It’s been a while. I’ve got no excuse. It’s not as if I’ve
been out every night. I guess I’m more tired than I realise. It all started to
go wrong last Thursday night and, one week later, I’m still out of sorts.
Let’s get the obituaries out of the way, first. As I type,
BBC4 is showing ‘Top of The Pops 77’. She’s not on this particular edition, but
1977 was the year that Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ was blaring out of every
radio and at every school disco. Georgio Moroder’s hypnotic backing track
provided the ideal accompaniment to Ms. Summer’s voice and catapulted her into
the mainstream. Eh? Yes, the mainstream. Don’t you remember her more saucy
records? She went on to have a successful career, with many hits in the UK. My
favourite is ‘Dinner With Gershwin’, which came much later, and her duet with
Barbra Streisand, ‘Enough Is Enough’, is worthy of mention, but she’ll always
be remembered, fondly, by those of a certain age, for ‘I Feel Love’.
Both this week’s and last week’s rehearsals went reasonably
well. Brahms and Kabalevsky are beginning to sound good enough to fool the
audience into thinking that some of us can actually play, but it appears that
‘The Great Gate of Kiev’ from ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ shall not let us
pass. With only 23 days to go, why am I blogging?
Last Wednesday, I went back to the RCS for ‘The Duchess of
Malfi’ and on Thursday, I was at the Citizens Theatre for ‘King Lear’ (where it
was almost hours before there was a comfort break). I’m not qualified to talk
about these plays (or ‘Measure for Measure’ from the previous week), but the
high body count was noticeable. Perhaps I’ll return to the subject of
Renaissance drama in the Autumn, when I’ll be having a much closer examination
of ‘The Duchess of Malfi’, in an effort to ‘do’ English Literature?
I had a normal Friday, re-acquainting myself with the
washing machine, and Saturday was spent engaged in shopping and banking duties.
Sunday brought rain and a party. The SPL trophy was presented to the 2011-2012
champions, but not before a jazz band, a juggler, a unicyclist, the Elvis
Cleaning Company and the Thai Tims entertained the crowd, and Gary Hooper
scored five goals to send the Jambos back to Edinburgh with their tails between
their legs.
Monday found me in the City Halls for the Merchant Voices
Summer Concert. Apart from the audience clapping between movements, it went
well. Accompanied by the St. James Orchestra, they treated us to, among other
things, Faure’s ‘Requiem’ and a rendition of ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ that had
me wiping the tears from my tired, old eyes. I think I might go and see their
next concert (ahem).
To round off, some words about the BBC SSO ‘Afternoon
Performance’ at the City Halls. It really isn’t that long since the name
‘Stravinsky’ would give me the heebeegeebees. The second piece after the
interval, the plinky-plonky ‘Movements for Piano and Orchestra’, could only
serve to reinforce that prejudice or misconception. The rest of the programme,
however, was a delight, and well worth taking a half a day of leave from the
cultural backwater that is my day job.
Opening with what we would call ‘Song of the Volga Boatmen’,
the SSO, and guest soloist (where appropriate), Steven Osborne, treated us to
quite a few interesting works by this versatile composer; ‘Concerto in D for
String Orchestra’, ‘Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra’, an orchestration of
Chopin’s ‘Grande Valse Brillante’ and the ‘Concerto for Piano and Wind
Instruments’. Perhaps it’s time I confronted my fears?
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