigleris. In the second half of the concert we tackled the 'Sonatina no. 2 for 16 Winds' by Richard Strauss ('From the Happy Workshop'). This rarely performed work is one of the last Strauss wrote and was intended as a tribute to the wind music of Mozart. There are many similarities and references to the Gran Partita but one of the most obvious differences from Mozart is the writing for the four horns, which is magnificent. I found the first horn part a major challenge – incredibly high, fast and intricate – but huge fun to play. I think our performance went really well: the decision not to rehearse on Saturday afternoon, as we normally would, left me with enough stamina to get through the concert. Any mistakes were down to lack of concentration rather than stamina. There was some brilliant playing throughout the ensemble and it was a privilege to be asked to be part of it. I look forward to the next Heliotrope project.
Friday, April 08, 2016
'Super' by Pet Shop Boys
8 April 2016
It's always a pleasant surprise to discover that the Pet Shop Boys are still going. I've been enjoying their new album, 'Super', which is a good example of their ability to combine criminally catchy choruses, serious dance music, intelligent lyrics and a gentle wistfulness. On 'Happiness' Neil Tennant sings “it's a long way to happiness and when we get there is anybody's guess” and you realise it would be quite a shock to see the Pet Shop Boys exhibiting signs of happiness. Theirs is a dead-pan, straight-faced delivery that makes you want to dance whilst simultaneously contemplating the sadness of the universe. 'The Pop Kids' is an excellent exercise in nostalgia for early 90s clubland: “They called us the Pop Kids 'cause we loved the pop hits and quoted the best bits so we were the Pop Kids”. 'The Dictator Decides' evokes the melancholy of a reluctant tyrant “The joke is I'm not even a demagogue – have you heard me giving a speech? My facts are invented, I sound quite demented, so deluded it beggars belief. It would be such a relief not to give another speech”. Super.
It's always a pleasant surprise to discover that the Pet Shop Boys are still going. I've been enjoying their new album, 'Super', which is a good example of their ability to combine criminally catchy choruses, serious dance music, intelligent lyrics and a gentle wistfulness. On 'Happiness' Neil Tennant sings “it's a long way to happiness and when we get there is anybody's guess” and you realise it would be quite a shock to see the Pet Shop Boys exhibiting signs of happiness. Theirs is a dead-pan, straight-faced delivery that makes you want to dance whilst simultaneously contemplating the sadness of the universe. 'The Pop Kids' is an excellent exercise in nostalgia for early 90s clubland: “They called us the Pop Kids 'cause we loved the pop hits and quoted the best bits so we were the Pop Kids”. 'The Dictator Decides' evokes the melancholy of a reluctant tyrant “The joke is I'm not even a demagogue – have you heard me giving a speech? My facts are invented, I sound quite demented, so deluded it beggars belief. It would be such a relief not to give another speech”. Super.
Friday, April 01, 2016
'Going Off Alarming' by Danny Baker
1 April 2016
I've just finished reading 'Going Off Alarming' – the second volume of autobiography by Danny Baker. In Quixotic style Danny Baker spends much of this book reflecting on the reaction to its predecessor, 'Going to Sea in a Sieve' (reviewed here in July 2013 and subsequently adapted to become the TV sitcom 'Cradle to Grave' starring Peter Kay). Many people, it seems, have been quick to point out to him what he missed out from his account of his childhood – and some of those marvellous missed stories now find a place in the new book, though this volume focusses mainly on his first few years on television and radio. Danny Baker was at the height of his fame in the early 1990s when, for a while, he became almost ubiquitous on TV. He describes the origins of his close friendships with Chris Evans, Paul Gascoigne and Jonathan Ross and meeting Spike Milligan, Mel Brooks, Frankie Howerd and many others. His witty, self-deprecating, descriptions of his encounters with the stars bears comparison with David Niven's great autobiographies ('The Moon's a Balloon' and 'Bring On the Empty Horses'). 'Going Off Alarming' is a deliberate antidote to the current vogue for 'misery memoir': horrible things have happened to Danny Baker but he makes it clear from the start that he has no interest in writing about them. This is an autobiography with the hat cocked on the side of the head and, as he reassures the reader early on “I don't get cancer until Book Three'.
I've just finished reading 'Going Off Alarming' – the second volume of autobiography by Danny Baker. In Quixotic style Danny Baker spends much of this book reflecting on the reaction to its predecessor, 'Going to Sea in a Sieve' (reviewed here in July 2013 and subsequently adapted to become the TV sitcom 'Cradle to Grave' starring Peter Kay). Many people, it seems, have been quick to point out to him what he missed out from his account of his childhood – and some of those marvellous missed stories now find a place in the new book, though this volume focusses mainly on his first few years on television and radio. Danny Baker was at the height of his fame in the early 1990s when, for a while, he became almost ubiquitous on TV. He describes the origins of his close friendships with Chris Evans, Paul Gascoigne and Jonathan Ross and meeting Spike Milligan, Mel Brooks, Frankie Howerd and many others. His witty, self-deprecating, descriptions of his encounters with the stars bears comparison with David Niven's great autobiographies ('The Moon's a Balloon' and 'Bring On the Empty Horses'). 'Going Off Alarming' is a deliberate antidote to the current vogue for 'misery memoir': horrible things have happened to Danny Baker but he makes it clear from the start that he has no interest in writing about them. This is an autobiography with the hat cocked on the side of the head and, as he reassures the reader early on “I don't get cancer until Book Three'.
'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare
1 April 2016
Regular readers may remember that I am a fan of the theatre director Simon Godwin – having enjoyed his productions of 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' (reviewed here in July 2014) 'Man and Superman' (reviewed here in May 2015) and 'The Beaux' Stratagem' (reviewed here in September 2015). Last Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Simon Godwin's new RSC production of 'Hamlet' starring Paapa Essiedu. Setting the play in a nameless West African dictatorship showed parallels between Hamlet's return from university in Wittenburg and those African leaders who studied in Europe. It was a refreshing reversal to see a cast with only a handful of white actors in minor parts. 25-year-old Paapa Essiedu was very impressive – a young, impetuous and very believable Hamlet. Natalie Simpson also gave Ophelia a poignant realism. Clarence Smith's Claudius was very much the soldier and Tanya Moodie emphasised Gertrude's ambiguous role in the events that precede the play. Every time you see 'Hamlet' you remember aspects of previous productions but every new version also shows you something new in the play. This was a fresh, bright, colourful and highly entertaining production and Paapa Essiedu is clearly a name to watch.
Regular readers may remember that I am a fan of the theatre director Simon Godwin – having enjoyed his productions of 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' (reviewed here in July 2014) 'Man and Superman' (reviewed here in May 2015) and 'The Beaux' Stratagem' (reviewed here in September 2015). Last Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Simon Godwin's new RSC production of 'Hamlet' starring Paapa Essiedu. Setting the play in a nameless West African dictatorship showed parallels between Hamlet's return from university in Wittenburg and those African leaders who studied in Europe. It was a refreshing reversal to see a cast with only a handful of white actors in minor parts. 25-year-old Paapa Essiedu was very impressive – a young, impetuous and very believable Hamlet. Natalie Simpson also gave Ophelia a poignant realism. Clarence Smith's Claudius was very much the soldier and Tanya Moodie emphasised Gertrude's ambiguous role in the events that precede the play. Every time you see 'Hamlet' you remember aspects of previous productions but every new version also shows you something new in the play. This was a fresh, bright, colourful and highly entertaining production and Paapa Essiedu is clearly a name to watch.
Wiltshire
1 April 2016
We had a lovely holiday in Wiltshire last week. We stayed in a cottage near Bremhill, between Calne and Chippenham and enjoyed a week with hardly any rain and plenty of sunshine. We did a lot of walking – on the chalk downs near Marlborough, on Box Hill and in the grounds of the stately homes at Corsham and Bowood. It was good to revisit Bath, for the first time in many years. And we had a lovely day in Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds on our way to Stratford-upon-Avon. It was a really relaxing week.
We had a lovely holiday in Wiltshire last week. We stayed in a cottage near Bremhill, between Calne and Chippenham and enjoyed a week with hardly any rain and plenty of sunshine. We did a lot of walking – on the chalk downs near Marlborough, on Box Hill and in the grounds of the stately homes at Corsham and Bowood. It was good to revisit Bath, for the first time in many years. And we had a lovely day in Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds on our way to Stratford-upon-Avon. It was a really relaxing week.
Monday, March 14, 2016
Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert
14 March 2016
Another week, another stunning young Russian pianist: on Saturday I played in a Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert where the undoubted star of the show was Ilya Kondratiev who gave a thrilling performance of the spectacular 'Piano Concerto No 1' by Prokofiev. Ilya is an amazing pianist and was clearly having a great time, beaming from the moment he walked in, finishing the concerto with an exaggerated flourish and beguiling both audience and orchestra with two brilliant encores. Conductor David Knight and the Milton Keynes Sinfonia then faced the daunting challenge of following this bravura performance but, fortunately, we were armed with the substantial might of Shostakovich's 'Symphony No 10'. I played this symphony with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra nearly ten years ago (reviewed here in March 2006) and I was surprised how well I remembered it. It's a long, complex work that manages to be bleak, angry, powerful and beautifully delicate. Our performance on Saturday went really well and featured many excellent solos but I will particularly remember the piccolo solo by Andrea Patis at the end of the first movement and Kate Knight's horn solo in the slow movement which were both wonderful. We opened the concert with the ‘Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia’ from ‘Spartacus’ by Khachaturian – still better known as the theme from 'The Onedin Line'. Having recently read Julian Barnes' novel about Shostakovich, 'The Noise of Time' (reviewed here in February 2016), it was interesting to see, in the concert programme, a rare photograph of Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian together. Their stories are intertwined with each other, and with the story of 20th century Russia. It was fascinating to play music by all three on Saturday, in what was a great concert.
Another week, another stunning young Russian pianist: on Saturday I played in a Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert where the undoubted star of the show was Ilya Kondratiev who gave a thrilling performance of the spectacular 'Piano Concerto No 1' by Prokofiev. Ilya is an amazing pianist and was clearly having a great time, beaming from the moment he walked in, finishing the concerto with an exaggerated flourish and beguiling both audience and orchestra with two brilliant encores. Conductor David Knight and the Milton Keynes Sinfonia then faced the daunting challenge of following this bravura performance but, fortunately, we were armed with the substantial might of Shostakovich's 'Symphony No 10'. I played this symphony with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra nearly ten years ago (reviewed here in March 2006) and I was surprised how well I remembered it. It's a long, complex work that manages to be bleak, angry, powerful and beautifully delicate. Our performance on Saturday went really well and featured many excellent solos but I will particularly remember the piccolo solo by Andrea Patis at the end of the first movement and Kate Knight's horn solo in the slow movement which were both wonderful. We opened the concert with the ‘Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia’ from ‘Spartacus’ by Khachaturian – still better known as the theme from 'The Onedin Line'. Having recently read Julian Barnes' novel about Shostakovich, 'The Noise of Time' (reviewed here in February 2016), it was interesting to see, in the concert programme, a rare photograph of Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian together. Their stories are intertwined with each other, and with the story of 20th century Russia. It was fascinating to play music by all three on Saturday, in what was a great concert.
Tuesday, March 08, 2016
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
8 March 2016
For horn players, tackling a Mahler symphony is the equivalent of running a marathon. It requires extensive training to build your stamina. And like preparing for a marathon, it is difficult to find the time and energy to practice doing the whole thing before the day itself. Regular readers may remember me writing here in 2011 about preparing to play Mahler's 'Symphony No 6' with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra. The First Symphony by Gustav Mahler is not quite such an enormous undertaking as the Sixth but it is still a monumental challenge. I've played through the final movement almost every day for the past few weeks in an attempt to build enough stamina to survive its glorious finale. Last Saturday was the day of reckoning, with the NSO concert taking place at St Michael's Church, Northampton, conducted by John Gibbons. The concert also featured the beautiful 'Piano Concerto' by Alexander Scriabin in which we accompanied the amazing young Russian pianist Vavara Tarasova. It was a stunning performance of a lovely piece which has much in common with the piano concertos of Chopin (and, I thought, some echoes of Rachmaninov). Our performance of Mahler 1 seemed to go really well, with beautifully delicate woodwind solos, some fine off-stage trumpet fanfares and a great double bass solo by Matthew Jackson at the beginning of the slow movement. And then we reached the finale and it was thrilling to be one of eight horn players standing with bells raised for the final bars. In the end it felt like we just about managed to fall over the marathon finishing line, exhilarated, exhausted and gasping for breath. It was a brilliant experience but one I would be happy not to repeat for a while!
For horn players, tackling a Mahler symphony is the equivalent of running a marathon. It requires extensive training to build your stamina. And like preparing for a marathon, it is difficult to find the time and energy to practice doing the whole thing before the day itself. Regular readers may remember me writing here in 2011 about preparing to play Mahler's 'Symphony No 6' with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra. The First Symphony by Gustav Mahler is not quite such an enormous undertaking as the Sixth but it is still a monumental challenge. I've played through the final movement almost every day for the past few weeks in an attempt to build enough stamina to survive its glorious finale. Last Saturday was the day of reckoning, with the NSO concert taking place at St Michael's Church, Northampton, conducted by John Gibbons. The concert also featured the beautiful 'Piano Concerto' by Alexander Scriabin in which we accompanied the amazing young Russian pianist Vavara Tarasova. It was a stunning performance of a lovely piece which has much in common with the piano concertos of Chopin (and, I thought, some echoes of Rachmaninov). Our performance of Mahler 1 seemed to go really well, with beautifully delicate woodwind solos, some fine off-stage trumpet fanfares and a great double bass solo by Matthew Jackson at the beginning of the slow movement. And then we reached the finale and it was thrilling to be one of eight horn players standing with bells raised for the final bars. In the end it felt like we just about managed to fall over the marathon finishing line, exhilarated, exhausted and gasping for breath. It was a brilliant experience but one I would be happy not to repeat for a while!
Friday, March 04, 2016
'Hangmen' by Martin McDonagh
4 March 2016
The Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has carved out a reputation for violently black comedy. Hi stage play 'The Leiutenant of Inishmore' and his screenplays 'In Bruges' and 'The Guard' share a bleak humour. His latest work 'Hangmen' is another great example of this style. Set in Lancashire in the mid 1960s, the play deals with one of the last hangmen as he comes to terms with the abolition of capital punishment. The scenes in an Oldham pub felt like a particularly funny episode of Coronation Street – albeit with more swearing. Matthew Dunster's Royal Court production (which we saw at Cineworld in Milton Keynes as a NTLive broadcast from Wyndham's Theatre in London) stars David Morrissey as the hangman Harry Wade. He is joined by a fabulous cast of comic characters. Although there is some hysterically funny dialogue, much of the comedy comes from the well-drawn characters and their believable reactions to a dramatic turn of events. Morrissey is a master of the double-take: you can almost see his brain processing information while he is mistakenly ranting at someone and he then manages to turn his mood on a sixpence. 'Hangmen' has plenty of McDonagh's trademark wince-inducing moments of violence which shouldn't be funny – but really are. And Johnny Flynn is both menacing and creepy as a very out-of-place crude but erudite Londoner – an unexplained stranger who the Guardian review of the play wittily described as a 'Pinterloper'.
The Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has carved out a reputation for violently black comedy. Hi stage play 'The Leiutenant of Inishmore' and his screenplays 'In Bruges' and 'The Guard' share a bleak humour. His latest work 'Hangmen' is another great example of this style. Set in Lancashire in the mid 1960s, the play deals with one of the last hangmen as he comes to terms with the abolition of capital punishment. The scenes in an Oldham pub felt like a particularly funny episode of Coronation Street – albeit with more swearing. Matthew Dunster's Royal Court production (which we saw at Cineworld in Milton Keynes as a NTLive broadcast from Wyndham's Theatre in London) stars David Morrissey as the hangman Harry Wade. He is joined by a fabulous cast of comic characters. Although there is some hysterically funny dialogue, much of the comedy comes from the well-drawn characters and their believable reactions to a dramatic turn of events. Morrissey is a master of the double-take: you can almost see his brain processing information while he is mistakenly ranting at someone and he then manages to turn his mood on a sixpence. 'Hangmen' has plenty of McDonagh's trademark wince-inducing moments of violence which shouldn't be funny – but really are. And Johnny Flynn is both menacing and creepy as a very out-of-place crude but erudite Londoner – an unexplained stranger who the Guardian review of the play wittily described as a 'Pinterloper'.
Thursday, March 03, 2016
'The Noise of Time' by Julian Barnes
3 March 2016
The composer Dmitri Shostakovich certainly lived in interesting times. Julian Barnes' new novel 'The Noise of Time' (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Daniel Philpott) fictionalises the remarkable true story of an artist constantly challenged by the controlling interest in his art taken by the Soviet state. In 1936, when Shostakovich's opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' (described by Pravda as “muddle instead of music”) is banned, apparently at Stalin's behest, the composer assumes it is only a matter of time before he will be forced to surrender his life. Reluctant to flee into exile (as Stravinsky had done), and concerned for how his actions will impact upon the lives of his family and friends, Shostakovich finds himself a reluctant collaborator with Stalin's regime. Is he coward or pragmatist? It is scary to wonder how we each might have behaved in a similar situation. Julian Barnes suggests that the composer's yearning to continue living and composing steers him away from martyrdom but leads him into uncomfortable compromises. In 1948 when Stalin asks the composer to represent the Soviet Union at the Congress for World Peace, Shostakovich arrives in New York shortly after a Russian woman has defected by jumping out the window of the Russian Consulate building. A protester on the street outside the building holds a placard imploring “Shostakovich! Jump thru the window!” but, of course, he doesn't. 'The Noise of Time' is a fascinating book but feels more like a biography than a novel. Although Julian Barnes has imagined Shostakovich's point of view and describes particular scenes in detail, the book presents a fairly factual account of his life. The narrative structure, built around three key moments, each twelve years apart, and featuring several recurring themes and motifs, has the feel of a piece of music – a literary symphony. But it's a melancholy refrain about an imperfect man coping badly with an impossible situation. Shostakovich lived until 1975 and, towards the end of his life, made increasing use, in his string quartets, of the musical instruction 'morendo' (dying away). As Julian Barnes says: few composers finish their lives with a major chord played fortissimo.
The composer Dmitri Shostakovich certainly lived in interesting times. Julian Barnes' new novel 'The Noise of Time' (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Daniel Philpott) fictionalises the remarkable true story of an artist constantly challenged by the controlling interest in his art taken by the Soviet state. In 1936, when Shostakovich's opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk' (described by Pravda as “muddle instead of music”) is banned, apparently at Stalin's behest, the composer assumes it is only a matter of time before he will be forced to surrender his life. Reluctant to flee into exile (as Stravinsky had done), and concerned for how his actions will impact upon the lives of his family and friends, Shostakovich finds himself a reluctant collaborator with Stalin's regime. Is he coward or pragmatist? It is scary to wonder how we each might have behaved in a similar situation. Julian Barnes suggests that the composer's yearning to continue living and composing steers him away from martyrdom but leads him into uncomfortable compromises. In 1948 when Stalin asks the composer to represent the Soviet Union at the Congress for World Peace, Shostakovich arrives in New York shortly after a Russian woman has defected by jumping out the window of the Russian Consulate building. A protester on the street outside the building holds a placard imploring “Shostakovich! Jump thru the window!” but, of course, he doesn't. 'The Noise of Time' is a fascinating book but feels more like a biography than a novel. Although Julian Barnes has imagined Shostakovich's point of view and describes particular scenes in detail, the book presents a fairly factual account of his life. The narrative structure, built around three key moments, each twelve years apart, and featuring several recurring themes and motifs, has the feel of a piece of music – a literary symphony. But it's a melancholy refrain about an imperfect man coping badly with an impossible situation. Shostakovich lived until 1975 and, towards the end of his life, made increasing use, in his string quartets, of the musical instruction 'morendo' (dying away). As Julian Barnes says: few composers finish their lives with a major chord played fortissimo.
Friday, February 26, 2016
'As You Like It' by William Shakespeare
26 February 2016
On Thursday I was at Cineworld in Milton Keynes to see the live broadcast of Polly Findlay's new production of 'As You Like It' at the National Theatre. This modern dress version of Shakespeare's reliable comedy is a lovely theatrical experience, dominated by a wonderful double act and a stunning coup de théâtre. Rosalie Craig as Rosalind and Patsy Ferran as Celia are both outstanding and form the warm, funny heart of the production. Ferra – who was Portia in Polly Findlay's RSC production of 'The Merchant of Venice' (reviewed here in August 2015) – is a great comic actor whose reactions tend to draw your attention away from whoever is speaking. And Craig's infectious smile forms the lasting impression of the evening, leaving the audience similarly grinning. The relationship between the two characters is natural and incredibly believable. The other star of the production is Lizzie Clachan's amazing set – and particularly its moment of transformation into the Forest of Arden which is worth the price of admission alone. I don't want to spoil the effect if you haven't seen it but this stunning use of the massive space in the Olivier Theatre will linger long in the memory. The other really innovative aspect of this production is the use of a choir, scattered amongst the trees of the forest throughout the play, who provide a variety of sound effects (birdsong, sheep etc) as well as performing some beautifully strange choral music composed for the production by Orlando Gough.
On Thursday I was at Cineworld in Milton Keynes to see the live broadcast of Polly Findlay's new production of 'As You Like It' at the National Theatre. This modern dress version of Shakespeare's reliable comedy is a lovely theatrical experience, dominated by a wonderful double act and a stunning coup de théâtre. Rosalie Craig as Rosalind and Patsy Ferran as Celia are both outstanding and form the warm, funny heart of the production. Ferra – who was Portia in Polly Findlay's RSC production of 'The Merchant of Venice' (reviewed here in August 2015) – is a great comic actor whose reactions tend to draw your attention away from whoever is speaking. And Craig's infectious smile forms the lasting impression of the evening, leaving the audience similarly grinning. The relationship between the two characters is natural and incredibly believable. The other star of the production is Lizzie Clachan's amazing set – and particularly its moment of transformation into the Forest of Arden which is worth the price of admission alone. I don't want to spoil the effect if you haven't seen it but this stunning use of the massive space in the Olivier Theatre will linger long in the memory. The other really innovative aspect of this production is the use of a choir, scattered amongst the trees of the forest throughout the play, who provide a variety of sound effects (birdsong, sheep etc) as well as performing some beautifully strange choral music composed for the production by Orlando Gough.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
'Poppy + George' by Diane Samuels
25 February 2016
Watford Palace Theatre has a strong commitment to new writing and it was good to be there last Saturday to see 'Poppy + George' – a new play by Diane Samuels. Set in a dressmaker's workshop in London in 1919, 'Poppy + George' explores changing gender roles in a world still coming to terms with the transformations caused by the Great War. Jennie Darnell's production had much to commend, including a wonderful set by Ruari Murchinson and great acting by all four cast members. And it was interesting to see the use of music hall songs and comic routines in Watford Palace Theatre, which was itself a music hall in the early twentieth century. But the play felt like it still needed some work to make it click. There was an inconsistency of tone that made it hard to know what level of realism was being aimed for. From the opening scene it was immediately obvious to the audience that the young man, George the chauffeur, was being played by a female actor. But it took the whole first half of the play before we were presented with the revelation that George was a woman pretending to be a man. Once the 'secret' was out the play became much more interesting, comparing two approaches to how women might assume roles previously reserved for men. The contrast between the comedy of the music hall female impersonator and the seriousness of the woman living as a man was also cleverly constructed. George's story reminded me of Jackie Kay's novel 'Trumpet' (reviewed here in September 2011) but Diane Samuels' play didn't feel quite as effective as it could have been.
Watford Palace Theatre has a strong commitment to new writing and it was good to be there last Saturday to see 'Poppy + George' – a new play by Diane Samuels. Set in a dressmaker's workshop in London in 1919, 'Poppy + George' explores changing gender roles in a world still coming to terms with the transformations caused by the Great War. Jennie Darnell's production had much to commend, including a wonderful set by Ruari Murchinson and great acting by all four cast members. And it was interesting to see the use of music hall songs and comic routines in Watford Palace Theatre, which was itself a music hall in the early twentieth century. But the play felt like it still needed some work to make it click. There was an inconsistency of tone that made it hard to know what level of realism was being aimed for. From the opening scene it was immediately obvious to the audience that the young man, George the chauffeur, was being played by a female actor. But it took the whole first half of the play before we were presented with the revelation that George was a woman pretending to be a man. Once the 'secret' was out the play became much more interesting, comparing two approaches to how women might assume roles previously reserved for men. The contrast between the comedy of the music hall female impersonator and the seriousness of the woman living as a man was also cleverly constructed. George's story reminded me of Jackie Kay's novel 'Trumpet' (reviewed here in September 2011) but Diane Samuels' play didn't feel quite as effective as it could have been.
Friday, February 19, 2016
David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro in conversation
19 February 2016
On Thursday I was at the Royal Festival Hall to see two of my favourite contemporary British novelists, David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro, in conversation with each other. It was a fascinating event – a free-flowing discussion without a chair that was completely compelling. Both authors clearly knew each other's novels extremely well and they quizzed each other about technique, genre, plot and much more. Short film clips were used as a prompt to move the conversation on but I suspect they could have carried on their conversation all night without these. In my review here of David Mitchell's latest novel 'Slade House' (in November 2015) I noted the similarities to Kazuo Ishiguro's evocation of dreaming, 'The Unconsoled', so it was wonderful to hear the authors themselves discussing the links between their works. The two writers were a great double act – Kazuo Ishiguro's serious, taciturn delivery contrasting with David Mitchell's smiling enthusiasm. It was refreshing to see a literary event that was not about blatantly plugging their latest novels. And it was great to see a huge audience (of more than 1,000 people I think) for a fairly cerebral literary discussion.
On Thursday I was at the Royal Festival Hall to see two of my favourite contemporary British novelists, David Mitchell and Kazuo Ishiguro, in conversation with each other. It was a fascinating event – a free-flowing discussion without a chair that was completely compelling. Both authors clearly knew each other's novels extremely well and they quizzed each other about technique, genre, plot and much more. Short film clips were used as a prompt to move the conversation on but I suspect they could have carried on their conversation all night without these. In my review here of David Mitchell's latest novel 'Slade House' (in November 2015) I noted the similarities to Kazuo Ishiguro's evocation of dreaming, 'The Unconsoled', so it was wonderful to hear the authors themselves discussing the links between their works. The two writers were a great double act – Kazuo Ishiguro's serious, taciturn delivery contrasting with David Mitchell's smiling enthusiasm. It was refreshing to see a literary event that was not about blatantly plugging their latest novels. And it was great to see a huge audience (of more than 1,000 people I think) for a fairly cerebral literary discussion.
'Purity' by Jonathan Franzen
19 February 2016
Jonathan Franzen’s wonderful 2001 novel ‘The Corrections’ cleverly made the reader sympathise simultaneously with people who held completely opposing points of view – turning apparently unlikeable characters into sympathetic people. Franzen's new novel 'Purity' seems to reverse this approach: the more we get to know each of the main characters, exploring their backstories in lengthy flashbacks, the less likeable they seem to become. 'Purity' (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Dylan Baker, Jenna Lamia and Robert Petkoff) is another mammoth novel addressing 'state of the nation' issues while focussing on the minutae of family life – with much in common with 'The Corrections' and Franzen's 2010 novel 'Freedom' (reviewed here in April 2012). In 'Purity' he tackles the Internet and the world of Julian Assange, Edward Snowden et al. Large parts of the book portray events in East Germany prior to the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The prose is beautifully written but the subject matter is often quite grim and each section of the book – exploring events through the eyes of each of the principal characters in turn – is incredibly long, making it difficult to remember characters and events from the earlier chapters when you finally return to them near the end of the book. The main protagonist, a young woman called Purity, is nicknamed Pip – suggesting parallels with 'Great Expectations', particularly when we learn that Pip may well be about to come into a fortune – but the potential links to Dickens feel disappointingly under-explored. Jonathan Franzen is a fascinating and impressive novelist but I would not recommend new readers to start with 'Purity'.
Jonathan Franzen’s wonderful 2001 novel ‘The Corrections’ cleverly made the reader sympathise simultaneously with people who held completely opposing points of view – turning apparently unlikeable characters into sympathetic people. Franzen's new novel 'Purity' seems to reverse this approach: the more we get to know each of the main characters, exploring their backstories in lengthy flashbacks, the less likeable they seem to become. 'Purity' (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Dylan Baker, Jenna Lamia and Robert Petkoff) is another mammoth novel addressing 'state of the nation' issues while focussing on the minutae of family life – with much in common with 'The Corrections' and Franzen's 2010 novel 'Freedom' (reviewed here in April 2012). In 'Purity' he tackles the Internet and the world of Julian Assange, Edward Snowden et al. Large parts of the book portray events in East Germany prior to the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The prose is beautifully written but the subject matter is often quite grim and each section of the book – exploring events through the eyes of each of the principal characters in turn – is incredibly long, making it difficult to remember characters and events from the earlier chapters when you finally return to them near the end of the book. The main protagonist, a young woman called Purity, is nicknamed Pip – suggesting parallels with 'Great Expectations', particularly when we learn that Pip may well be about to come into a fortune – but the potential links to Dickens feel disappointingly under-explored. Jonathan Franzen is a fascinating and impressive novelist but I would not recommend new readers to start with 'Purity'.
Hampton Court Palace
19 February 2016
Last Sunday we made our first visit to Hampton Court Palace – Henry VIII's royal palace on the banks of the Thames in Surrey. Hampton Court is one of those iconic historic buildings that feels immediately familiar. We worked our way through the historic maze and explored the parts of the palace that showcase the influence of Henry VIII and William III. It's a huge site that you could easily spend all day discovering. One of our highlights was the newly opened Cumberland Art Gallery – a small suite of rooms in the centre of the palace that now houses a selection of paintings from the Royal Collection. These include works by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Gainsborough and a whole room of Canalettos.
Last Sunday we made our first visit to Hampton Court Palace – Henry VIII's royal palace on the banks of the Thames in Surrey. Hampton Court is one of those iconic historic buildings that feels immediately familiar. We worked our way through the historic maze and explored the parts of the palace that showcase the influence of Henry VIII and William III. It's a huge site that you could easily spend all day discovering. One of our highlights was the newly opened Cumberland Art Gallery – a small suite of rooms in the centre of the palace that now houses a selection of paintings from the Royal Collection. These include works by Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Gainsborough and a whole room of Canalettos.
Friday, February 12, 2016
'The Herbal Bed' by Peter Whelan
12 February 2016
I discovered this week that Shakespeare's last direct descendant is buried in Abington Church in Northampton. Elizabeth, Shakespeare's granddaughter, ended her life as Lady Barnard, wife of the MP for Huntingdon. This added a local angle to the Northampton Royal & Derngate production of Peter Whelan's play 'The Herbal Bed' which we saw at the Royal Theatre in Northampton last Saturday. Elizabeth appears as a young girl in the drama, playing in the garden of her parents, Susanna and Dr John Hall, in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is the first revival of Whelan's play since the original Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1996. It deals with the actual allegations that Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna, had an affair with a married neighbour. She was acquitted by an ecclesiastical court in Worcester in 1613 but 'The Herbal Bed' looks at what might have led to the allegations and how it might have affected all those involved. It's a cleverly constructed play: there is a great scene where four characters have agreed to support each other by embroidering the truth but each have been given a slightly different version of the story they are intending to stick to. William Shakespeare himself is peripheral to the play and does not appear as a character but is, nonetheless, a powerful off-stage presence. Whelan resists the temptation to throw in Shakespearean references or mimic the bard: this is more a social history of the period. James Dacre's production was impressive and the cast were all strong, though the show was stolen by Jonathan Fensom's beautiful set which inventively recreated both the garden at Hall Croft and Worcester Cathedral very effectively on the stage.
I discovered this week that Shakespeare's last direct descendant is buried in Abington Church in Northampton. Elizabeth, Shakespeare's granddaughter, ended her life as Lady Barnard, wife of the MP for Huntingdon. This added a local angle to the Northampton Royal & Derngate production of Peter Whelan's play 'The Herbal Bed' which we saw at the Royal Theatre in Northampton last Saturday. Elizabeth appears as a young girl in the drama, playing in the garden of her parents, Susanna and Dr John Hall, in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is the first revival of Whelan's play since the original Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1996. It deals with the actual allegations that Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna, had an affair with a married neighbour. She was acquitted by an ecclesiastical court in Worcester in 1613 but 'The Herbal Bed' looks at what might have led to the allegations and how it might have affected all those involved. It's a cleverly constructed play: there is a great scene where four characters have agreed to support each other by embroidering the truth but each have been given a slightly different version of the story they are intending to stick to. William Shakespeare himself is peripheral to the play and does not appear as a character but is, nonetheless, a powerful off-stage presence. Whelan resists the temptation to throw in Shakespearean references or mimic the bard: this is more a social history of the period. James Dacre's production was impressive and the cast were all strong, though the show was stolen by Jonathan Fensom's beautiful set which inventively recreated both the garden at Hall Croft and Worcester Cathedral very effectively on the stage.
Friday, February 05, 2016
'Areas of High Traffic' by Damien O'Kane
5 February 2016
I've been enjoying 'Areas of High Traffic' – the new album from Irish folk singer, banjo player and guitarist Damien O'Kane. This is a collection of mostly traditional Irish songs in contemporary arrangements which sound more like gentle rock music than folk. This approach to reworking traditional folk songs has a lot in common with O'Kane's English contemporary, Jim Moray (reviewed here in August 2008 and July 2011), though based more around a band of musicians than the electronica often used by Moray. Damien O'Kane, who comes from Coleraine, has a gentle singing voice and has created some beautiful arrangements – delicate easy listening with a hint of melancholy. And if you listen carefully you can pick out the distinctive voice of Damien O'Kane's wife Kate Rusby (reviewed here in June 2006) on backing vocals.
I've been enjoying 'Areas of High Traffic' – the new album from Irish folk singer, banjo player and guitarist Damien O'Kane. This is a collection of mostly traditional Irish songs in contemporary arrangements which sound more like gentle rock music than folk. This approach to reworking traditional folk songs has a lot in common with O'Kane's English contemporary, Jim Moray (reviewed here in August 2008 and July 2011), though based more around a band of musicians than the electronica often used by Moray. Damien O'Kane, who comes from Coleraine, has a gentle singing voice and has created some beautiful arrangements – delicate easy listening with a hint of melancholy. And if you listen carefully you can pick out the distinctive voice of Damien O'Kane's wife Kate Rusby (reviewed here in June 2006) on backing vocals.
Friday, January 29, 2016
'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' by Christopher Hampton
29 January 2016
I've never been to the Donmar Warehouse in London but the live broadcast of the Donmar production of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' (which I watched at Cineworld in Milton Keynes yesterday) made it look like the perfect intimate venue for this most intimate of plays. The small Donmar stage was arranged as a candlelit drawing room with the 251 audience seats inches away from the actors on three sides, making you feel you were in the room with Valmont and Merteuil – even from the vantage point of the cinema screen. Christopher Hampton's play, based on the 18th century epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, starts as farce and ends as tragedy. I had not seen the play before and I think I have only seen the famous Stephen Frears film once on television (though I would strongly recommend Milos Forman's 1989 film 'Valmont' – an alternative adaptation of the original novel starring Colin Firth and Annette Benning) but the characters, plot and even the dialogue felt incredibly familiar. It's dark and witty and both Janet McTeer (as La Marquise de Merteuil) and Dominic West (as Le Vicomte de Valmont) were excellent. Janet McTeer has a wonderful way of dropping her voice for each bitingly bitchy aside and manages to be simultaneously charming and deeply sinister. The cinema screening featured a live interval interview with Christopher Hampton and the director Josie Rourke in which Rourke entertainingly got a fit of giggles. Her production has a fin de siècle feel, anticipating the coming French revolution by starting in grandeur and heading towards decay as more and more paintings are removed from the walls and the furniture is covered by dust sheets. But it was the acting that shone and you can sample the delicious vocal performances with a free download of members of the Donmar cast reading some of the letters from the original novel at http://www.audible.co.uk/donmar.
I've never been to the Donmar Warehouse in London but the live broadcast of the Donmar production of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' (which I watched at Cineworld in Milton Keynes yesterday) made it look like the perfect intimate venue for this most intimate of plays. The small Donmar stage was arranged as a candlelit drawing room with the 251 audience seats inches away from the actors on three sides, making you feel you were in the room with Valmont and Merteuil – even from the vantage point of the cinema screen. Christopher Hampton's play, based on the 18th century epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, starts as farce and ends as tragedy. I had not seen the play before and I think I have only seen the famous Stephen Frears film once on television (though I would strongly recommend Milos Forman's 1989 film 'Valmont' – an alternative adaptation of the original novel starring Colin Firth and Annette Benning) but the characters, plot and even the dialogue felt incredibly familiar. It's dark and witty and both Janet McTeer (as La Marquise de Merteuil) and Dominic West (as Le Vicomte de Valmont) were excellent. Janet McTeer has a wonderful way of dropping her voice for each bitingly bitchy aside and manages to be simultaneously charming and deeply sinister. The cinema screening featured a live interval interview with Christopher Hampton and the director Josie Rourke in which Rourke entertainingly got a fit of giggles. Her production has a fin de siècle feel, anticipating the coming French revolution by starting in grandeur and heading towards decay as more and more paintings are removed from the walls and the furniture is covered by dust sheets. But it was the acting that shone and you can sample the delicious vocal performances with a free download of members of the Donmar cast reading some of the letters from the original novel at http://www.audible.co.uk/donmar.
Friday, January 22, 2016
'Junun' by Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and the Rajasthan Express
22 January 2016
'Junun' is a wonderfully hard-to-categorise album of music by the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, recorded with a troupe of Sufi qawwali musicians and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood in a 600-year-old Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. I liked it already from that description but the experience of listening to the music didn't disappoint. Harmonium, the vocal qawwali chorus and Indian percussion are joined by a six-piece brass section, guitar, bass, electronics, solo vocalists, the bowed sarangi and kamayacha (lutes). The result is surprisingly gentle, cheerful music with a haunting, mystical quality. Hard to categorise, hard to describe but easy to listen to and very rewarding.
'Junun' is a wonderfully hard-to-categorise album of music by the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, recorded with a troupe of Sufi qawwali musicians and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood in a 600-year-old Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. I liked it already from that description but the experience of listening to the music didn't disappoint. Harmonium, the vocal qawwali chorus and Indian percussion are joined by a six-piece brass section, guitar, bass, electronics, solo vocalists, the bowed sarangi and kamayacha (lutes). The result is surprisingly gentle, cheerful music with a haunting, mystical quality. Hard to categorise, hard to describe but easy to listen to and very rewarding.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
'Her Story' by Sam Barlow
14 January 2016
It's taken more than 10 years for me to get round to reviewing a computer game here but this week I have become hooked on 'Her Story' – a narrative game for PC, Mac and iOS, written and directed by Sam Barlow and starring the actor Viva Seifert. Although it is packaged and sold as a game, 'Her Story' feels more like a TV detective serial, albeit with a high level of interactivity as you can watch the story unfolding in an almost infinite number of permutations. You use a 1990s Windows desktop to access a database of short video clips which show a woman answering questions in a police interview room. She has come to the police station to her report her husband as missing but there seems to be much more to her story. The video clips are mostly less than a minute long and rather than watching them in straightforward chronological order you select individual clips by typing terms into a search box. This allows you to piece together what has happened by picking up on particular names or words from a previous answer and investigating them further. You never hear the police questions – just the interviewee's answers. And a timecode indicates that the database seems to contain several different interviews with the same woman over a period of weeks in the summer of 1994. The story is very cleverly constructed: even if you stumble across a vital clue very early on you won't appreciate its significance until much later. It's very satisfying as you begin to make sense of the mystery and test your theories by further word searches. But there is a strong element of ambiguity which I suspect means that you may never clarify every detail of the plot. And just as you think you've got it all worked out you begin to realise that you are playing a specific role in this story yourself. 'Her Story' is a rather brilliant exercise in non-linear narrative – intriguingly addictive.
It's taken more than 10 years for me to get round to reviewing a computer game here but this week I have become hooked on 'Her Story' – a narrative game for PC, Mac and iOS, written and directed by Sam Barlow and starring the actor Viva Seifert. Although it is packaged and sold as a game, 'Her Story' feels more like a TV detective serial, albeit with a high level of interactivity as you can watch the story unfolding in an almost infinite number of permutations. You use a 1990s Windows desktop to access a database of short video clips which show a woman answering questions in a police interview room. She has come to the police station to her report her husband as missing but there seems to be much more to her story. The video clips are mostly less than a minute long and rather than watching them in straightforward chronological order you select individual clips by typing terms into a search box. This allows you to piece together what has happened by picking up on particular names or words from a previous answer and investigating them further. You never hear the police questions – just the interviewee's answers. And a timecode indicates that the database seems to contain several different interviews with the same woman over a period of weeks in the summer of 1994. The story is very cleverly constructed: even if you stumble across a vital clue very early on you won't appreciate its significance until much later. It's very satisfying as you begin to make sense of the mystery and test your theories by further word searches. But there is a strong element of ambiguity which I suspect means that you may never clarify every detail of the plot. And just as you think you've got it all worked out you begin to realise that you are playing a specific role in this story yourself. 'Her Story' is a rather brilliant exercise in non-linear narrative – intriguingly addictive.
Thursday, January 07, 2016
'Number 11' by Jonathan Coe
7 January 2016
It must have been around 1996 when we discovered Jonathan Coe's novel 'What a Carve Up' in a second-hand bookshop in Cambridge. Never having heard of the author or the book we were attracted simply by the shiny cover (with its juxtaposition of Yuri Gagarin and Shirley Eaton) and by the price (I think it was just 99p!). We quickly realised what a comic gem we had stumbled upon. Jonathan Coe is now one of my favourite contemporary novelists. His 2001 novel 'The Rotters' Club', its TV adaptation and its sequel 'The Closed Circle' (2004) brought Coe greater public attention. I've enjoyed all his novels and have written here about 'The Rain Before It Falls' (in August 2008), 'The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim' (August 2011) and 'Expo 58' (September 2013). But it is his dark satire on the Thatcherite 1980s, published in 1994, that remains my favourite. It was a real thrill, therefore, to discover that Jonathan Coe has now written a sequel (of sorts – perhaps more of a companion piece) to 'What a Carve Up'. 'Number 11' catalogues Cameron's Coalition Government Britain – with its food banks, reality TV, closing libraries and exploitation of migrant workers. The novel (which I have just read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Jessica Hynes and Rory Kinnear) has an episodic structure – a set of short stories that take some time to reveal the links between them. And, though few members of the infamous Winshaw family survived the denouement of the original novel, their ghosts hang heavy over modern Britain as their protégés and disciples seem to hold the reins of power. It's a bleak but very funny tale and Coe is in playful mood. The number 11 appears in a variety of guises (it seems to be the number of every significant house in the story) and there is more than a hint of “turning it up to 11”. We also return to the 1961 British film, 'What a Carve Up' which provided the driving narrative of the original novel – or rather to its successor 'What a Whopper' (more of a companion piece than a sequel). In fact 'Number 11' ends up as a bumper Quality Street tin of themes, motifs and cultural references – and is all the more fun for it. There is a relatively self-contained detective story sandwiched in the middle of the book that is so beautifully constructed and wittily concluded I felt like applauding when it ended. 'Number 11' is inevitably not quite as stunning as its brilliant precursor but its a bravura encore that had me seething with rage at the modern world while simultaneously unable to stop myself beaming with joy.
It must have been around 1996 when we discovered Jonathan Coe's novel 'What a Carve Up' in a second-hand bookshop in Cambridge. Never having heard of the author or the book we were attracted simply by the shiny cover (with its juxtaposition of Yuri Gagarin and Shirley Eaton) and by the price (I think it was just 99p!). We quickly realised what a comic gem we had stumbled upon. Jonathan Coe is now one of my favourite contemporary novelists. His 2001 novel 'The Rotters' Club', its TV adaptation and its sequel 'The Closed Circle' (2004) brought Coe greater public attention. I've enjoyed all his novels and have written here about 'The Rain Before It Falls' (in August 2008), 'The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim' (August 2011) and 'Expo 58' (September 2013). But it is his dark satire on the Thatcherite 1980s, published in 1994, that remains my favourite. It was a real thrill, therefore, to discover that Jonathan Coe has now written a sequel (of sorts – perhaps more of a companion piece) to 'What a Carve Up'. 'Number 11' catalogues Cameron's Coalition Government Britain – with its food banks, reality TV, closing libraries and exploitation of migrant workers. The novel (which I have just read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Jessica Hynes and Rory Kinnear) has an episodic structure – a set of short stories that take some time to reveal the links between them. And, though few members of the infamous Winshaw family survived the denouement of the original novel, their ghosts hang heavy over modern Britain as their protégés and disciples seem to hold the reins of power. It's a bleak but very funny tale and Coe is in playful mood. The number 11 appears in a variety of guises (it seems to be the number of every significant house in the story) and there is more than a hint of “turning it up to 11”. We also return to the 1961 British film, 'What a Carve Up' which provided the driving narrative of the original novel – or rather to its successor 'What a Whopper' (more of a companion piece than a sequel). In fact 'Number 11' ends up as a bumper Quality Street tin of themes, motifs and cultural references – and is all the more fun for it. There is a relatively self-contained detective story sandwiched in the middle of the book that is so beautifully constructed and wittily concluded I felt like applauding when it ended. 'Number 11' is inevitably not quite as stunning as its brilliant precursor but its a bravura encore that had me seething with rage at the modern world while simultaneously unable to stop myself beaming with joy.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
14 December 2015
The Northampton Symphony Orchestra's annual Christmas Cracker Concert always feels like the start of the festive season. It's a lovely family-friendly Sunday afternoon celebration of Christmas music, which each year seems to feature the orchestra wearing ever more ridiculous attire. The prize this year must go to my fellow horn player Ian Frankland who played the entire second half of the concert dressed as a giant Christmas cracker! Sunday's concert was the first Christmas Cracker for our new regular conductor John Gibbons, who also took on the role of compère. Our theme was 'Christmas in the Toy Box' – a programme including Leon Jessel's 'Parade of the Tin Soldiers' and music by Randy Newman from the film 'Toy Story'. We also played Malcolm Arnold's 'Fantasy on Christmas Carols' and the 'Sleigh Rides' by Frederick Delius and Leroy Anderson (finishing with a pair of braying trumpets to surprise our regular audience). But the main attraction was 'Paddington Bear's First Concert' – one of the best works for orchestra and narrator – in which Herbert Chappell creates an extensive theme and variations from his signature tune for the old BBC TV 'Paddington'. Michael Bond's story is quintessential 'Paddington' and our performance on Sunday was brilliantly brought to life by former NSO conductor Graham Tear whose Paddington, Mrs Bird and Mr Gruber were spot on!
The Northampton Symphony Orchestra's annual Christmas Cracker Concert always feels like the start of the festive season. It's a lovely family-friendly Sunday afternoon celebration of Christmas music, which each year seems to feature the orchestra wearing ever more ridiculous attire. The prize this year must go to my fellow horn player Ian Frankland who played the entire second half of the concert dressed as a giant Christmas cracker! Sunday's concert was the first Christmas Cracker for our new regular conductor John Gibbons, who also took on the role of compère. Our theme was 'Christmas in the Toy Box' – a programme including Leon Jessel's 'Parade of the Tin Soldiers' and music by Randy Newman from the film 'Toy Story'. We also played Malcolm Arnold's 'Fantasy on Christmas Carols' and the 'Sleigh Rides' by Frederick Delius and Leroy Anderson (finishing with a pair of braying trumpets to surprise our regular audience). But the main attraction was 'Paddington Bear's First Concert' – one of the best works for orchestra and narrator – in which Herbert Chappell creates an extensive theme and variations from his signature tune for the old BBC TV 'Paddington'. Michael Bond's story is quintessential 'Paddington' and our performance on Sunday was brilliantly brought to life by former NSO conductor Graham Tear whose Paddington, Mrs Bird and Mr Gruber were spot on!
Friday, December 11, 2015
'Robin Hood: The Arrow in the Oak' by Sue Sachon
11 December 2015
On Saturday we were back at the TADS Theatre in Toddington for the amateur theatre group's annual pantomime. Each year they present a wholly original pantomime, written by a member of the company. This year the show was Sue Sachon's 'Robin Hood: The Arrow in the Oak'. All the usual pantomime elements were incorporated into a story that drew on some lesser known legends of Robin Hood as well as turning the famous archery contest into an X-factor-style talent contest. The cast were great. I particularly enjoyed the performances by Elizabeth Hall and Emily Venn as the Sheriff of Nottingham's henchmen – they looked like they were having a ball! The whole thing was great fun but the best moment was in the kitchen scene where the chef sneezed and a small child in the audience automatically, quietly and very politely said “bless you”.
On Saturday we were back at the TADS Theatre in Toddington for the amateur theatre group's annual pantomime. Each year they present a wholly original pantomime, written by a member of the company. This year the show was Sue Sachon's 'Robin Hood: The Arrow in the Oak'. All the usual pantomime elements were incorporated into a story that drew on some lesser known legends of Robin Hood as well as turning the famous archery contest into an X-factor-style talent contest. The cast were great. I particularly enjoyed the performances by Elizabeth Hall and Emily Venn as the Sheriff of Nottingham's henchmen – they looked like they were having a ball! The whole thing was great fun but the best moment was in the kitchen scene where the chef sneezed and a small child in the audience automatically, quietly and very politely said “bless you”.
'A God in Ruins' by Kate Atkinson
11 December 2015
Kate Atkinson's novel 'Life After Life' (reviewed here in June 2013) was a family saga with a twist, following Ursula Todd through a series of interrupted versions of her life with a Groundhog Day structure. Though Ursula's life, spanning most of the twentieth century, is the focus of the book, it is the love story of her younger brother Teddy and his childhood sweetheart Nancy that forms the emotional heart of the novel. Kate Atkinson has now returned to the Todd family with 'A God in Ruins' – a sequel or companion piece to 'Life After Life' (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Alex Jennings) which tells Teddy's story. Kate Atkinson is an ambitious novelist whose beautifully written prose creates very easily accessible books that play mischievously with the form of the novel. In 'A God in Ruins' she abandons the tricksy stop-start format of 'Life After Life' in favour of painting a picture of Teddy's life which jumps forwards and backwards in time, only gradually filling in the gaps. This jigsaw plot wrong-foots the reader as many of our assumptions and theories are disproved. Atkinson also pulls the rug from under fans of the previous novel by showing Teddy to have had a fairly dull life, his romance with Nancy proving not to have been quite so perfect as Ursula thought it. 'A God in Ruins' is dominated by Teddy's wartime service as a bomber pilot: the descriptions of bombing missions over Germany are detailed and harrowing and this experience colours all of Teddy's later life and relationships. 'A God in Ruins' is a uniformly melancholy book and often feels quite slow (and maybe over long) but I can forgive it much for its ending – do read right to the end for a satisfyingly clever twist. 'A God in Ruins' is sad, slow, frustrating but also rather brilliant.
Kate Atkinson's novel 'Life After Life' (reviewed here in June 2013) was a family saga with a twist, following Ursula Todd through a series of interrupted versions of her life with a Groundhog Day structure. Though Ursula's life, spanning most of the twentieth century, is the focus of the book, it is the love story of her younger brother Teddy and his childhood sweetheart Nancy that forms the emotional heart of the novel. Kate Atkinson has now returned to the Todd family with 'A God in Ruins' – a sequel or companion piece to 'Life After Life' (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Alex Jennings) which tells Teddy's story. Kate Atkinson is an ambitious novelist whose beautifully written prose creates very easily accessible books that play mischievously with the form of the novel. In 'A God in Ruins' she abandons the tricksy stop-start format of 'Life After Life' in favour of painting a picture of Teddy's life which jumps forwards and backwards in time, only gradually filling in the gaps. This jigsaw plot wrong-foots the reader as many of our assumptions and theories are disproved. Atkinson also pulls the rug from under fans of the previous novel by showing Teddy to have had a fairly dull life, his romance with Nancy proving not to have been quite so perfect as Ursula thought it. 'A God in Ruins' is dominated by Teddy's wartime service as a bomber pilot: the descriptions of bombing missions over Germany are detailed and harrowing and this experience colours all of Teddy's later life and relationships. 'A God in Ruins' is a uniformly melancholy book and often feels quite slow (and maybe over long) but I can forgive it much for its ending – do read right to the end for a satisfyingly clever twist. 'A God in Ruins' is sad, slow, frustrating but also rather brilliant.
Friday, December 04, 2015
The Polka Dots
4 December 2015
On Saturday we were at the Abbey Theatre in St Albans to see The Polka Dots – a female vocal trio who sing close harmony swing in the style of the Andrews Sisters. Their material includes songs from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s as well as more contemporary repertoire (including Sade, Amy Winehouse, George Michael and Caro Emerald songs) but all sung (to backing tracks) in big-band arrangements. The Polka Dots are very impressive singers and their between-songs patter and banter are charming – with three strong personalities shining through. With the addition of some slickly co-ordinated dancing this added up to a very entertaining evening. And it seemed like most of the enthusiastic, packed audience were Polka Dots regulars.
On Saturday we were at the Abbey Theatre in St Albans to see The Polka Dots – a female vocal trio who sing close harmony swing in the style of the Andrews Sisters. Their material includes songs from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s as well as more contemporary repertoire (including Sade, Amy Winehouse, George Michael and Caro Emerald songs) but all sung (to backing tracks) in big-band arrangements. The Polka Dots are very impressive singers and their between-songs patter and banter are charming – with three strong personalities shining through. With the addition of some slickly co-ordinated dancing this added up to a very entertaining evening. And it seemed like most of the enthusiastic, packed audience were Polka Dots regulars.
Friday, November 27, 2015
'The Winter's Tale' by William Shakespeare
27 November 2015
On Thursday I was at Leighton Buzzard Theatre to see the live screening of the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company production of 'The Winter's Tale' from the Garrick Theatre in London. It was great to see Branagh on stage again: his performance as Leontes reminded me of seeing him in Chekhov’s ‘Ivanov’ (reviewed here in September 2008). He is a very physical performer, his whole body crumpling as he discovers the devastating news of his son's death. It was also wonderful to see Judi Dench as Paulina, exuding a moral authority but also a mischievous humour. Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford previously co-directed the 2013 Manchester International Festival production of Macbeth (reviewed here in July 2013). Their 'Winter's Tale' felt like a fairly old-fashioned production, without many bells and whistles, with the focus on the acting – which was of a universally high standard. And the 'exit pursued by a bear' – so often a risible moment – used video projection to make it savagely frightening.
On Thursday I was at Leighton Buzzard Theatre to see the live screening of the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company production of 'The Winter's Tale' from the Garrick Theatre in London. It was great to see Branagh on stage again: his performance as Leontes reminded me of seeing him in Chekhov’s ‘Ivanov’ (reviewed here in September 2008). He is a very physical performer, his whole body crumpling as he discovers the devastating news of his son's death. It was also wonderful to see Judi Dench as Paulina, exuding a moral authority but also a mischievous humour. Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford previously co-directed the 2013 Manchester International Festival production of Macbeth (reviewed here in July 2013). Their 'Winter's Tale' felt like a fairly old-fashioned production, without many bells and whistles, with the focus on the acting – which was of a universally high standard. And the 'exit pursued by a bear' – so often a risible moment – used video projection to make it savagely frightening.
Bellowhead
27 November 2015
As a result of the recent attacks at the Bataclan in Paris, we arrived at the Riverside Theatre in Aylesbury on Sunday to discover a massive queue down the street, waiting to go through newly introduced security checks to get into the Bellowhead concert. This was my last chance to see Bellowhead, now well into their farewell tour before disbanding after 12 years together. I have written often here about English folk music's unique 'big band' and it was wonderful to see them one last time on Sunday. Support was provided by Keston Cobblers Club – a great young band who sound a lot like Beirut (reviewed here in November 2006 and October 2007). Bellowhead were on top form, playing for more than an hour and half, with the audience eating out of their hands. They sounded magnificent and all eleven musicians looked like they were having a ball. The recent English folk music revival has been strongly influenced by many musicians whose parents were part of the last great folk revival in the 1960s, and who have grown up in folk music families whilst assimilating a wide range of pop and rock music. When the duo Spiers and Boden, themselves already established folk music stars, invented a folk big band which brought together musicians from folk, classical and jazz backgrounds they created a unique sound. They may not always have pleased folk purists but when we look back on this golden period in English folk music I suspect Bellowhead will be remembered as its iconic band and I will be proud to be able to say I saw them.
As a result of the recent attacks at the Bataclan in Paris, we arrived at the Riverside Theatre in Aylesbury on Sunday to discover a massive queue down the street, waiting to go through newly introduced security checks to get into the Bellowhead concert. This was my last chance to see Bellowhead, now well into their farewell tour before disbanding after 12 years together. I have written often here about English folk music's unique 'big band' and it was wonderful to see them one last time on Sunday. Support was provided by Keston Cobblers Club – a great young band who sound a lot like Beirut (reviewed here in November 2006 and October 2007). Bellowhead were on top form, playing for more than an hour and half, with the audience eating out of their hands. They sounded magnificent and all eleven musicians looked like they were having a ball. The recent English folk music revival has been strongly influenced by many musicians whose parents were part of the last great folk revival in the 1960s, and who have grown up in folk music families whilst assimilating a wide range of pop and rock music. When the duo Spiers and Boden, themselves already established folk music stars, invented a folk big band which brought together musicians from folk, classical and jazz backgrounds they created a unique sound. They may not always have pleased folk purists but when we look back on this golden period in English folk music I suspect Bellowhead will be remembered as its iconic band and I will be proud to be able to say I saw them.
Bedford Choral Society concert
27 November 2015
On Saturday I was at Bedford Corn Exchange for my first concert with the Bedford Sinfonia, accompanying Bedford Choral Society in a programme of music by Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn's 'Symphony No 2, Hymn of Praise (Lobgesang)' is a mammoth work in eleven movements – a hybrid symphony-cantata. The movements vary in style and musical forces, featuring three vocal soloists and passages of recitative. We also played 'Die erste Walpurgisnacht' – a later Mendelssohn cantata with a similar structure. Conductor Ian Smith very effectively corralled the orchestra, chorus and soloists and the tenor Ben Thapa stood out with a particularly expressive performance.
On Saturday I was at Bedford Corn Exchange for my first concert with the Bedford Sinfonia, accompanying Bedford Choral Society in a programme of music by Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn's 'Symphony No 2, Hymn of Praise (Lobgesang)' is a mammoth work in eleven movements – a hybrid symphony-cantata. The movements vary in style and musical forces, featuring three vocal soloists and passages of recitative. We also played 'Die erste Walpurgisnacht' – a later Mendelssohn cantata with a similar structure. Conductor Ian Smith very effectively corralled the orchestra, chorus and soloists and the tenor Ben Thapa stood out with a particularly expressive performance.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
18 November 2015
When the programme was originally chosen, no-one could have anticipated the poignancy our Northampton Symphony Orchestra French-themed concert was going to have last Saturday – less than 24 hours after the Paris attacks. Our new regular conductor, John Gibbons, introduced the concert by asking for a minute's silence to reflect on the devastating events in France. Emerging from the silence, the pianissimo side drum rhythm at the start of Ravel's 'Bolero' can never have sounded so eerie and Andrea Patis's opening flute solo was particularly moving. The concert showcased some magnificent flute playing, with former NSO member Jenny Dyson appearing as the soloist in the 'Flute Concerto' by Jacques Ibert. Jenny gave a stunning performance of this fiendishly difficult piece in which she always appeared totally in command. Sadly the orchestra's leader, Stephen Hague, was unable to play in the concert as the result of an accident but this meant that the duet between the solo flute and violin in the slow movement of the concerto featured our former leader, Trevor Dyson, beautifully accompanying his own daughter. Ravel was the main focus of the concert with 'La Valse' closing the first half, followed after the interval by Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition'. 'La Valse' is an amazing piece which uses the Viennese waltz as the basis for a complex, playful and dizzying whirl towards an abrupt conclusion. 'Pictures at an Exhibition' included excellent solos by players throughout the orchestra, led by Nick Bunker's opening trumpet 'Promenade'. The finale, 'The Great Gate of Kiev', was a brilliant, powerful ending to an emotional concert.
When the programme was originally chosen, no-one could have anticipated the poignancy our Northampton Symphony Orchestra French-themed concert was going to have last Saturday – less than 24 hours after the Paris attacks. Our new regular conductor, John Gibbons, introduced the concert by asking for a minute's silence to reflect on the devastating events in France. Emerging from the silence, the pianissimo side drum rhythm at the start of Ravel's 'Bolero' can never have sounded so eerie and Andrea Patis's opening flute solo was particularly moving. The concert showcased some magnificent flute playing, with former NSO member Jenny Dyson appearing as the soloist in the 'Flute Concerto' by Jacques Ibert. Jenny gave a stunning performance of this fiendishly difficult piece in which she always appeared totally in command. Sadly the orchestra's leader, Stephen Hague, was unable to play in the concert as the result of an accident but this meant that the duet between the solo flute and violin in the slow movement of the concerto featured our former leader, Trevor Dyson, beautifully accompanying his own daughter. Ravel was the main focus of the concert with 'La Valse' closing the first half, followed after the interval by Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition'. 'La Valse' is an amazing piece which uses the Viennese waltz as the basis for a complex, playful and dizzying whirl towards an abrupt conclusion. 'Pictures at an Exhibition' included excellent solos by players throughout the orchestra, led by Nick Bunker's opening trumpet 'Promenade'. The finale, 'The Great Gate of Kiev', was a brilliant, powerful ending to an emotional concert.
Monday, November 09, 2015
'The Phantom of the Opera'
9 November 2015
On Sunday we were at The Stables in Wavendon to the 1925 silent film of 'The Phantom of the Opera' accompanied with live music from the group Minima. This event was part of the national BFI initiative 'LOVE: Films to Fall in Love With… Films to Break Your Heart'. Minima is a four-piece rock band that specialises in writing and performing new scores for silent films. It was fascinating to see this classic horror film, featuring an iconic performance by Lon Chaney, on a big screen with live music. The film has an odd feel for a modern audience: the changes in our attitudes to mental illness and facial disfigurement since 1925 make the plot more uncomfortable than intended but also the exaggerated acting style of silent movies appears unintentionally comic now. The incredibly abrupt ending of the film left the audience more amused than shocked. But there were some truly scary moments: the scene where a giant chandelier falls from the theatre ceiling to crush members of the opera audience felt shockingly real. And the artistic use of shadows in the cellars of the opera house was very effective. Visually the film is stunning, with some amazing crowd scenes. And the Paris Opera itself is the star of the show – a beautiful building, lovingly presented on screen. The black and white film had later been 'colourised' with successive scenes tinted in different colours to emphasise the change of location and mood. But apparently, when the film was originally released in 1925, it contained 17 minutes of colour footage – an early example of Process 2 Technicolor (a two-colour system). The surviving two-colour scene (the Bal Masqué) has a peculiarly psychedelic look that fits the growing panic and hysteria of the plot.
On Sunday we were at The Stables in Wavendon to the 1925 silent film of 'The Phantom of the Opera' accompanied with live music from the group Minima. This event was part of the national BFI initiative 'LOVE: Films to Fall in Love With… Films to Break Your Heart'. Minima is a four-piece rock band that specialises in writing and performing new scores for silent films. It was fascinating to see this classic horror film, featuring an iconic performance by Lon Chaney, on a big screen with live music. The film has an odd feel for a modern audience: the changes in our attitudes to mental illness and facial disfigurement since 1925 make the plot more uncomfortable than intended but also the exaggerated acting style of silent movies appears unintentionally comic now. The incredibly abrupt ending of the film left the audience more amused than shocked. But there were some truly scary moments: the scene where a giant chandelier falls from the theatre ceiling to crush members of the opera audience felt shockingly real. And the artistic use of shadows in the cellars of the opera house was very effective. Visually the film is stunning, with some amazing crowd scenes. And the Paris Opera itself is the star of the show – a beautiful building, lovingly presented on screen. The black and white film had later been 'colourised' with successive scenes tinted in different colours to emphasise the change of location and mood. But apparently, when the film was originally released in 1925, it contained 17 minutes of colour footage – an early example of Process 2 Technicolor (a two-colour system). The surviving two-colour scene (the Bal Masqué) has a peculiarly psychedelic look that fits the growing panic and hysteria of the plot.
'Slade House' by David Mitchell
9 November 2015
David Mitchell's crazy, brilliant, ridiculous and wonderful book, 'The Bone Clocks' (reviewed here in October 2014) was my Pick of the Year 2014. It was a wonderful surprise therefore to discover, a couple of weeks ago, that David Mitchell was about to publish another new novel so soon after 'The Bone Clocks' – and a delight to learn that 'Slade House' returns to the same (parallel) universe of that previous novel. 'Slade House' (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Tania Rodrigues and Thomas Judd) is a short ghost story for Halloween 2015 that acts as a bonus DVD extra for fans of 'The Bone Clocks' or a taster for those who haven't read the earlier book. It recounts five episodes, each nine years apart, beginning in 1979 and finishing on 27 October 2015. It was a pleasure to be immersed in David Mitchell's rich prose again. He paints a host of characters, through first person narration, that are each quickly distinct and believable. And he renders each historical period with deft touches and avoidance of cliché. 'Slade House' is a macabre tale that still manages to be engaging and funny. Mitchell is a playful writer, disguising a range of cultural references within the text and reintroducing characters from his previous novels. 'Slade House' contains elements of 'Alice in Wonderland' and Kazuo Ishiguro's evocation of dreaming, 'The Unconsoled'. It's a slight novel and the plot structure is fairly predictable but there was one great twist that I really didn't see coming. It was very enjoyable to return to the world of 'The Bone Clocks' but I hope David Mitchell's next novel will take us into new territory.
David Mitchell's crazy, brilliant, ridiculous and wonderful book, 'The Bone Clocks' (reviewed here in October 2014) was my Pick of the Year 2014. It was a wonderful surprise therefore to discover, a couple of weeks ago, that David Mitchell was about to publish another new novel so soon after 'The Bone Clocks' – and a delight to learn that 'Slade House' returns to the same (parallel) universe of that previous novel. 'Slade House' (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Tania Rodrigues and Thomas Judd) is a short ghost story for Halloween 2015 that acts as a bonus DVD extra for fans of 'The Bone Clocks' or a taster for those who haven't read the earlier book. It recounts five episodes, each nine years apart, beginning in 1979 and finishing on 27 October 2015. It was a pleasure to be immersed in David Mitchell's rich prose again. He paints a host of characters, through first person narration, that are each quickly distinct and believable. And he renders each historical period with deft touches and avoidance of cliché. 'Slade House' is a macabre tale that still manages to be engaging and funny. Mitchell is a playful writer, disguising a range of cultural references within the text and reintroducing characters from his previous novels. 'Slade House' contains elements of 'Alice in Wonderland' and Kazuo Ishiguro's evocation of dreaming, 'The Unconsoled'. It's a slight novel and the plot structure is fairly predictable but there was one great twist that I really didn't see coming. It was very enjoyable to return to the world of 'The Bone Clocks' but I hope David Mitchell's next novel will take us into new territory.
Thursday, November 05, 2015
'Gaslight' by Patrick Hamilton
5 November
For those of obsessed by 'The Archers' on BBC Radio 4, the excruciating Rob Titchener's ever-increasing control over his new wife, Helen, is one of those storylines that feels both unbearable and completely compelling drama. So it was intriguing, this week, to see a famous precursor of Rob's psychological marital manipulation in Patrick Hamilton's 1938 play 'Gaslight' – which gave its name to a scientific phenomenon. 'Gaslighting' is defined as “manipulating a person by psychological means into questioning his or her own sanity”. The play is set in 1880 and paints a harrowing picture of the power of the Victorian husband. Lucy Bailey's new production, which we saw at the Royal Theatre in Northampton on Tuesday, uses an exaggerated perspective set by William Dudley to frame a modern take on a very old-fashioned play (owing something, perhaps, to Stephen Daldry's famous production of 'An Inspector Calls'). The inventive use of projection to create an apparently never-ending staircase spiralling high above the stage echoed the sense of panic and entrapment that Bella Manningham feels in her house and in her marriage. An excellent cast (Jonathan Firth, Tara Fitzgerald, Alexandra Guelff and Paul Hunter) was augmented by members of local amateur theatre companies (now, wonderfully, a standard practice at the Royal & Derngate). 'Gaslight' is a disturbing play but avoids descending into melodrama and The Royal & Derngate production is very impressive.
For those of obsessed by 'The Archers' on BBC Radio 4, the excruciating Rob Titchener's ever-increasing control over his new wife, Helen, is one of those storylines that feels both unbearable and completely compelling drama. So it was intriguing, this week, to see a famous precursor of Rob's psychological marital manipulation in Patrick Hamilton's 1938 play 'Gaslight' – which gave its name to a scientific phenomenon. 'Gaslighting' is defined as “manipulating a person by psychological means into questioning his or her own sanity”. The play is set in 1880 and paints a harrowing picture of the power of the Victorian husband. Lucy Bailey's new production, which we saw at the Royal Theatre in Northampton on Tuesday, uses an exaggerated perspective set by William Dudley to frame a modern take on a very old-fashioned play (owing something, perhaps, to Stephen Daldry's famous production of 'An Inspector Calls'). The inventive use of projection to create an apparently never-ending staircase spiralling high above the stage echoed the sense of panic and entrapment that Bella Manningham feels in her house and in her marriage. An excellent cast (Jonathan Firth, Tara Fitzgerald, Alexandra Guelff and Paul Hunter) was augmented by members of local amateur theatre companies (now, wonderfully, a standard practice at the Royal & Derngate). 'Gaslight' is a disturbing play but avoids descending into melodrama and The Royal & Derngate production is very impressive.
The Unthanks
5 November 2015
On Saturday we were at The Stables in Wavendon to see The Unthanks. Now celebrating their tenth anniversary, the folk group built around sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank, draws on traditional Northumbrian folk tunes and styles to create beautiful, delicate hybrid music which often feels more like contemporary classical chamber music than folk. Originally known as Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, the band are serial collaborators and have been involved in an impressive list of innovative projects. These include: 'Songs from the Shipyards' – a soundtrack to accompany a documentary film by Richard Fenwick about the history of shipbuilding on the Tyne, Wear and Tees; an album of songs by Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons; and a UK tour with the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. It was fascinating to see them performing live last weekend: their quiet, gentle music definitely benefits from the concentration you more naturally give to a live concert. There was a very high quality of singing and playing and Adrian McNally's arrangements are clever and effective. While their songs demonstrate a wide variety of styles, I did find myself yearning for a few faster tunes amongst the predominantly slow, sad numbers. So it was wonderful to both sisters putting on their clogs for a more upbeat finale. I look forward to seeing watching The Unthanks' second decade.
On Saturday we were at The Stables in Wavendon to see The Unthanks. Now celebrating their tenth anniversary, the folk group built around sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank, draws on traditional Northumbrian folk tunes and styles to create beautiful, delicate hybrid music which often feels more like contemporary classical chamber music than folk. Originally known as Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, the band are serial collaborators and have been involved in an impressive list of innovative projects. These include: 'Songs from the Shipyards' – a soundtrack to accompany a documentary film by Richard Fenwick about the history of shipbuilding on the Tyne, Wear and Tees; an album of songs by Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons; and a UK tour with the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. It was fascinating to see them performing live last weekend: their quiet, gentle music definitely benefits from the concentration you more naturally give to a live concert. There was a very high quality of singing and playing and Adrian McNally's arrangements are clever and effective. While their songs demonstrate a wide variety of styles, I did find myself yearning for a few faster tunes amongst the predominantly slow, sad numbers. So it was wonderful to both sisters putting on their clogs for a more upbeat finale. I look forward to seeing watching The Unthanks' second decade.
Tom Robinson
5 November 2015
Last summer's one-off gig by Tom Robinson (reviewed here in August 2014) reminded me how much I like his music. It also reminded him how much he likes performing. After a break of more than ten years Tom Robinson is now touring again, to promote his first new album in twenty years – 'Only The Now'. The 'Mighty Sword Of Justice' tour is also supporting mental health charities including the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM – see: https://www.thecalmzone.net/) and the Samaritans, who were collecting donations at Tom Robinson's concert at the Public Hall in Harpenden which we were at last Friday. It was great to see Tom performing new material again (as well as his greatest hit). 'Only The Now' contains some wonderful new Tom Robinson songs that demonstrate his experience and skill as a songwriter. The tango which opens the album, 'Home in the Morning' feels instantly like classic Tom Robinson and 'Never Get Old' is a poignant anthem for his return to the rock and roll stage at the age of 65 (“Did you think we'd never get old? Take a good look at me now.”). A range of illustrious friends have contributed to the new recordings. Alongside long-time collaborators Adam Philips and Lee Forsyth Griffiths, 'Only The Now' features appearances by Billy Bragg, Martin Carthy, John Grant and Ian McKellen. Friday's gig drew a large, enthusiastic audience that clearly knew Tom Robinson's back catalogue well but also gave a warm welcome to the new songs. As he did at the Jazz Cafe gig last summer, Tom looked like he was having a ball and seemed genuinely moved by the reception his music received and the affection of the audience. Great to see him back.
Last summer's one-off gig by Tom Robinson (reviewed here in August 2014) reminded me how much I like his music. It also reminded him how much he likes performing. After a break of more than ten years Tom Robinson is now touring again, to promote his first new album in twenty years – 'Only The Now'. The 'Mighty Sword Of Justice' tour is also supporting mental health charities including the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM – see: https://www.thecalmzone.net/) and the Samaritans, who were collecting donations at Tom Robinson's concert at the Public Hall in Harpenden which we were at last Friday. It was great to see Tom performing new material again (as well as his greatest hit). 'Only The Now' contains some wonderful new Tom Robinson songs that demonstrate his experience and skill as a songwriter. The tango which opens the album, 'Home in the Morning' feels instantly like classic Tom Robinson and 'Never Get Old' is a poignant anthem for his return to the rock and roll stage at the age of 65 (“Did you think we'd never get old? Take a good look at me now.”). A range of illustrious friends have contributed to the new recordings. Alongside long-time collaborators Adam Philips and Lee Forsyth Griffiths, 'Only The Now' features appearances by Billy Bragg, Martin Carthy, John Grant and Ian McKellen. Friday's gig drew a large, enthusiastic audience that clearly knew Tom Robinson's back catalogue well but also gave a warm welcome to the new songs. As he did at the Jazz Cafe gig last summer, Tom looked like he was having a ball and seemed genuinely moved by the reception his music received and the affection of the audience. Great to see him back.
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