tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post3230920022151360401..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Magdalen in MarchDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-16905752350516915252014-03-30T11:24:27.762+01:002014-03-30T11:24:27.762+01:00The Victorian bits of Magdalen, including the bulk...The Victorian bits of Magdalen, including the bulk of the chapel, are extremely well done, if mostly pastiche-y.<br /><br />When I cycle past the east end of Westminster Abbey on my left and the Houses of Parliament on my right, I do think a very fine complimentary job was done there, too.<br /><br />Now off to investigate Cardinal Newman. Parts of Gerontius ain't half bad as poetry.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-27397740809471686712014-03-30T10:58:43.771+01:002014-03-30T10:58:43.771+01:00It is sometimes asked "Shall we ever get the...It is sometimes asked "Shall we ever get the Victorians in perspective?". I believe that we already have. Let me put it this way - the great advantage of being inside Keble is that one is not looking at the outside. And the generation that held that the soppy sentimentally of "The Lost Chord" was vastly superior to Sullivan's work with Gilbert ( and said so,over and over again)displayed so clear a demonstration of the decay of taste in that period as to raise one's appreciation of Picasso to even grater heightsDavid Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-54303151630423113342014-03-28T23:00:56.620+00:002014-03-28T23:00:56.620+00:00I'm especially glad you like Schwanewilms, Gav...I'm especially glad you like Schwanewilms, Gavin - she is not to all tastes but then she draws you in rather than strenuously reaching out. And you of all people must admire her nuanced German (just because she's German herself it wouldn't necessarily follow, but this is one very intelligent soprano...).<br /><br />Stephen Johnson's wonderful vicar friend's wife Sally teaches (or did) at the Downs School, I think. We've walked through it on a shortish hike from Malvern to Colwall. One thing which it tickled me to learn was that the boys really were encouraged to take their beds out on to the lawn in the windless nights of June - hence the so-poetic-seeming opening line can be taken at face value, though I'd rather keep my original impression of it.<br /><br />It also amuses me, with just a touch of poignancy that quickly passes with reminders of happy times at Edinburgh, that I didn't get to Keble from my grammar school (where we were told it was one of the few colleges we might be accepted) and that you did many years later...<br /><br />Oh, and Sue, I do hope you can find Jarvi's earlier BIS series. I remember the DG Sixth being nowhere near as natural. His Nielsen cycle for that company, though, is stunning - get ready for 2015 when both will have, I hope, equal honours. And Sakari will be conducting all six Nielsen symphonies.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-28382546048669725432014-03-28T22:40:17.382+00:002014-03-28T22:40:17.382+00:00How marvellous to read this David... so many share...How marvellous to read this David... so many shared favourite things. Oxford, Auden's 'Summer Night' – one of my first loves was a boy who had come to my school from The Downs – Strauss, Schwanewilms. "We already see so much," as Robert Walser once wrote. Gavin Plumleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08367649538228383713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-18226960396845202862014-03-28T19:17:15.156+00:002014-03-28T19:17:15.156+00:00You are unbelievable! How many hours are in your d...You are unbelievable! How many hours are in your day?? Many, many thanks--I've been able to pull up all of Berglund on Spotify, as well as Jarvi/Gothenburg (though for the latter the label is DG). Also pulled up MO/Vanska 1&4 for comparison, to see if I can hear what you hear, so to speak. I do look forward to revisiting the symphonic poems, which I started to collect after you wrote about Luonnotar. As for swimming in the soup, well, as Schoenberg said, he (and our friend DDS) have "the breath of symphonists." Such a beautiful way to put it, no?Susan Scheidhttp://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-23695081132180475942014-03-28T15:42:47.860+00:002014-03-28T15:42:47.860+00:00Funny, now that it's grey again I was just thi...Funny, now that it's grey again I was just thinking exactly that - that I would like to walk back in to the first picture (all the more so as it does a kind of jump sometimes as if it's coming to life). Stockholm last week was several weeks behind in that the crocuses were still profuse, but oh how warm it was in the sun. And of course Scandinavians sit outside in shirtsleeves at the first possible opportunity.<br /><br />You also coincide with another Sibelius binge I'm having, working my way through a huge box of the late great Paavo Berglund's Sibelius (EMI). You may guess my alltime favourite, Neeme Jarvi, whose first Gothenburg recording of the Sixth is a desert island disc - but those BIS recordings aren't so easy to assemble now. Ditto Jukka-Pekka Saraste's cycle on Finlandia. Vanska's recordings sound dim and unbackboney too because he uses the OK but not great Lahti Symphony Orchestra in the ones I have. Incidentally I dislike the Minnesota sound too and thought their joint performance of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle the speediest and least atmospheric I'd ever heard.<br /><br />Enjoy swimming in the soup, as Sibelius said interpreters should do with his music. There's no better world than his, I'm coming to think, because he never deals in certainties (unlike Beethoven). The miracles of final chords, the wonder of tonality, are never greater than with Sibelius.<br /><br />Whatever you do, listen to The Bard and The Oceanides as well as the symphonies, of course.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-57974459859332448522014-03-28T15:35:01.347+00:002014-03-28T15:35:01.347+00:00Oh, yes, on the instrumental coloring! I love the ...Oh, yes, on the instrumental coloring! I love the quote from Johnson. Interesting what you write about Vänskä, so different from the perception of his Sibelius interpretations among critics here. I want to turn to listening again to Sibelius's symphonies in prep for our trip, actually, & would love to know what interpretation(s) you would recommend.<br /><br />Last not least, and I should have written this in my first comment: with winter still stubbornly clinging on here, the golden photographs and lovely flowers you've included here are even more enticing than usual. Every time I visit here, I do NOT want to leave, but rather to walk into, those photographs of yours. Susan Scheidhttp://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-66083869225316737272014-03-28T09:20:05.711+00:002014-03-28T09:20:05.711+00:00Not only never a note out of place, but never a wr...Not only never a note out of place, but never a wrong instrumental colouring. I shall never forget tenor Ben Johnson being asked before a Cadogan Hall Prom whether Britten wrote amazingly for the tenor voice and he replied: 'he writes amazingly for EVERY instrument'.<br /><br />The Anne Schwanewilms interview will appear just before her appearance with the LSO and Mark Elder in Rosenkavalier excerpts, mid-May, I think.<br /><br />As for Vanska, I'm sure I've written about him here before. So many folk seem to think he's a great Sibelius interpreter, but for me his bullying conducting style hard-hits the wrong things, and the Sibelius 5 I heard him conduct completely missed the nodal point in the first movement. I understand he's admired for his stance in the Minnesota debacle.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-90161921366336601952014-03-28T01:00:06.867+00:002014-03-28T01:00:06.867+00:00I would love to have such a guide to BB--I have th...I would love to have such a guide to BB--I have this sense with him that there is simply never a note out of place. Say, I didn't spot your interview with AS yet. Did I miss it, or is it not yet up? Did spot your two reviews that included Adams pieces. The BBSCO/Oramo was quite a line-up, and interesting about your take on Shos 5/Mvmt 1, which makes sense to me. It seems to me that really, the place it falls off is at the very end. Was surprised at your comment on Vänskä. As I'm sure you know, he's quite the hero here, and deservedly so. He's certainly had very high marks here for the Sibelius cycle, by all accounts.Susan Scheidhttp://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-90529180371217244572014-03-27T07:48:54.529+00:002014-03-27T07:48:54.529+00:00Our Wigmore journey with the Jerusalems goes (chro...Our Wigmore journey with the Jerusalems goes (chronologically I think) from 7 to 15 over two weeks. I'm looking forward to setting it up at the hall and finishing with the last three for the Friends of the JQ.<br /><br />Glad you got the Katie Mitchell film and not the dreadful Hungarian grand guignol attached to the Philips recording. As I remember I don't always share KM's point of view but it's a gripping piece of work and Lisa Milne is terrific (down to earth Scots lass with GSOH and colourful language). The best production of the opera I've seen in any shape or form was Graham Vick's Glasgow Tramway production which a student had filmed from the telly (it never reached DVD). <br /><br />As for the work itself, your wish for a nuts-and-bolts guide to form re Shostakovich would yield results that might amaze you about BB's structuring.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-23430905169964757112014-03-27T01:08:56.501+00:002014-03-27T01:08:56.501+00:00I love that you've come up with not just one e...I love that you've come up with not just one excellent name for Kate, but two: La Weiner and Lady of the Tarts! I, too, wish I had a talent for wit like that. But, alas, it seems sincerity/earnestness is my long suit. To your questions, the Emerson SQ is doing the late quartets, 11-15, I won't be able to hear the 15th, very sad about that, but at least the other four. I didn't speak with McBurney--he was immediately surrounded by several people who clearly had much to say, so I let it go. Last, but absolutely not least, I watched a DVD tonight of the complete Turn of the Screw. Wrenching. His sense of musical drama is extraordinary (or name your superlative). (As I'm sure you'll ask, it was the Opus Arte with Mark Padmore as Quint, Lisa Milne as Governess, BBC Orchestra, Hickox conducting.)Susan Scheidhttp://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-53222777022191973762014-03-26T15:25:19.825+00:002014-03-26T15:25:19.825+00:00David, you and Talleyrand are in agreement - on on...David, you and Talleyrand are in agreement - on one point at least. More and better progress, he said, can be made around a table with a table cloth than around a table without a table cloth ( mutatis mutandis: I am sure he would accept the principle of a kitchen table with no cloth, but still with good exchanges of view, since it was the dining he was promoting) David Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-35243445313727966892014-03-26T10:34:36.597+00:002014-03-26T10:34:36.597+00:00The kitchen table was always the focal point of ou...The kitchen table was always the focal point of our student life in Edinburgh's Dundas Street (after first year, meals in Pollock Halls always a good meeting point if never a fine culinary experience). All the best chats happen round a dining table of some sort, don't they? And there's been much in the news about children missing out on the ritual of the family meal.<br /><br />If you haven't read the piece by the Lady of the Tarts, for which Sue provides a link, I recommend you do so.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-75702825928407890382014-03-26T09:22:44.108+00:002014-03-26T09:22:44.108+00:00Although special dinners may be formal at Cambridg...Although special dinners may be formal at Cambridge the ceremony of dining every night is vanishing at most college high tables, Cheshire Cat like. The usual excuse is that the fellows wish to go home to their families but I fear that more basically the formal meal ( in homes as well, so that children graze and therefore lose a dimension of their education by missing conversation around the table) is something people do not want. Having a proper meal is referred to, horresco referens, as "fine dining"<br /><br />I was told in France the "placement" is an English adoption, and that the correct French is "mise en place"David Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-79525125222976171232014-03-25T23:52:30.047+00:002014-03-25T23:52:30.047+00:00La Weiner is a wonder: reminds me that I should so...La Weiner is a wonder: reminds me that I should sometimes eschew impressionism for a more taut narrative, though I lack the wit. How well I know the horror of the placement (plassmon). J and I decided we would adopt the 'ten questions' line - when you feel you've got that far and your fellow guest has asked not a single question of you, it's time to feel comfortable enough to turn away.<br /><br />The worst situation was at the French Ambassador's residence where I was stuck for 45 minutes with neither the person on my right nor the person on my left addressing a single word to me, after the basic courtesies and a promising enough start on one side (that lady then having to speak to the man on her left). I went in to meditation mode to keep calm and not flee.<br /><br />Wednesday before last's lunch was nothing of the sort, though I did feel I was being primed by a perfectly nice marketing man. Then John Mark hailed me across the table and, probably very loudly, we waxed eulogistic about Richard Jones. Anyway, it was in the beautiful surroundings of the Master's Lodgings, not the formal hugeness of the great hall.<br /><br />AS reported her experience wryly - apparently she could only see Jurowski through a tiny gap, which they both laughed about - and by no means entirely negatively, as if to say that good stage pictures were valid(ish) too. And as usual I guess a Met show is only as good as its production team and singers.<br /><br />Did you get a chance to chat to Gerard? How we miss him here: one of the best, and always very supportive in the Russian sphere. And are you getting a complete Shostakovich quartets cycle? Ours completes this coming month in the hands of the superlative Jerusalem Quartet at the Wigmore.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-69058987765721036232014-03-25T01:18:33.755+00:002014-03-25T01:18:33.755+00:00Your lunch brings to mind a story told by Kate, wh...Your lunch brings to mind a story told by Kate, who'd been our wonderful Tart Lady here, but has now gone back to Cambridge, from whence she graduated many years ago, to write. She told the tale of her calamity on attending a Formal Hall dinner <a href="http://kateweiner.blogspot.com/2014/03/ticking-boxes.html#more" rel="nofollow">here</a>. She's most amusing, as always (or at least I think so)! <br /><br />As for the Met & Anne Schwanewilms, it's definitely useful to get the inside scoop. I'm not surprised at what she reports, though dismayed. I'm already off the Met, and this just clinches it. The wrong values in ascendancy there, clearly. <br /><br />Did think of you last night, at a program by the Emerson Quartet, Shos SQs 11 & 12, with Mendelssohn's last quartet between. There was interesting programmatic logic to it, as explained by Gerard McBurney in an enjoyable pre-concert talk. But no matter the logic, to this listener's ears, there was no resonance at all among the M and S works. Ah, well, next time out, the companion quartet is Britten's 3rd. That, I am sure, will be a good match.Susan Scheidhttp://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.com