Subject is watchless, repeat...
... watchless.
This evening's outing: to Bath Abbey with Toby to hear the Australian Chamber Orchestra with soprano Dawn Upshaw. The programme:
1. Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten*
2. Britten's Corpus Christi Carol
3. Five Hungarian Folksongs by Bartók
4. Takemitsu's Death & Resurrection (particularly good, that)
5. Bach's Cantatas "Ich bin vergnügt" and "Ich lege mich... Wie freudig ist mein Herz"
6. Schubert's Death & The Maiden quartet
7. Several encores.
Quite morbid, one might think, but actually rather good. Lessons learned:
1. You might vaguely remember what you booked to see, but it's very easy to feel lost without a programme.
2. If you sit around discussing the music for long enough after a concert, you may discover it's actually been the interval.
3. Unless you think it's worth paying an extra £7 to catch a distant glimpse of the double bass player, it may be as well to just stick to the £5 seats.
4. Norwegians expect an encore. (This isn't really relevant, since it's something I learned in a very different situation five years ago, but I was reminded of it so might as well mention it.
Thanks to Toby for the ice cream, and apologies for having to rush off - but it did mean that I was able to get to my home station within about 20 minutes of leaving the Abbey, which was excellent, and compares favourably with the almost two hours it would have taken had I not caught that train!
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*This was what drew me to this concert, having played it with UCP but not heard it live, and thinking that Bath Abbey would be a good place to do so. It didn't disappoint, though I did have a couple of reservations. I'm not sure the contrast between ppp and fff was quite as big as it could have been - though one doesn't want to stray into the realm of vulgarity, I do recall being coached to play 'louder than you think possible' (or somesuch) and it didn't really strike me that that's what they were doing. Of greater concern was the bell - firstly, I did hear it being struck at the end, whereas ideally you just hear it reverberating after the strings have stopped, and secondly, I also heard it a couple of bars earlier, where I didn't realise it was meant to be. Not having the score, I can't say whether this was wrong... Best give them the benefit of the doubt!
This evening's outing: to Bath Abbey with Toby to hear the Australian Chamber Orchestra with soprano Dawn Upshaw. The programme:
1. Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten*
2. Britten's Corpus Christi Carol
3. Five Hungarian Folksongs by Bartók
4. Takemitsu's Death & Resurrection (particularly good, that)
5. Bach's Cantatas "Ich bin vergnügt" and "Ich lege mich... Wie freudig ist mein Herz"
6. Schubert's Death & The Maiden quartet
7. Several encores.
Quite morbid, one might think, but actually rather good. Lessons learned:
1. You might vaguely remember what you booked to see, but it's very easy to feel lost without a programme.
2. If you sit around discussing the music for long enough after a concert, you may discover it's actually been the interval.
3. Unless you think it's worth paying an extra £7 to catch a distant glimpse of the double bass player, it may be as well to just stick to the £5 seats.
4. Norwegians expect an encore. (This isn't really relevant, since it's something I learned in a very different situation five years ago, but I was reminded of it so might as well mention it.
Thanks to Toby for the ice cream, and apologies for having to rush off - but it did mean that I was able to get to my home station within about 20 minutes of leaving the Abbey, which was excellent, and compares favourably with the almost two hours it would have taken had I not caught that train!
---
*This was what drew me to this concert, having played it with UCP but not heard it live, and thinking that Bath Abbey would be a good place to do so. It didn't disappoint, though I did have a couple of reservations. I'm not sure the contrast between ppp and fff was quite as big as it could have been - though one doesn't want to stray into the realm of vulgarity, I do recall being coached to play 'louder than you think possible' (or somesuch) and it didn't really strike me that that's what they were doing. Of greater concern was the bell - firstly, I did hear it being struck at the end, whereas ideally you just hear it reverberating after the strings have stopped, and secondly, I also heard it a couple of bars earlier, where I didn't realise it was meant to be. Not having the score, I can't say whether this was wrong... Best give them the benefit of the doubt!
posted by Z31 at 12:09 am
10 Comments:
I've worked out what you can become... leader of the Conservative Party! I was listening to Desert Island discs and David Cameron's background is surprisingly similar to what I imagine yours is. A 1st from Oxford (you've bettered that), well to do family, bastardised (in the actual sense) royal connections, etc.
Anyway, it was a thought. As long as you didn't come up with any green mumbo jumbo I'd vote for you. Caught that Honda fuel cell piece on Fifth Gear, I was dead impressed. Wouldn't mind one of those, might pose some problems with my employer though (can you guess what/who it/I is/am yet?), and they totally failed to point out that the entire venture is pointless without a clean source of energy such as the hydroelectric source on the island.
Anyway, I only caught the first 15 minutes of Desert Island Discs hoping to "listen again" to the rest later, but low and behold it's the one program not available for listening again because of copyright issues. ARGH!
I think in retrospect my favourite part of the concert may have been watching the light change within the Abbey from the full light of evening to darkness, with the lamps gradually casting more shadows against crazy masonry on the ceilings. To some very good music- I think I enjoyed the Paert, Takemitsu and Schubert best.
And good to see you, as ever.
TCH
Dude, I think we guessed who you were quite some time ago... You do have quite a ... distinctive style, shall we say.
I'm reasonably well-convinced that hydrogen fuel cells are the future for cars and other vehicles in the current mould, if indeed we continue to use vehicles in the same way. But the hydrogen infrastructure is barely even in its infancy yet.
Yes, DID is a famous special case (as noted here). I have heard it's something to do with not having been able to get permission from Roy Plomley (what with him having been dead for over 20 years).
Toby: yes, light is good :)
I just noticed "well to do family". I'd argue that you could hardly be more wrong. I shan't comment on the bastardised royal connections though...
Ah, well if you have guessed correctly it would explain why you haven't been on MSN recently, you blocked me (again).
That's fair enough, my style may be a little Housean (M.D.) and while it certainly isn't intended to be insulting, I can appreciate that it may be taken as such.
I'm not about to apologise, but I will say that I both respect and like you. You're articulate, intelligent and most entertaining company. It's a shame that you felt that you didn't have the time to be more sociable at Christ's. While the bar was an undeniably aggressive social arena and your brief forays into it must have left you feeling like you were under constant attack; had you stuck around you would come to appreciate that the verbal sparring was for the most part friendly (if incessant), and a valuable experience for later life. Having your opinions torn to pieces before your eyes by your closest acquaintances and having to eloquently defend them is surprisingly good practise for recruitment events, the greater working milieu and the world at large.
I hope that my manner isn't too overbearing to allow us to be friends. Now, as you have previously requested/demanded/threatened, I shall shed my cloak of anonymity. I cannot take credit for all of the anonymous postings, and I sincerely hope that some of the anonymi remain as such.
I do hope that you have correctly guessed my identity; otherwise stepping into the light will have been an unfortunate overplaying of my hand.
Ooh, dramatic!
Yes, I guessed correctly, and most of the anonymi are accounted for. There is one other, but I think she/he's outed by her/his place of work, which shows up as the ISP.
FYI I don't remember ever feeling under attack in the Buttery; it was pleasant to drop in for a while for some chat and sarcasm. But I didn't like the smoke (when there was smoke), didn't want to drink, and had too much work to do and frankly too short an attention span to spend all my time there! I think you underestimate how often I was there, though.
And yes, whilst we're being honest, I did block you again. For one thing, it was a subtle way of saying I was on to you; for another, we never really talk there anyway do we?
Anyway, thanks for your comment, I think.
To be honest I didn't chat over MSN because I thought it would blatantly reveal who was posting. I took considerable care to avoid calling attention to myself. If you feel able to remove the block I'd like that, but I'm not under any illusions as to why you placed it in the first place.
Anyway, it's nice to see your posts on the blog, I often wonder which of the 2005/6 Christ's students read it. I haven't the foggiest idea who most of the commentators are in real life but have built up some semblence of the relationships you have to them.
Thank goodness I can now post commentary with a chem eng flavour without having to severely mask it.
Am just watching a documentary about Frank Llyod Wright, the architect, you seem to have some interest in that field. My sister is doing architecture at Pembroke and needed me to strip the region/copy-protection from an American PBS DVD for her, I kept a copy on my hard drive and am finding it surprisingly interesting. One day I might well have to design my own house, I'm loving the open spaces he has for the ground floors of his private home designs.
What a strange project this has been for you...
Very few people are reading from Christ's as far as I know; I used to get the occasional visitor before I removed the link from my facebook page to discourage trolls from coming and flaming me... (At present, of course, I can't even sign in there)
how did you get shut out of facebook?
It just stopped accepting my password - and I've had to wait over a day for a new one!
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