Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

22 June 2009

It was good to be playing again with Milton Keynes Sinfonia on Saturday in a concert that included 'Danse Macabre' by Saint-Saens and an impressive performance from Jacqueline Johnson of the 'Cello Concerto' by Lalo. The main attraction, however, was the mighty 'Symphonie Fantastique' by Berlioz - a 'big' work in every sense: five long movements requiring a massive orchestra. (Berlioz stipulates, for example, that it should be performed with "no fewer than six harps": we only managed to find two harpists but they did sound wonderful!) It was interesting, however, after having been playing Mussorgsky/Ravel and Richard Strauss for the past few months, how 'classical' the 'Symphonie Fantastique' feels - very much closer to Beethoven's symphonies (though this is Beethoven "turned up to 11"!). It's also a very programmatic piece (originally entitled 'An Episode in the Life of an Artist') with movements including a 'Ball', the famous 'March to the Scaffold' and the 'Witches Sabbath'. It's a very exciting piece to play - albeit one requiring a high degree of concentration - with a (literally) breathtaking ending. It was great fun and I think we gave a very good account of this challenging work. The concert was dedicated to the memory of Mrs Zillah Knight (the mother of the orchestra's conductor David Knight) who sadly passed away in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

19 June 2009

Last Saturday I played in a great concert with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra. The suite from ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ by Richard Strauss was a real challenge but lots of fun – a wonderful piece of music. I enjoyed (as a spectator) the ‘Violin Concert No. 3’ by Saint Saens: soloist David LePage created a wonderfully rich sound so that every delicate harmonic seemed to fill the room. We finished with a very exciting performance of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’. It was a really enjoyable evening.

‘Notes on an Exhibition’ by Patrick Gale

18 June 2009

‘Notes on an Exhibition’ by Patrick Gale is another novel that owes something to Jonathan Franzen’s ‘The Corrections’. Gale’s family portrait of elderly parents and their three grown-up children has much in common with ‘A Spot of Bother’ by Mark Haddon (reviewed here in June 2007) but particularly reminded me of 'The Promise of Happiness' by Justin Cartwright (reviewed here in January 2008) – perhaps because of its Cornish setting. ‘Notes on an Exhibition’, however, starts with a death and uses an episodic, non-linear, structure to gradually fill in the family’s story (which also reminded me of 'The Time Traveller's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger (reviewed here in September 2005)). Looking back over the life of abstract painter Rachel Kelly, Gale writes chapters which are each loosely based on one of her artistic works and show key events through the eyes of different members of her family. As the jigsaw picture begins to become clearer there is much satisfaction in anticipating the various revelations in her story. But Gale avoids the book becoming too predictable by laying a few false trails and impressively avoiding ending the novel where you would expect – with subtle restraint rather than melodramatic dénouement.

Belgium and The Netherlands

18 June 2009

We had a lovely week in Belgium and the Netherlands, spending a couple of days in each of Bruges, Ghent and Utrecht. All three are charming, medieval, towns with cobbled streets and tree-lined canals. Bruges is beautiful but more of a tourist trap than the other two and feels like an historic theme park. Ghent has a much younger feel with a big student population. The historic centre of Utrecht has more residential accommodation and the narrow streets were much busier: it’s quite an effort to avoid being mown down by thousands of bicycles as you stroll along! We enjoyed a concert of music by Monteverdi given by the Anima Vocalis choir in Bruges, an exhibition about the wonderful Belgium impressionist painter Emile Claus in Ghent and a big band concert in Utrecht. We also loved the museum of automatic musical instruments in Utrecht ('Museum Van Speelklok tot Pierement: From Musical Clock To Street Organ') – fascinating guided tour and demonstrations.

'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins

2 June 2009

Having been enthralled by Kate Summerscale's 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House' (reviewed here in April 2009) I turned to one of the fictional works the case inspired. 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins was the first great English detective novel and it's ambitious, inventive, entertaining and amusing. It's no simple re-telling of the Road Hill case - the crime here is theft rather than murder and, despite the familiar country house setting we seem to be in quite a different story. But every now and then, as a film director might pay homage to classic movie by recreating an iconic scene, Collins inserts a recognisable element of the Road Hill case. I found 'The Moonstone' surprisingly readable - much easier-going than Collins' contemporary and friend, Charles Dickens. The narrative structure tells the story through a series of accounts written by some of the principal characters and the lack of an authorial voice occasionally made me forget I was reading a Victorian novel rather than a modern work set in the 1840s. At times this style of first person narration reminded me of Adam Thorpe's 'Pieces of Light' (reviewed here in July 2008) for example (though this might also reflect Thorpe's skill in recreating an authentic period voice). Collins' detective, Sergeant Cuff, plays an oddly peripheral role for much of the book - not yet really the hero of the story - but the scenes in which he and the family steward, Betteredge, investigate the crime (seen through Betteredge's eyes) were a clear precursor of Holmes and Watson. 'The Moonstone' is gripping, intricately plotted and very funny, never going quite where you expect it to: a real gem!

'Educating Rita' by Willy Russell

1 June 2009

The Open University at Walton Hall in Milton Keynes looks remarkably like a typical, leafy university campus, with one major exception - there are no students. Apart from a few postgraduates, OU students never actually visit the university's headquarters, giving you the impression, as you stroll between the faculty buildings, of a permanent vacation. Nevertheless Walton Hall does its best to resemble any other university - with sports facilities, bars, a refectory and a host of university societies, including a choir and amateur drama group. The Open University is currently celebrating its 40th birthday and I can think of few better ways to mark the occasion than to watch the Open Theatre Group in the Old Lecture Theatre performing Willy Russell's 'Educating Rita' - as we did last Friday. Once derided by some at the OU as poking fun at the Open University, 'Educating Rita' is now seen more as a celebration of the kind of universal access to further education that the OU was established to provide. And it's a fantastic play. As someone with just a vague recollection of having seen the film starring Julie Walters and Michael Caine, I was impressed by how substantial, complex, funny and moving the play is. The Open Theatre Group production was excellent with brilliant performances by Laurie Lazard and Richard Walker.

Championship Play-Off Final

29 May 2009

On Monday we made our first visit to the new Wembley Stadium to watch Jeannie's team, Burnley, in the Championship Play-Off Final playing Sheffield United for a place in the Premiership. Wembley is magnificent: despite being very high up and towards the back we had a wonderful view and it was very exciting to be part of a crowd of 80,000. And even better to witness Wade Elliott's brilliant goal which took Burnley back to the top division for the first time in 33 years. Burnley is the smallest town to be represented in English football's top tier since the advent of the Premier League: there are more people inside Old Trafford for each Manchester United home game than the entire population of Burnley! It may prove to be a brief flirtation with elite status but we're looking forward to next season. 

'Just Between Ourselves' by Alan Ayckbourn

26 May 2009

The Royal Theatre, Northampton, is celebrating its 125th anniversary and the 70th birthday of Alan Ayckbourn by presenting three classic Ayckbourn plays featuring the same company of actors. On Saturday we saw 'Just Between Ourselves' - a typically bleak comedy from 1976. Ayckbourn has written 72 plays but I seem to keep choosing to watch those that I have already seen. As soon as I saw the car on stage I remembered that we had seen 'Just Between Ourselves' before - in August 2002 at the Theatre Royal in Bath. Then, the irrepressibly cheerful Dennis was played by Les Dennis while in Northampton the part was taken by Kim Wall. But I was amazed to discover that we had seen Matthew Cottle play Neil in both productions and that Dorothy Atkinson who was playing Dennis's wife Vera on Saturday had been Neil's wife Pam seven years ago in Bath. Ayckbourn cleverly manipulates your emotions with great set-piece scenes (particularly I think where he shows characters sharing a meal) that manage to be both hilarious and painfully sad. 

Mark Steel

18 May 2009

On Sunday evening we were at The Stables in Wavendon to see the comedian Mark Steel. Last time he visited The Stables he was touring his 'Vive La Revolution' show examining the comic potential of the French Revolution (reviewed here in June 2006). This time we were treated to more straightforward stand-up encompassing the 2012 Olympics, the tyranny of supermarkets and (inevitably) MP's expenses. But there's always slightly more to Mark Steel than meets the eye as, for example, a series of funny but seemingly unconnected rants about the absence of humanity in call centres and shops turned out to have been a carefully constructed illustration of Karl Marx's theory of alienation. Steel is clever, likeable and extremely funny and, unlike many other contemporary comedians, his cultural references don't pass me by (when he launched into a parody of Radio 4's 'thought for the day' I knew we were on the same wavelength!). And you always get good value for money when you see him live - a lengthy and varied set.

 

Imam Baildi

15 May 2009

Imam Baildi are two Greek brothers, Orestis and Lysandros Falireas, whose wonderful eponymous CD takes old Greek tunes from the 40's, 50's and 60's (from their father's collection of 78s) and adds modern instruments and beats to create music which is cool, mysterious and incredibly catchy. Sounding not quite like anything else I’ve heard, the music of Imam Baildi has really stuck in my head this week – particularly the track ‘O Pasatebos’ which I’ve been playing over and over. Listen to them for free on Spotify.

'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett

5 May 2009

When it comes to Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot', I've been spoiled. I first encountered the play as a teenager - when the hidden meaning in its absurdity comes most easily. And that first encounter was with the seminal 1980 Manchester Royal Exchange production starring Max Wall and Trevor Peacock. My second experience of Godot was a 1991 West End production with Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. Mayall and Edmondson were extremely good but hampered by an audience that had come expecting a different kind of comedy. While I was working for the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the early 1990s I helped with a recording of 'Waiting for Godot' which gave me a chance to examine the text of the play in detail. And this week I've been at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, to see Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart as Estragon and Vladimir with Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup as Pozzo and Lucky. As you would expect, the acting was wonderful: I particularly enjoyed the movement - McKellen and Stewart both demonstrating a range of subtle gesture and the occasional dance step to suggest an earlier existence for their characters as a music hall double act. I enjoyed the clear positioning of Vladimir and Estragon on a path between Laurel and Hardy and 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'. But coming to the play again a little older, and with such fond memories of previous performances, I found it less inspiring than I remembered. (It was interesting to see so many young faces in the packed, enthusiastic audience.) There were still some lovely moments and great lines and it was wonderful to see such a stellar cast in a serious play. There was a satisfying sense of completeness when I discovered from the programme that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart also appeared together in the 1977 Royal Festival Hall premiere of Tom Stoppard's 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour' - a play which we also recorded at RNIB and which I saw at the National Theatre only a couple of months ago (reviewed here in February 2009).

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

28 April 2009

On Saturday I was at St Matthews Church in Northampton to play with the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in a concert which included Dvorak’s gorgeous ‘Symphony No. 8’ – one of my favourite pieces of music. We started with the ‘Peacock Variations’ by Kodaly, a work I hadn’t come across before and one that took me a few weeks to get to grips with – though well worth the effort. Zoltan Kodaly wrote interesting, tuneful music which is often tricky to play but well orchestrated and very enjoyable – an often underrated composer. Our concert also included Mozart’s fourth (and most well known) Horn Concerto played by Katrina Lauder. Katrina is now a freelance professional horn player and teacher but was an amateur member of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra between 1991 and 1994 and was taught by our principal horn David Lack. She gave a great performance of the Mozart concerto, leaving us fellow horn players particularly envious of her effortless lip trills! It was a lovely concert and a good programme to work through with our new conductor Alexander Walker, after our excursion into film music in March.

‘Inspector Drake and the Black Widow’ by David Tristram

24 April 2009

On Saturday we were back at the TADS Theatre in Toddington to see ‘Inspector Drake and the Black Widow’ by David Tristram – a very clever spoof 1920s country house murder mystery. Surreal, meta-textual and extremely silly, the play works because it has, at its core, a bona-fide mystery plot with a final twist (in a similar way to Jasper Fforde’s ‘Jack Spratt’ novels such as ‘The Big Over Easy’, reviewed here in April 2007). There’s a rather high body count – though the majority are killed accidentally by the police investigation of the original murder. Great acting from Kevin Birkett as the plodding sergeant, Joe Butcher as the mercurial Inspector Drake and Janet Bray as everyone else. A good example of amateur theatre demonstrating its ability to be ‘excellent’.

Benji Kirkpatrick

17 April 2009

Last night we were at the stables to see fretboard wizard Benji Kirkpatrick. A member of the brilliant folk big band Bellowhead (reviewed here in October 2006), Benji plays guitar, bouzouki and banjo and was joined by Sam Norman on double bass and the ace percussionist Cormac Byrne. They played a very rhythmic, muscular folk/rock which sounded a lot like Seth Lakeman (reviewed here in April 2006) – with whom Benji Kirkpatrick has toured. Catchy, upbeat music including traditional English songs, Kirkpatrick’s own compositions and, slightly bizarrely, numbers by The Band and Jimi Hendrix (‘Voodoo Child’ played on the banjo!). 

‘Spyski or The Importance of Being Honest’ by Peepolykus

17 April 2009

Last Friday we were at the Royal Theatre in Northampton to see ‘Spyski or The Importance of Being Honest’ by the Peepolykus theatre company. Starting, apparently, as a production of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, after a few minutes the actors came out of character to tell us they had stumbled upon the murder of a Russian secret agent in London. They wanted to tell us the details but were being watched by the British security services and would have to switch back to ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ if they spotted a British agent in the theatre. This premise framed a complex, incredibly silly but completely logical tale of murder, intrigue and mistaken identity – which kept occasionally lapsing back into Oscar Wilde. Coincidentally, the spy story ended up with a baby being left in a handbag at Victoria station – you get the idea! At times the actors were playing themselves on an earlier occasion playing the Wilde characters – but it all seemed to make some sort of sense. Great fun, very silly and remarkably clever.

'First Among Sequels' by Jasper Fforde

10 April 2009

Having reached the beginning of Jasper Fforde's series of Thursday Next novels I have now leaped forward to the end, reading the latest instalment 'First Among Sequels'. This book was written much later than the previous four and is set in 2002, fourteen years after its immediate predecessor 'Something Rotten' (reviewed here in August 2008). Literary detective Thursday Next is still coping with the demands of policing both in the 'real' world and within fiction but now has the added pressures of family life and pretending to her husband that she works in a carpet shop. The usual Fforde mix of parallel universes, time travel and surreal nonsense with a nonetheless logical plot are all here - and I think this is one of the better Thursday Next books. I was a little disappointed to spot a couple of plot lines that don't appear to be resolved (unless I missed something) but it's all good fun - with an menacingly dark side as Thursday gets mixed up in cheese smuggling over the Welsh border.

 

St Osyth, Essex

7 April 2009

We had a relaxing week at St Osyth, near Clacton-on-Sea in Essex. We had good weather and did some very nice walks. The seaside resorts (Clacton, Walton-on-the-Naze etc) are quaintly old-fashioned - though most have seen better days. We preferred the villages north of Colchester, towards the Suffolk border, particularly Dedham and Castle Hedingham which are extremely picturesque. And we crossed the border into Suffolk to revisit Constable's Flatford Mill - the site of 'The Hay Wain'. A quiet, restful week.

'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House' by Kate Summerscale

6 April 2009

On 30 June 1860 a child was murdered in a country house in Road, Wiltshire. This crime was to become a national cause célèbre that would influence the fledgling art of detection, policing methods and the judicial system and would launch a new literary genre. The Road Hill House case was the original 'country house murder' - the first in a line leading through Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple to Inspector Morse. 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins, generally considered to be the first real English detective novel, was published in 1868 and was modelled on the Road Hill murder - with Collins' Sergeant Cuff taking the role of the real Detective Inspector Jonathan Whicher. Echoes of the Road Hill case also occur in 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' by Charles Dickens and Henry James' 'The Turn of the Screw'. Kate Summerscale's remarkable book 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House' describes the investigation of this horrendous crime in forensic detail. Although it is written in the now familiar murder mystery form, 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' is not fictionalised. Kate Summerscale has written a wholly factual documentary, drawing on contemporary newspaper reports, police records and other sources. Dialogue is quoted verbatim and everything is carefully referenced. The book starts on the day the murder is discovered and the chapters step chronologically forwards, revealing only what was discovered by the police at each stage. The level of detail at first appears overwhelming and I worried that I would not be able to retain enough too follow the unravelling of the story. But within a few chapters I was completely gripped and could not put down this compelling tale. Without ever dropping the thread of the murder investigation, Kate Summerscale manages to weave a social history of Victorian Britain, encompassing class, employment, politics and the influence of Darwinism. 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher' is an amazing story, brilliantly told: I urge you to read it.

Ruth Notman

6 April 2009

'Threads', the debut CD by young Nottingham folk singer Ruth Notman, was one of my favourite discoveries of 2008. So I leapt at the chance to hear Ruth live at The Stables. The new 'Stage 2' performance space was absolutely packed: we got the last two seats on the front row and later arrivals were turned away. The music was wonderful - most of the songs from 'Threads' plus some from Ruth's second album (due to be released in July), impeccably performed. Ruth Notman has a great voice - distinctive and characterful - and plays guitar and piano impressively. Her repertoire is catchy and varied - including traditional tunes and modern songs drawing on the folk tradition. Her's is not precious or intense folk music: it's full of vitality and often rather jolly. Like that other young English folk singer (who actually sings backing vocals on 'Threads') Bella Hardy (reviewed here in March 2008), Ruth Notman benefits from a more experienced musician accompanying her and helping guide her through the challenge of developing her stage presence and between-song patter. In this case the older hand is Saul Rose on melodeon and Ruth was also joined by Hannah Edmonds on 'cello. Unfortunately, the number of times she filled the silences with "so" or "right" and the occasions when the performers ended up talking to each other and ignoring the audience were a bit distracting. I am sure her concert presentation will improve with experience. There was no sign of nerves or lack of confidence in Ruth Notman's singing, however. She did not disappoint and I'm really looking forward to her new album.

‘Cider with Roadies' by Stuart Maconie

23 March 2009

Having enjoyed ‘Pies and Prejudice’ – Stuart Maconie’s exploration of the North of England (reviewed here in June 2008) – I was keen to read his earlier book ‘Cider with Roadies’. This is Maconie’s memoire of growing up in Wigan, failing as a rock star and succeeding as a music journalist – and a chronicle of the changing face of popular music over his lifetime. Very much in the Nick Hornby mode, it’s an entertaining, self-deprecating and very funny tale. Inevitably the best bits were where Stuart Maconie’s musical experiences coincided with my own but his main childhood enthusiasms were a bit before my time and his discoveries as a music journalist came mostly after my own enthusiasm for pop music had waned. Nevertheless I found much to reminisce over and his brushes with stardom are so modestly dealt with they never feel like mere name-dropping. If you like this kind of thing I would also recommend ‘Lost in Music’ by Giles Smith.