'Ed Reardon's Week' by Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds

22 January 2010

I was a late convert to the joys of 'Ed Reardon's Week', the wonderful BBC Radio 4 comedy by Christopher Douglas and Andrew Nickolds which has just started its sixth series, but like many late converts I'm now zealously enthusiastic. These thirty minute tales of the life of the eponymous curmudgeonly writer (played by Douglas) and Elgar, his faithful feline companion, are beautifully crafted with a host of subtle literary references and running jokes. Each episode manages to give the impression that nothing has happened while actually carrying the listener through a nicely rounded plot with a satisfying comic twist. I can relate to the local references, being not too far from Berkhamsted, and increasingly to Ed's constant railing against the '12-year-olds' in charge of running the modern world (badly). The show has a great cast including Stephanie Cole, John Fortune, Philip Jackson and Geoffrey Whitehead - though the best character is definitely Ed's literary agent's dippy Sloane Ranger assistant Ping (now played by Barunka O'Shaughnessy). 'Ed Reardon's Week' is currently on Radio 4 on Monday morning's at 11.30 am (and available on iPlayer). And in the best Ed Reardon tradition I'm grateful to Wikipedia for its help in writing this review.

‘The Life of Lilly’ by Ruth Notman

15 January 2010

As I’ve struggled to get in and out of Eversholt through the severe wintry weather this week, I’ve been keeping my spirits up by listening to the wonderful second album by my favourite young English folk singer, Ruth Notman (reviewed here in February 2007, April 2009 and August 2009). ‘The Life of Lilly’ continues the mix of traditional songs and original compositions that characterised her debut album ‘Threads’. There’s a similar variety of arrangements and moods: I particularly like the beautifully moving title track and the cheeky jollity of ‘Johnny Be Fair’. ‘The Life of Lilly’ is another classy album dominated by Ruth Notman’s gorgeous and distinctive voice. If you haven’t discovered her yet make, it your New Year resolution to do so!

Lea Singers Christmas Concert

8 January 2009

The Lea Singers Christmas Concert in Harpenden was the perfect way to start our Christmas break. This excellent amateur chamber choir (of just 21 singers) entertained a packed audience with a mixture of carols and Christmas songs from around the world including a fiendish arrangement of 'Jingle Bells' by Ben Parry which shaves a quaver off the length of a bar each time the chorus comes round. This was the first Lea Singers Christmas Concert for the choir's impressive new conductor, James Sherlock, and his enthusiastic contribution, together with the return of the wonderful young tenor soloist, Nicky Spence, made for a light-hearted, cheeky and extremely high-quality performance.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

17 December 2009

This year’s Northampton Symphony Orchestra ‘Christmas Cracker Concert’ was the first for our new conductor, Alexander Walker, and had a slightly different focus from recent years. An all-Russian, festive programme included part of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Christmas Eve Suite’, the ‘Rose Adagio’ from ‘Sleeping Beauty’ by Tchaikovsky and the whole of Prokofiev’s ‘Lieutenant Kije Suite’. We were also joined by the Russian singer and multi-instrumentalist Serge Pachnine & the amazing balalaika player Bibs Ekkel for a series of traditional Russian folk songs, arranged for orchestra and soloists by Alexander Walker. What at first appeared to be a more serious programme than our previous Christmas Cracker Concerts, turned out to be huge fun with fantastically entertaining performances by Serge and Bibs much appreciated by a large, enthusiastic and appreciative audience. You can see Bibs in action at http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&feature=player_embedded&v=AYN17QvR6P0

'Piano Concerto No 1' by Wilhelm Stenhammar

11 December 2009

I had never heard of the Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871 – 1927) until I read a newspaper review of a new recording of his two piano concertos a few weeks ago, but I’m now a big fan. I’ve been listening, in particular, to his epic Piano Concerto No. 1, written in 1893. It’s a gloriously romantic work with more than a hint of Brahms: anyone who likes the piano concertos of Rachmaninov would find much to admire here. It’s tuneful, passionate and very moving. It also reminded me of the two wonderful, but similarly neglected, piano concertos by Herbert Howells. You can judge for yourself by exploring quite a few recordings of Stenhammar’s works (for free) on Spotify. I’m now looking forward to getting to know his three symphonies.

‘Annie Get Your Gun’ by Irving Berlin

4 December 2009

Last Saturday we were at the Young Vic in London to see Irving Berlin’s ‘Annie Get Your Gun’. It was a marvellous evening: I left the theatre grinning and whistling the tunes (which is more difficult than it sounds!). I hadn’t seen ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ before but I was very familiar with many of the songs which have become standards. It’s hard to believe that ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business’, ‘Anything You Can Do’, ‘I Got the Sun in the Morning’ and ‘Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly’ all came from this one show. Irving Berlin certainly knew how to write a good tune and had the knack of creating musical comedy that was genuinely funny: there are some great laugh-out-loud lyrics. The Young Vic production was lots of fun: it’s a relatively small theatre so you get to see the cast close-up and, while there was some very witty use of fairly low-tech props and stagecraft, the gimmicks were used sparingly so that the focus was on the acting and the singing. Jane Horrocks as Annie Oakley is a real star: it’s hard to take your eyes off her even during the ensemble pieces. Her face, movement and voice are excellent: she’s a compelling performer and it was great to see her in such an intimate venue. Jason Carr’s musical arrangements for four upright pianos which buttress the front of the stage conjured up the atmosphere of a Wild West saloon and the singing was excellent. A really enjoyable evening in the theatre.

'Mostly Harmless' by Douglas Adams

27 November 2009

When I was reading the reviews of Eoin Colfer’s official ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ sequel, ‘And Another Thing’, I realised that I had never got around to reading ‘Mostly Harmless’, Douglas Adams’ fifth and final volume in his Hitchhiker ‘trilogy’. I’ve now just finished ‘Mostly Harmless’ and, while it was great fun to re-immerse myself in Adams’ brilliantly witty prose, it’s a bit of a downbeat ending to his wonderful sci-fi saga. As I read it I realised I was already familiar with the plot of ‘Mostly Harmless’ from Dirk Maggs’ radio version. It lacks a lot of the pace and humour of the earlier books, partly I think because he keeps the main characters apart for most of the story. And I understand (from Douglas Adams’ own reflections in ‘The Salmon of Doubt’, reviewed here in October 2009) that he wrote ‘Mostly Harmless’ at a time when he wasn’t at his most cheery – which might explain his compulsion to kill off most of his major characters. Or maybe, perversely, it's the absence of the depressive Marvin the Paranoid Android from this book that actually makes it more depressing? Nevertheless there’s lots of great ideas, set-pieces and carefully planted gags. Now bring on ‘And Another Thing’ …

Staff Benda Bilili

19 November 2009

Staff Benda Bilili are an amazing band – one of the most exciting live acts I have seen for ages. They are a group of Congolese street musicians who live around the grounds of the zoo in Kinshasa – where they recorded their debut album in the open air. Four of the musicians use wheelchairs and a fifth appears on crutches but this doesn’t prevent some of the most exuberant dancing you’ll ever see on a stage. The music is upbeat, catchy, funky and infectiously danceable. A fantastic, young drummer plays a kit which appears to be constructed from blocks of wood and tin cans that might have been found in a skip. But the star of the show is eighteen-year-old Roger Landu who plays the ‘satonge’ – an instrument he constructed from a condensed milk tin, coat hanger and a piece of wire, connected to an amplifier to create a soaring electronic sound which is part Stylophone, part theremin, part Jimi Hendrix! It’s quite hard to adequately describe the effect of seeing Staff Benda Bilili – who we saw at the Stables in Wavendon on Sunday. At first you worry that their disabilities and wheelchairs are being exploited as a gimmick but soon their musicianship, raw enthusiasm and zest for life makes you forget the disabilities and see the personalities. It was a truly brilliant performance – the album, ‘Très Très Fort’ is good but nothing like the experience of seeing the band live – do catch them if you have the chance. Take a look at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaTZ5gAzkCY.

‘Shakers’ by John Godber and Jane Thornton

19 November 2009

On Saturday we made a first visit to the marvellous Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds – the only surviving example of a Regency theatre in the country. The original Georgian building is now supplemented by a modern atrium – in a similar way to the Ashmolean extension. We were there to see the Hull Truck Theatre Company production of ‘Shakers’ by John Godber and Jane Thornton. ‘Shakers’, written in 1985, is a companion piece to Godber’s 1977 hit ‘Bouncers’ with four female actors playing four waitresses in a cocktail bar and all their customers from opening time to closing time. Like a lot of John Godber plays, it’s very funny but also achingly poignant. I first saw ‘Shakers’ many years ago – a great amateur production but at the less architecturally inspiring setting of the South Holland Centre in Spalding (before its Lottery-funded facelift) – quite a contrast from the Regency splendour of the Theatre Royal! This production, directed by John Godber, was excellently acted and enthusiastically received by a sell-out audience.

The Ashmolean Museum

19 November 2009

It’s been a week for first visits: on Friday I made my first trip to Britain’s oldest museum, the Ashmolean in Oxford which has just reopened after a massive refurbishment. It’s a fascinating building, with the modern extension seamlessly integrated into the classical original. I loved the apparent randomness of the layout: you wander from small, low-ceilinged galleries into vast, cavernous rooms and you can see through glass panels from one gallery to the next, enticing you onwards. Just walking around the building creates a sense of exploration. The thematic grouping of displays – rather than a traditional chronological approach – adds to the feeling of eclectic channel-hopping. I worried a little that I was drawn more to the text and graphics than to the actual objects on display. It was particularly interesting to finish the day by looking at the displays on Ancient Egypt which are the one part of the museum yet to be refurbished and now appear extremely old-fashioned: the display cases are crammed with huge numbers of objects and cards containing masses of very small text and the galleries feel quite cramped and claustrophobic compared to the airy modernity of the rest of the museum. You can easily spend a whole day in the Ashmolean (and entry is free). And if the queues in the basement café are long I can recommend popping across the road to the café in the foyer of the Playhouse Theatre.

Galliard Ensemble

19 November 2009

Regular readers may have noticed that I don’t go to a lot of chamber music concerts: I’m not sure why, because those few occasions I have been persuaded to attend have always been really enjoyable. Last Thursday I made my first visit to Bedford Music Club to hear the Galliard Ensemble – a wind quintet who came to prominence through the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. They were brilliant – precise, delicate, impressive and extremely entertaining. Their programme – inadvertently themed around composers called Paul! – was varied and interesting. We were treated to the world premiere of ‘Pealing Out’, a short celebratory piece written by local composer Paul Whitmarsh to mark the fortieth anniversary of Bedford Music Club. And Paul Whitmarsh was one of two composers in the room (both called Paul!) as Paul Patterson introduced his 1972 ‘Comedy for Five Winds’ which closed the concert. I was interested to hear ‘Kleine Kammermusik’, an early work by Paul Hindemith, but I particularly enjoyed Samuel Barber’s ‘Summer Music’. It was a wonderful concert.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

12 November 2009

When I hear any orchestral music on the radio, while I may not be able to identify the piece or the composer, I can almost always tell instantly whether or not I have played it. And, even listening to it on the radio, I still get that nervous pain in my stomach when hearing the few bars that immediately precede a horn solo or an exposed entry that I once agonised over playing. I suspect the closing moments of the first movement of Rachmaninov’s third symphony will now forever conjure up that mixture of excitement and terror after my experience of playing the horn solo at the start of the second movement with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra last Saturday. In a rare excursion into the NSO first horn hot-seat, I faced the daunting prospect of creating the only sound at the quiet opening of the slow movement. To be fair it’s more of a duet with the harp than a solo and I was very grateful for the reassuring presence of our excellent harpist Daniel de Fry. And, between you and me, it’s not a particularly difficult series of notes to play. But the pressure of such an exposed and fleeting moment to get it right or wrong, after many weeks of rehearsal, does make you incredibly nervous. As far as I can remember it went okay, and I did enjoy the experience, but I suspect that the joyous opening of the final movement of the symphony will now always be synonymous for me with a feeling of relief and relaxation. Rachmaninov’s ‘Symphony No 3’ is a subtle, complex and beautiful piece of music – not one that I was previously familiar with and I have enjoyed getting to know it. I think we gave a pretty good performance in a programme which also included ‘Francesca da Rimini’ by Tchaikovsky and Lucy Parham playing Mozart’s ‘Piano Concerto No 24’. There’s nothing better to relieve stress and nerves than to listen to Lucy playing Mozart.

'Toast' by Nigel Slater

6 November 2009

Years ago someone (was it you?) told me to read 'Toast' by Nigel Slater and it's taken me ages to get around to it: now I wish I'd read it earlier! Slater's childhood memoir, told through a series of short food-based episodes, is entertaining, nostalgic, funny, moving and very sad. Most of the chapters are no more than a couple of pages long and many would stand alone as effective short stories. His delicate descriptions of food from prawn cocktail to jammie dodgers to space dust really bring the tastes and smells to life. And the detached, naïve, voice of his younger self creates a subtle portrait of family life seen through a boy's lonely eyes.

'Twelfth Night' by William Shakespeare

2 November 2009

Although I was looking forward to seeing Gregory Doran's new RSC production of 'Twelfth Night' at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, I was surprised, having seen another production of the play quite recently at Woburn (reviewed here in August 2009), at the extent to which I was completely gripped by the plot. Most of the publicity for this production has centred on Richard Wilson's RSC debut as Malvolio. His was a fine performance but Malvolio is not the main focus of the play and, for me, the two stars were the female leads: Nancy Carroll as Viola and Alexandra Gilbreath as Olivia. I was also impressed by Richard McCabe and James Fleet who I think were the best Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek I have seen. The 'letter scene', dominated by a towering and particularly box-like box tree, was a real highlight. The thrust stage of the Courtyard Theatre brings the actors much closer to the audience, making the live experience particularly exciting and it was wonderful to see such excellent acting so close up.

'The Pitmen Painters' by Lee Hall

26 October 2009

On Saturday we were at the Milton Keynes Theatre to see 'The Pitmen Painters' by Lee Hall. This is the inspiring story of a group of miners who started attending a WEA art appreciation class in Ashington, Northumberland in 1934, where their tutor decided the best way to help them understand art was to get them to try creating their own pictures. The Ashington Group - many of whom had left school at the age of 10 to start working in the mine - became nationally recognised and collected and were friends with some of the most famous artists of their day. When I met the new Chief Executive of Northumberland County Council recently he proudly pointed out an Ashington Group painting he had bought for the wall of his office. Lee Hall's play is wonderful - entertaining, thought-provoking, moving and extremely funny. The group's meetings in a YMCA hall, an old army hut, seemed reminiscent of 'Dad's Army' - with a similar cast of characters. Their pictures are projected across the back of the stage enabling us to follow their critical discussions in detail. The actors in this National Theatre/Live Theatre touring co-production are the original cast from the premiere at the Live Theatre, Newcastle, in September 2007. It's a great night in the theatre but it also carries a very important message. Writing in the programme Lee Hall points out "the idea that art is somehow a commodity, that culture is something one consumes rather than takes part in, is, of course, a very modern notion. The idea that an artist is someone who makes things to be bought and sold is part of this ideological shift and it is important to remind ourselves that art might indeed mean something more than this". I urge you to see 'The Pitmen Painters' if you get the chance.

'Spring Storm' by Tennessee Williams

26 October 2009

'Spring Storm' was Tennessee Williams' first play, written in 1937 but only now receiving its European premiere at the Royal Theatre in Northampton. It's an interesting early work with some rough edges but hints of the greater plays that were to follow. Laurie Sansom's production features a wonderful ramshackle set - a pile of driftwood thrown together by the Mississippi from which the actors construct the essential elements for each scene. There are a couple of great set-piece scenes towards the end of the play and there's some fantastic acting throughout, particularly from Liz White as Heavenly Critchfield and Jacqueline King as her mother.

'Home Time' by Emma Fryer and Neil Redmond

23 October 2009

I've been completely hooked on 'Home Time' the BBC2 sitcom by Emma Fryer and Neil Redmond which ended its first series last night. At the age of 17 Gaynor ran away to London leaving her childhood behind in Coventry: 12 years later she returns sheepishly to her family home where her parents and best friends pick up where they left off, treating her as if she is still a teenager. As she revisits her childhood haunts an embarrassed Gaynor continually bumps into people from her past (as she walks down the street in the opening episode, both the burglar emerging from a window and the police officer who then apprehends him pause to look up and say "Hi Gaynor - you back then?"). Dark, poignant and very funny, the series is incredibly well-written (I liked the line "at our age we still have the rest of our lives in front of us"). The characters are great, particularly the star of the show, 'Cov' itself. You can still watch all 6 episodes on BBC iplayer - catch it while you can.

‘Keepsakes’ by Sam Carter

16 October 2009

I’ve been enjoying ‘Keepsakes’, the debut solo album by Sam Carter – one of the members of the folk big band Bellowhead (reviewed here in October 2006). As with fellow Bellowheader Benji Kirkpatrick (reviewed here in April 2009) it’s great to hear Sam Carter’s virtuoso playing in the spotlight. His delicate finger-picking guitar playing accompanies a series of gentle, contemplative self-penned songs. I particularly like the wistful, haunting melody of ‘Captain’ – a song about driving through the night between gigs which captures beautifully a feeling of being exhausted but happy.

'The Salmon of Doubt' by Douglas Adams

8 October 2009

This seems the right time to be returning to Douglas Adams: Stephen Fry and Mark Cawardine are currently retracing the steps Douglas and Mark took 20 years ago in 'Last Chance to See' (Sundays on BBC1), a third 'Dirk Gently' radio series is in production (following the wonderful radio versions of 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency', reviewed here in October 2007, and 'The Long, Dark, Tea Time of the Soul', reviewed here in October 2008) and we are approaching celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the original radio broadcast of 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (which is to be marked by the publication of an authorised Hitch Hiker sequel by Eoin Colfer). I've been reading 'The Salmon of Doubt', a collection of unpublished writings, short stories, newspaper columns and speeches rescued from the hard drive of Douglas Adams' Mac after his untimely death in 2001. It's been wonderful to 'hear his voice' again – like rediscovering a long lost friend. This odd collection of pieces acts as an extremely entertaining, randomly constructed autobiography, demonstrating Adams' growing fascination with computers, evolution, conservation etc. and how his fiction gradually incorporated each of these themes. The real gem here is eleven chapters of his final, unfinished, Dirk Gently novel which are great. Somehow the fact that the convoluted plot and mysterious happenings they introduce may never be resolved doesn’t seem to matter – wonderful stuff. And there’s also a very funny story about a packet of biscuits that will be familiar to anyone who was at the opening of the NALGAO conference in Swindon yesterday …

‘The Warm Heart of Africa’ by The Very Best

2 October 2009

I’m really enjoying ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’ – the debut album by a group modestly calling itself The Very Best. The Very Best are the Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and two producers from France and Sweden who met in a second-hand shop in London where one of them had gone to buy a bicycle. The music they have created is varied, catchy, extremely hard-to-describe, like nothing you have heard before but also strangely familiar. Blending electronic dance music, African influences and much more the album features Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend and British rapper MIA. Read Charlie Gillett’s review for The Observer here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/sep/06/very-best-warm-heart-africa and listen to the album for free on Spotify.