'The Motive and the Cue' by Jack Thorne

22 March 2024

In 1964 Richard Burton asked Sir John Gielgud to direct his Hamlet on Broadway - a production which set the play in a theatre rehearsal room. Two of the cast wrote books about the rehearsals and the tussles between the very different approaches of Gielgud and Burton. Those two books provided the inspiration for Jack Thorne’s new play ‘The Motive and the Cue’, directed by Sam Mendes at the National Theatre in London (which we watched at a NTLive screening at the Odeon Milton Keynes on Thursday). It’s a fascinating exploration of theatre, acting and actors, with ‘Hamlet’ and its father-son relationships providing a clever backdrop both to the relationship between Gielgud and Burton and their relationships with their own fathers. Johnny Flynn is great as the volatile Richard Burton and Mark Gatiss is very moving as Gielgud. Allan Corduner as Hume Cronyn (playing Polonius) also stood out in a large cast and Tuppence Middleton almost stole the show as a wonderful Elizabeth Taylor.

'Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening' by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin

19 March 2024

When ‘Drop the Dead Donkey’ - Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin’s Channel 4 sitcom, set in the offices of a TV news channel - started in 1990 its unique selling point was the way it weaved in topical news stories (and gags about them) by recording some elements of each week’s show just before it was broadcast. Watching ‘Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening’, the stage reunion of the original TV cast, at Milton Keynes Theatre last Saturday, I was pleased to see up-to-the-minute references to doctored photos of the Royal Family, the Russian presidential election etc. As a fan of the TV series, the stage show was gloriously nostalgic, with all the surviving cast members reprising their roles thirty years on (and a moving tribute at the end to David Swift and Haydn Gwynne). For anyone unfamiliar with the original series I suspect the opening scenes, punctuated by rapturous applause as each character reappeared, was probably a little tedious. But once the plot, and the mystery of why the gang had been brought back together to run a new TV news operation (‘Truth News’) started to get going, it was good fun and quickly fell back into the comic rhythms of a good sitcom. If the satire felt a little tame now, well thirty years is a long time and the news today often feels beyond parody. But it was lovely to see Susannah Doyle, Robert Duncan, Ingrid Lacey, Neil Pearson, Jeff Rawle, Stephen Tompkinson and Victoria Wicks back together again. And interesting to note that, despite the incredibly witty script, it was two brilliant moments of slapstick that got the biggest laughs.

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by William Shakespeare

15 March 2024

When we started the Open Stages project in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2009 - working with hundreds of amateur theatre groups and professional theatre companies across the UK - it was interesting to see one question dominating the discussions at our skills-sharing sessions. What amateur theatre directors most wanted to ask the RSC was whether it is permissible to cut or amend Shakespeare's texts. It always seemed to surprise the RSC staff that they were seen as the definitive arbiters on this question: Shakespeare has been out of copyright for centuries and many RSC productions have taken extremely creative approaches to the plays. Last Saturday we were at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon to see Eleanor's Rhode's new RSC production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and I was struck by the fact that you don't need to change the text to achieve a different take on the play. In this production Duke Theseus was not the strong, authoritative leader he normally appears - an adult amongst the squabbling children. Here, played by Bally Gill (who doubles as Oberon), Theseus is a weak, nervous leader, trying to please everyone and constantly seeking affirmation from Hippolyta (Sirine Saba) - though you could imagine he might have firm views on the proper way to stack the dishwasher! This was all brilliantly conveyed through his body language and voice, without any need to change the words he spoke. It's a great production, in modern costume on a mostly bare stage, allowing the acting and the movement of the actors to dominate. In particular Mathew Baynton as Bottom, Ryan Hutton as Lysander and Rosie Sheehy as Puck demonstrate amazing physicality and balletic movement: movement director Annie-Lunette Deakin-Foster deserves much credit. Eleanor Rhode also works with an Illusion Director and Designer, John Bulleid, and his moments of conjuring and sleight of hand, sparingly used, add to the magic of the play. It's also a very funny production, with real laugh-out-loud scenes involving the lovers and the rude mechanicals. Helen Monks is brilliant as Peter Quince, almost stealing the show from Mathew Baynton: it's the first time I have seen the prologue to Pyramus and Thisbe performed as a rap! It would be impossible not to come out of the theatre smiling.

'Demon Copperhead' by Barbara Kingsolver

8 March 2024

As I have mentioned here before, I found the Hogarth Shakespeare series of books, in which contemporary novelists re-imagined Shakespeare plays, a bit cringe-worthy (with the exception of ‘Hag-Seed: The Tempest Retold’ by Margaret Atwood, reviewed here in January 2022). So, despite many people recommending it, I came to ‘Demon Copperhead’, Barbara Kingsolver’s retelling of ‘David Copperfield’ with some trepidation. But, while ‘Demon Copperhead’ (as the title signifies) is another example of a loosely disguised classic tale in a modern setting, with clever contemporary variations of the character names, I thought it worked extremely well. I think this is because Barbara Kingsolver is interested in updating both Dickens’ story and his exposé of social problems. Her first-person narrator Damon Fields tells the story of his difficult childhood in Lee County, Virginia, in the 1990s. He is born to a drug-using teenage single mother in a trailer, passes in and out of foster care and experiences trauma and tragedy at a very young age. In front of this bleak backdrop, Barbara Kingsolver paints an engaging cast of Dickensian characters to create what feels like it is going to be an entertaining coming of age story about overcoming adversity through friendship. But Kingsolver’s underlying theme is America’s opioid crisis and seeing Demon (and most of his contemporaries) descending into over reliance on drugs and addiction feels painfully real and distressing. ‘Demon Copperhead’ is a brilliantly written novel: it is a tribute to Kingsolver’s skill that you soon forget the Dickens parallel and get sucked into the modern tragedy of a generation lost to drugs. The second half of the novel becomes increasingly uncomfortable reading but it is a compelling commentary on a shameful episode in our recent history of which Charles Dickens would have been proud.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

5 March 2024

Last Saturday I played in a Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert which featured a rare performance of the First Symphony by Sir Arnold Bax. The early 20th century English composer was a committed Hibernophile, passionate about Ireland, Irish culture and the Gaelic language. He wrote poetry in Gaelic and named his children Dermot and Maeve. Bax was deeply affected by the 1916 Easter Rising and the execution of Irish rebel leaders by the British Army, but felt unable to speak out as he was then Master of the King's Music. His 'Symphony No 1', completed in 1922, while not publicly connected to the events in Ireland, reflects his anger and grief. As a programmatic work about the armed suppression of protest and rebellion it made for a fascinating comparison with our performance last year of Shostakovich's 'Symphony No 11:The Year 1905' (reviewed here in June 2023) and the 'Peterloo Overture' by Malcolm Arnold (reviewed here in October 2019). Bax's First Symphony is scored for a massive orchestra, including hecklephone (bass oboe), sarrusophone (or contrabassoon), bass flute and two harps. It's a brutal, angry piece, punctuated by some surprising moments of gentle beauty. It took me some weeks of practice to begin to appreciate the music but it really grew on me and I thought we gave a impressively coherent and moving performance of the symphony. Our concert also featured the 'Violin Concerto No 2' by Prokofiev - a stunning performance by Joo Yeo Sir. Both Bax and Prokofiev went out of copyright on 1 January 2024 so I suspect there will be more performances of works by both composers this year. We opened the concert with Bernstein's 'Symphonic Dances from West Side Story' - last performed by the Northampton Symphony Orchestra in 2008 (reviewed here in March 2008). 'West Side Story' is a challenge for any orchestra - both because of its complex syncopated jazz and Latin rhythms, and because it is so well known. As we settled our nerves, took a deep breath and launched into the opening bars, conductor John Gibbons immediately halted the performance and dashed off stage, having forgotten to bring with him the police whistle whose shrill blast halts the Jets and Sharks at the end of the Prologue. Amused and relaxed by this intrusion, the orchestra started again and gave an exciting and slick account of Bernstein's score - featuring a brilliant percussion section, amazing work by Terry Mayo on trumpet and a beautifully controlled flute cadenza by Graham Tear, providing a haunting moment of stillness after the mayhem. It was a wonderful concert, enthusiastically received by a sold out audience at Christchurch, Northampton.

'Vanya' by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Simon Stephens

29 February 2024

‘Uncle Vanya’ has been my favourite Anton Chekhov play since I saw ‘Vanya on 42nd Street’ - Louis Malle’s brilliant 1994 film which shows André Gregory directing a performance of the play in an empty New York theatre. I also liked Michael Blakemore’s film ‘Country Life’ - an excellent adaptation of ‘Uncle Vanya’ starring Sam Neill and Greta Scacchi, set in Australia just after the end of World War I, which coincidentally also came out in 1994. Last Saturday we were at the Curzon Cinema at Milton Keynes Gallery to see the NT Live recording of ‘Vanya’, Simon Stephens’ new adaptation of the play, recorded at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End. This is an incredible one-person performance of the play by Andrew Scott. Like Jodie Comer’s amazing performance in Suzi Miller’s 'Prima Facie' (reviewed here in August 2022), Andrew Scott commands the stage, and our attention, without a break - playing all the characters. But whereas in 'Prima Facie' Jodie Comer was playing a young barrister recounting her story and re-enacting scenes and conversations, in ‘Vanya’ Andrew Scott is simply performing the play as all the characters, with no need for any framing device. At first this feels more like a radio play as he quickly switches voices in conversations with himself. But his physical performance is as important to how he tells the story. While he doesn’t use any different costumes or hats to distinguish the different characters, his stature, posture and gestures instantly make it clear who he is playing. And seeing his performance on the cinema screen, the close-ups allow us to see a different character emerging simply through a subtle change in his eyes and facial expressions. Simon Stephens has moved the story from Russia to modern-day Ireland and the setting works well. Andrew Scott gives Alexander and Helena Northern Irish and English accents respectively, emphasising that they are the outsiders in this family. There’s a lot of comedy in this tragedy and Scott is very entertaining, but some of the more poignant moments felt a little unemotional without reactions from other actors. One really effective touch was the piano - on stage throughout for Ivan occasionally to tinkle a few notes - which turns out to be an automated player piano, conjuring up Ivan’s dead sister Anna who he recalls playing duets with: seeing the piano keys moving on their own suddenly created the sense of another person on stage to break (or merely to emphasise) the loneliness of this solitary performance.

‘Cahokia Jazz’ by Francis Spufford

23 February 2024

I came to Francis Spufford’s third novel, ‘Cahokia Jazz’, having really enjoyed his debut novel ‘Golden Hill’ (reviewed here in August 2017) and its successor ‘Light Perpetual’ (reviewed here in July 2021). ‘Cahokia Jazz’ (which I read as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Andy Ingalls) is another shift of period and style from Spufford - a noir crime tale echoing Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, set in 1920s America. But this is an alternative reality America - a parallel universe in which the fictional midwest city of Cahokia is dominated by a First Nations people who are led by a hereditary monarchy and have embraced a version of European catholicism. The book starts with police officers investigating a murder and has all the tropes of a gumshoe detective story. But the racial and religious backdrop to the mystery - drawn in fastidious detail - creates a deeply unnerving mood. When, towards the end of the novel, one of the characters suggests that they are all living in a dream and none of this is real, it feels cathartically believable: the whole novel has a dreamlike quality. Francis Spufford’s writing is beautiful and he creates an extensive cast of well-drawn, sympathetic characters. The detective partners Drummond and Barrow - one short and talkative, the other huge and taciturn - reminded me of George and Lennie in John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’. And the American period setting of ‘Cahokia Jazz’ made me think of 'The Lincoln Highway' by Amor Towles (reviewed here in February 2022). ‘Cahokia Jazz’ is not quite as satisfying a novel as ‘Golden Hill’ but it’s another fascinating period drama from Francis Spufford and I look forward to seeing which genre he chooses to tackle next.

‘Baraaim Ed-Louz’ by Koum Tara

16 February 2024

I have been enjoying ‘Baraaim Ed-Louz’, the new album by the French band Koum Tara, which explores chaabi - a traditional music of Algeria. Chaabi means 'of the people' and typically consists of Arabic/Berber vocals, set against violins and mandolins, a piano melody and percussion beats. Koum Tara take chaabi as the starting point for a fusion of North African and Western sounds, drawing on jazz and cinematic orchestral strings. The result is a gentle, laid-back blend which is an interesting contrast to the pulsing beats of Algerian rai music, made more popular across Europe by singers such as Cheb Khaled, Faudel and Rachid Taha, ‘Baraaim Ed-Louz’,is a lovely album: here is a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXKlGtOOppc

'Bumper Blyton: Improvised Adventures For Grown-Ups'

9 February 2024

On Saturday we were at the Quarry Theatre in Bedford to see 'Bumper Blyton: Improvised Adventures For Grown-Ups'. Using the model of the long-running improv show ‘Austentatious’ (reviewed here in August 2012) which invents a ‘lost’ Jane Austen novel based on audience suggestions at every performance, ‘Bumper Blyton’ does the same thing with Enid Blyton. But, whereas Jane Austen wrote six completed novels, Enid Blyton published 762 books, which provides fertile ground for exploring her style and genre - and rekindling childhood memories for most of the audience. On our way into the theatre we were handed small schoolroom slates on which we were asked to draw something symbolising a childhood hobby or activity. The cast then examined our chalk pictures to choose several elements to weave into their improvised story. It was all very silly and extremely funny. The many surreal flights of fancy made it feel more like a radio comedy show than a stage play, reminding me of Mark Evans’ stage adaptation of his BBC Radio 4 Dickens parody 'Bleak Expectations' (reviewed here in August 2023). ‘Bumper Blyton’ is clearly aimed at adults, and was not afraid to acknowledge the more questionable aspects of Enid Blyton’s work. Using adults to play young children without disguising the fact they are obviously adults (like Dennis Potter’s ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ - reviewed here in June 2013) also provides opportunities for considerably more innuendo than I remember from reading Enid Blyton as a child. ‘Bumper Blyton’ was great fun and ‘jolly japes’. And as they said at the end: “if you enjoyed the show, please come to see it again: it’s improvised so it’s completely different every night - and if you didn’t enjoy the show, please come to see it again: it’s improvised so it’s completely different every night!”

'Dear England' by James Graham

2 February 2024

In 2016, when Sam Allardyce left his post as the England men’s football manager by mutual agreement after one match and 67 days in charge, the England Under-21 team manager Gareth Southgate was hastily appointed as caretaker England manager for the next four matches. Southgate’s transformation, from a player best remembered for missing a penalty for England in the Euro 1996 semi final to arguably the most successful England manager since Sir Alf Ramsey, is told in ‘Dear England’, James Graham’s new play for the National Theatre. We saw the NTLive recording of the play at the Curzon cinema at Milton Keynes Gallery last Saturday. It’s a very funny, enjoyable and moving production, directed by Rupert Goold. The England footballers are brilliantly played by an extensive cast who create impersonations - of Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Harry Maguire et al - that are both deliberately cartoonish while also capturing the players’ body language and posture uncannily accurately. Joseph Fiennes does a similar job playing Gareth Southgate - making him both laughably earnest and gently heroic - and Gina McKee is wonderful as the psychologist Southgate brings in to work with the England team. ‘Dear England’ refers to the open letter Southgate published in June 2021 ahead of the delayed Euro 2020 tournament, which addressed a country emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic and focussed on issues of equality, inclusivity and racial injustice. James Graham’s play tells the story of Southgate’s England team and its performances on the football pitch as a way of reflecting on the state of the country over the past few years. But football is the main focus of the play and the thoughtful maturing of the young England players through a range of challenges on and off the field is moving and inspiring.

'State of Wonder' by Ann Patchett

26 January 2024

Having recently discovered the work of the American novelist Ann Patchett - her novel ‘Bel Canto’ (reviewed here in December 2023) was one of my Picks of the Year for 2023 - my expectations were high as I started reading her 2011 novel ‘State of Wonder’. I wasn’t disappointed: ‘State of Wonder’ is another clever, intriguing and surprising tale that moves in directions you don’t expect but always feels believable, particularly in the realistic portrayal of its key characters. Marina Singh is a scientist working for a pharmaceutical firm in Minnesota. When she hears of the death of one of her closest colleagues while he was visiting a research project in the Amazon rainforest she travels to Brazil to find out exactly what happened - taking her far out of her comfort zone. The descriptions of her first few days adjusting to life in Manaus reminded me of my own work trips to Brazil and Cuba. ‘State of Wonder’ is a gripping story which is thought-provoking, unexpected and intelligent. I’m both wishing I had discovered Ann Patchett sooner and relishing the prospect of having her extensive back catologue to work through.

Tom Robinson

19 January 2024

As we set out to see his concert at The Stables in Wavendon last Saturday, even as long-time fans of Tom Robinson it felt perhaps a little soon to be seeing him again only nine weeks since we were at his gig at Storey's Field Centre in Cambridge. But that had been a solo performance and Saturday’s performance with his full band was a very different experience, and proved to be one of the best Tom Robinson gigs we have been to for many years. The Stables was packed: as I looked around the auditorium it was clear that his audience is now almost entirely middle-aged or older but I did spot five young women sitting together near the side of the stage. Once the support act started it quickly became clear that those young women were not there to see Tom Robinson! As I’ve mentioned here before Tom always uses his shows to introduce young musicians he has been championing on his BBC 6 Music radio show and this time the support slot was reserved for Bollo Bollo - a 4 piece indie/alternative rock band based in Buckinghamshire. It must have been a strange experience for them to be playing to a sell-out Tom Robinson audience but they - and their fan club - seemed genuinely thrilled to have been given this opportunity. When Tom Robinson and his band came on stage, after their first number Tom’s bass guitar stopped working, and there was a nice moment where the young bass player from Bollo Bollo managed to look simultaneously thrilled and slightly nervous about lending his instrument to Tom Robinson. Tom was in good form and the band were really rocking - particularly in ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ and ‘Up Against the Wall’. It was also lovely to hear Lee Forysth Griffiths (now a regular member of Tom’s band) sing one of his own songs: we first saw Lee as the support act for Tom Robinson at The Stables in about 2001.

'The Housekeepers' by Alex Hay

12 January 2024

In his novel 'The Housekeepers' (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Jasmine Blackborow) Alex Hay transports the classic heist movie plot to Edwardian London where an all female gang led by a recently dismissed housekeeper plan to strip the house of her former employer of all of its possessions. Planning to do this at the moment the house is full of people (for a society ball) appears ridiculously ambitious or deliberately foolhardy. But, much like the Spanish Netflix series 'Money Heist', this is a meticulously calculated enterprise, which turns out to be about more than simple revenge or monetary gain. Reviews of 'The Housekeepers' led me to expect a comic caper but, while the novel has some gentle humour, it's actually quite a dark story. Alex Hay creates a very likeable gang of well drawn, flawed but sympathetic characters. And this beautifully written, carefully researched period piece gives an insight into life above and below stairs in Edwardian London.

'Dead Lions' by Mick Herron

4 January 2024

I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Slow Horses’, the opening book of Mick Herron's spy novel series (reviewed here in November 2023) so I was looking forward to reading the sequel ‘Dead Lions’ and it didn't disappoint. ‘Dead Lions’ further establishes the team of disgraced former spies operating out of Slough House in London, under the unconventional leadership of Jackson Lamb - an anti-hero in the mould of Long John Silver, Fagin or Logan Roy. ‘Dead Lions’ is a cleverly plotted novel with multiple strands and a series of bluffs and counter-bluffs. You are never quite sure whether you've worked out the answer to the riddle, or just what the other side wants you to think the answer is in order to distract you from what they are really doing. It’s nicely written, with a nod to Dickens in the descriptions of Slough House that bookend the novel through the eyes of two imagined four-legged intruders. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series and I'm determined to read the novels before I start to watch the ‘Slow Horses’ TV series.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

13 December 2023

The Northampton Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Cracker concert always attracts an enthusiastic family audience, but this was the first year I can remember us selling out the Spinney Theatre at Northampton School for Girls. It was very exciting to take to the stage on Sunday afternoon to see more than 500 faces looking back at us. This was a triumph for the NSO Committee and orchestra members who delivered a very effective marketing campaign - and for our conductor John Gibbons who planned and delivered an extremely family-friendly programme. We played a mixture of traditional seasonal tunes (including Morton Gould's innovative arrangement of 'Jingle Bells' and Leroy Anderson's 'Sleigh Ride'), Christmas carols, film music (from 'Frozen' and 'Mary Poppins') and two narrated pieces featuring our compere David Birch. 'Sugar Plum on the Run' by Lior Rosner tells the story of what happened to the Sugar Plum Fairy after the events of 'The Nutcracker' - and provides an excuse for a miscellany of variations on Tchaikovsky's 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy'. We sandwiched Rosner's piece between movements from the actual 'Nutcracker Suite'. But our younger audience members seemed most excited by our performance of 'The Gruffalo' - Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's tale set to music by Philip McKenzie. Like Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf' this narrated piece features specific instruments of the orchestra as each of the main characters, with the piccolo (Graham Tear) as the mouse, E flat clarinet (Naomi Muller) as the fox, cor anglais (Harriet Brown) as the snake, French horn (Ian Jones) as the owl and the contra bassoon (Frank Jordan) as the Gruffalo. Each year the orchestra's transformation during the interval into a sea of santa hats, reindeer antlers and fancy dress gets sillier and sillier - and I think we looked particularly splendid on Sunday. But silliness does not come without risk: I had wrapped a long piece of tinsel around my French horn and just as we were approaching the climax of 'Frozen' I removed my third valve slide to empty it out in order to be ready for the big tune and managed to get a tiny strand of tinsel stuck in the exposed pipe, which prevented me from replacing the slide. As panic began to set in, I managed to play my next entry without using the third valve and then rapidly removed all tinsel and got the slide to fit back in without missing a note. Fortunately I  don't think anyone noticed my near disaster - but I will be steering clear of all tinsel in next year's Christmas Cracker concert!

'Bel Canto' by Ann Patchett

8 December 2023

I am a newcomer to the work of the American novelist Ann Patchett but, having just finished reading her brilliant 2001 novel ‘Bel Canto’ I am looking forward to exploring her other books. ‘Bel Canto’ tells the story of a mass hostage siege in a presidential mansion in an unnamed Latin American country. Among the array of international dignitaries held hostage at gunpoint is a famous American opera diva who had been giving a recital in the house. While this sounds like the plot of a thriller, Ann Patchett manages to make this seriously frightening situation into a gentle and quirky ensemble piece exploring relationships, language, music and quality of life. The slightly surreal, dreamlike quality of her prose reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro (particularly his novel ‘The Unconsoled’ about a famous pianist who arrives in an unnamed central European city to perform a concert). The eccentric but charming multinational cast of characters imprisoned in the house (and those imprisoning them) reminded me of the novels of Louis de Bernières. And the gentle tone and compelling characters, all confined within the walls of the house, had lots of similarities to one of my favourite novels of recent years, ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles (reviewed here in September 2021). Ann Patchett brilliantly juxtaposes a beautiful, life-affirming story about the development of an effective and loving closed community with a brutal real-world framing. It’s an amazing novel.

Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

30 November 2023

The last time I played with Milton Keynes Sinfonia was the concert in March 2020 just before we went into lockdown (reviewed here in March 2020). That evening had a strange atmosphere of nervousness about the rapidly worsening Coronavirus situation. My return to the Chrysalis Theatre in Milton Keynes last theatre to join the orchestra for an evening of ballet music was a much happier occasion. The programme included music from three ballets which all feature dolls, toys or puppets coming to life. The concert started with the ‘Introduction and Mazurka’ from ‘Coppélia’ by Delibes, followed by the ‘Nutcracker Suite’ by Tchaikovsky. But the main event was a performance of ‘Petrushka: A Burlesque in Four Scenes (1947 version)’ by Stravinsky. ‘Petrushka’ is a fiendishly difficult piece, incredibly dramatic and requiring supreme concentration from the orchestra to negotiate Stravinsky’s unpredictable shifts of rhythm and tempo. It also features a series of challenging solos. With apologies to everyone I have forgotten to mention, I was particularly impressed by the woodwind principals Lizzie Molloy (flute), Karen Mason (oboe), Tim Mackley (clarinet) and Ian Every (bassoon) and by my fellow horn player Tom Molloy, William Thallon on piano, Anwen Mai Thomas and a splendid trumpet solo by Nick Bunker. Though I think we were all quite nervous approaching the concert, conductor David Knight drew out an impressive and exciting performance from the orchestra and it was great fun to be part of it.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

21 November 2023

In 2019 Northampton Symphony Orchestra performed at Clifton Cathedral in Bristol (reviewed here in November 2019) - our first trip away from Northamptonshire since I joined the orchestra in 2000. This had been intended as the first in a series of annual weekends away for the orchestra but our plans were curtailed by the pandemic. Last weekend NSO was finally on tour again, spending two days in Grantham where we performed a concert at the Church of Saint John the Evangelist in Spitalgate. The concert was part of a programme of fundraising to support more community activities at the recently reopened church, which has just secured National Lottery funding to launch a Community Fridge - a space that brings people together to share food, meet up, learn new skills and prevent fresh food from going to waste. Our host was the church's Director of Music, the soprano Helen Winter, who helped to organise the concert, brought her choir, the St John's Winter Singers (plus guests from other local choirs) to perform with us, and sang two amazing solos with the orchestra herself. We travelled to Grantham on Saturday morning, rehearsed in the church in the afternoon and had a meal together on Saturday evening, ahead of the concert on Sunday afternoon. With some people unable to join us for the weekend, it was a smaller orchestra than normal and our Music Director, John Gibbons, did a great job of arranging many of the pieces for the available forces. The concert included music by Delius, Vaughan Williams, Wagner, Fauré, Mozart and Mascagni. Orchestra member Hilary Glanville gave a stunning performance of the 'Pastoral Fantasia for Viola and String Orchestra' by Northampton's William Alwyn - a beautiful, haunting piece with echoes of Delius and Vaughan Williams. But the highlight of the concert (for me at least!) was the 'Konzertstück for four Horns' by Heinrich Hübler which featured the NSO horn section - Callie Rich, Callie Scully, Ian Jones and me. Hübler was a horn player who performed in the premiere of Schumann's 'Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra' and was inspired to compose a similar piece. Hübler's Konzertstück is slightly easier to play than the Schumann and more evenly shares the melodic lines amongst all four solo horns. We were very pleased with our first concerto performance together and it seemed to go down well with the enthusiastic audience at St John's. We are looking forward to playing the Hübler concerto again at the NSO Friends concert in July 2024. Our Grantham concert was a lovely occasion, featuring a wide variety of musical styles and some beautiful, delicate playing by the orchestra, including wonderful woodwind solos by Graham Tear, Sarah Mourant and Christine Kelk. Although we were a little under-rehearsed I think this just made us concentrate more carefully in the concert which was one of our best performances for a long time. We had a really enjoyable weekend in Grantham: it was nice to spend time together as an orchestra, with plenty of great conversation over food. Many thanks to Helen Winter, John Gibbons and Callie Rich for organising everything.

Tom Robinson

16 November 2023

Last Friday we made a first visit to Storey's Field Centre - the impressive new community centre in the new district of Eddington on the outskirts of Cambridge - to see Tom Robinson in concert. Regular readers will know I am a big fan of Tom Robinson who we have seen perform many times across the country (see: https://culturaldessert.blogspot.com/search?q=tom+robinson). As usual Tom used the show to introduce a young musician he has been championing on his BBC 6 Music radio show. This time singer-songwriter Sam Eagle used the concert to launch his debut album ‘Are You Listening?’ Sam is a brilliant guitarist with a delicate, precise voice who writes beautiful, wistful songs. Tom Robinson often updates the lyrics to his songs - this time including references to Downing Street parties and other recent events - but, at 73 years old, he explained he can’t always remember the new words so he had printed them out, meaning he had to keep putting his glasses on mid-song to be able to read them: ah, the perils of getting older! His longevity has also caused him to update his 1994 song ‘What if we live to be fifty’ to ‘What if I make it to eighty’. It was great to see him again and to revisit 'Glad to be Gay', 'War Baby', '2-4-6-8 Motorway' and many other old favourites.

'Three Things About Elsie' by Joanna Cannon

8 November 2023

Joanna Cannon’s novel ‘The Trouble with Goats and Sheep’ (reviewed here in January 2022) charmingly used a naive first person narrator to turn a fairly normal domestic situation into a thrilling mystery. As we saw events primarily through the eyes of 10-year old Grace we were never entirely sure whether she had spotted sinister activities that the grown-ups hadn't noticed or whether she was mistakenly misinterpreting things she didn't understand. I've just finished reading Joanna Cannon's 2018 novel 'Three Things About Elsie' which uses a similar device but with the protagonist at the opposite end of her life journey. Here the first person narrator is Florence, a woman in her 80s living in a retirement home. As she starts to encounter signs that an intruder has been in her room, and the reappearance of a shadowy character from her past, we begin to wonder how much of what she tells us is true and how much is the result of her failing memory. Like 'The Trouble with Goats and Sheep' the story becomes a detective mystery as Florence and her friends try to uncover long hidden secrets. It's an entertaining and engaging novel, easy to read but full of beautifully turned phrases and much cleverer than it first appears. As with 'The Trouble with Goats and Sheep' I felt the brilliantly unsettling device of the ambiguity of the narrator was watered down by inserting chapters from the points of view of some of the other main characters. But Joanna Cannon creates a great cast of likeable characters who initially appear to be cartoonish but gradually reveal their sympathetic human depth.