1 August 2017
I have been writing here about my annual visit to the WOMAD Festival every year since 2006, so regular readers will be expecting a list of my key highlights, a boast about how many bands I saw and some comments on the weather – and I don’t plan to disappoint you! This year it was good to get the chance to see again some old favourites as well as some great new discoveries. It was WOMAD 2009 when I last saw the great Wassalou singer from Mali, Oumou Sangaré (reviewed here in July 2009 and March 2009), and it was wonderful to see her on great form again on the Open Air Stage this weekend. I wrote here in January 2016 about ‘Junun’ – the 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 – and it was great to get the chance to see this music performed live by Shye Ben Tzur & Rajasthan Express on Friday. One of the most bizarre moments of the weekend was watching Dorit Chrysler and Charlie Draper from the New York Theremin Society performing a mixture of classical, jazz and contemporary music on the original electronic instrument – I want a theremin! Talking of bizarre, it was a joy to discover the brilliant Spooky Men’s Chorale from the Blue Mountains of Australia. As their own publicity says “Men. Singing Songs. Some of them are funny.” Their idiosyncratic mixture of dead-pan comedy, pathos and beautiful harmonies felt like a combination of the amazing Chumbawamba performance at WOMAD 2010 (reviewed here in July 2010) and the legendary Flying Pickets. Here’s a flavour of the Spooky Men’s Chorale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiFJL4IrH7Y. And another standout moment in an increasingly bizarre weekend was watching a 28-piece brass band playing Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’. Tubular Brass, arranged and conducted by Sandy Smith, also accompanied the young electronic music experimentalist Hannah Peel in her new work ‘Mary Casio’. But my favourite performances from WOMAD 2017 were all from the Baltic. Estonian fiddler Maarja Nuut and the Estonia folk trio Trad.Attack! both create very modern music from traditional folk sources. It has been eleven years since I last saw one of my favourite bands, the great Finnish folk/rock band Värttinä, live (reviewed here at WOMAD in August 2006) and it was fantastic to see their three female vocalists performing as Värttinä Vocal Trio on Saturday. They were joined by the English folk star Eliza Carthy for a wonderful English/Finnish version of ‘Three Drunken Maidens’. But my favourite song was the beautiful ‘Emoton’ which you can hear at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjsSMIXOnn0. For the record I beat last year’s tally of 22 bands, seeing 23 performances in total last weekend. And the weather was a mixed bag this year – hot, sunny, cold, wet, windy and very muddy by the end of the weekend. You can see a selection of my WOMAD 2017 photos at: https://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/WOMAD2017.
Tuesday, August 01, 2017
Thursday, July 27, 2017
'GLOW' by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch
27 July 2017
I’ve just finished watching the excellent new Netflix comedy drama series ‘GLOW’. The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was a real 1980s TV franchise from which Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch have created this fictionalised show about the development of the show. Alison Brie plays Ruth – an aspiring actor struggling to land a serious role who comes to see the schlocky world of wrestling as a chance to perform. There is a great ensemble cast, including British pop singer Kate Nash making an impressive acting debut. ‘GLOW’ is very funny but ultimately succeeds because it really makes you care about the characters – as well as actually persuading this sceptic about the value of the staged sport it portrays. There is lots of 1980s period detail. And standup comedian Marc Maron steals the show as the sleazy director trying to bring a disparate group of women together to wrestle on camera.
I’ve just finished watching the excellent new Netflix comedy drama series ‘GLOW’. The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was a real 1980s TV franchise from which Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch have created this fictionalised show about the development of the show. Alison Brie plays Ruth – an aspiring actor struggling to land a serious role who comes to see the schlocky world of wrestling as a chance to perform. There is a great ensemble cast, including British pop singer Kate Nash making an impressive acting debut. ‘GLOW’ is very funny but ultimately succeeds because it really makes you care about the characters – as well as actually persuading this sceptic about the value of the staged sport it portrays. There is lots of 1980s period detail. And standup comedian Marc Maron steals the show as the sleazy director trying to bring a disparate group of women together to wrestle on camera.
Friday, July 21, 2017
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
21 July 2017
The last concert of each Northampton Symphony Orchestra season is always a private performance for the Friends of the Orchestra - a chance to say thank you for their support and an opportunity for the orchestra to explore repertoire that might not fit into one of our main concerts. This year's NSO Friends' Concert, last Sunday, concluded our season of Fifth Symphonies with Beethoven's 'Symphony no 5'. With such a famous piece of music it is easy to take it for granted and assume you know it all. So it was good to have the opportunity, over the past few weeks, to really get to grips with the symphony and to appreciate why it is such a successful and well known work. During 2016-17 we have played the fifth symphonies by Shostakovich, Glazunov, Sibelius, Alwyn, Mendelssohn and Beethoven. It has been a really enjoyable and interesting season of concerts, cleverly programmed by NSO Conductor, John Gibbons. But I'm not sure whether we really identified any particular characteristics of fifth symphonies. It is interesting that for many composers the fifth symphony seems to be a particularly significant work but, beyond the fact that getting as far as writing five symphonies is likely to indicate a maturing of the composer's skill, I don't think we noticed any other common features.
The rest of our programme on Sunday included Sullivan's overture to 'The Yeomen of the Guard' and Handel's 'Music for the Royal Fireworks'. But the star attraction was the return of the brilliant young saxophonist, Jess Gillam, who played John Williams' 'Escapades' with the NSO at our February 2017 concert. Jess is due to make three appearances at this year's BBC Proms, starting with the John Williams Prom this Thursday (which is being shown on BBC4 on the evening of Friday 21 July). She joined us again on Sunday to try out some pieces by Chick Corea that will form part of one of her Proms performances. Jess Gillam is an amazing performer and it was a privilege to see her in action again.
Sunday's concert also marked a final appearance with the NSO by my fellow horn player, Ian Frankland. Ian has been with NSO for 19 years and we have played alongside each other since 2000. We've had a great time and played in some amazing concerts together. I'll really miss Ian and wish him well for his forthcoming move to Copenhagen.
The last concert of each Northampton Symphony Orchestra season is always a private performance for the Friends of the Orchestra - a chance to say thank you for their support and an opportunity for the orchestra to explore repertoire that might not fit into one of our main concerts. This year's NSO Friends' Concert, last Sunday, concluded our season of Fifth Symphonies with Beethoven's 'Symphony no 5'. With such a famous piece of music it is easy to take it for granted and assume you know it all. So it was good to have the opportunity, over the past few weeks, to really get to grips with the symphony and to appreciate why it is such a successful and well known work. During 2016-17 we have played the fifth symphonies by Shostakovich, Glazunov, Sibelius, Alwyn, Mendelssohn and Beethoven. It has been a really enjoyable and interesting season of concerts, cleverly programmed by NSO Conductor, John Gibbons. But I'm not sure whether we really identified any particular characteristics of fifth symphonies. It is interesting that for many composers the fifth symphony seems to be a particularly significant work but, beyond the fact that getting as far as writing five symphonies is likely to indicate a maturing of the composer's skill, I don't think we noticed any other common features.
The rest of our programme on Sunday included Sullivan's overture to 'The Yeomen of the Guard' and Handel's 'Music for the Royal Fireworks'. But the star attraction was the return of the brilliant young saxophonist, Jess Gillam, who played John Williams' 'Escapades' with the NSO at our February 2017 concert. Jess is due to make three appearances at this year's BBC Proms, starting with the John Williams Prom this Thursday (which is being shown on BBC4 on the evening of Friday 21 July). She joined us again on Sunday to try out some pieces by Chick Corea that will form part of one of her Proms performances. Jess Gillam is an amazing performer and it was a privilege to see her in action again.
Sunday's concert also marked a final appearance with the NSO by my fellow horn player, Ian Frankland. Ian has been with NSO for 19 years and we have played alongside each other since 2000. We've had a great time and played in some amazing concerts together. I'll really miss Ian and wish him well for his forthcoming move to Copenhagen.
Friday, July 14, 2017
'Alan Partridge: Nomad' by Alan Partridge with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons and Steve Coogan
14 July 2017
When I reviewed the Alan Partridge ‘autobiography’, ‘I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan’ (in May 2012) I was particularly taken with how it managed to replay many of the best known Partridge moments (from radio and TV series going back more than 20 years) without making the book feel like a ‘greatest hits’ exercise, merely replaying old jokes, but actually adding a further layer of hindsight humour by re-telling the various incidents in exactly the way Alan himself would. The ‘sequel’, ‘Alan Partridge: Nomad’ by Alan Partridge with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons and Steve Coogan (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Alan Partridge) cleverly extends this technique. In this diary of Alan’s ill-fated attempt to get a TV commission for a celebrity walking series (in the style of Julia Bradbury or Clare Balding) by embarking on an emotional trek across East Anglia in the footsteps of his father, he includes his reflections on almost everything that has happened to Alan Partridge since the publication of ‘I, Partridge’. This includes telling us about the events that form the plot of Declan Lowney’s excellent 2013 film ‘Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa’. The whole Alan Partridge canon has become increasingly meta-textual. Rob Gibbons and Neil Gibbons are genuine Partridge fans who have turned their obsessively pedantic (Patridgean?) attention to detail regarding Alan’s history to superb effect in the books.
When I reviewed the Alan Partridge ‘autobiography’, ‘I, Partridge: We Need to Talk About Alan’ (in May 2012) I was particularly taken with how it managed to replay many of the best known Partridge moments (from radio and TV series going back more than 20 years) without making the book feel like a ‘greatest hits’ exercise, merely replaying old jokes, but actually adding a further layer of hindsight humour by re-telling the various incidents in exactly the way Alan himself would. The ‘sequel’, ‘Alan Partridge: Nomad’ by Alan Partridge with Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons and Steve Coogan (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Alan Partridge) cleverly extends this technique. In this diary of Alan’s ill-fated attempt to get a TV commission for a celebrity walking series (in the style of Julia Bradbury or Clare Balding) by embarking on an emotional trek across East Anglia in the footsteps of his father, he includes his reflections on almost everything that has happened to Alan Partridge since the publication of ‘I, Partridge’. This includes telling us about the events that form the plot of Declan Lowney’s excellent 2013 film ‘Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa’. The whole Alan Partridge canon has become increasingly meta-textual. Rob Gibbons and Neil Gibbons are genuine Partridge fans who have turned their obsessively pedantic (Patridgean?) attention to detail regarding Alan’s history to superb effect in the books.
'Respectable' by Lynsey Hanley
14 July 2017
Since the EU referendum in June last year, I’ve been thinking a lot about the class divisions that were highlighted by the vote in so many communities that clearly felt disconnected from, and disillusioned with, Government and the ‘metropolitan elite’. In September 2016 I saw the Guardian journalist Lynsey Hanley give a brilliantly entertaining and provocative presentation about class and culture at the Creative People and Places conference in Doncaster. Lynsey Hanley’s book ‘Respectable: Crossing the Class Divide’ has been my timely, inspiring and challenging companion over the past few months. It has made a significant impression on my thinking in a very similar way to ‘Welcome to Everytown’ – Julian Baggini’s exploration of mainstream culture (reviewed here in April 2008). So it was particularly interesting to discover a reference in ‘Respectable’ to ‘Welcome to Everytown’ – especially as I hadn’t come to this reference when I met Julian Baggini for the first time in February and encouraged him to read ‘Respectable’. Lynsey Hanley uses her own experience of social mobility as a platform to explore and explode many middle class assumptions about working class people and culture. It is an important and fascinating book – highly recommended.
Since the EU referendum in June last year, I’ve been thinking a lot about the class divisions that were highlighted by the vote in so many communities that clearly felt disconnected from, and disillusioned with, Government and the ‘metropolitan elite’. In September 2016 I saw the Guardian journalist Lynsey Hanley give a brilliantly entertaining and provocative presentation about class and culture at the Creative People and Places conference in Doncaster. Lynsey Hanley’s book ‘Respectable: Crossing the Class Divide’ has been my timely, inspiring and challenging companion over the past few months. It has made a significant impression on my thinking in a very similar way to ‘Welcome to Everytown’ – Julian Baggini’s exploration of mainstream culture (reviewed here in April 2008). So it was particularly interesting to discover a reference in ‘Respectable’ to ‘Welcome to Everytown’ – especially as I hadn’t come to this reference when I met Julian Baggini for the first time in February and encouraged him to read ‘Respectable’. Lynsey Hanley uses her own experience of social mobility as a platform to explore and explode many middle class assumptions about working class people and culture. It is an important and fascinating book – highly recommended.
'Titus Andronicus' by William Shakespeare
14 July 2017
Last Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see the new RSC production of ‘Titus Andronicus’. I had never seen ‘Titus Andronicus’ before and, although this was a stunning production, I don’t think I want to see it again. I knew the play has a reputation for being particularly gory but I found the plot incredibly discomfiting as well as not making a great deal of sense. There is a horrifically brutal rape scene that sits very uneasily with the dark comedy that follows. There is also an incredible amount of blood spilled during the performance: don’t sit in the front row! Blanche McIntyre’s modern-dress production is an amazing theatrical experience which compares contemporary crises to the decline of Roman civilisation, opening with anti-austerity protesters in hoodies trying to storm fences protecting the Roman Senate. There were some very witty touches, such as making the messenger Titus Andronicus sends to the Emperor into a cyclist with a padded ‘Deliveroma’ box on his back. And having some of the speeches delivered from a podium with a microphone allowed for a quiet comic undercutting of some of the more declarative text. The (very) dark humour reminded me of the 2005 National Theatre production of ‘Theatre of Blood’ (adapted by Lee Simpson and Phelim McDermott from the 1973 MGM movie). The always-impressive David Troughton, who I last saw at the RSC as Gloucester in ‘King Lear’ (reviewed here in September 2016) is wonderful as Titus Andronicus (is he working his way through the goriest Shakespearean parts?). This is a quality production of a very peculiar play.
Last Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see the new RSC production of ‘Titus Andronicus’. I had never seen ‘Titus Andronicus’ before and, although this was a stunning production, I don’t think I want to see it again. I knew the play has a reputation for being particularly gory but I found the plot incredibly discomfiting as well as not making a great deal of sense. There is a horrifically brutal rape scene that sits very uneasily with the dark comedy that follows. There is also an incredible amount of blood spilled during the performance: don’t sit in the front row! Blanche McIntyre’s modern-dress production is an amazing theatrical experience which compares contemporary crises to the decline of Roman civilisation, opening with anti-austerity protesters in hoodies trying to storm fences protecting the Roman Senate. There were some very witty touches, such as making the messenger Titus Andronicus sends to the Emperor into a cyclist with a padded ‘Deliveroma’ box on his back. And having some of the speeches delivered from a podium with a microphone allowed for a quiet comic undercutting of some of the more declarative text. The (very) dark humour reminded me of the 2005 National Theatre production of ‘Theatre of Blood’ (adapted by Lee Simpson and Phelim McDermott from the 1973 MGM movie). The always-impressive David Troughton, who I last saw at the RSC as Gloucester in ‘King Lear’ (reviewed here in September 2016) is wonderful as Titus Andronicus (is he working his way through the goriest Shakespearean parts?). This is a quality production of a very peculiar play.
'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens, adapted by Laura Turner
14 July 2017
On Saturday 1 July we were at the National Trust stately home at Claydon near Buckingham for an outdoor theatre production by Chapterhouse Theatre Company. We have seen many Chapterhouse productions over recent years (at a variety of venues) and they always bring an impressive cast of young actors who rise to the many challenges of an outdoor performance. Laura Turner has made a specialism of adapting classic novels for Chapterhouse outdoor productions and this time we saw her adaptation of ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens. It was a beautiful evening to spend in such a lovely setting, with Claydon itself playing the part of Satis House and a wonderful sunset providing the backdrop to the play. The cast were all very strong but Dominic Quinn, making his Chapterhouse debut as a late replacement for the actor playing Magwitch and Jaggers, was particularly impressive.
On Saturday 1 July we were at the National Trust stately home at Claydon near Buckingham for an outdoor theatre production by Chapterhouse Theatre Company. We have seen many Chapterhouse productions over recent years (at a variety of venues) and they always bring an impressive cast of young actors who rise to the many challenges of an outdoor performance. Laura Turner has made a specialism of adapting classic novels for Chapterhouse outdoor productions and this time we saw her adaptation of ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens. It was a beautiful evening to spend in such a lovely setting, with Claydon itself playing the part of Satis House and a wonderful sunset providing the backdrop to the play. The cast were all very strong but Dominic Quinn, making his Chapterhouse debut as a late replacement for the actor playing Magwitch and Jaggers, was particularly impressive.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
'Small Great Things' by Jodi Picoult
29 June 2017
Jodi Picoult's novel 'Small Great Things', which I have just finished reading (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Noma Dumezweni, Jeff Harding and Jennifer Woodward), is a very impressive exploration of racism in contemporary America. When Ruth Jefferson, an experienced and highly respected nurse working in a hospital in Newhaven, Connecticut, is removed from caring for a newborn baby because his white supremacist parents do not want an African American touching their son, she is understandably angry and upset. When the baby then dies suddenly and unexpectedly, Ruth finds herself suspended and charged with murder. But 'Small Great Things' resists the melodrama this plot suggests and focuses instead on the prejudices, explicit and implicit, of everyone involved. Telling the story through the eyes of Ruth, her white liberal lawyer and the baby's skinhead father, Picoult alternates narrators, often overlapping different views of the same scene. She makes all these characters very real and believable - even making the fascist father almost sympathetic. Ultimately she shows the unconscious racism of well-meaning people like the liberal lawyer to be as damaging as the more blatant prejudice practised by the baby's parents. I was struck by her distinction between 'equality' and 'equity' - suggesting that treating everyone the same is often not enough to redress the balance. What appears, initially, to be a fairly grim thriller turns into a thought-provoking examination with well drawn characters and some beautiful writing.
Jodi Picoult's novel 'Small Great Things', which I have just finished reading (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Noma Dumezweni, Jeff Harding and Jennifer Woodward), is a very impressive exploration of racism in contemporary America. When Ruth Jefferson, an experienced and highly respected nurse working in a hospital in Newhaven, Connecticut, is removed from caring for a newborn baby because his white supremacist parents do not want an African American touching their son, she is understandably angry and upset. When the baby then dies suddenly and unexpectedly, Ruth finds herself suspended and charged with murder. But 'Small Great Things' resists the melodrama this plot suggests and focuses instead on the prejudices, explicit and implicit, of everyone involved. Telling the story through the eyes of Ruth, her white liberal lawyer and the baby's skinhead father, Picoult alternates narrators, often overlapping different views of the same scene. She makes all these characters very real and believable - even making the fascist father almost sympathetic. Ultimately she shows the unconscious racism of well-meaning people like the liberal lawyer to be as damaging as the more blatant prejudice practised by the baby's parents. I was struck by her distinction between 'equality' and 'equity' - suggesting that treating everyone the same is often not enough to redress the balance. What appears, initially, to be a fairly grim thriller turns into a thought-provoking examination with well drawn characters and some beautiful writing.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Aegon Birmingham Classic Tennis
27 June 2017
On Saturday we were at the Priory Club in Edgbaston, Birmingham to see the semi-finals of the Aegon Birmingham Classic tennis tournament. It was great to see the former Wimbledon Champion, Petra Kvitová, returning to form following an enforced absence from the game after being attacked and injured by an intruder in her home at the end of last year. It was a shame her semi-final was cut short by an injury to her opponent, Lucie Šafárová, but still good to see her playing so well. The second semi-final was a thriller, with Garbiñe Muguruza – last year’s French Open winner – losing in three sets to the young Australian doubles specialist Ashleigh Barty. It was one of those tennis matches where you genuinely couldn’t tell who was going to win. Even at 5-1 down in the final set Muguruza looked as if she still might triumph. It was a really exciting match. We finished the day with an entertaining, if fairly one-sided, doubles semi-final won by Chan Hao-ching and Zhang Shuai. We had been looking forward to seeing Ashleigh Barty again in the doubles but her semi-final was a walkover after one of her opponents pulled out through injury. The problem with a pre-Wimbledon tournament is that anyone who feels the slightest twinge is clearly not to going to risk missing Wimbledon. Nevertheless we had a really enjoyable day of tennis in Birmingham.
On Saturday we were at the Priory Club in Edgbaston, Birmingham to see the semi-finals of the Aegon Birmingham Classic tennis tournament. It was great to see the former Wimbledon Champion, Petra Kvitová, returning to form following an enforced absence from the game after being attacked and injured by an intruder in her home at the end of last year. It was a shame her semi-final was cut short by an injury to her opponent, Lucie Šafárová, but still good to see her playing so well. The second semi-final was a thriller, with Garbiñe Muguruza – last year’s French Open winner – losing in three sets to the young Australian doubles specialist Ashleigh Barty. It was one of those tennis matches where you genuinely couldn’t tell who was going to win. Even at 5-1 down in the final set Muguruza looked as if she still might triumph. It was a really exciting match. We finished the day with an entertaining, if fairly one-sided, doubles semi-final won by Chan Hao-ching and Zhang Shuai. We had been looking forward to seeing Ashleigh Barty again in the doubles but her semi-final was a walkover after one of her opponents pulled out through injury. The problem with a pre-Wimbledon tournament is that anyone who feels the slightest twinge is clearly not to going to risk missing Wimbledon. Nevertheless we had a really enjoyable day of tennis in Birmingham.
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
20 June 2017
One of the first things you are taught about classical music is not to clap between the movements of a piece. I can remember my primary school teacher telling us, before we attended a schools concert at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester that, even if every other child in the audience applauded at the end of the first movement, we should not. My former boss, Robin Osterley, while he was a music student, attended an early music concert at the Royal Albert Hall at which he felt he was the only person not clapping between movements – only to discover that this mid-piece applause was a deliberate part of the authentic recreation of early classical music. As a performer, audience applause that is a genuine response to the exciting conclusion of a movement (rather than a polite ripple because the audience feels it is expected) is always welcome. I fondly remember such a spontaneous reaction to the end of the first movement of Grieg’s ‘Piano Concerto’ performed by Peter Donohoe in a concert I played in as a teenager at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. So when, in our Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday, the thrilling climax of the first movement of the Tchaikovsky ‘Violin Concerto’, played by the incredible young Polish violinist Kamila Bydlowska, drew rapturous applause, it felt like fitting appreciation of a stunning performance. Admittedly the concert programme failed to mention how many movements there were in the Concerto – so some audience members might have been anticipating an early interval glass of wine! But nobody seemed disappointed when we embarked on two more movements that showcased the breathtaking skills of this stunning young soloist. We started the concert with Hubert Parry’s ‘Symphonic Variations’ – an interesting missing link between Brahms’ ‘St Anthony Variations’ and Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’ which really grew on me over the weeks we rehearsed it. I was also intrigued to get to know the ‘Overture to King Lear’ by Hector Berlioz – an exciting piece with two great tunes that seems to have far too happy an ending for Shakespeare’s great tragedy. The concert concluded with the latest in our season of Fifth Symphonies, Mendelssohn’s ‘Reformation Symphony’. I watched the symphony from the audience, as there are only two horn parts, and really enjoyed the orchestra’s performance. This concert programme was another interesting mix of the familiar and lesser-known repertoire from Conductor John Gibbons. We will complete our exploration of Fifth Symphonies next month with perhaps the most famous of them all, Beethoven’s Fifth.
One of the first things you are taught about classical music is not to clap between the movements of a piece. I can remember my primary school teacher telling us, before we attended a schools concert at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester that, even if every other child in the audience applauded at the end of the first movement, we should not. My former boss, Robin Osterley, while he was a music student, attended an early music concert at the Royal Albert Hall at which he felt he was the only person not clapping between movements – only to discover that this mid-piece applause was a deliberate part of the authentic recreation of early classical music. As a performer, audience applause that is a genuine response to the exciting conclusion of a movement (rather than a polite ripple because the audience feels it is expected) is always welcome. I fondly remember such a spontaneous reaction to the end of the first movement of Grieg’s ‘Piano Concerto’ performed by Peter Donohoe in a concert I played in as a teenager at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. So when, in our Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday, the thrilling climax of the first movement of the Tchaikovsky ‘Violin Concerto’, played by the incredible young Polish violinist Kamila Bydlowska, drew rapturous applause, it felt like fitting appreciation of a stunning performance. Admittedly the concert programme failed to mention how many movements there were in the Concerto – so some audience members might have been anticipating an early interval glass of wine! But nobody seemed disappointed when we embarked on two more movements that showcased the breathtaking skills of this stunning young soloist. We started the concert with Hubert Parry’s ‘Symphonic Variations’ – an interesting missing link between Brahms’ ‘St Anthony Variations’ and Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’ which really grew on me over the weeks we rehearsed it. I was also intrigued to get to know the ‘Overture to King Lear’ by Hector Berlioz – an exciting piece with two great tunes that seems to have far too happy an ending for Shakespeare’s great tragedy. The concert concluded with the latest in our season of Fifth Symphonies, Mendelssohn’s ‘Reformation Symphony’. I watched the symphony from the audience, as there are only two horn parts, and really enjoyed the orchestra’s performance. This concert programme was another interesting mix of the familiar and lesser-known repertoire from Conductor John Gibbons. We will complete our exploration of Fifth Symphonies next month with perhaps the most famous of them all, Beethoven’s Fifth.
Thursday, June 15, 2017
'Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng' by Orchestra Baobab
15 June 2017
My interest in ‘world music’ stems from reading Robin Denselow’s glowing review, in The Guardian on 6 September 2002, of ‘Specialist in All Styles’ - the spectacular reunion album by the legendary 1970s Senegalese band, Orchestra Baobab (see: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/sep/06/worldmusic.artsfeatures). Inspired by this five-star review I bought the album and then took the opportunity to see Orchestra Baobab live at the Derngate in Northampton. At that concert I bought a copy of Songlines magazine (which included a major feature on Orchestra Baobab). I soon became a Songlines subscriber and then a regular attender of the annual WOMAD Festival. I owe Orchestra Baobab a huge debt of gratitude for opening up a world of music to me. I have a particular soft spot for their retro fusion, and that of the other great big bands of the 1970s such as the Rail Band of Mali and Bembeya Jazz of Guinea. Their re-appropriation of Cuban salsa – which itself stemmed from an adaptation of traditional West African music – created an infectiously danceable mix. This week I have been listening to the new album from Orchestra Baobab, ‘Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng’, which honours one of the band’s original singers who died last November. This is an interestingly varied album with the classic Orchestra Baobab sound (guitars, percussion, brass) augmented by the inclusion, for the first time, of a kora – the West African 21-string harp-lute. The album also features guest vocals from some other stars of West African music, Cheikh Lo and Thione Seck. It is a confident, assured, laid-back set of songs from one of the great African bands.
My interest in ‘world music’ stems from reading Robin Denselow’s glowing review, in The Guardian on 6 September 2002, of ‘Specialist in All Styles’ - the spectacular reunion album by the legendary 1970s Senegalese band, Orchestra Baobab (see: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/sep/06/worldmusic.artsfeatures). Inspired by this five-star review I bought the album and then took the opportunity to see Orchestra Baobab live at the Derngate in Northampton. At that concert I bought a copy of Songlines magazine (which included a major feature on Orchestra Baobab). I soon became a Songlines subscriber and then a regular attender of the annual WOMAD Festival. I owe Orchestra Baobab a huge debt of gratitude for opening up a world of music to me. I have a particular soft spot for their retro fusion, and that of the other great big bands of the 1970s such as the Rail Band of Mali and Bembeya Jazz of Guinea. Their re-appropriation of Cuban salsa – which itself stemmed from an adaptation of traditional West African music – created an infectiously danceable mix. This week I have been listening to the new album from Orchestra Baobab, ‘Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng’, which honours one of the band’s original singers who died last November. This is an interestingly varied album with the classic Orchestra Baobab sound (guitars, percussion, brass) augmented by the inclusion, for the first time, of a kora – the West African 21-string harp-lute. The album also features guest vocals from some other stars of West African music, Cheikh Lo and Thione Seck. It is a confident, assured, laid-back set of songs from one of the great African bands.
Wednesday, June 07, 2017
'White Tears' by Hari Kunzru
7 June 2017
Having really enjoyed Hari Kunzru’s brilliant debut novel ‘The Impressionist’ (reviewed here in September 2013), I was looking forward to his latest book, ‘White Tears’, which I have just finished reading (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Jonathan Todd Ross). ‘White Tears’ starts as a tale of two young, white record producers in contemporary New York who create a fake recording purporting to be an authentic 1930s blues track. They decide to call their imaginary black blues singer Charlie Shaw but are disconcerted when they are approached by someone who claims to have met Charlie Shaw in 1959. As the novel progresses boundaries between the present and past get increasingly blurred as we struggle to work out what is ‘authentic’. ‘White Tears’ at times feels like a ghost story, with the mythical singer seeking vengeance for the wrongs done to him a lifetime ago. The book uses magical realism to create a dreamlike atmosphere which reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘The Unconsoled’. But unlike that often deliberately frustrating novel, ‘White Tears’ does eventually arrive at an explanation, of sorts. The first half of the book, with its its New York setting and two young partners in crime, reminded me of Donna Tartt’s ‘The Goldfinch’ (reviewed here in 2014). ‘White Tears is an interesting and ambitious undertaking and Hari Kunzru is clearly a very accomplished writer but I’m not convinced it fully worked. The book was slow to get going and felt far too long. It was hard to sympathise with any of the main characters and, although the denouement was cleverly satisfying, it was hard work getting to it.
Having really enjoyed Hari Kunzru’s brilliant debut novel ‘The Impressionist’ (reviewed here in September 2013), I was looking forward to his latest book, ‘White Tears’, which I have just finished reading (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Jonathan Todd Ross). ‘White Tears’ starts as a tale of two young, white record producers in contemporary New York who create a fake recording purporting to be an authentic 1930s blues track. They decide to call their imaginary black blues singer Charlie Shaw but are disconcerted when they are approached by someone who claims to have met Charlie Shaw in 1959. As the novel progresses boundaries between the present and past get increasingly blurred as we struggle to work out what is ‘authentic’. ‘White Tears’ at times feels like a ghost story, with the mythical singer seeking vengeance for the wrongs done to him a lifetime ago. The book uses magical realism to create a dreamlike atmosphere which reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘The Unconsoled’. But unlike that often deliberately frustrating novel, ‘White Tears’ does eventually arrive at an explanation, of sorts. The first half of the book, with its its New York setting and two young partners in crime, reminded me of Donna Tartt’s ‘The Goldfinch’ (reviewed here in 2014). ‘White Tears is an interesting and ambitious undertaking and Hari Kunzru is clearly a very accomplished writer but I’m not convinced it fully worked. The book was slow to get going and felt far too long. It was hard to sympathise with any of the main characters and, although the denouement was cleverly satisfying, it was hard work getting to it.
Friday, June 02, 2017
'Double Acts' by John Finnemore
2 June 2017
It is wonderful to see the return this week of John Finnemore’s ‘Double Acts’ (Wednesdays at 6.30 pm on BBC Radio 4) – a series of 30-minute comedy dramas, each featuring a different two actors. As with his first series, originally broadcast in 2015, John Finnemore has attracted an amazing cast and each of his short plays is beautifully constructed, invariably with a twist you really don’t see coming – often playing on the radio listener’s actual inability to see visual clues. This week’s opener, ‘The Queen’s Speech’ starring Stephanie Cole and Kerry Goldiman, was a fairly gentle start to the second series which you can listen to at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08rrc0m. I am really looking forward to the next five weeks.
It is wonderful to see the return this week of John Finnemore’s ‘Double Acts’ (Wednesdays at 6.30 pm on BBC Radio 4) – a series of 30-minute comedy dramas, each featuring a different two actors. As with his first series, originally broadcast in 2015, John Finnemore has attracted an amazing cast and each of his short plays is beautifully constructed, invariably with a twist you really don’t see coming – often playing on the radio listener’s actual inability to see visual clues. This week’s opener, ‘The Queen’s Speech’ starring Stephanie Cole and Kerry Goldiman, was a fairly gentle start to the second series which you can listen to at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08rrc0m. I am really looking forward to the next five weeks.
Friday, May 26, 2017
‘Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour’ by Lee Hall
26 May 2017
Last Saturday we were at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London to see ‘Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour’ - Lee Hall’s stage adaptation of Alan Warner’s novel ‘The Sopranos’. Vicky Featherstone’s National Theatre of Scotland/Live Theatre, Newcastle production, first seen in the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival is now enjoying a West End run. It tells the tale of a group of schoolgirls from Oban visiting Edinburgh to take part in a choir competition. But these girls are not really there for the singing: their day out is a riot of drink, drugs, sex and extremely bad language, set to a soundtrack of classic ELO songs. Six young actors play both the six main characters and all the people they encounter in Edinburgh, narrating their story to us as well as playing out the key scenes – as if they are recounting the events to friends after returning home. This technique reminded me of John Godber’s ensemble plays for Hull Truck Theatre Company, such as ‘Shakers’ (reviewed here in November 2009) and ‘Teechers’ (reviewed here in September 2010). The play also could also be seen as a Scottish, female alternative to Alan Bennett’s ‘The History Boys’, The close-harmony singing of the Our Ladies cast is excellent – both in the school choir songs and the ELO numbers (for which they are accompanied on stage by a three-piece band). Lee Hall’s writing is sharp and often very funny. But I thought the show overplayed the shock value of Catholic schoolgirls running wild: the sex and violence was a bit unrelenting and most of the characters’ stories ended very bleakly. There were excellent performances and great music but it was a play that seemed to want to shout at its audience too loudly for too long.
Last Saturday we were at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London to see ‘Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour’ - Lee Hall’s stage adaptation of Alan Warner’s novel ‘The Sopranos’. Vicky Featherstone’s National Theatre of Scotland/Live Theatre, Newcastle production, first seen in the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival is now enjoying a West End run. It tells the tale of a group of schoolgirls from Oban visiting Edinburgh to take part in a choir competition. But these girls are not really there for the singing: their day out is a riot of drink, drugs, sex and extremely bad language, set to a soundtrack of classic ELO songs. Six young actors play both the six main characters and all the people they encounter in Edinburgh, narrating their story to us as well as playing out the key scenes – as if they are recounting the events to friends after returning home. This technique reminded me of John Godber’s ensemble plays for Hull Truck Theatre Company, such as ‘Shakers’ (reviewed here in November 2009) and ‘Teechers’ (reviewed here in September 2010). The play also could also be seen as a Scottish, female alternative to Alan Bennett’s ‘The History Boys’, The close-harmony singing of the Our Ladies cast is excellent – both in the school choir songs and the ELO numbers (for which they are accompanied on stage by a three-piece band). Lee Hall’s writing is sharp and often very funny. But I thought the show overplayed the shock value of Catholic schoolgirls running wild: the sex and violence was a bit unrelenting and most of the characters’ stories ended very bleakly. There were excellent performances and great music but it was a play that seemed to want to shout at its audience too loudly for too long.
Friday, May 19, 2017
'In the Woods' by Tana French
19 May 2017
My exploration of the Dublin Murder Squad novels by Tana French has now taken me back to the start. I’ve just finished reading the first novel in the series, ‘In the Woods’ (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by John McCormack). This story had a lot in common with the last Tana French book I read – ‘Faithful Place’ (reviewed here in April 2017). Both novels have a narrating detective who was personally involved in a historical crime at the centre of new investigation and both these detectives proved to be fairly unsympathetic protagonists. As with most of the Dublin Murder Squad books, Tana French is almost as interested in the relationship between the investigating detectives (here Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox) as in solving the crime. Although there were some signs of an author finding her way a little with this first book in the series, I found the plot of ‘In the Woods’ a particularly intriguing puzzle. And French’s writing is always intelligent and eloquent.
My exploration of the Dublin Murder Squad novels by Tana French has now taken me back to the start. I’ve just finished reading the first novel in the series, ‘In the Woods’ (as an unabridged audio book, narrated by John McCormack). This story had a lot in common with the last Tana French book I read – ‘Faithful Place’ (reviewed here in April 2017). Both novels have a narrating detective who was personally involved in a historical crime at the centre of new investigation and both these detectives proved to be fairly unsympathetic protagonists. As with most of the Dublin Murder Squad books, Tana French is almost as interested in the relationship between the investigating detectives (here Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox) as in solving the crime. Although there were some signs of an author finding her way a little with this first book in the series, I found the plot of ‘In the Woods’ a particularly intriguing puzzle. And French’s writing is always intelligent and eloquent.
Croatia
19 May 2017
We had a wonderful holiday in Croatia last week. We were staying in the village of Slano on the Dalmation coast, North of Dubrovnik. It’s a beautiful area – a Croatian version of the French Riviera, with a narrow, winding coastal road providing spectacular views of steep, wooded slopes leading down to the deep blue Adriatic sea. We did a lot of walking – along the coast, into the mountains and on the idyllic island of Koločep – seeing amazing views and stepping carefully to avoid the occasional snake! The medieval, walled old town of Dubrovnik is stunning – it’s a real tourist trap but well worth braving the crowds. You can see why it is in so much demand as a film set. We also walked up Mount Srd to the Fortress overlooking Dubrovnik where there is a sobering exhibition about the 1991 siege of the old town, when Serbian and Montenegrin forces bombed this unique heritage site. Watching recordings of the ITN coverage of the siege felt very strange as we stood in the same area that some of the bombs were falling on the TV screen.
You can see some of my photos of Croatia at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Croatia2017
We had a wonderful holiday in Croatia last week. We were staying in the village of Slano on the Dalmation coast, North of Dubrovnik. It’s a beautiful area – a Croatian version of the French Riviera, with a narrow, winding coastal road providing spectacular views of steep, wooded slopes leading down to the deep blue Adriatic sea. We did a lot of walking – along the coast, into the mountains and on the idyllic island of Koločep – seeing amazing views and stepping carefully to avoid the occasional snake! The medieval, walled old town of Dubrovnik is stunning – it’s a real tourist trap but well worth braving the crowds. You can see why it is in so much demand as a film set. We also walked up Mount Srd to the Fortress overlooking Dubrovnik where there is a sobering exhibition about the 1991 siege of the old town, when Serbian and Montenegrin forces bombed this unique heritage site. Watching recordings of the ITN coverage of the siege felt very strange as we stood in the same area that some of the bombs were falling on the TV screen.
You can see some of my photos of Croatia at: http://culturaloutlook.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Croatia2017
Friday, May 05, 2017
'Far From The Madding Crowd' by Thomas Hardy, adapted by Adrian Preater
5 May 2017
On Thursday we were at The Place in Bedford to see the Hotbuckle Productions performance of ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’, adapted from the novel by Thomas Hardy by Adrian Preater. It was an excellent show – high quality fringe theatre with four actors playing multiple parts. It had the feel of a summer outdoor touring production with clear, accessible story-telling, live music and plenty of humour. They steered a course which avoided the danger of being worthy but dull, while not making the comedy too broad and pantomimic. The play used narration passing between each of the four actors in turn, creating a sequential relay Greek Chorus (as in the Propeller production of ‘Henry V’, reviewed here in December 2011, and Polly Findlay’s production of ‘Antigone’ at the National Theatre, reviewed here in June 2012). The actors – Adrian Preater, Virginia Lee, Mimi Edwards and Matthew Rothwell – were all excellent, conjuring up their different characters through changes of stance and facial expression as much as with costume changes. It was a very likeable and moving performance.
On Thursday we were at The Place in Bedford to see the Hotbuckle Productions performance of ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’, adapted from the novel by Thomas Hardy by Adrian Preater. It was an excellent show – high quality fringe theatre with four actors playing multiple parts. It had the feel of a summer outdoor touring production with clear, accessible story-telling, live music and plenty of humour. They steered a course which avoided the danger of being worthy but dull, while not making the comedy too broad and pantomimic. The play used narration passing between each of the four actors in turn, creating a sequential relay Greek Chorus (as in the Propeller production of ‘Henry V’, reviewed here in December 2011, and Polly Findlay’s production of ‘Antigone’ at the National Theatre, reviewed here in June 2012). The actors – Adrian Preater, Virginia Lee, Mimi Edwards and Matthew Rothwell – were all excellent, conjuring up their different characters through changes of stance and facial expression as much as with costume changes. It was a very likeable and moving performance.
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
3 May 2017
I first encountered the stunning young Latvian pianist Arta Arnicane in June 2014 when she joined the Northampton Symphony Orchestra to give a remarkable performance of two Gershwin pieces, 'Rhapsody in Blue' and the 'I Got Rhythm' variations for piano and orchestra (reviewed here in June 2014). That concert is still fondly remembered by members of the orchestra and our audience, in particular for Arta’s encore, 'The Serpent's Kiss' – a Rag Fantasy by William Bolcom, which drew gasps, laughter, rapturous applause and a standing ovation. On Saturday Arta Arnicane was back in Northampton to play the ‘Piano Concerto No 3’ by Bela Bartok – an incredibly challenging work which required intense concentration by all of us in the orchestra, but which Arta seemed to float through with ease. The delicate slow movement, in particular, was beautifully moving: it was a very impressive performance. The first half of the concert also featured William Alwyn’s ‘Symphony no. 5 “Hydriotaphia”’. Our conductor, John Gibbons, is a champion of the Northampton-born composer, Alwyn: we played his piece ‘The Magic Island' (inspired by 'The Tempest') in the NSO’s Shakespeare celebration, 'The Bard's Birthday Bash' last year (reviewed here in April 2016). Alwyn’s 5th Symphony is an entertaining, programmatic work which builds on his extensive experience as a composer of film music. Rhythmically and harmonically unpredictable, it presented some similar challenges to the Bartok but I enjoyed getting to know it and the symphony seemed to go down well with our audience. The second half of the concert contained two much more familiar works, Mussorgsky’s ‘A Night on a Bald Mountain’ as well as the mighty ‘Symphony No 5’ by Sibelius, continuing our season of 5th symphonies. Considered by some to be the greatest symphony of the 20th century, Sibelius’ 5th is a gorgeous melting pot of harmonies with some lovely moments for us horn players. It was a fascinating concert which saw the orchestra rise to a series of very different challenges. You can get a flavour of several elements of Saturday’s concert by watching this 2014 performance of William Alywn’s ‘Piano Concerto No 2’ by Arta Arnicane with the Ealing Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Gibbons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZFAibVtQBQ
I first encountered the stunning young Latvian pianist Arta Arnicane in June 2014 when she joined the Northampton Symphony Orchestra to give a remarkable performance of two Gershwin pieces, 'Rhapsody in Blue' and the 'I Got Rhythm' variations for piano and orchestra (reviewed here in June 2014). That concert is still fondly remembered by members of the orchestra and our audience, in particular for Arta’s encore, 'The Serpent's Kiss' – a Rag Fantasy by William Bolcom, which drew gasps, laughter, rapturous applause and a standing ovation. On Saturday Arta Arnicane was back in Northampton to play the ‘Piano Concerto No 3’ by Bela Bartok – an incredibly challenging work which required intense concentration by all of us in the orchestra, but which Arta seemed to float through with ease. The delicate slow movement, in particular, was beautifully moving: it was a very impressive performance. The first half of the concert also featured William Alwyn’s ‘Symphony no. 5 “Hydriotaphia”’. Our conductor, John Gibbons, is a champion of the Northampton-born composer, Alwyn: we played his piece ‘The Magic Island' (inspired by 'The Tempest') in the NSO’s Shakespeare celebration, 'The Bard's Birthday Bash' last year (reviewed here in April 2016). Alwyn’s 5th Symphony is an entertaining, programmatic work which builds on his extensive experience as a composer of film music. Rhythmically and harmonically unpredictable, it presented some similar challenges to the Bartok but I enjoyed getting to know it and the symphony seemed to go down well with our audience. The second half of the concert contained two much more familiar works, Mussorgsky’s ‘A Night on a Bald Mountain’ as well as the mighty ‘Symphony No 5’ by Sibelius, continuing our season of 5th symphonies. Considered by some to be the greatest symphony of the 20th century, Sibelius’ 5th is a gorgeous melting pot of harmonies with some lovely moments for us horn players. It was a fascinating concert which saw the orchestra rise to a series of very different challenges. You can get a flavour of several elements of Saturday’s concert by watching this 2014 performance of William Alywn’s ‘Piano Concerto No 2’ by Arta Arnicane with the Ealing Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Gibbons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZFAibVtQBQ
Friday, April 28, 2017
'Zanaka' by Jain
28 April 2017
If you want to cheer yourself up I would recommend listening to ‘Zanaka’ – the debut album by young French singer/songwriter Jain. 25-year-old Jeanne Galice has French and Madagascan parents and grew up in the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Congo. Her songs are bright, cheerful pop incorporating a wide range of Arabic and African influences. The result is incredibly cool and funky. Though musically quite different, her sense of style and beautifully choreographed performances have a lot in common with that other young French talent, Christine and the Queens. Take a look at Jain’s tribute to the late great South African singer Miriam Makeba (‘Mama Africa’) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Q_lhgGANc and the wonderfully upbeat song ‘Come’ at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDXOzr0GoA4
If you want to cheer yourself up I would recommend listening to ‘Zanaka’ – the debut album by young French singer/songwriter Jain. 25-year-old Jeanne Galice has French and Madagascan parents and grew up in the United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Congo. Her songs are bright, cheerful pop incorporating a wide range of Arabic and African influences. The result is incredibly cool and funky. Though musically quite different, her sense of style and beautifully choreographed performances have a lot in common with that other young French talent, Christine and the Queens. Take a look at Jain’s tribute to the late great South African singer Miriam Makeba (‘Mama Africa’) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Q_lhgGANc and the wonderfully upbeat song ‘Come’ at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDXOzr0GoA4
Thursday, April 20, 2017
'South of the River' by Blake Morrison
20 April 2017
Blake Morrison is a poet who received great acclaim for his candid and moving memoirs of his parents – ‘And When Did You Last See Your Father?’ (1993) and ‘Things My Mother Never Told Me’ (2002) – both of which I read and enjoyed some years ago. In 2007 he published his second novel, ‘South of the River’ which I have just finished reading. Reviews praised this as a state-of-the-nation novel – a British Jonathan Franzen or Philip Roth – but it felt to me much more like a David Lodge novel, with the same deceptively accessible prose disguising an incredibly clever structure and serious themes. ‘South of the River’ follows five interlinked individuals through the years immediately following the 1997 general election with each chapter written from the point of view of one of these five main characters. Although it doesn’t have the set-piece comic scenes of a David Lodge book, Blake Morrison demonstrates a similar lightness of touch and subtle planting of plot points that return later in the story. It’s a compelling set of stories that resists the temptation to neatly tie up all its loose ends. Unsurprisingly Blake Morrison shows a poet’s attention for words and word-play but what most impressed me was his ability to make us sympathise with each of the five main characters, even when their views were in opposition with each other. In this respect ‘South of the River’ did remind me of Jonathan Franzen’s ‘The Corrections’ but also of ‘Small Island’ by Andrea Levy. ‘South of the River’ is a really enjoyable novel covering an interesting period of our recent history through a series of connected personal stories. By the end I had become attached to these characters and really wanted to know what happened to them next.
Blake Morrison is a poet who received great acclaim for his candid and moving memoirs of his parents – ‘And When Did You Last See Your Father?’ (1993) and ‘Things My Mother Never Told Me’ (2002) – both of which I read and enjoyed some years ago. In 2007 he published his second novel, ‘South of the River’ which I have just finished reading. Reviews praised this as a state-of-the-nation novel – a British Jonathan Franzen or Philip Roth – but it felt to me much more like a David Lodge novel, with the same deceptively accessible prose disguising an incredibly clever structure and serious themes. ‘South of the River’ follows five interlinked individuals through the years immediately following the 1997 general election with each chapter written from the point of view of one of these five main characters. Although it doesn’t have the set-piece comic scenes of a David Lodge book, Blake Morrison demonstrates a similar lightness of touch and subtle planting of plot points that return later in the story. It’s a compelling set of stories that resists the temptation to neatly tie up all its loose ends. Unsurprisingly Blake Morrison shows a poet’s attention for words and word-play but what most impressed me was his ability to make us sympathise with each of the five main characters, even when their views were in opposition with each other. In this respect ‘South of the River’ did remind me of Jonathan Franzen’s ‘The Corrections’ but also of ‘Small Island’ by Andrea Levy. ‘South of the River’ is a really enjoyable novel covering an interesting period of our recent history through a series of connected personal stories. By the end I had become attached to these characters and really wanted to know what happened to them next.
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
'An American in Paris' by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin and Craig Lucas
19 April 2017
George Gershwin wrote ‘An American in Paris’ in 1928 as a symphonic poem suggesting the experience of a first-time visitor falling in love with the French capital (complete with its car horns!). The piece has become a staple of the orchestral repertoire: I played it with Northampton Symphony Orchestra in 2010 (reviewed here in April 2010). In 1951 Vincente Minnelli took the music (and its title) and combined it with some popular Gershwin songs and a script by Alan Jay Lerner to create the famous film starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. The climax of the film is a 17-minute ballet sequence using the original Gershwin orchestral work. In 2015 the English choreographer Christopher Wheeldon created a stage musical version of ‘An American in Paris’ (with book by Craig Lucas) which played to great acclaim on Broadway. That original Broadway production, choreographed and directed by Christopher Wheeldon, is now at the Dominion Theatre in London where we saw it last Friday. It is a truly wonderful show – beautiful, uplifting and charmingly old-fashioned. To call it a musical is slightly misleading – the show is more a ballet interspersed with songs. It draws on Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’ and a range of his other orchestral compositions to create the score for a succession of big ensemble dance pieces. I spotted music from Gershwin's 'Cuban Overture' which I played with Northampton Symphony Orchestra last year (reviewed here in June 2016). But the show also includes some of Gershwin’s best-known songs including ‘I Got Rhythm’, ‘'S Wonderful’ and ‘But Not For Me’. The dancing was amazing: both the leads are star ballet dancers – Robert Fairchild was a Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet and Leanne Cope gave up her position as First Artist with the Royal Ballet to take this role. All the cast danced beautifully but Robert Fairchild was particularly compelling – his movement, even in the acted scenes, was wonderfully fluid with the elasticity of a cartoon character. And these dancers are also impressive singers. The set by Bob Crowley, lighting by Natasha Katz and projections by 59 Productions created a stunning and dynamic theatrical landscape. The plot might have been a bit thin but this was an outstanding evening in the theatre. And the climax was, of course, an extended ballet duet featuring the original ‘An American in Paris’ music in full. Highly recommended.
George Gershwin wrote ‘An American in Paris’ in 1928 as a symphonic poem suggesting the experience of a first-time visitor falling in love with the French capital (complete with its car horns!). The piece has become a staple of the orchestral repertoire: I played it with Northampton Symphony Orchestra in 2010 (reviewed here in April 2010). In 1951 Vincente Minnelli took the music (and its title) and combined it with some popular Gershwin songs and a script by Alan Jay Lerner to create the famous film starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. The climax of the film is a 17-minute ballet sequence using the original Gershwin orchestral work. In 2015 the English choreographer Christopher Wheeldon created a stage musical version of ‘An American in Paris’ (with book by Craig Lucas) which played to great acclaim on Broadway. That original Broadway production, choreographed and directed by Christopher Wheeldon, is now at the Dominion Theatre in London where we saw it last Friday. It is a truly wonderful show – beautiful, uplifting and charmingly old-fashioned. To call it a musical is slightly misleading – the show is more a ballet interspersed with songs. It draws on Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’ and a range of his other orchestral compositions to create the score for a succession of big ensemble dance pieces. I spotted music from Gershwin's 'Cuban Overture' which I played with Northampton Symphony Orchestra last year (reviewed here in June 2016). But the show also includes some of Gershwin’s best-known songs including ‘I Got Rhythm’, ‘'S Wonderful’ and ‘But Not For Me’. The dancing was amazing: both the leads are star ballet dancers – Robert Fairchild was a Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet and Leanne Cope gave up her position as First Artist with the Royal Ballet to take this role. All the cast danced beautifully but Robert Fairchild was particularly compelling – his movement, even in the acted scenes, was wonderfully fluid with the elasticity of a cartoon character. And these dancers are also impressive singers. The set by Bob Crowley, lighting by Natasha Katz and projections by 59 Productions created a stunning and dynamic theatrical landscape. The plot might have been a bit thin but this was an outstanding evening in the theatre. And the climax was, of course, an extended ballet duet featuring the original ‘An American in Paris’ music in full. Highly recommended.
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
'Faithful Place' by Tana French
18 April 2017
I’ve been continuing my journey through the Dublin Murder Squad novels by Tana French. Having read her latest book ‘The Trespasser’ (reviewed here in January 2017) I went back to an earlier novel, ‘Faithful Place’, which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Gerry O’Brien. ‘Faithful Place’ is told through the eyes of Detective Frank Mackey: in my backwards reading of the series I first encountered Frank Mackey in ‘The Secret Place’ (reviewed here in December 2016) in which Frank’s 16-year-old daughter Holly alerts Detective Stephen Moran to information about a murder at her boarding school. In ‘Faithful Place’ Holly is 9 years old and witness to a murder mystery involving her father’s family. This novel is slightly different to the others in the series in that the narrator is not a member of the Dublin Murder Squad (Frank is an Undercover Detective) and the crime at the centre of the story, which was committed 22 years ago, involves him and his family directly. ‘Faithful Place’ is another intriguing mystery but I found Frank Mackey a fairly unsympathetic protagonist. This book was more enjoyable as a piece in the jigsaw puzzle of novels created by Tana French. It was interesting to see Detective Scorcher Kennedy – the narrator of ‘Broken Harbour’ (reviewed here in May 2016) through the eyes of one of his colleagues. And it was satisfying to understand the beginning of the relationship between Frank Mackey and Stephen Moran which plays an important part in ‘The Secret Place’.
I’ve been continuing my journey through the Dublin Murder Squad novels by Tana French. Having read her latest book ‘The Trespasser’ (reviewed here in January 2017) I went back to an earlier novel, ‘Faithful Place’, which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Gerry O’Brien. ‘Faithful Place’ is told through the eyes of Detective Frank Mackey: in my backwards reading of the series I first encountered Frank Mackey in ‘The Secret Place’ (reviewed here in December 2016) in which Frank’s 16-year-old daughter Holly alerts Detective Stephen Moran to information about a murder at her boarding school. In ‘Faithful Place’ Holly is 9 years old and witness to a murder mystery involving her father’s family. This novel is slightly different to the others in the series in that the narrator is not a member of the Dublin Murder Squad (Frank is an Undercover Detective) and the crime at the centre of the story, which was committed 22 years ago, involves him and his family directly. ‘Faithful Place’ is another intriguing mystery but I found Frank Mackey a fairly unsympathetic protagonist. This book was more enjoyable as a piece in the jigsaw puzzle of novels created by Tana French. It was interesting to see Detective Scorcher Kennedy – the narrator of ‘Broken Harbour’ (reviewed here in May 2016) through the eyes of one of his colleagues. And it was satisfying to understand the beginning of the relationship between Frank Mackey and Stephen Moran which plays an important part in ‘The Secret Place’.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Caro Emerald
12 April 2017
Four years ago, in April 2013, I turned on the TV, which happened to be tuned to the BBC Red Button channel, and stumbled upon a looped recording of a concert in the BBC Radio Theatre which immediately grabbed my attention. Completely forgetting whatever it was I had actually been switching on to watch, I found myself sitting through the entire concert, waiting for it to restart and watching back up to the point where I came in. This mesmerising performance was a session for BBC Radio 2 by the Dutch singer Caro Emerald. Her old-fashioned big band swing, updated by a modern four-to-the-floor dance beat, reminded me of the wonderful French group Caravan Palace who play the gypsy jazz swing of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli to pounding high-tempo electronic beats (reviewed here in July 2009). The use of samples from vintage recordings also brought to mind the Greek group Imam Baildi (reviewed here in May 2009) and the electronic tango of Gotan Project. Inspired by the Radio 2 concert I became a fan of Caro Emerald and would particularly recommend her 2013 album ‘The Shocking Miss Emerald’. So it was very exciting to get the chance to see her live this Tuesday at Milton Keynes Theatre. The 1400-seat theatre was completely sold out – I bought my ticket in November last year. Support was provided by the Israeli singer Irit whose lovely debut album ‘Hello’ is a summery feel-good collection of songs with a real international feel. Caro Emerald was stunning: trained as a jazz singer, her voice is strong and precise. Though her music draws on big band jazz it has more of a pop feel: there are no vocal hystrionics and the seven-piece band is very slick and polished. They use less electronics and sampling than Caravan Palace, Imam Baildi or Gotan Project – you could imagine them as a dance band transplanted from the 1940s to 2017. Indeed it was interesting to note how many of the songs are built on traditional ballroom and Latin rhythms (including tango, waltz, charleston, samba and cha cha cha). Regular readers will know that I love a band that dances to its own tunes and Caro Emerald and her band looked like they were having a great time – so was I. “Could you ever dream it - I have never dreamed, dreamed a night like this”.
You can take a look at footage of that 2013 Caro Emerald BBC Radio 2 session on YouTube – start with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIg8PG7Xs9w
Four years ago, in April 2013, I turned on the TV, which happened to be tuned to the BBC Red Button channel, and stumbled upon a looped recording of a concert in the BBC Radio Theatre which immediately grabbed my attention. Completely forgetting whatever it was I had actually been switching on to watch, I found myself sitting through the entire concert, waiting for it to restart and watching back up to the point where I came in. This mesmerising performance was a session for BBC Radio 2 by the Dutch singer Caro Emerald. Her old-fashioned big band swing, updated by a modern four-to-the-floor dance beat, reminded me of the wonderful French group Caravan Palace who play the gypsy jazz swing of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli to pounding high-tempo electronic beats (reviewed here in July 2009). The use of samples from vintage recordings also brought to mind the Greek group Imam Baildi (reviewed here in May 2009) and the electronic tango of Gotan Project. Inspired by the Radio 2 concert I became a fan of Caro Emerald and would particularly recommend her 2013 album ‘The Shocking Miss Emerald’. So it was very exciting to get the chance to see her live this Tuesday at Milton Keynes Theatre. The 1400-seat theatre was completely sold out – I bought my ticket in November last year. Support was provided by the Israeli singer Irit whose lovely debut album ‘Hello’ is a summery feel-good collection of songs with a real international feel. Caro Emerald was stunning: trained as a jazz singer, her voice is strong and precise. Though her music draws on big band jazz it has more of a pop feel: there are no vocal hystrionics and the seven-piece band is very slick and polished. They use less electronics and sampling than Caravan Palace, Imam Baildi or Gotan Project – you could imagine them as a dance band transplanted from the 1940s to 2017. Indeed it was interesting to note how many of the songs are built on traditional ballroom and Latin rhythms (including tango, waltz, charleston, samba and cha cha cha). Regular readers will know that I love a band that dances to its own tunes and Caro Emerald and her band looked like they were having a great time – so was I. “Could you ever dream it - I have never dreamed, dreamed a night like this”.
You can take a look at footage of that 2013 Caro Emerald BBC Radio 2 session on YouTube – start with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIg8PG7Xs9w
Monday, April 10, 2017
‘I Capture The Castle’ by Teresa Howard and Steven Edis, based on the novel by Dodie Smith
10 April 2017
On Saturday we were at Watford Palace Theatre to see ‘I Capture The Castle’ – a new stage musical by Teresa Howard and Steven Edis, based on the novel by Dodie Smith. This premiere production is a collaboration between Watford Palace Theatre and Bolton Octagon, directed by Brigid Larmour. It’s a lovely show – charming, quirky, moving and not taking itself too seriously. The music, by Steven Edis and Sona Morris’s choreography play on the 1930s setting, including a foxtrot, waltz and tango. Teresa Howard’s book and lyrics are witty and playful, capturing the mood of this classic coming-of-age novel. ‘I Capture the Castle’ feels like a mixture of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Cold Comfort Farm’ – not an easy trick to pull off. The cast were excellent, including two young leads at the very start of their careers – Lowri Izzard as Cassandra and Theo Boyce as Simon. And Ti Green’s set cleverly recreated the eccentric dilapidation of the castle that forms the family home. ‘I Capture The Castle’ is a beautiful miniature musical which reminded me of David Wood and Richard Taylor’s musical adaptation of ‘The Go-Between’ by L P Hartley (reviewed here in November 2001).
On Saturday we were at Watford Palace Theatre to see ‘I Capture The Castle’ – a new stage musical by Teresa Howard and Steven Edis, based on the novel by Dodie Smith. This premiere production is a collaboration between Watford Palace Theatre and Bolton Octagon, directed by Brigid Larmour. It’s a lovely show – charming, quirky, moving and not taking itself too seriously. The music, by Steven Edis and Sona Morris’s choreography play on the 1930s setting, including a foxtrot, waltz and tango. Teresa Howard’s book and lyrics are witty and playful, capturing the mood of this classic coming-of-age novel. ‘I Capture the Castle’ feels like a mixture of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Cold Comfort Farm’ – not an easy trick to pull off. The cast were excellent, including two young leads at the very start of their careers – Lowri Izzard as Cassandra and Theo Boyce as Simon. And Ti Green’s set cleverly recreated the eccentric dilapidation of the castle that forms the family home. ‘I Capture The Castle’ is a beautiful miniature musical which reminded me of David Wood and Richard Taylor’s musical adaptation of ‘The Go-Between’ by L P Hartley (reviewed here in November 2001).
Friday, April 07, 2017
'Twelfth Night' by William Shakespeare
7 April 2017
Regular readers may remember I am a fan of the theatre director Simon Godwin, having really enjoyed his productions of 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' (reviewed here in July 2014), 'Man and Superman' (reviewed here in May 2015), 'The Beaux' Stratagem' (reviewed here in September 2015) and ‘Hamlet’ (reviewed here in April 2016). You may also have noticed that ‘Twelfth Night’ is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays – I’ve reviewed productions of ‘Twelfth Night’ here four times (in February 2007, August 2009, November 2009 and March 2012). So I was nervous about the incredibly raised expectations I was bringing to Simon Godwin’s National Theatre production of ‘Twelfth Night’ which we saw via the NT Live cinema screening on Thursday evening. For this we made a first visit to the beautiful new Quarry Theatre in Bedford – a converted church, owned and run by Bedford School. I needn’t have worried: Simon Godwin’s ‘Twelfth Night’ was a delight. The production, noted for casting Tamsin Greig as a female Malvolio (Malvolia), was not the most subtle I have seen. The comedy was broad and exaggerated, with plenty of mugging and glances at the audience. But it was very very funny. I enjoyed the more serious comedy moments, such as the tender scenes between Tamara Lawrance’s Cesario and Phoebe Fox’s Olivia (who were both excellent), better than the pantomimic performances of the more ridiculous characters. Even so, you couldn’t fail to laugh at Daniel Rigby’s nervously physical Andrew Aguecheek and Tim McMullan (who we last saw almost stealing the show as Mendoza and The Devil in that production of 'Man and Superman') playing Sir Toby Belch in the style of Bill Nighy. And Tamsin Greig gave a compelling performance as Malvolia, her body and face twitching to reveal each growing understanding of her predicament.
Regular readers may remember I am a fan of the theatre director Simon Godwin, having really enjoyed his productions of 'Two Gentlemen of Verona' (reviewed here in July 2014), 'Man and Superman' (reviewed here in May 2015), 'The Beaux' Stratagem' (reviewed here in September 2015) and ‘Hamlet’ (reviewed here in April 2016). You may also have noticed that ‘Twelfth Night’ is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays – I’ve reviewed productions of ‘Twelfth Night’ here four times (in February 2007, August 2009, November 2009 and March 2012). So I was nervous about the incredibly raised expectations I was bringing to Simon Godwin’s National Theatre production of ‘Twelfth Night’ which we saw via the NT Live cinema screening on Thursday evening. For this we made a first visit to the beautiful new Quarry Theatre in Bedford – a converted church, owned and run by Bedford School. I needn’t have worried: Simon Godwin’s ‘Twelfth Night’ was a delight. The production, noted for casting Tamsin Greig as a female Malvolio (Malvolia), was not the most subtle I have seen. The comedy was broad and exaggerated, with plenty of mugging and glances at the audience. But it was very very funny. I enjoyed the more serious comedy moments, such as the tender scenes between Tamara Lawrance’s Cesario and Phoebe Fox’s Olivia (who were both excellent), better than the pantomimic performances of the more ridiculous characters. Even so, you couldn’t fail to laugh at Daniel Rigby’s nervously physical Andrew Aguecheek and Tim McMullan (who we last saw almost stealing the show as Mendoza and The Devil in that production of 'Man and Superman') playing Sir Toby Belch in the style of Bill Nighy. And Tamsin Greig gave a compelling performance as Malvolia, her body and face twitching to reveal each growing understanding of her predicament.
Tuesday, April 04, 2017
Ceredigion
4 April 2017
We had a lovely holiday last week in a cottage near Tregaron in Ceredigion, West Wales. We got some wonderful weather, particularly in the first half of the week, and did a lot of walking – in the Cambrian Mountains, along the Ceredigion Coast Path and in the wooded valley along the River Mynach near Devil’s Bridge. We visited the towns of Aberystwyth, Aberaeron and Rhayader and took part in ballroom dancing sessions in Aberaeron and Llwyncelyn. But I think the highlight of the week was driving across the tiny, steep mountain road from Beulah to Tregaron – a stunning drive through spectacular scenery in beautiful weather.
We had a lovely holiday last week in a cottage near Tregaron in Ceredigion, West Wales. We got some wonderful weather, particularly in the first half of the week, and did a lot of walking – in the Cambrian Mountains, along the Ceredigion Coast Path and in the wooded valley along the River Mynach near Devil’s Bridge. We visited the towns of Aberystwyth, Aberaeron and Rhayader and took part in ballroom dancing sessions in Aberaeron and Llwyncelyn. But I think the highlight of the week was driving across the tiny, steep mountain road from Beulah to Tregaron – a stunning drive through spectacular scenery in beautiful weather.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
'Following the Martian Invasion' by Francis Spufford
22 March 2017
BBC iPlayer is a wonderful thing. Having really enjoyed Stephen Baxter’s sequel to ‘The War of the Worlds’ by HG Wells, 'The Massacre of Mankind' (reviewed here in February 2017), I had noticed that BBC Radio 4 was broadcasting a new dramatisation, by Melissa Murray, of Wells’ novel. Searching for ‘The War of the Worlds’ on iPlayer revealed not only this drama (still available to listen to at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hdllz) but also an interview with Stephen Baxter about 'The Massacre of Mankind' on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Free Thinking’ programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088jl60) and ‘Following the Martian Invasion’ – a series of five 15-minute programmes broadcast on Radio 4 in which Francis Spufford retraces the journey of HG Wells’ Martian invaders. I’ve just finished listening to this series and it’s a little gem. Spufford starts at Horsell Common in Surrey, where the Martians first landed, and then follows their progress across the South East of England to Primrose Hill in London. In each episode he is joined by a range of experts to discuss ‘The War of the Worlds’ in terms of literary style, political theory, physics, anatomy, military strategy, science fiction and social history. It’s like an extended edition of Melvyn Bragg’s ‘In Our Time’ recorded on location. Even if you’ve never read ‘The War of the Worlds’, ‘Following the Martian Invasion’ is a fascinating exploration of late Victorian Britain. You can listen to all five episodes on BBC iPlayer at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hdpd9/episodes/player
BBC iPlayer is a wonderful thing. Having really enjoyed Stephen Baxter’s sequel to ‘The War of the Worlds’ by HG Wells, 'The Massacre of Mankind' (reviewed here in February 2017), I had noticed that BBC Radio 4 was broadcasting a new dramatisation, by Melissa Murray, of Wells’ novel. Searching for ‘The War of the Worlds’ on iPlayer revealed not only this drama (still available to listen to at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hdllz) but also an interview with Stephen Baxter about 'The Massacre of Mankind' on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Free Thinking’ programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088jl60) and ‘Following the Martian Invasion’ – a series of five 15-minute programmes broadcast on Radio 4 in which Francis Spufford retraces the journey of HG Wells’ Martian invaders. I’ve just finished listening to this series and it’s a little gem. Spufford starts at Horsell Common in Surrey, where the Martians first landed, and then follows their progress across the South East of England to Primrose Hill in London. In each episode he is joined by a range of experts to discuss ‘The War of the Worlds’ in terms of literary style, political theory, physics, anatomy, military strategy, science fiction and social history. It’s like an extended edition of Melvyn Bragg’s ‘In Our Time’ recorded on location. Even if you’ve never read ‘The War of the Worlds’, ‘Following the Martian Invasion’ is a fascinating exploration of late Victorian Britain. You can listen to all five episodes on BBC iPlayer at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hdpd9/episodes/player
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Omid Djalili
15 March 2017
On Saturday we made a first visit to the Grove Theatre in Dunstable – a stunning 780-seat community theatre which opened nearly 10 years ago. We were there to see the comedian Omid Djalili. Having seen Omid interviewed by Janice Forsyth on her BBC Radio Scotland show at the Edinburgh Fringe last August and, more recently, hearing him on the Danny Baker Show on BBC Radio Five Live, we were persuaded to catch his ‘Schmuck for a Night’ national tour. Omid Djalili is a very cheerful and engaging performer. His high profile from a wide range of TV and film appearances has given him a mainstream audience for whom he is careful to touch only lightly on political issues. He makes plenty of references to Brexit and there is no doubting which side of the argument Omid favours but he only scratches the surface in his set. His performance is assured and polished, delivered with a smile, but I thought the funniest moments were the comic dancing he introduces to mock more mainstream comedy. It was a lovely surprise to discover that his support act was Boothby Graffoe – the comedian who took his stage name from a Lincolnshire village near where we used to live. We last saw him performing at the Guildhall Arts Centre in Grantham more than 20 years ago and it was great to hear his particular brand of comic songs again. Boothby Graffoe has been touring with Omid Djalili for the last eight years and it was nice to see how the support act and the main set were linked – with Omid picking up, after the interval, on some of Boothby’s ad libs from the first half of the show.
On Saturday we made a first visit to the Grove Theatre in Dunstable – a stunning 780-seat community theatre which opened nearly 10 years ago. We were there to see the comedian Omid Djalili. Having seen Omid interviewed by Janice Forsyth on her BBC Radio Scotland show at the Edinburgh Fringe last August and, more recently, hearing him on the Danny Baker Show on BBC Radio Five Live, we were persuaded to catch his ‘Schmuck for a Night’ national tour. Omid Djalili is a very cheerful and engaging performer. His high profile from a wide range of TV and film appearances has given him a mainstream audience for whom he is careful to touch only lightly on political issues. He makes plenty of references to Brexit and there is no doubting which side of the argument Omid favours but he only scratches the surface in his set. His performance is assured and polished, delivered with a smile, but I thought the funniest moments were the comic dancing he introduces to mock more mainstream comedy. It was a lovely surprise to discover that his support act was Boothby Graffoe – the comedian who took his stage name from a Lincolnshire village near where we used to live. We last saw him performing at the Guildhall Arts Centre in Grantham more than 20 years ago and it was great to hear his particular brand of comic songs again. Boothby Graffoe has been touring with Omid Djalili for the last eight years and it was nice to see how the support act and the main set were linked – with Omid picking up, after the interval, on some of Boothby’s ad libs from the first half of the show.
Thursday, March 09, 2017
'The Willow Collection' by Cassie and Maggie
9 March 2017
I’ve been enjoying ‘The Willow Collection’ - a concept album by Nova Scotia folk duo Cassie and Maggie. Bringing together songs and tunes on the theme of the Willow tree from a variety of folk traditions, the MacDonald sisters play fiddle, guitar and piano and sing close harmonies. They showcase a wide range of styles including Cape Bretton fiddle, folk-rock, Scottish folk and Americana. Some tracks reminded me of the music of Julie Fowlis (reviewed here in February 2006, May 2007 and May 2014) while there was also something of the frantic, furious fiddles of the Finnish group Tsuumi Sound System (reviewed here in April 2008). ‘The Willow Collection’ includes gentle lullabies and toe-tapping dance tunes. It is a good reminder of how strong the Canadian folk scene is and bears comparison with the great Canadian folk/roots group ‘The Bills’ (reviewed here in May 2006). This video taster give a good flavour: https://vimeo.com/184245783
I’ve been enjoying ‘The Willow Collection’ - a concept album by Nova Scotia folk duo Cassie and Maggie. Bringing together songs and tunes on the theme of the Willow tree from a variety of folk traditions, the MacDonald sisters play fiddle, guitar and piano and sing close harmonies. They showcase a wide range of styles including Cape Bretton fiddle, folk-rock, Scottish folk and Americana. Some tracks reminded me of the music of Julie Fowlis (reviewed here in February 2006, May 2007 and May 2014) while there was also something of the frantic, furious fiddles of the Finnish group Tsuumi Sound System (reviewed here in April 2008). ‘The Willow Collection’ includes gentle lullabies and toe-tapping dance tunes. It is a good reminder of how strong the Canadian folk scene is and bears comparison with the great Canadian folk/roots group ‘The Bills’ (reviewed here in May 2006). This video taster give a good flavour: https://vimeo.com/184245783
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
1 March 2017
As I wrote here in May 2016, from his first appearance in the BBC Young Musician 2016 strings final it was clear that 'cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was going to win the whole competition. But, in the end, he was run very close by the first saxophone player ever to reach the final. 17-year-old Jess Gillam, from Ulverston in Cumbria, gave a remarkably charismatic performance of 'Where the Bee Dances' by Michael Nyman in the concerto final at The Barbican in London. She was a fascinating performer to watch and the TV coverage gave a good impression of her infectiously enthusiastic personality – on and off the stage. So the prospect of Jess Gillam joining us to play a concerto with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra last Saturday at Christ Church in Northampton was really exciting. Even our first rehearsal with Jess last Wednesday was a joy – you could have heard a pin drop as we listened to her mesmerising solo opening of the slow movement. ‘Escapades’ by John Williams is a three movement concerto for saxophone and orchestra, based on his music for the 2002 Steven Spielberg film ‘Catch Me If You Can’. Its 1960s jazz feel gave an opportunity for excellent solos by Matt Jackson on double-bass and Liam Halloran on vibraphone, but there was no doubting who the star was. Jess Gillam was amazing – she made the virtuoso demands of the piece appear easy and was completely compelling to watch. It was a thrilling performance. In fact the whole concert was really interesting and enjoyable. NSO conductor John Gibbons had constructed an unusual and intriguing programme. We opened with ‘Pines of Rome’ by Respighi – a fiendishly challenging piece which featured a beautiful off-stage trumpet solo by Nick Bunker, an incredibly assured clarinet solo in the slow, third movement by Naomi Muller and a brilliant ending to the finale with impressive off-stage brass from the six-player ‘buccini’. The second half of the concert started with the lovely ‘Pavane in F-sharp minor’ by Faure with a gorgeous flute solo from Graham Tear. And, continuing our season of fifth symphonies, we finished the concert with ‘Symphony No 5 (The Heroic)’ by Alexander Glazunov. Like most of the orchestra (and our audience) I had never heard this symphony before we started rehearsing it but I really enjoyed it. It’s a lively, tuneful work with similarities to the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and the furious finale was a thrilling conclusion to a great concert. To cap a wonderful evening, John Gibbons announced that Jess Gillam is to return to Northampton in July to play with the NSO again in our summer concert for the Friends of the Orchestra – a very good reason to become a Friend!
As I wrote here in May 2016, from his first appearance in the BBC Young Musician 2016 strings final it was clear that 'cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was going to win the whole competition. But, in the end, he was run very close by the first saxophone player ever to reach the final. 17-year-old Jess Gillam, from Ulverston in Cumbria, gave a remarkably charismatic performance of 'Where the Bee Dances' by Michael Nyman in the concerto final at The Barbican in London. She was a fascinating performer to watch and the TV coverage gave a good impression of her infectiously enthusiastic personality – on and off the stage. So the prospect of Jess Gillam joining us to play a concerto with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra last Saturday at Christ Church in Northampton was really exciting. Even our first rehearsal with Jess last Wednesday was a joy – you could have heard a pin drop as we listened to her mesmerising solo opening of the slow movement. ‘Escapades’ by John Williams is a three movement concerto for saxophone and orchestra, based on his music for the 2002 Steven Spielberg film ‘Catch Me If You Can’. Its 1960s jazz feel gave an opportunity for excellent solos by Matt Jackson on double-bass and Liam Halloran on vibraphone, but there was no doubting who the star was. Jess Gillam was amazing – she made the virtuoso demands of the piece appear easy and was completely compelling to watch. It was a thrilling performance. In fact the whole concert was really interesting and enjoyable. NSO conductor John Gibbons had constructed an unusual and intriguing programme. We opened with ‘Pines of Rome’ by Respighi – a fiendishly challenging piece which featured a beautiful off-stage trumpet solo by Nick Bunker, an incredibly assured clarinet solo in the slow, third movement by Naomi Muller and a brilliant ending to the finale with impressive off-stage brass from the six-player ‘buccini’. The second half of the concert started with the lovely ‘Pavane in F-sharp minor’ by Faure with a gorgeous flute solo from Graham Tear. And, continuing our season of fifth symphonies, we finished the concert with ‘Symphony No 5 (The Heroic)’ by Alexander Glazunov. Like most of the orchestra (and our audience) I had never heard this symphony before we started rehearsing it but I really enjoyed it. It’s a lively, tuneful work with similarities to the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and the furious finale was a thrilling conclusion to a great concert. To cap a wonderful evening, John Gibbons announced that Jess Gillam is to return to Northampton in July to play with the NSO again in our summer concert for the Friends of the Orchestra – a very good reason to become a Friend!
Thursday, February 23, 2017
'The Massacre of Mankind' by Stephen Baxter
23 February 2017
“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”
So, famously, begins HG Wells’ novel ‘The War of the Worlds’. Given the worryingly apocalyptic potential for world events in the opening months of 2017, I thought I would cheer myself up by reading ‘The Massacre of Mankind’ – Stephen Baxter’s new authorised sequel to ‘The War of the Worlds’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Nathalie Buscombe). There seems to be a particular vogue for authorised sequels at the moment, such as Anthony Horowitz’s excellent Sherlock Holmes novels ‘The House of Silk’ (reviewed here in January 2012) and ‘Moriarty’ (reviewed here in January 2015). Stephen Baxter does a great job of paying tribute to Wells’ original novel, while taking the story of mankind’s encounters with creatures from another world to the next level.
“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said … but still, they come”. And then they came back. Thirteen years after the Martian invaders of 1907 were wiped out by the Earth’s bacteria they have returned – and this time they are better prepared. But what I found most fascinating about ‘The Massacre of Mankind’ was not the aliens but the resulting alternative history of mankind. By imagining what lasting effects the 1907 battle with the Martians would have had on the world, Baxter has a lot of fun creating a parallel reality. With many similarities to Philip Roth’s portrait of a world in which Nazi Germany wins the Second World War with the support of the USA ('The Plot Against America' reviewed here in September 2006), ‘The Massacre of Mankind’ starts in 1920 with the British and German allies victorious in the European war that followed the Martian invasion. The Titanic has survived its collision with the iceberg because its bow was reinforced with Martian aluminium. And Charlie Chaplin has achieved worldwide fame through playing ‘The Little Soldier’ - a character modelled on the British artilleryman famous for fighting the Martians in 1907.
I also enjoyed the meta-fictional construct of this sequel, in which the first-person narrator of ‘The War of the Worlds’, Walter Jenkins, has become famous for his account of the original conflict but is now hated by some of his friends and family for how he inaccurately portrayed them in his narrative. This echoes the second part of ‘Don Quixote’ by Cervantes (reviewed here in January 2012) in which the knight and his squire frequently encounter people who have read the earlier volume and are familiar with their history. Stephen Baxter also manages to throw in a reference, after Martians arrive in America in 1922, to Grover’s Mill, New Jersey – the landing site of the Martian invasion in Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio version of ‘The War of the Worlds’.
‘The Massacre of Mankind’ is a meticulously crafted homage to HG Wells. It reads like it could have been written in the period it portrays and, although the plot feels a little slow at times, it is a very impressive and intriguing counter-history of the early decades of the twentieth century.
“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”
So, famously, begins HG Wells’ novel ‘The War of the Worlds’. Given the worryingly apocalyptic potential for world events in the opening months of 2017, I thought I would cheer myself up by reading ‘The Massacre of Mankind’ – Stephen Baxter’s new authorised sequel to ‘The War of the Worlds’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Nathalie Buscombe). There seems to be a particular vogue for authorised sequels at the moment, such as Anthony Horowitz’s excellent Sherlock Holmes novels ‘The House of Silk’ (reviewed here in January 2012) and ‘Moriarty’ (reviewed here in January 2015). Stephen Baxter does a great job of paying tribute to Wells’ original novel, while taking the story of mankind’s encounters with creatures from another world to the next level.
“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said … but still, they come”. And then they came back. Thirteen years after the Martian invaders of 1907 were wiped out by the Earth’s bacteria they have returned – and this time they are better prepared. But what I found most fascinating about ‘The Massacre of Mankind’ was not the aliens but the resulting alternative history of mankind. By imagining what lasting effects the 1907 battle with the Martians would have had on the world, Baxter has a lot of fun creating a parallel reality. With many similarities to Philip Roth’s portrait of a world in which Nazi Germany wins the Second World War with the support of the USA ('The Plot Against America' reviewed here in September 2006), ‘The Massacre of Mankind’ starts in 1920 with the British and German allies victorious in the European war that followed the Martian invasion. The Titanic has survived its collision with the iceberg because its bow was reinforced with Martian aluminium. And Charlie Chaplin has achieved worldwide fame through playing ‘The Little Soldier’ - a character modelled on the British artilleryman famous for fighting the Martians in 1907.
I also enjoyed the meta-fictional construct of this sequel, in which the first-person narrator of ‘The War of the Worlds’, Walter Jenkins, has become famous for his account of the original conflict but is now hated by some of his friends and family for how he inaccurately portrayed them in his narrative. This echoes the second part of ‘Don Quixote’ by Cervantes (reviewed here in January 2012) in which the knight and his squire frequently encounter people who have read the earlier volume and are familiar with their history. Stephen Baxter also manages to throw in a reference, after Martians arrive in America in 1922, to Grover’s Mill, New Jersey – the landing site of the Martian invasion in Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 radio version of ‘The War of the Worlds’.
‘The Massacre of Mankind’ is a meticulously crafted homage to HG Wells. It reads like it could have been written in the period it portrays and, although the plot feels a little slow at times, it is a very impressive and intriguing counter-history of the early decades of the twentieth century.
Friday, February 17, 2017
'Saint Joan' by George Bernard Shaw
17 February 2017
I have still not visited the Donmar Warehouse in London but this week we were at Cineworld in Milton Keynes to see the NT Live broadcast from the Donmar of Josie Rourke’s production of ‘Saint Joan’ by George Bernard Shaw. As with the live screening of Rourke’s production of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' by Christopher Hampton (reviewed here in January 2016) I was impressed by the intimate nature of the theatre, with its four rows of seats on three sides of the stage. It reminded me of The Other Place – the RSC’s (now defunct) third auditorium in Stratford-upon-Avon. As I wrote here in July 2014, I always used to like The Other Place for the way it got you closer to the actors, stripping away the distraction of the big production values of the old Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage and allowing you fully to appreciate the brilliant acting. I felt the same about this performance of ‘Saint Joan’ at the Donmar Warehouse. Josie Rourke has given the play a modern corporate setting with each scene taking place around a constantly revolving boardroom table, allowing the audience a rotating perspective of each of the actors at very close quarters. Gemma Arterton’s Joan of Arc is the only character in period costume and each time she enters the stage she seems to drag the play back to the 15th century: three giant video screens showing Bloomberg stock index updates fade to display a religious triptych and the lighting dims. Gemma Arterton gives an amazing performance: her Joan is a cheerful pollyannaish religious fanatic, unfazed by setbacks and completely convinced she is carrying out the will of God. Shaw plays often feel extremely long and wordy but can also be incredibly funny – as I noted here in my review of 'Man and Superman' in May 2015. Josie Rourke has cut the text of ‘Saint Joan’ considerably and brought out an unexpected amount of humour in what is a failry bleak tale. The trial scene towards the end of the play was a brilliantly handled ensemble performance in which you could sympathise with all the opposing points of view simultaneously while ominously appreciating that Joan’s plight was not going to end well.
I have still not visited the Donmar Warehouse in London but this week we were at Cineworld in Milton Keynes to see the NT Live broadcast from the Donmar of Josie Rourke’s production of ‘Saint Joan’ by George Bernard Shaw. As with the live screening of Rourke’s production of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' by Christopher Hampton (reviewed here in January 2016) I was impressed by the intimate nature of the theatre, with its four rows of seats on three sides of the stage. It reminded me of The Other Place – the RSC’s (now defunct) third auditorium in Stratford-upon-Avon. As I wrote here in July 2014, I always used to like The Other Place for the way it got you closer to the actors, stripping away the distraction of the big production values of the old Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage and allowing you fully to appreciate the brilliant acting. I felt the same about this performance of ‘Saint Joan’ at the Donmar Warehouse. Josie Rourke has given the play a modern corporate setting with each scene taking place around a constantly revolving boardroom table, allowing the audience a rotating perspective of each of the actors at very close quarters. Gemma Arterton’s Joan of Arc is the only character in period costume and each time she enters the stage she seems to drag the play back to the 15th century: three giant video screens showing Bloomberg stock index updates fade to display a religious triptych and the lighting dims. Gemma Arterton gives an amazing performance: her Joan is a cheerful pollyannaish religious fanatic, unfazed by setbacks and completely convinced she is carrying out the will of God. Shaw plays often feel extremely long and wordy but can also be incredibly funny – as I noted here in my review of 'Man and Superman' in May 2015. Josie Rourke has cut the text of ‘Saint Joan’ considerably and brought out an unexpected amount of humour in what is a failry bleak tale. The trial scene towards the end of the play was a brilliantly handled ensemble performance in which you could sympathise with all the opposing points of view simultaneously while ominously appreciating that Joan’s plight was not going to end well.
Friday, February 10, 2017
'Designated Survivor' by David Guggenheim
10 February 2017
I hadn’t realised it was a real thing but Wikipedia tells us that “In the United States, a designated survivor (or designated successor) is an individual in the presidential line of succession, usually a member of the United States Cabinet, who is arranged to be at a physically distant, secure, and undisclosed location when the President and the country's other top leaders (e.g., Vice President and Cabinet members) are gathered at a single location, such as during State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations. This is intended to guarantee continuity of government in the event of a catastrophic occurrence that kills the President and many officials in the presidential line of succession, such as a mass shooting or bombing. If such an event occurred, killing both the President and Vice President, the surviving official highest in the line, possibly the designated survivor, would become the Acting President of the United States under the Presidential Succession Act.”
David Guggenheim’s TV series ‘Designated Survivor’ (which I have just finished watching on Netflix) uses this premise to create a very exciting political thriller. When the Capitol building is destroyed by a terrorist attack during the State of the Union address, the President and the whole of Congress are killed. Designated Survivor Tom Kirkman, the lowly Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is suddenly being sworn in as the new President of the United States. Not only does he have to work out how to govern a country whose entire federal government has disappeared, President Kirkman also has to deal with the devastating aftermath of a massive terror attack on Washington. Keifer Sutherland plays Kirkman as an honest man thrust into the limelight and Maggie Q is the FBI agent who believes someone other than the Islamic terrorist group that claims responsibility might actually be behind the bombing. The first episode of ‘Designated Survivor’ is truly thrilling and the parallels between the fictional story and the White House in 2017 (such as when the President is asked to consider banning all immigration into the USA to guard against terrorists) are scarily close. ‘Designated Survivor’ is both a political drama that bears comparison with ‘Borgen’ (reviewed here in February 2013) and a thriller. I’m looking forward to the second series.
I hadn’t realised it was a real thing but Wikipedia tells us that “In the United States, a designated survivor (or designated successor) is an individual in the presidential line of succession, usually a member of the United States Cabinet, who is arranged to be at a physically distant, secure, and undisclosed location when the President and the country's other top leaders (e.g., Vice President and Cabinet members) are gathered at a single location, such as during State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations. This is intended to guarantee continuity of government in the event of a catastrophic occurrence that kills the President and many officials in the presidential line of succession, such as a mass shooting or bombing. If such an event occurred, killing both the President and Vice President, the surviving official highest in the line, possibly the designated survivor, would become the Acting President of the United States under the Presidential Succession Act.”
David Guggenheim’s TV series ‘Designated Survivor’ (which I have just finished watching on Netflix) uses this premise to create a very exciting political thriller. When the Capitol building is destroyed by a terrorist attack during the State of the Union address, the President and the whole of Congress are killed. Designated Survivor Tom Kirkman, the lowly Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is suddenly being sworn in as the new President of the United States. Not only does he have to work out how to govern a country whose entire federal government has disappeared, President Kirkman also has to deal with the devastating aftermath of a massive terror attack on Washington. Keifer Sutherland plays Kirkman as an honest man thrust into the limelight and Maggie Q is the FBI agent who believes someone other than the Islamic terrorist group that claims responsibility might actually be behind the bombing. The first episode of ‘Designated Survivor’ is truly thrilling and the parallels between the fictional story and the White House in 2017 (such as when the President is asked to consider banning all immigration into the USA to guard against terrorists) are scarily close. ‘Designated Survivor’ is both a political drama that bears comparison with ‘Borgen’ (reviewed here in February 2013) and a thriller. I’m looking forward to the second series.
Thursday, February 02, 2017
NMPAT Sinfonietta concert
2 February 2017
On Saturday I played with the NMPAT Sinfonietta in a charity concert at Christ Church in Northampton to raise funds for Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research. The orchestra, made up mostly by instrumental music teachers from Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust, was conducted by Trevor Dyson. The violinist Ben Roskams (who played Bruch's 'Scottish Fantasy' in a Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert reviewed here in June 2015) joined us to give a stunning performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. The second half of the concert featured Beethoven’s epic ‘Symphony No 3 (Eroica)’ which I hadn’t played for many years. Perhaps because the orchestra only came together for one rehearsal, on Saturday afternoon, it felt like the concert benefited from a very high level of concentration and I think we gave a really exciting performance.
On Saturday I played with the NMPAT Sinfonietta in a charity concert at Christ Church in Northampton to raise funds for Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research. The orchestra, made up mostly by instrumental music teachers from Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust, was conducted by Trevor Dyson. The violinist Ben Roskams (who played Bruch's 'Scottish Fantasy' in a Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert reviewed here in June 2015) joined us to give a stunning performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. The second half of the concert featured Beethoven’s epic ‘Symphony No 3 (Eroica)’ which I hadn’t played for many years. Perhaps because the orchestra only came together for one rehearsal, on Saturday afternoon, it felt like the concert benefited from a very high level of concentration and I think we gave a really exciting performance.
Friday, January 27, 2017
‘The Trespasser’ by Tana French
27 January 2017
Regular readers will know that I am enjoying working through the Dublin Murder Squad novels by Tana French. After reading ‘The Secret Place’ (reviewed here in December 2016) I have leapt to French’s latest book, ‘The Trespasser’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Hilda Fay). This follows the same two detectives as in ‘The Secret Place’ – Stephen Moran and Antoinette Conway – but tells its story through Conway’s eyes. I found the plot of ‘The Trespasser’ particularly intriguing as it starts with a simple premise – a woman found dead in her own home – and the detectives gradually piece together what happened to her through painstaking investigation and assimilation of evidence. A key focus of this novel is the process of forming and testing hypotheses as a way of unearthing the truth – and the danger of inventing an explanation and then looking for evidence to support it. There is also the usual focus in French’s novels on the relationship between the two partner detectives. This is a fascinatingly detailed police procedural which keeps you hooked until you finally understand exactly what happened to the dead woman.
Regular readers will know that I am enjoying working through the Dublin Murder Squad novels by Tana French. After reading ‘The Secret Place’ (reviewed here in December 2016) I have leapt to French’s latest book, ‘The Trespasser’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Hilda Fay). This follows the same two detectives as in ‘The Secret Place’ – Stephen Moran and Antoinette Conway – but tells its story through Conway’s eyes. I found the plot of ‘The Trespasser’ particularly intriguing as it starts with a simple premise – a woman found dead in her own home – and the detectives gradually piece together what happened to her through painstaking investigation and assimilation of evidence. A key focus of this novel is the process of forming and testing hypotheses as a way of unearthing the truth – and the danger of inventing an explanation and then looking for evidence to support it. There is also the usual focus in French’s novels on the relationship between the two partner detectives. This is a fascinatingly detailed police procedural which keeps you hooked until you finally understand exactly what happened to the dead woman.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
'La La Land' by Damien Chazelle
18 January 2017
Damien Chazelle’s much praised and garlanded film ‘La La Land’ has been pre-occupying me since we saw it last Saturday. This modern take on the old-fashioned Hollywood musical is beautifully done. It opens with a truly stunning set piece – an infectiously upbeat dance number that had me beaming with delight. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are both charming and the film is a loving homage to classic Hollywood musicals, with great music by Justin Hurwitz. And yet … I’m not sure it completely works. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say our natural yearning for the two leads to fall in love is satisfied surprisingly quickly, with the minimum of jeopardy. There is then a lot of film left to go and what little jeopardy there is revolves around the difficulties of maintaining a relationship when faced with the challenges of careers and money. While this is refreshingly realistic and modern it feels too serious a topic for a musical. In trying to make a mature, self-aware film Damien Chazelle has lost some of the comedy of the musical-comedy. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are not outstanding singers or dancers but they have clearly worked really hard on their performances and the film showcases their talents very effectively. Ryan Gosling learned to play the piano in three months for the film, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04p6drs?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=thetodayprogramme&ns_source=facebook. Emma Stone’s audition scenes are painfully believable and reminded me of Naomi Watts in David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’ (another film that uses the Los Angeles skyline to great effect). Nevertheless Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone end up giving us neither screwball comedy nor virtuosic song and dance. And ‘La La Land’ relies almost exclusively on its two leads: after the first fifteen minutes there are are hardly any big ensemble numbers. Maybe my expectations had been unrealistically raised by the brilliant reviews but the film felt too long and, after its explosive opening, didn’t seem to know where it wanted to go. Each of the component parts was very high quality but somehow the whole felt less than the sum of those parts. If you’ve seen ‘La La Land’ I would welcome your thoughts on it – and if you haven’t I really hope you get a chance to watch the brilliant opening.
Damien Chazelle’s much praised and garlanded film ‘La La Land’ has been pre-occupying me since we saw it last Saturday. This modern take on the old-fashioned Hollywood musical is beautifully done. It opens with a truly stunning set piece – an infectiously upbeat dance number that had me beaming with delight. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are both charming and the film is a loving homage to classic Hollywood musicals, with great music by Justin Hurwitz. And yet … I’m not sure it completely works. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say our natural yearning for the two leads to fall in love is satisfied surprisingly quickly, with the minimum of jeopardy. There is then a lot of film left to go and what little jeopardy there is revolves around the difficulties of maintaining a relationship when faced with the challenges of careers and money. While this is refreshingly realistic and modern it feels too serious a topic for a musical. In trying to make a mature, self-aware film Damien Chazelle has lost some of the comedy of the musical-comedy. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are not outstanding singers or dancers but they have clearly worked really hard on their performances and the film showcases their talents very effectively. Ryan Gosling learned to play the piano in three months for the film, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04p6drs?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=thetodayprogramme&ns_source=facebook. Emma Stone’s audition scenes are painfully believable and reminded me of Naomi Watts in David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’ (another film that uses the Los Angeles skyline to great effect). Nevertheless Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone end up giving us neither screwball comedy nor virtuosic song and dance. And ‘La La Land’ relies almost exclusively on its two leads: after the first fifteen minutes there are are hardly any big ensemble numbers. Maybe my expectations had been unrealistically raised by the brilliant reviews but the film felt too long and, after its explosive opening, didn’t seem to know where it wanted to go. Each of the component parts was very high quality but somehow the whole felt less than the sum of those parts. If you’ve seen ‘La La Land’ I would welcome your thoughts on it – and if you haven’t I really hope you get a chance to watch the brilliant opening.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' by Max Landis
12 January 2017
In 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' Douglas Adams broke every one of my rules of detective fiction in a glorious subversion of the genre. I loved the two published Dirk Gently novels and the unfinished third novel (published posthumously in ‘The Salmon of Doubt’, reviewed here in October 2009). There have been three dramatisations of Dirk Gently, with Harry Enfield’s portrayal of the detective in Dirk Maggs’ two BBC Radio 4 serials (reviewed here in October 2007 and October 2008) the closest to the character in the novels. The BBC Four TV version starring Stephen Mangan strangely stripped out the supernatural elements of the stories. The result was gentle and quirky but had nothing like the impact of the original. In the new TV adaptation by Max Landis for BBC America, which I have just started watching on Netflix, Samuel Barnett is nothing like my mental image on Dirk Gently but it really doesn’t seem to matter. Landis has created a completely new plot which takes Gently to Seattle (though there are a couple of nods to his previous cases from the novels). This version of 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' has a very high death count: like Noah Hawley’s splendid ‘Fargo’ TV series many characters you assumed were going to be central to the plot are brutally assassinated before the end of the first episode. The slaughter is simultaneously sickeningly real and somehow hysterically funny – watch through your fingers. Elijah Wood is great as Dirk’s reluctant ‘Dirk Watson’, his eyes permanently wide with stunned bemusement but I think my favourite character is Richard Schiff’s laconic Missing Persons cop Zimmerfield. 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' is incredibly confusing, completely bonkers and entrancing: Douglas Adams would have loved it.
In 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' Douglas Adams broke every one of my rules of detective fiction in a glorious subversion of the genre. I loved the two published Dirk Gently novels and the unfinished third novel (published posthumously in ‘The Salmon of Doubt’, reviewed here in October 2009). There have been three dramatisations of Dirk Gently, with Harry Enfield’s portrayal of the detective in Dirk Maggs’ two BBC Radio 4 serials (reviewed here in October 2007 and October 2008) the closest to the character in the novels. The BBC Four TV version starring Stephen Mangan strangely stripped out the supernatural elements of the stories. The result was gentle and quirky but had nothing like the impact of the original. In the new TV adaptation by Max Landis for BBC America, which I have just started watching on Netflix, Samuel Barnett is nothing like my mental image on Dirk Gently but it really doesn’t seem to matter. Landis has created a completely new plot which takes Gently to Seattle (though there are a couple of nods to his previous cases from the novels). This version of 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' has a very high death count: like Noah Hawley’s splendid ‘Fargo’ TV series many characters you assumed were going to be central to the plot are brutally assassinated before the end of the first episode. The slaughter is simultaneously sickeningly real and somehow hysterically funny – watch through your fingers. Elijah Wood is great as Dirk’s reluctant ‘Dirk Watson’, his eyes permanently wide with stunned bemusement but I think my favourite character is Richard Schiff’s laconic Missing Persons cop Zimmerfield. 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency' is incredibly confusing, completely bonkers and entrancing: Douglas Adams would have loved it.
Friday, January 06, 2017
'Tules Maas Vedes Taivaal' by Tuuletar
6 January 2017
Tuuletar are a young Finnish female a cappella quartet whose music combines Finnish folk traditions with pop, beat-boxing and percussive clapping. Their first album ‘Tules Maas Vedes Taivaal’ is an engaging, varied collection of catchy, cheerful songs. Tuuletar means "goddess of the wind", and the album title promises songs "on fire and earth, in water and air". The all-female harmonies sound a lot like the great Finnish folk/rock band Värttinä (reviewed here in August 2006) but Tuuletar are a younger generation – more pop/folk than folk/rock. Indeed they have invented their own terminology, describing their music as ‘vocal folk hop’. Some of their wordless backing noises reminded me of the album ‘Music Hole’ by the French vocal gymnast Camille Dalmais (reviewed here in May 2008). And the mixture of female close harmony a cappella singing and beatboxing made me think of London-based five-piece The Boxettes (reviewed here in August 2011). Tuuletar’s music is beautiful, funky, modern and distinctly Scandinavian, never taking itself too seriously.
Tuuletar are a young Finnish female a cappella quartet whose music combines Finnish folk traditions with pop, beat-boxing and percussive clapping. Their first album ‘Tules Maas Vedes Taivaal’ is an engaging, varied collection of catchy, cheerful songs. Tuuletar means "goddess of the wind", and the album title promises songs "on fire and earth, in water and air". The all-female harmonies sound a lot like the great Finnish folk/rock band Värttinä (reviewed here in August 2006) but Tuuletar are a younger generation – more pop/folk than folk/rock. Indeed they have invented their own terminology, describing their music as ‘vocal folk hop’. Some of their wordless backing noises reminded me of the album ‘Music Hole’ by the French vocal gymnast Camille Dalmais (reviewed here in May 2008). And the mixture of female close harmony a cappella singing and beatboxing made me think of London-based five-piece The Boxettes (reviewed here in August 2011). Tuuletar’s music is beautiful, funky, modern and distinctly Scandinavian, never taking itself too seriously.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
'The Secret Place' by Tana French
20 December 2016
It was earlier this year that I first discovered Tana French’s superior detective novels featuring the Dublin Murder Squad. Having enjoyed ‘Broken Harbour’ (reviewed here in May 2016) I was looking forward to ‘The Secret Place’, which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Stephen Hogan and Lara Hutchinson. Set in an expensive girls’ boarding school outside Dublin, ‘The Secret Place’ is told through the eyes of Detective Stephen Moran who first appeared as a minor character in one of French’s earlier novels ‘Faithful Place’. Although characters recur and there are references to previous cases, each of the Murder Squad novels works as a stand-alone story. ‘The Secret Place’ takes place on a single day as Moran and his new partner Antoinette Conway question girls at the school about the murder of a teenage boy a year ago. In-between chapters narrated by Stephen Moran we also get flashback chapters revealing events leading up to and following the murder, which gradually bring us back to the present day investigation. It’s a beautifully written novel: when the detectives first enter the headmistress’s room Moran notices a “heavy framed oil painting of a nun who was no oil painting”. And when he observes a tension between Conway and the headmistress, who have met before, he notes “history there, or just chemistry”. Said in a different accent these phrases could pass for Raymond Chandler. ‘The Secret Place’ is a meticulous police procedural, cleverly plotted, carefully constructed and exquisitely written. As with ‘Broken Harbour’, alongside the murder mystery the novel is as interested in the new partnership between the two detectives – each weighing the other up as potential long-term colleagues. I’m really looking forward to reading Tana French’s new novel ‘The Trespasser’ which features the same two detectives but shifts the point of view to Antoinette Conway.
It was earlier this year that I first discovered Tana French’s superior detective novels featuring the Dublin Murder Squad. Having enjoyed ‘Broken Harbour’ (reviewed here in May 2016) I was looking forward to ‘The Secret Place’, which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Stephen Hogan and Lara Hutchinson. Set in an expensive girls’ boarding school outside Dublin, ‘The Secret Place’ is told through the eyes of Detective Stephen Moran who first appeared as a minor character in one of French’s earlier novels ‘Faithful Place’. Although characters recur and there are references to previous cases, each of the Murder Squad novels works as a stand-alone story. ‘The Secret Place’ takes place on a single day as Moran and his new partner Antoinette Conway question girls at the school about the murder of a teenage boy a year ago. In-between chapters narrated by Stephen Moran we also get flashback chapters revealing events leading up to and following the murder, which gradually bring us back to the present day investigation. It’s a beautifully written novel: when the detectives first enter the headmistress’s room Moran notices a “heavy framed oil painting of a nun who was no oil painting”. And when he observes a tension between Conway and the headmistress, who have met before, he notes “history there, or just chemistry”. Said in a different accent these phrases could pass for Raymond Chandler. ‘The Secret Place’ is a meticulous police procedural, cleverly plotted, carefully constructed and exquisitely written. As with ‘Broken Harbour’, alongside the murder mystery the novel is as interested in the new partnership between the two detectives – each weighing the other up as potential long-term colleagues. I’m really looking forward to reading Tana French’s new novel ‘The Trespasser’ which features the same two detectives but shifts the point of view to Antoinette Conway.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
14 December 2016
The annual Northampton Symphony Orchestra ‘Christmas Cracker’ concert always feels like the proper start of Christmas. This year’s Sunday afternoon performance had an animals theme, featuring ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, ‘The Pink Panther’, ‘The Thievish Magpie’, ‘The Teddy Bears’ Picnic’ and ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’. We always include a narrated piece and this year locally based actor and director Dan McGarry gave a splendid debut performance with the orchestra in Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’. As you may know, the French horns portray the wolf in the story but when we played an extract at the start for the young members of the audience to guess which animal we represented, we were slightly perturbed to hear someone shout out “an elephant”! The programme also saw us revisiting two of the British composers we featured in concerts earlier this year, with performances of John Barry’s music from the 1991 film ‘Dances with Wolves’, and the ‘Christmas Overture’ by Nigel Hess. It was a lovely concert – a Christmas Quacker!
The annual Northampton Symphony Orchestra ‘Christmas Cracker’ concert always feels like the proper start of Christmas. This year’s Sunday afternoon performance had an animals theme, featuring ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, ‘The Pink Panther’, ‘The Thievish Magpie’, ‘The Teddy Bears’ Picnic’ and ‘The Flight of the Bumblebee’. We always include a narrated piece and this year locally based actor and director Dan McGarry gave a splendid debut performance with the orchestra in Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’. As you may know, the French horns portray the wolf in the story but when we played an extract at the start for the young members of the audience to guess which animal we represented, we were slightly perturbed to hear someone shout out “an elephant”! The programme also saw us revisiting two of the British composers we featured in concerts earlier this year, with performances of John Barry’s music from the 1991 film ‘Dances with Wolves’, and the ‘Christmas Overture’ by Nigel Hess. It was a lovely concert – a Christmas Quacker!
The Blockheads
14 December 2016
Regular readers will know we are fans of The Blockheads (reviewed here in July 2007, December 2012, November 2014 and April 2015 – if you missed it do look up the story of my encounter with Ian Dury). On Friday night we were at the MK11 venue in Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes to renew our acquaintance with this wonderful band. Their show is always much the same but I love the band’s enthusiasm: they all look like they are having a ball. Songwriter Mickey Gallagher – one of the less demonstrative Blockheads – sits quietly at the back of the stage behind his keyboards wearing a cheeky grin throughout the performance, whereas bass player Norman Watt-Roy is in constant movement and must lose pounds of weight at every concert. Reasons to be cheerful!
Regular readers will know we are fans of The Blockheads (reviewed here in July 2007, December 2012, November 2014 and April 2015 – if you missed it do look up the story of my encounter with Ian Dury). On Friday night we were at the MK11 venue in Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes to renew our acquaintance with this wonderful band. Their show is always much the same but I love the band’s enthusiasm: they all look like they are having a ball. Songwriter Mickey Gallagher – one of the less demonstrative Blockheads – sits quietly at the back of the stage behind his keyboards wearing a cheeky grin throughout the performance, whereas bass player Norman Watt-Roy is in constant movement and must lose pounds of weight at every concert. Reasons to be cheerful!
Friday, December 09, 2016
London Symphony Orchestra concert - John Adams at 70
8 December 2016
On Thursday I enjoyed a real musical treat – watching the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican celebrating the 70th birthday of the American composer John Adams. Adams conducted pieces by Bartok and Stravinsky, illustrating some of the traditions in which his own very modern musical style is rooted. You could hear distinct echoes of John Adams in both Bartok's folk music-inspired 'Hungarian Sketches' and Stravinsky's eerie evocation of ancient Greece in the music from the ballet 'Orpheus'. But the main attraction was the performance of Adams' latest composition 'Scheherazade.2' - a piece for solo violin and orchestra, premiered in 2015. Adams explained to the audience that, rather than calling the work a concerto, he had taken the idea of a 'dramatic symphony' from Berlioz and had created four movements which follow a rough narrative, telling the story of a modern, feminist Scheherazade who "speaks truth to power". Instead of charming her captive to avoid death, this Scheherazade stands up to her tormentors, falls in love, defends herself in a trial and flees to sanctuary. The piece was written for the Canadian violinist Leila Josefowicz and it was a privilege to see her perform it, conducted by the composer. Adams described Josefowicz as "the Lisbeth Salander of the violin" and she definitely displayed a punk-like flair, her restless energy causing her to pace back and forth while waiting to play. Her violent playing sometimes seemed to pull her feet across the stage. This was the violinist as rock star, her stance reminding me of the defiant pose of Martha Wainwright (reviewed here in July 2008). Like much of Adams' music, the symphony was incredibly entertaining – complex and quirky but never inaccessible, with some beautifully serene moments. The narrative structure, unusual soundscapes and character soloist reminded me of Jan Sandström's 'Motorbike Concerto' which I saw Christian Lindbergh perform with the Halle Orchestra about 20 years ago (if you don't know it do look it up on YouTube). Thursday's LSO concert was a similarly wonderful experience that will also live long in my memory. You can see John Adams and Leila Josefowicz talking about 'Scheherazade.2' at: https://youtu.be/kN5SEJSqknc.
On Thursday I enjoyed a real musical treat – watching the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican celebrating the 70th birthday of the American composer John Adams. Adams conducted pieces by Bartok and Stravinsky, illustrating some of the traditions in which his own very modern musical style is rooted. You could hear distinct echoes of John Adams in both Bartok's folk music-inspired 'Hungarian Sketches' and Stravinsky's eerie evocation of ancient Greece in the music from the ballet 'Orpheus'. But the main attraction was the performance of Adams' latest composition 'Scheherazade.2' - a piece for solo violin and orchestra, premiered in 2015. Adams explained to the audience that, rather than calling the work a concerto, he had taken the idea of a 'dramatic symphony' from Berlioz and had created four movements which follow a rough narrative, telling the story of a modern, feminist Scheherazade who "speaks truth to power". Instead of charming her captive to avoid death, this Scheherazade stands up to her tormentors, falls in love, defends herself in a trial and flees to sanctuary. The piece was written for the Canadian violinist Leila Josefowicz and it was a privilege to see her perform it, conducted by the composer. Adams described Josefowicz as "the Lisbeth Salander of the violin" and she definitely displayed a punk-like flair, her restless energy causing her to pace back and forth while waiting to play. Her violent playing sometimes seemed to pull her feet across the stage. This was the violinist as rock star, her stance reminding me of the defiant pose of Martha Wainwright (reviewed here in July 2008). Like much of Adams' music, the symphony was incredibly entertaining – complex and quirky but never inaccessible, with some beautifully serene moments. The narrative structure, unusual soundscapes and character soloist reminded me of Jan Sandström's 'Motorbike Concerto' which I saw Christian Lindbergh perform with the Halle Orchestra about 20 years ago (if you don't know it do look it up on YouTube). Thursday's LSO concert was a similarly wonderful experience that will also live long in my memory. You can see John Adams and Leila Josefowicz talking about 'Scheherazade.2' at: https://youtu.be/kN5SEJSqknc.
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
John Cooper Clarke and Hugh Cornwell
30 November 2016
Harpo Marx’s autobiography was famously titled ‘Harpo Speaks!’ – a witty play on the one thing you thought you knew about Harpo. (It’s a great book by the way, which taught me much about both croquet and chess.) Saturday’s gig at The Junction in Cambridge might similarly have been billed as ‘John Cooper Clarke Sings!’. The punk poet of Salford (who we saw last year supporting Squeeze – reviewed here in October 2015) has recorded an album of classic rock ‘n’ roll songs (‘This Time It’s Personal’) with Hugh Cornwell (former lead singer of The Stranglers) which they are now touring. I had expected it to be more of a double act but Cornwell, and his excellent band, were clearly backing John Cooper Clarke who was very much the main attraction. His surprisingly strong baritone voice worked well with the punkish interpretation of well-chosen classics including ‘Johnny Remember Me’, ‘Wait Down Yonder in New Orleans’ and ‘It’s Only Make Believe’. And, although, the welcome discovery that John Cooper Clarke really can sing gradually gave way to the realisation that he can’t sing that well, his engaging personality made for a fun evening. He has a very dry sense of humour and a great way with words, dedicating ‘Spanish Harlem’ to that late great ‘Spanianista’, Fidel Castro, and suggesting his version of the Ritchie Valens song ‘Donna’ was being offered as reparations to the Mexican people for the damage done by Marty Wilde’s interpretation. And his rendition of ‘MacArthur Park’ (made famous by that other non-singer, Richard Harris) was a highlight of the evening, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZBH-ArhhyY.
Harpo Marx’s autobiography was famously titled ‘Harpo Speaks!’ – a witty play on the one thing you thought you knew about Harpo. (It’s a great book by the way, which taught me much about both croquet and chess.) Saturday’s gig at The Junction in Cambridge might similarly have been billed as ‘John Cooper Clarke Sings!’. The punk poet of Salford (who we saw last year supporting Squeeze – reviewed here in October 2015) has recorded an album of classic rock ‘n’ roll songs (‘This Time It’s Personal’) with Hugh Cornwell (former lead singer of The Stranglers) which they are now touring. I had expected it to be more of a double act but Cornwell, and his excellent band, were clearly backing John Cooper Clarke who was very much the main attraction. His surprisingly strong baritone voice worked well with the punkish interpretation of well-chosen classics including ‘Johnny Remember Me’, ‘Wait Down Yonder in New Orleans’ and ‘It’s Only Make Believe’. And, although, the welcome discovery that John Cooper Clarke really can sing gradually gave way to the realisation that he can’t sing that well, his engaging personality made for a fun evening. He has a very dry sense of humour and a great way with words, dedicating ‘Spanish Harlem’ to that late great ‘Spanianista’, Fidel Castro, and suggesting his version of the Ritchie Valens song ‘Donna’ was being offered as reparations to the Mexican people for the damage done by Marty Wilde’s interpretation. And his rendition of ‘MacArthur Park’ (made famous by that other non-singer, Richard Harris) was a highlight of the evening, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZBH-ArhhyY.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
'The Tempest' by William Shakespeare
24 November 2016
On Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Greg Doran’s new production of ‘The Tempest’, starring Simon Russell Beale as Prospero. I had only seen ‘The Tempest’ once before (reviewed here in April 2012) and regular readers might remember that my low expectations of the play set me up for a very enjoyable experience. This time round my expectations were much higher and, perhaps inevitably, I wasn’t quite so taken with the play. Nevertheless this new production, by the Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with Intel and in association with the Imaginarium Studios, was a stunning spectacle. Two years in the making, the collaboration brings groundbreaking digital effects to the stage. Imaginarium Studios, established by motion-capture pioneer Andy Serkis, have created a digital avatar of Ariel, driven by live motion-capture from the body of the actor Mark Quartley, allowing him to appear simultaneously on stage and projected onto a series of moving curtains. Stephen Brimson Lewis’s amazing set turns the auditorium of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre into the innards of an enormous wrecked ship. Projection behind the set and on the surface of the stage creates beautiful dreamlike tableaux, particularly effective in the masque towards the end of the play that features three opera singers – Alison Arnopp, Samantha Hay and Jennifer Witton – singing original music by Paul Englishby. The digital technology is impressive but never overwhelms the play itself, thanks partly to a compelling performance by Simon Russell Beale as a Prospero with an uncanny resemblance to Obi Wan Kenobi. I was feeling my age, reflecting on having seen Simon Russell Beale play Hamlet – it’s only a matter of time before I will be watching him as King Lear! There were also outstanding physical performances by Mark Quartley as Ariel and Joe Dixon as Caliban. But it is the experience of feeling like part of a giant digital art installation that will live long in the memory. You can see videos about the digital development of ‘The Tempest’ at https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-tempest/video-creating-the-tempest and https://newsroom.intel.com/press-kits/intel-shakespeares-tempest/.
On Tuesday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Greg Doran’s new production of ‘The Tempest’, starring Simon Russell Beale as Prospero. I had only seen ‘The Tempest’ once before (reviewed here in April 2012) and regular readers might remember that my low expectations of the play set me up for a very enjoyable experience. This time round my expectations were much higher and, perhaps inevitably, I wasn’t quite so taken with the play. Nevertheless this new production, by the Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with Intel and in association with the Imaginarium Studios, was a stunning spectacle. Two years in the making, the collaboration brings groundbreaking digital effects to the stage. Imaginarium Studios, established by motion-capture pioneer Andy Serkis, have created a digital avatar of Ariel, driven by live motion-capture from the body of the actor Mark Quartley, allowing him to appear simultaneously on stage and projected onto a series of moving curtains. Stephen Brimson Lewis’s amazing set turns the auditorium of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre into the innards of an enormous wrecked ship. Projection behind the set and on the surface of the stage creates beautiful dreamlike tableaux, particularly effective in the masque towards the end of the play that features three opera singers – Alison Arnopp, Samantha Hay and Jennifer Witton – singing original music by Paul Englishby. The digital technology is impressive but never overwhelms the play itself, thanks partly to a compelling performance by Simon Russell Beale as a Prospero with an uncanny resemblance to Obi Wan Kenobi. I was feeling my age, reflecting on having seen Simon Russell Beale play Hamlet – it’s only a matter of time before I will be watching him as King Lear! There were also outstanding physical performances by Mark Quartley as Ariel and Joe Dixon as Caliban. But it is the experience of feeling like part of a giant digital art installation that will live long in the memory. You can see videos about the digital development of ‘The Tempest’ at https://www.rsc.org.uk/the-tempest/video-creating-the-tempest and https://newsroom.intel.com/press-kits/intel-shakespeares-tempest/.
Friday, November 18, 2016
Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert
18 November 2016
I first discovered Shostakovich's ‘Symphony No 5’ in my teens, playing 3rd horn in a performance by Stockport Youth Orchestra in Stockport Town Hall, and have loved the piece ever since. I haven’t played the symphony for many years and it was fascinating to get to grips with it again over the past few weeks in preparation for Saturday’s Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert. Having recently read Julian Barnes’ biographical novel about Shostakovich, 'The Noise of Time' (reviewed here in March 2016), I appreciated the ambiguity of ‘A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism’ properly for the first time. It’s a stunningly powerful symphony but its cynical sting in the tail reminds you that all was not what it seemed in Soviet Russia. I think our performance on Saturday achieved the necessary blend of strength and delicacy with some beautiful solos and a devastating finale. We started the concert with another work I first encountered in my teens – Malcolm Arnold’s second set of ‘English Dances’, which was one of the first pieces I played with the Manchester Youth Orchestra – playing those tunes immediately took me back to our tour of the Loire Valley in France in 1984. For the past 16 years I have spent most Wednesday evenings rehearsing with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in the Edmund Rubbra Hall at Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust, without ever wondering who Edmund Rubbra was. In Saturday’s concert we played ‘A Tribute’ - a short, gentle piece by the Northampton-born Rubbra, written to mark the 70th birthday of Vaughan-Williams. Saturday’s concert also featured the ‘Violin Concerto’ by William Walton played by the amazing Joo Yeon Sir. It’s an incredibly difficult concerto, for orchestra and soloist, but it was a really enjoyable challenge and Joo’s incredibly precise, rhythmic performance helped to carry us through. I was amazed to learn this was the first time she had performed the work in public.
I first discovered Shostakovich's ‘Symphony No 5’ in my teens, playing 3rd horn in a performance by Stockport Youth Orchestra in Stockport Town Hall, and have loved the piece ever since. I haven’t played the symphony for many years and it was fascinating to get to grips with it again over the past few weeks in preparation for Saturday’s Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert. Having recently read Julian Barnes’ biographical novel about Shostakovich, 'The Noise of Time' (reviewed here in March 2016), I appreciated the ambiguity of ‘A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism’ properly for the first time. It’s a stunningly powerful symphony but its cynical sting in the tail reminds you that all was not what it seemed in Soviet Russia. I think our performance on Saturday achieved the necessary blend of strength and delicacy with some beautiful solos and a devastating finale. We started the concert with another work I first encountered in my teens – Malcolm Arnold’s second set of ‘English Dances’, which was one of the first pieces I played with the Manchester Youth Orchestra – playing those tunes immediately took me back to our tour of the Loire Valley in France in 1984. For the past 16 years I have spent most Wednesday evenings rehearsing with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in the Edmund Rubbra Hall at Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust, without ever wondering who Edmund Rubbra was. In Saturday’s concert we played ‘A Tribute’ - a short, gentle piece by the Northampton-born Rubbra, written to mark the 70th birthday of Vaughan-Williams. Saturday’s concert also featured the ‘Violin Concerto’ by William Walton played by the amazing Joo Yeon Sir. It’s an incredibly difficult concerto, for orchestra and soloist, but it was a really enjoyable challenge and Joo’s incredibly precise, rhythmic performance helped to carry us through. I was amazed to learn this was the first time she had performed the work in public.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
‘Career of Evil’ by Robert Galbraith
10 November 2016
I’ve just finished reading ‘Career of Evil’ – the third Cormoran Strike detective novel by J K Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith) – as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Robert Glenister. Fans of 'The Cuckoo's Calling' (reviewed here in May 2014) and ‘The Silkworm’ (reviewed here in August 2014) will enjoy this return to the world of Cormoran and Robin, now on the trail of a serial killer with a passion for dismemberment. As with the previous books, J K Rowling seems to be determined to root the story in a very realistic contemporary setting, throwing in an often unnecessary level of detail. This makes the occasional inaccuracy particularly jarring. At one point Strike and Robin have breakfast in the dining room of a Travelodge – which never have dining rooms: there really wasn’t any need to be so specific about the particular hotel chain. And I’m beginning to suspect that the recurring inaccurate references to televised football matches that it would have been impossible to watch (in all three novels) are actually a deliberate running joke! But I can forgive these niggles because Rowling has created some compelling characters and you really care what happens to them. I was also amused to see an example of my third rule of detective fiction in action, though I can’t tell you what that is without spoiling the plot – ask me after you’ve finished the book.
I’ve just finished reading ‘Career of Evil’ – the third Cormoran Strike detective novel by J K Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith) – as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Robert Glenister. Fans of 'The Cuckoo's Calling' (reviewed here in May 2014) and ‘The Silkworm’ (reviewed here in August 2014) will enjoy this return to the world of Cormoran and Robin, now on the trail of a serial killer with a passion for dismemberment. As with the previous books, J K Rowling seems to be determined to root the story in a very realistic contemporary setting, throwing in an often unnecessary level of detail. This makes the occasional inaccuracy particularly jarring. At one point Strike and Robin have breakfast in the dining room of a Travelodge – which never have dining rooms: there really wasn’t any need to be so specific about the particular hotel chain. And I’m beginning to suspect that the recurring inaccurate references to televised football matches that it would have been impossible to watch (in all three novels) are actually a deliberate running joke! But I can forgive these niggles because Rowling has created some compelling characters and you really care what happens to them. I was also amused to see an example of my third rule of detective fiction in action, though I can’t tell you what that is without spoiling the plot – ask me after you’ve finished the book.
Friday, November 04, 2016
‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth’ - a comedy by William Shakespeare, David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr.
4 November 2016
On Saturday we were at the George Street Community Centre in Fenny Stratford, Milton Keynes to see the local amateur theatre group The Branchette Players. They were performing ‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth’ - a comedy by William Shakespeare, David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr. This is one in a series of 10 play-within-plays by McGillivray and Zerlin featuring the Farndale Avenue Guild. This one might have been subtitled ‘The Scottish Play That Goes Wrong’. Playing an incompetent amateur theatre group allows any actual slips to go unnoticed but for the comedy to work the amateur actors do need to be able to deliver most of the original Shakespearean lines straight. The Branchette Players were clearly very capable with some great Shakespearean acting on show, amongst the farce, particularly from Shona Gilchrist as Macbeth. Sue Noon was wonderful as Mrs Reece who ends up holding the show together. And Wayne Oakes was a surprisingly sympathetic Lady Macbeth. But the funniest moments were the blank-faced confusion of Lynn Homer’s voiceless Banquo.
On Saturday we were at the George Street Community Centre in Fenny Stratford, Milton Keynes to see the local amateur theatre group The Branchette Players. They were performing ‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth’ - a comedy by William Shakespeare, David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr. This is one in a series of 10 play-within-plays by McGillivray and Zerlin featuring the Farndale Avenue Guild. This one might have been subtitled ‘The Scottish Play That Goes Wrong’. Playing an incompetent amateur theatre group allows any actual slips to go unnoticed but for the comedy to work the amateur actors do need to be able to deliver most of the original Shakespearean lines straight. The Branchette Players were clearly very capable with some great Shakespearean acting on show, amongst the farce, particularly from Shona Gilchrist as Macbeth. Sue Noon was wonderful as Mrs Reece who ends up holding the show together. And Wayne Oakes was a surprisingly sympathetic Lady Macbeth. But the funniest moments were the blank-faced confusion of Lynn Homer’s voiceless Banquo.
Friday, October 28, 2016
'Young @ Heart' by Stephen Walker
28 October 2016
Flourish House in Glasgow is a Clubhouse that enables people with mental health difficulties to gain a sense of well-being. Members recover confidence and skills whilst achieving social, financial and vocational goals. It is part of an international network of Clubhouses that provide a safe environment to help people make the transition from hospital-based mental health care to re-entering everyday life. I was at Flourish House on Thursday evening for a film screening and discussion as part of Luminate 2016 and the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival. We watched the film ‘Young @ Heart’, Stephen Walker’s inspiring 2007 documentary about the Young @ Heart Chorus – a choir of singers in their seventies, eighties and nineties from Northampton, Massachusetts, who sing an unlikely repertoire of songs by Jimi Hendrix, Coldplay, Sonic Youth etc. It’s a wonderful film which shows older people having fun, not taking themselves too seriously but working hard towards a communal goal. These are clearly not the greatest singers in the world but the ecstatic reaction of the audiences for the choir’s performances completely rebuffs any concerns about ‘artistic quality’: the Young @Heart Chorus is obviously ‘great art’. The film really shows the individual characters of many of the singers and the deaths, during the filming, of some choir members is incredibly sad. Ultimately, though, this is a life-affirming story – funny, moving and completely inspirational. After the film, Richard Warden from the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival chaired a panel discussion involving a mental health nurse from a South Glasgow hospital and the director of a community choir based in the Gorbals. The film provoked a fascinating and uplifting discussion about mental health, ageing and the therapeutic power of singing. It was a lovely end to my two days in Scotland visiting Luminate Festival events.
Flourish House in Glasgow is a Clubhouse that enables people with mental health difficulties to gain a sense of well-being. Members recover confidence and skills whilst achieving social, financial and vocational goals. It is part of an international network of Clubhouses that provide a safe environment to help people make the transition from hospital-based mental health care to re-entering everyday life. I was at Flourish House on Thursday evening for a film screening and discussion as part of Luminate 2016 and the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival. We watched the film ‘Young @ Heart’, Stephen Walker’s inspiring 2007 documentary about the Young @ Heart Chorus – a choir of singers in their seventies, eighties and nineties from Northampton, Massachusetts, who sing an unlikely repertoire of songs by Jimi Hendrix, Coldplay, Sonic Youth etc. It’s a wonderful film which shows older people having fun, not taking themselves too seriously but working hard towards a communal goal. These are clearly not the greatest singers in the world but the ecstatic reaction of the audiences for the choir’s performances completely rebuffs any concerns about ‘artistic quality’: the Young @Heart Chorus is obviously ‘great art’. The film really shows the individual characters of many of the singers and the deaths, during the filming, of some choir members is incredibly sad. Ultimately, though, this is a life-affirming story – funny, moving and completely inspirational. After the film, Richard Warden from the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival chaired a panel discussion involving a mental health nurse from a South Glasgow hospital and the director of a community choir based in the Gorbals. The film provoked a fascinating and uplifting discussion about mental health, ageing and the therapeutic power of singing. It was a lovely end to my two days in Scotland visiting Luminate Festival events.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Cha Cha Cha Tea Dance at North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre
27 October 2016
On Thursday afternoon I was at North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre in Motherwell for the Cha Cha Cha Tea Dance – part of Luminate 2016 and the North Lanarkshire Encounters Festival. Like Luminate, Encounters runs throughout October, offering the chance to experience something new in arts, literature and music. The Tea Dance was well attended with around forty participants, most of whom were local care home residents. There was enthusiastic dancing to live music from people with a wide range of physical abilities, including many who were dancing in their chairs. Both the older people and the care home staff were clearly having a wonderful time: I haven’t been to an event for ages with so much smiling! It was a lovely afternoon, with plenty of tea and biscuits for all.
On Thursday afternoon I was at North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre in Motherwell for the Cha Cha Cha Tea Dance – part of Luminate 2016 and the North Lanarkshire Encounters Festival. Like Luminate, Encounters runs throughout October, offering the chance to experience something new in arts, literature and music. The Tea Dance was well attended with around forty participants, most of whom were local care home residents. There was enthusiastic dancing to live music from people with a wide range of physical abilities, including many who were dancing in their chairs. Both the older people and the care home staff were clearly having a wonderful time: I haven’t been to an event for ages with so much smiling! It was a lovely afternoon, with plenty of tea and biscuits for all.
'Directed by North Merchiston' by Duncan Cowles
27 October 2016
On Wednesday evening I was at North Merchiston Care Home in Edinburgh for the launch of ‘Directed by North Merchiston’ - a series of five short films created by residents of the care home working with the film-maker Duncan Cowles. Cowles, who is only 26 years old, spent three months visiting his five collaborators, whose ages range from 84 to 101. In each case he asked them what film they would want to make and developed five very individual pieces, each about 7 or 8 minutes long. The films are beautiful, funny and very poignant, reminding us that care home residents are each fascinating individuals with very different characters. So many arts in care home projects revert to a standard reminiscence format and it was wonderful to see how Duncan Cowles avoided this. Much of each film was focussed on the process of making the film, with us seeing the residents watching footage of themselves speaking to camera to decide what to use. This self analysis helped to give us a very clear picture of these older people as they are today, rather than just focussing on their memories. After watching the films you really felt you knew these individuals well, so it was fascinating to have three of them in the audience for the screening together with many members of their families. It was also interested to see the effect the project had had on Cowles himself who has become a familiar and regular visitor to North Merchiston Care Home and a good friend to the residents. You can read an interview with Duncan Cowles and watch some short teaser videos at: http://www.creativescotland.com/explore/read/stories/festivals/2016/luminate-2016-directed-by-north-merchiston
On Wednesday evening I was at North Merchiston Care Home in Edinburgh for the launch of ‘Directed by North Merchiston’ - a series of five short films created by residents of the care home working with the film-maker Duncan Cowles. Cowles, who is only 26 years old, spent three months visiting his five collaborators, whose ages range from 84 to 101. In each case he asked them what film they would want to make and developed five very individual pieces, each about 7 or 8 minutes long. The films are beautiful, funny and very poignant, reminding us that care home residents are each fascinating individuals with very different characters. So many arts in care home projects revert to a standard reminiscence format and it was wonderful to see how Duncan Cowles avoided this. Much of each film was focussed on the process of making the film, with us seeing the residents watching footage of themselves speaking to camera to decide what to use. This self analysis helped to give us a very clear picture of these older people as they are today, rather than just focussing on their memories. After watching the films you really felt you knew these individuals well, so it was fascinating to have three of them in the audience for the screening together with many members of their families. It was also interested to see the effect the project had had on Cowles himself who has become a familiar and regular visitor to North Merchiston Care Home and a good friend to the residents. You can read an interview with Duncan Cowles and watch some short teaser videos at: http://www.creativescotland.com/explore/read/stories/festivals/2016/luminate-2016-directed-by-north-merchiston
'The Flames'
27 October 2016
On Wednesday afternoon I was at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow to see the first performance by ‘The Flames’ - a new multi-media theatre group for participants aged fifty and over established by Tricky Hat Productions and directed by Fiona Miller. Their devised work, developed through five days of rehearsal workshops in October 2016 and presented as part of the Luminate Festival, combines drama, poetry, mime, film and specially composed music to explore life after fifty and challenge perceptions of ageing. Seven actors sitting on a line of chairs facing the audience took turns to come forward to one of two standing microphones. In each case we had no idea what to expect – particularly from the actor wearing a brown paper bag over her head. This series of vignettes challenged stereotypes and ruminated on the modern world. Often an individual performance was accompanied by silent black & white film of the same actor’s face projected on a giant screen above the stage. These videos by Kim Beveridge provided a wonderfully intimate feeling of really getting to know the performers and valuing them as individuals. We were also treated to a taste of ‘The Flaming Elders’, a sister project by Tricky Hat which is collaborating with older people in Inverclyde, Dumfries & Galloway and North West Glasgow. Four musicians performed live to accompany video projected on the wall behind them. It was great to see older people engaging in innovative, improvised performance after a very short period of intensive rehearsal and to get a sense of the confidence and joy this collaborative process had given them. You can read an interview with Tricky Hat Artistic Director, Fiona Miller, at: http://www.creativescotland.com/explore/read/stories/theatre/2016/the-flames-at-luminate
On Wednesday afternoon I was at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow to see the first performance by ‘The Flames’ - a new multi-media theatre group for participants aged fifty and over established by Tricky Hat Productions and directed by Fiona Miller. Their devised work, developed through five days of rehearsal workshops in October 2016 and presented as part of the Luminate Festival, combines drama, poetry, mime, film and specially composed music to explore life after fifty and challenge perceptions of ageing. Seven actors sitting on a line of chairs facing the audience took turns to come forward to one of two standing microphones. In each case we had no idea what to expect – particularly from the actor wearing a brown paper bag over her head. This series of vignettes challenged stereotypes and ruminated on the modern world. Often an individual performance was accompanied by silent black & white film of the same actor’s face projected on a giant screen above the stage. These videos by Kim Beveridge provided a wonderfully intimate feeling of really getting to know the performers and valuing them as individuals. We were also treated to a taste of ‘The Flaming Elders’, a sister project by Tricky Hat which is collaborating with older people in Inverclyde, Dumfries & Galloway and North West Glasgow. Four musicians performed live to accompany video projected on the wall behind them. It was great to see older people engaging in innovative, improvised performance after a very short period of intensive rehearsal and to get a sense of the confidence and joy this collaborative process had given them. You can read an interview with Tricky Hat Artistic Director, Fiona Miller, at: http://www.creativescotland.com/explore/read/stories/theatre/2016/the-flames-at-luminate
'The Grinning Man' by Tim Phillips, Marc Teitler, Carl Grose and Tom Morris
27 October 2016
On Saturday we made a first ever visit to Bristol Old Vic – the oldest continuously operating theatre in the English-speaking world, currently celebrating its 250th anniversary. We were there to see 'The Grinning Man', a new musical by Tim Phillips and Marc Teitler, with book by Carl Grose. Bristol Old Vic Director, Tom Morris, has spent five years developing the show and the quality on display attests to the care a publicly subsidised theatre like Bristol Old Vic (which is funded by Arts Council England) can bring to developing new work. ‘The Grinning Man’ is loosely based on a novel by Victor Hugo (‘The Man Who Laughs’) about a man whose face has been disfigured to create a permanent gruesome smile. The character of The Joker in the Batman comics was apparently modelled on an early silent film adaptation of the Victor Hugo story. ‘The Grinning Man’ is set in an imaginary 18th century Bristol, echoing the period Bristol Old Vic was built. It’s a macabre musical that seems to be aiming somewhere between ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. While the show is very entertaining – and often very funny – I found it an odd mix. The tone is both childlike and crude – at one moment knowingly breaking the fourth wall and then reverting to a child-like fairy tale. It sometimes felt like a slightly uncomfortable adult pantomime. It is undoubtedly a high quality production, with Jon Bausor’s spectacular set engulfing the stage in a blood-dripping mouth. And I liked the absence of modern technology, in favour of some old fashioned stage trickery that felt in keeping with the period. There is some great puppetry from Gyre and Gimble (the team responsible for the puppets in the National Theatre production of ‘War Horse’, reviewed here in October 2015). The music is tuneful and ageless, if at times a little earnest for the prevailing comic tone of the show. There is a very strong cast with Sean Kingsley demonstrating an impressive singing voice as Ursus the fairground showman and Julian Bleach stealing the show as the pantomime villain Barkilphedro the Fool. Louis Maskell is a fine lead as the hero Grinpayne, particularly as he has to sing most of his numbers through a scarf tied over his mouth. And it was good to see former Bellowhead percussionist Pete Flood among the band. ‘The Grinning Man’ is a fascinating show with high production values but it didn’t feel completely coherent. It will be interesting to see whether it can be honed into a stronger show.
On Saturday we made a first ever visit to Bristol Old Vic – the oldest continuously operating theatre in the English-speaking world, currently celebrating its 250th anniversary. We were there to see 'The Grinning Man', a new musical by Tim Phillips and Marc Teitler, with book by Carl Grose. Bristol Old Vic Director, Tom Morris, has spent five years developing the show and the quality on display attests to the care a publicly subsidised theatre like Bristol Old Vic (which is funded by Arts Council England) can bring to developing new work. ‘The Grinning Man’ is loosely based on a novel by Victor Hugo (‘The Man Who Laughs’) about a man whose face has been disfigured to create a permanent gruesome smile. The character of The Joker in the Batman comics was apparently modelled on an early silent film adaptation of the Victor Hugo story. ‘The Grinning Man’ is set in an imaginary 18th century Bristol, echoing the period Bristol Old Vic was built. It’s a macabre musical that seems to be aiming somewhere between ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. While the show is very entertaining – and often very funny – I found it an odd mix. The tone is both childlike and crude – at one moment knowingly breaking the fourth wall and then reverting to a child-like fairy tale. It sometimes felt like a slightly uncomfortable adult pantomime. It is undoubtedly a high quality production, with Jon Bausor’s spectacular set engulfing the stage in a blood-dripping mouth. And I liked the absence of modern technology, in favour of some old fashioned stage trickery that felt in keeping with the period. There is some great puppetry from Gyre and Gimble (the team responsible for the puppets in the National Theatre production of ‘War Horse’, reviewed here in October 2015). The music is tuneful and ageless, if at times a little earnest for the prevailing comic tone of the show. There is a very strong cast with Sean Kingsley demonstrating an impressive singing voice as Ursus the fairground showman and Julian Bleach stealing the show as the pantomime villain Barkilphedro the Fool. Louis Maskell is a fine lead as the hero Grinpayne, particularly as he has to sing most of his numbers through a scarf tied over his mouth. And it was good to see former Bellowhead percussionist Pete Flood among the band. ‘The Grinning Man’ is a fascinating show with high production values but it didn’t feel completely coherent. It will be interesting to see whether it can be honed into a stronger show.
Friday, October 21, 2016
'Round the Horne' by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, compiled and directed by Tim Astley
21 October 2016
When Tim Astley was twelve years old his grandfather was taken into a hospice for end-of-life care. In order to relieve the boredom Tim’s grandmother bought her husband a selection of BBC audio cassettes which Tim listened to with his grandfather. After his grandfather passed away Tim inherited the tapes and became an avid fan and collector of classic BBC comedies. Now, aged 25 and running a small touring theatre company, Tim Astley decided to mark the 50th anniversary of ‘Round the Horne’ by bringing the show to the stage. Astley cherry-picked sketches from the scripts by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, to create two 45-minute episodes. On Thursday we were at the Stantonbury Theatre in Milton Keynes to see these performed by the Apollo Theatre Company. A cast of actors played Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Douglas Smith performing the show as it would have appeared to the original studio audience at the BBC Paris Studio. They stopped making ‘Round the Horne’ before I was born but, like Tim, I was familiar, from repeats and recordings, of the show and its cast of regular characters including Rambling Syd Rumpo and Julian & Sandy. It was great to see the show performed as a faithful recreation of the original – resisting the temptation to add contemporary references to Brexit or Donald Trump. We simply saw the actors gathered around microphones, holding their scripts, with live music and sound effects supplied by Conrad Segal. It was excellently done, with some great radio voices on display. Best of all was Julian Howard McDowell as Kenneth Horne, demonstrating that, amongst the silliness and histrionics, the funniest part of ‘Round the Horne’ was often the calm, completely deadpan delivery of its long-suffering host.
When Tim Astley was twelve years old his grandfather was taken into a hospice for end-of-life care. In order to relieve the boredom Tim’s grandmother bought her husband a selection of BBC audio cassettes which Tim listened to with his grandfather. After his grandfather passed away Tim inherited the tapes and became an avid fan and collector of classic BBC comedies. Now, aged 25 and running a small touring theatre company, Tim Astley decided to mark the 50th anniversary of ‘Round the Horne’ by bringing the show to the stage. Astley cherry-picked sketches from the scripts by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, to create two 45-minute episodes. On Thursday we were at the Stantonbury Theatre in Milton Keynes to see these performed by the Apollo Theatre Company. A cast of actors played Kenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Douglas Smith performing the show as it would have appeared to the original studio audience at the BBC Paris Studio. They stopped making ‘Round the Horne’ before I was born but, like Tim, I was familiar, from repeats and recordings, of the show and its cast of regular characters including Rambling Syd Rumpo and Julian & Sandy. It was great to see the show performed as a faithful recreation of the original – resisting the temptation to add contemporary references to Brexit or Donald Trump. We simply saw the actors gathered around microphones, holding their scripts, with live music and sound effects supplied by Conrad Segal. It was excellently done, with some great radio voices on display. Best of all was Julian Howard McDowell as Kenneth Horne, demonstrating that, amongst the silliness and histrionics, the funniest part of ‘Round the Horne’ was often the calm, completely deadpan delivery of its long-suffering host.
Dancing at Blackpool Tower Ballroom
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!
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 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.
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