Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

24 June 2010

Mendelssohn’s music for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is a delightful, tuneful, popular work but, for any French horn player, it conjures up fear as all that pretty, innocent music seems to be leading menacingly, and all too quickly, towards the terror that is ‘The Nocturne’! To be fair, the horn solo in the Nocturne is also a very pretty tune, but it’s a mountain to climb for a horn player: not technically that difficult but very long, requiring considerable lung capacity (like climbing a mountain actually!). I was relieved to discover that ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was to be the first item on the programme at last Saturday’s Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert, giving me a chance to conquer its peaks while still reasonably fresh. And I must have practised playing through the Nocturne at least 100 times over the past 7 weeks, so I was well prepared. In the end, I got through it without any major problems. I’m sure some notes were a little strained as I began to run out of breath, but I think it went as well as it could have done and it was a great relief to get through it unscathed. Overall, I thought our performance of the Mendelssohn was pretty good. Indeed, the orchestra was in fine form on Saturday in what I think was our best concert since Alexander Walker took over as our conductor. The fabulous violinist Irmina Trynkos returned to give a dazzling performance of Chausson’s ‘Poeme’ and the ‘Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso’ by Saint Saens. And the concert concluded with an impressive and exciting performance of the ‘Symphonie Fantastique’ by Berlioz – including a truly beautiful cor anglais and offstage oboe duet at the beginning of the third movement by Peta Foley and Kathy Roberts. It was a long concert – tiring but exhilarating.

'The Little Stranger’ by Sarah Waters

18 June 2010

I really enjoyed ‘The Night Watch’ by Sarah Waters (reviewed here in January 2008) so I had been looking forward to reading her latest novel ‘The Little Stranger’ and I wasn’t disappointed. From the start you feel you are in safe hands: Waters is an excellent writer who seems to be able to create historical novels that feel as if they could have been written in the relevant period. ‘The Little Stranger’ is set in Warwickshire in 1947 with the country recovering from war, still constrained by rationing, anticipating the arrival of the new National Health Service and beginning to come to terms with a world that has changed forever. It tells the story of an aristocratic family struggling to maintain a once-grand, dilapidated country house, through the first-person narration of the local doctor. And very soon we seem to be entering classic ghost-story territory. But is ‘The Little Stranger’ a ghost story? Without any of the narrative tricks of ‘The Night Watch’, Sarah Waters has constructed a novel that appears to be a simple, spooky tale but subtly manages to say much about the changing social order at a turning point in history. Deceptively straightforward, there is considerable depth below the surface and your view of what the book is really about gradually evolves without you really noticing – while you are carried briskly through 500 pages of gripping, often chilling, narrative.

Denmark

18 June 2010

We had a lovely holiday in Denmark last week, despite less than wonderful weather. We stayed in central Copenhagen and did most of the tourist things - though we were surprised, after walking out to the harbour to see the Little Mermaid, to discover that the statue is currently in the Denmark pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai and has been temporarily replaced by a video screen showing live footage of Expo visitors walking past the Little Mermaid in sunny China! We took a trip to the North East of Zealand to Helsingor to see Kronborg Slot - the setting for Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and also visited the former capital, Roskilde. We saw the site of a Viking fortress at Trelleborg and sampled the slightly tacky delights of the Tivoli Gardens (imagine Alton Towers compressed to the size of a postage stamp!). Denmark is an interesting place with a fascinating history and extremely friendly and helpful people.

‘Bang Goes the Knighthood’ by The Divine Comedy

4 June 2010

Mock operatic arias, jaunty music-hall ditties, sumptuous romantic melodies, sudden time-changes, concert-hall piano, strummed ukulele, orchestral strings, witty lyrics and corny rhymes: it can only be a new album by The Divine Comedy! The Divine Comedy (reviewed here in September 2005 and July 2006) returned this week with the wonderful ‘Bang Goes the Knighthood’. After Neil Hannon’s cricket-themed album 'The Duckworth Lewis Method' (reviewed here in July 2009) ‘Bang Goes the Knighthood’ takes us firmly back to the classic Divine Comedy sound. Arguably Hannon undercuts every moment of beauty he creates by being unable to resist the temptation to slip into whimsy. But when you love a band you tend to love the full package – both sublime and ridiculous. The beautiful highpoint of this album is the perfect foxtrot ‘Have You Ever Been in Love?’ but I’m equally taken with ‘The Lost Art of Conversation’ which manages to rhyme all of the following:

• a conversation
• David Jason
• Francis Bacon
• concentration
• League of Nations
• The English Patient
• imagination
• hallucinations
• Good Vibrations
• the Reformation
• transubstantiation
• Bram Stoker’s creation
• The Land of the Thracians
• time and patience

and, in case that wasn’t enough, also links Frank Lampard, Joan of Arc and Van Dyke Parks. Beat that!

Cider with Rosie’ by Laurie Lee, adapted by Daniel O’Brien

4 June 2010

We were at the Oxford Playhouse last Saturday to see the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds production of ‘Cider with Rosie’ by Laurie Lee – a new adaptation by Daniel O’Brien. An inventive, ensemble piece, with original music by T J Holmes, it uses six actors to play Laurie and his five siblings as well as every other character in the story. The whole cast is onstage throughout, adding sound effects or background action to scenes in which they are not the principal players. The effect is entertaining and amusing with much to admire in its stagecraft and some lovely songs. It reminded me of the stage adaptations of novels by Shared Experience which employ a similar physical ensemble approach. But I would have preferred more narrative drive: the approach was very episodic (in line with the book I assume, though I haven’t read it) and there was little to indicate the overall passage of time through Laurie’s childhood. As a play it grew on me but didn’t grip me, though it received a rapturous reception – I suspect there were plenty of fans of the book in the audience.

'Noah's Compass' by Anne Tyler

26 May 2010

Anne Tyler is an author who produces hugely entertaining, readable novels which are all much more clever and profound than they appear – tackling difficult subjects without creating difficult prose – something also achieved by David Lodge but not many others in my opinion. ‘Noah’s Compass’ is Anne Tyler’s 18^th novel and sees her returning to a familiar format after the more ambitious digressions of her previous two books, ‘The Amateur Marriage’ and ‘Digging to America’. Set, as always, in Baltimore ‘Noah’s Compass’ is a seemingly simple tale of family relationships, aging, loneliness and memory loss. It has much in common with one of Tyler’s most celebrated works, ‘The Accidental Tourist’ but shows, I think, a maturing confidence in her writing, relying much less on exaggerated comic characters and set-pieces. Like a stripped-down version of ‘The Accidental Tourist’ everyone is less extreme and more believable, less happens but the emotional interaction feels stronger. ‘Noah’s Compass’ is a short novel – the first book I’ve read at a single sitting for some time – but manages to be intriguing, funny and very moving. Less is more.

European Union Baroque Orchestra concert

26 May 2010

Before I start to praise the wonderful concert by the European Union Baroque Orchestra, which we were at St John’s, Smith Square, in London to see last Saturday, I should declare an interest. Our good friend Lindsay Kemp is the Artistic Director of the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music and had programmed this concert as the finale to the 2010 festival. And it was wonderful. Regular readers may have deduced that baroque music is not one of my usual enthusiasms but I was enthralled by this look at the concerti grossi by Arcangelo Corelli. It helped to have attended a recording of BBC Radio 3’s ‘Discovering Music’ in the afternoon at which Stephen Johnson explained and analysed the three main works to be performed that evening, with the European Union Baroque Orchestra on hand to provide excerpts and examples. The concerto grosso was developed in Rome in the late 17^th century, and employs a small chamber ensemble (the concertino) contrasted with a full string orchestra (the ripieno). Corelli pioneered this form of music with his twelve published concerti grossi – three of which were the focus of Saturday’s concert. At the time he was writing them, it was unusual to expect an audience to listen to purely instrumental music that had neither words for singers nor a clear story to follow and most composers assumed that the attention span for such works was likely to be no more than five or six minutes. Corelli boldly stretched this duration by introducing recurring motifs to create a subtle impression of familiarity, even when listening for the first time. He also expanded the size of the orchestra, on at least one occasion using 76 string players. For Saturday’s concert the European Union Baroque Orchestra was augmented by a number of its former members so that there were around 50 people on the stage – what now seems like a massive number of players for a baroque performance. The EUBO draws together the best young baroque musicians from across Europe each year, with the majority of its alumni going on to perform professionally. On Saturday they were directed from the violin by the charismatic Italian soloist, Enrico Onofri, a fascinating figure on the stage – gangly and hairless, save for his dark, hooded eyebrows, dressed entirely in black but with a bright white scarf laced through the end of his violin and tied around his neck to support the instrument. Constantly moving to the music, nodding his head and, occasionally leaping in the air to push the young players forward, Onofri was a perfect example of the violin soloist as ‘rock star’ – perhaps suggesting the effect Corelli himself had in this role. At the time Corelli was writing, the violin was a relatively new instrument: the concept of the virtuoso violin soloist as the star, accompanied by an orchestra, was still being developed by Vivaldi and others. Most of Corelli’s concerti grossi feature a concertino with two violins and a ‘cello – the violins (here played by Onofri and Margaret Faultless) answering each other in a constant conversation. But Onofri undoubtedly stole the show. The enhanced EUBO created a marvellous sound and showed how exciting this early orchestral music is. A packed St John’s, Smith Square, was thrilled by the performance and the two encores that followed. It was a great concert.

BBC Young Musician 2010

21 May 2010

I said here in May 2006 that "I love the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition" but in May 2008 I felt it was a major disappointment “that the impact of this landmark musical event should be so watered down in its thirtieth anniversary year”. So I approached the BBC Young Musician 2010 with some nervousness to see whether full coverage of the competition had been restored after the debacle of 2008. Overall I was pleased and greatly relieved: the extensive coverage of the five category finals on BBC4 showed plenty of the actual performances, mostly uninterrupted, and the concerto final was broadcast live and in full. But clearly the wonderfully indulgent concert of five concertos is something that no longer warrants clearing the schedules, and the price of live classical music on BBC2 was a pruning of the format to only allow for three finalists. This meant the introduction of a semi-final in which the five category winners reprised their solo recitals in order for three to be chosen to perform concertos with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. I really felt for the two unsuccessful semi-finalists, who in any of the previous competitions would have taken their place on the final stage with the orchestra. It was very disappointing that, for the first time in 32 years, the final didn’t include a brass concerto. Nevertheless it was a wonderful concerto final with three fine performances and a clear and worthy winner. Regular readers will be amazed to learn that, for the first time in the history of the BBC Young Musician competition, I correctly predicted the winner! (Though I was only picking from three, rather than five contenders of course.) And all the broadcast performances were beautifully presented and excellently filmed – the BBC really does the visual presentation of classical music brilliantly well. In 2010 the BBC Young Musician competition regained a sense of dignity and I suspect it will long be remembered for the truly wonderful, astounding performance of Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 2 by the 16-year-old winner Lara Ömeroğlu. See for yourself at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s3fk5

‘Yes, Prime Minister’ by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn

21 May 2010

We returned to the main house at Chichester Festival Theatre for the opening night of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ – a new play by the writers of the original BBC sitcom, Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn. David Haig and Henry Goodman took on the roles of Prime Minister Jim Hacker and Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby in a story which brought the action up-to-date with Hacker the leader of a coalition government in a hung parliament attempting to deal with a massive recession. There was some good fun to be had with the real political theatre of the previous few days with the insertion of a few last-minute gags, but in the main this was an enjoyable nostalgia trip back to the glory days of ‘Yes, Minister’. All the familiar elements were present – Sir Humphrey’s lengthy, erudite, obfuscating soliloquies (all the more impressive delivered live and flawlessly by Henry Goodman) and the naïve bewilderment of private secretary Bernard Woolley (here played by Jonathan Slinger). The addition of a modern ‘special advisor’ (played by Emily Joyce) and a few references to Blackberrys didn’t really alter the feeling that we were back in the 1980s. It felt like ‘The Thick of It’ had never happened (despite David Haig having appeared in the latest series). But it was good fun and there was a carefully constructed plot which made it feel like a proper 2-hour play. Haig and Goodman were both excellent but with neither attempting (quite correctly) any sort of impersonation of Paul Eddington or Nigel Hawthorne, I wondered why it was necessary to retain the original characters in this updated setting. I think the play would have worked as well with Haig as a different Prime Minister and Goodman as another variant on the long-serving civil servant (‘Sir Rupert’, perhaps). And I would have loved to see the two actors cast against type with David Haig as the civil servant and Henry Goodman as the politician.

'Bingo' by Edward Bond

21 May 2010

Our first ever visit to the Chichester Festival Theatre was to the smaller Minerva auditorium to see Patrick Stewart as William Shakespeare in Edward Bond’s 1974 play ‘Bingo’ which looks at Shakespeare’s final days in Stratford-upon-Avon. It was a high-quality production with an impressive cast but I wasn’t overly taken with the play. I was left with the feeling that I might have missed the point of what appeared to be a fairly miserable, factual tale. The historical detail was interesting but I found it to be a production to be admired rather than enjoyed. The high point was the appearance of Richard McCabe (who I last saw as Sir Toby Belch in ‘Twelfth Night’ reviewed here in November 2009) who stole the show with a single scene cameo as a Falstaffian Ben Jonson at the beginning of the second act.

‘I, Malvolio’ by Tim Crouch

21 May 2010

We concluded our visit to the Brighton Festival with a late night performance of ‘I, Malvolio’ – a one-man show written and performed by Tim Crouch. We’ve seen Tim Crouch a few times in Edinburgh and he is a completely compelling performer. Most of his work seems to blur the boundaries between actor and character and involves extensive interaction with the audience. He manages to be likeable, extremely funny and deeply unsettling. ‘I, Malvolio’ is his fourth exploration of Shakespearean characters, telling the tale of ‘Twelfth Night’ from Malvolio’s point of view – while constantly slipping in and out of character. An amazing, hilarious and strange theatrical experience – take any opportunity to see what Tim Crouch does next.

Brighton Youth Orchestra concert

21 May 2010

Our brief sampling of the Brighton Festival started with a great concert by the Brighton Youth Orchestra at St Bartholomew’s Church. Conducted by the indefatigable Andy Sherwood, the BYO were in fine form, opening with an impressive performance of the ‘Overture to Candide’ by Leonard Bernstein. But the concert was dominated by two very different soloists. The legendary bass, Sir John Tomlinson, joined the orchestra for the premiere of ‘Midnight Skaters’ by local composer Peter Copley – a beautiful, thoughtful piece. This was followed by the fascinating spectacle of Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe’s ‘Earth Cry’ for orchestra and didgeridoo. The didgeridoo soloist Steve Heath (originally from Portsmouth rather than Australia!) created an amazing range of sounds and demonstrated an incredible feat of circular breathing. Sir John returned after the interval to sing excerpts from Mussorgsky’s ‘Boris Godunov’ – a powerful climax to a very enjoyable evening.

West Sussex

21 May 2010

We had a lovely week in West Sussex: we stayed at a cottage in Middleton-on-Sea and took advantage of some very good weather to do lots of walking, both along the coast and across the South Downs. We particularly liked the pretty towns of Arundel and Midhurst and small Cathedral City of Chichester and managed a brief excursion across to Brighton.

‘A Prayer for Owen Meany’ by John Irving

7 May 2010

I first discovered John Irving’s 1989 novel ‘A Prayer for Owen Meaney’ through the excellent BBC Radio 4 dramatisation last year, in which Toby Jones created the distinctive voice of Owen Meany (which in the book is always IN CAPITAL LETTERS). Reading the novel for the first time I felt the ‘present day’ (1987) passages focussing on the Reagan administration and the Iran-Contra affair – which were largely omitted from the radio abridgement – seemed strangely dated and irrelevant in a way in which the main ‘historic’ story, told in flashback, didn’t. The various impacts of the Vietnam War on the principal characters – perhaps originally intended to sew warnings about Reagan-era foreign policy – now seem much more the centre of attention. ‘A Prayer for Owen Meaney’ is a great comic (and tragic) novel with some brilliant set-piece scenes (the Nativity Play is a beautifully-constructed and hilarious passage). Irving plays around with time, flashing forward and back as he gradually moving through the characters’ lives in chronological order. And he teases the reader remorselessly, constantly hinting at what is to come and drip-feeding key details to build the final picture. The final revelation takes so long to come that the anticipation almost becomes irritating but it’s so worth waiting for you finish the book in awe and with a smile on your face.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

28 April 2010

Arriving at the final afternoon rehearsal for last Saturday’s Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert, we were expecting to face the challenging prospect of playing the ‘Cello Concerto by Samuel Barber – an interesting but tricky piece which I suspect had been new to most of us. What we were presented with, however, was a challenge of a different nature: our ‘cello soloist had been taken ill and it had proved impossible to find a replacement who knew this rarely performed work. So, at the last minute, the violinist Irmina Trynkos, who is due to play with us in our next concert, agreed to perform the Bruch Violin Concerto. At 2.15 pm the music was handed out to the orchestra for the first time and by 8.30 pm we had completed a stunning performance of this much-loved concerto. It was an exciting, edge-of-the-seat experience – not without a few hairy moments but very enjoyable. I’m now really looking forward to hearing Irmina play the ‘Poeme for Violin and Orchestra’ on 19 June. The rest of Saturday’s concert was an American affair including ‘Three Dance Episodes from On the Town’ by Bernstein, ‘Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo’ by Copland and what I thought was a really good performance of Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’ – a complex circus of a piece which came together wonderfully – and the car horns were great!

‘Dead Guilty’ by Richard Harris

23 April 2010

We had a few days in sunny Dorset last week and managed to fit in a visit to the Bournemouth Little Theatre Club to see a performance of ‘Dead Guilty’ by Richard Harris. This clever, psychological thriller was extremely well acted – a very high quality production – and kept us guessing to the end. Good to see BLTC, which has just celebrated its 90^th anniversary, going strong.

Phil Hammond

23 April 2010

Phil Hammond is a GP who has carved out an extensive second career as a comedian with regular appearances on Radio 4, a column in Private Eye and even a stint in the dictionary corner on Countdown! We saw him at the Maltings Arts Theatre in St Albans at the beginning of a new national tour. He is a very slick performer: the material about his childhood and medical training seemed to be delivered with a speed and confidence that suggested it was far from the first time he had used it but it was still very funny. Phil Hammond is not a stand-up comedian who happens to be a doctor: almost all of his material is about the medical profession or the absurdities of the NHS. He clearly feels passionately about many of the current problems in the health service but at times his more serious rants sat slightly uncomfortably next to some of the comic set-pieces. Nevertheless he was impressive, assured and very funny.

'Here Lies Love' by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim

8 April 2010

One of the most bizarre aspects of visiting the Vigário Geral favela in Rio de Janeiro was spotting, on the wall of a small family restaurant in the heart of the favela, the signature of former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. I suppose it wasn't that surprising, knowing that Byrne is a good friend of Brazilian Tropicália singer Caetano Veloso and that Veloso is a key supporter of our hosts, Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, but it still seemed an incongruous intrusion in the extreme surroundings of the favela. I guess nothing should really surprise me where David Byrne is concerned: his latest album, launched this week, sees Byrne collaborating with Fatboy Slim to produce a disco song cycle about the life of Imelda Marcos - a concept that sounds as if it should have been released on 1 April rather than 6 April! Nevertheless the result is fabulous: 'Here Lives Love' features 22 (mainly female) guest vocalists taking turns to tell the story of the life of the former First Lady of the Philippines, and the woman who raised her, through the medium of disco - a reference to Imelda Marcos' love of nightclubs. And those vocalists include some of my favourite singers such as Natalie Merchant, Martha Wainwright and the sublime Allison Moorer. I've always appreciated David Byrne's taste in collaborators since learning that the backing vocals on his wonderful 1989 album 'Rei Momo' were by another personal favourite, Kirsty MacColl. The cast list on 'Here Lies Love' also features Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos, Florence Welch, Róisín Murphy, Camille and Steve Earle as Ferdinand Marcos! The succession of female vocalists playing particular parts reminded me of 'God Help the Girl' (reviewed here in August 2009). But 'Here Lies Love' is unmistakably a David Byrne creation with the disco beats underpinned by his beloved Latin rhythms. A surreally infectious treat.

AfroReggae

30 March 2010

The favelas of Rio de Janeiro are desperate places – shanty towns where the rule of law is absent, dominated by drug traffickers and gangs, made even more shocking by their proximity to some of the most opulent parts of the city. In 1993 police killed 21 innocent people from Vigário Geral, one of the poorest favelas, in retaliation for the shooting dead of 4 policemen. In response to this tragic event, Grupo Cultural AfroReggae was created to offer young people from the favelas an alternative to a life of drugs and violence. AfroReggae began as a newspaper but soon started offering workshops in dance, percussion, circus skills and a host of other cultural disciplines. Controversially working with some of the major drug traffickers while also attracting major commercial sponsorship from companies including Santander and Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, AfroReggae has grown into a large and extremely successful organisation. We visited three of Rio’s favelas as guests of AfroReggae, being met and escorted at the entrances to each favela by some of the most brilliant samba drummers I have seen. We saw performances of dance, circus skills, percussion, drama, reggae, rock and orchestral music and had a question and answer session with AfroReggae founder Jose Junior. But the climax was undoubtedly a performance by the original Banda AfroReggae – now an internationally acclaimed group making a rare appearance back in the Vigário Geral favela. Banda AfroReggae are a mighty band – big, loud, funky and incredibly cool. Their music incorporates pop, rock, reggae, hip-hop and rap with Brazilian percussion: it’s fast, catchy and irresistible. Hearing Banda AfroReggae for the first time in a private performance in a small studio in the AfroReggae centre was an amazing experience – I’m a fan! You can see a report and photos on our visit to AfroReggae at http://www.afroreggae.org.br/2010/03/25/nucleos-de-vigario-complexo-e-lucas-recebem-visita-de-diretores-britanicos/, listen to AfroReggae on Spotify and see their remarkable story in the 2005 film ‘Favela Rising’.

Jards Macalé and Jorge Mautner

30 March 2010

The best known protagonists of the Tropicália movement are the musicians Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil – both exiled to London in the late 1960s by the Brazilian military dictatorship. While we were in Sao Paulo we were lucky enough to catch a concert by two of their contemporaries Jards Macalé and Jorge Mautner at Sesc Pompéia. Both singers are now about 70 years old and are clearly revered by what was a packed and enthusiastic audience. The Tropicália movement was based on ‘antropofagia’ – cultural cannibalism, taking in influences from a range of genres and creating something new and unique. Though undoubtedly revolutionary at the time I’m afraid that, to me, the music now sounds a little tame – gentle, beautiful and soothing like bossa nova without the beat. Not being able to understand the Portuguese lyrics is clearly a major hindrance in listening to songs with a strong political message. But it was fascinating to watch the rapturous reaction of the crowd who were mouthing the words to many of the songs and quick to their feet to give a standing ovation to these two legendary performers.