tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post4007534767112066519..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: To the PhilharmonieDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-38519913866777173372011-04-10T21:04:04.185+01:002011-04-10T21:04:04.185+01:00One good reason to cheer: as part of Turku's 2...One good reason to cheer: as part of Turku's 2011 City of Culture programme, Finnish doctors are giving out concert and opera tickets as prescriptions for good health...what a marvellous idea.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-46838850359620824882011-04-10T13:36:38.051+01:002011-04-10T13:36:38.051+01:00One has to bear in mind that the German nation is ...One has to bear in mind that the German nation is fundamentally musical - to an extent scarcely believable over here. I have seen the ushers ( or whatever they are called)in a German opera house crowd into the students' box to hear "In fernen Land" during Lohengrin [I was there having sneaked out of the performance for some champagne so as to avoid the Wagner, but got back a bit early so went to the students' box]. AND they - the ushers - commented amonst themselves on the beauty of the performance ( it must be sung beautifully and not forced a la Domingo). Everywhere in Germany there is a fundamental delight in music as something important - I have heard the remark "more important than politics".<br /><br />This is not to argue that musical education should not be encouraged here. Indeed there are very strong reasons for this apart from the cultural - music speaks to the subconscious and can have a direct effect. I have heard that music can have a powerful and beneficial effect in mental treatment. Perhaps likely on evolutionary grounds<br /><br />On a positive note, I was told that many junior baristers listen to Mozart and Bach through ear phones when in chambers and writing their opinions.David Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-81206020284586752462011-04-08T18:04:34.233+01:002011-04-08T18:04:34.233+01:00Thanks, Susan, I can't tell you how it warms t...Thanks, Susan, I can't tell you how it warms the cockles of my heart to have another poster (I lost one) who responds so articulately and vividly to what I think I've got to say...<br /><br />Not quite sure why that cover's so very bad, Philip - those sticks are what he wields, and it makes him look a bit more, erm, masterful than he is in the flesh. At least they didn't counterpoint him with the monks which make this such a dodgy-sounding venture. I'd say the worst sleeves usually involve unlikely animals. I won't be looking at Gramophone if I can help it...<br /><br />Agreed, around the cathedral Exeter is beautiful. But too much of it was bombed, wasn't it, and replaced with indifferent 1950s architecture. But the train journey from Exeter to Teignmouth and Dawlish, along the estuary and then the sea, is one of the loveliest in Britain.<br /><br />DD, I guess the alcohol restrictions must be compensated for by the presence of police in lycra on bikes, as Wanderer pointed out.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-49894934852093784462011-04-08T16:43:12.944+01:002011-04-08T16:43:12.944+01:00I must say the record cover you feature in this bl...I must say the record cover you feature in this blog must be one of the most boring and silly in a long time. See May edition of Gramophone for other equally daft record covers from years past.<br />Philip Garton Jones<br />ps Exeter, where I live, is very beautiful, with a remarkable range of architectural periods to see for such a relatively small city(with reference to your architecture blogs, passim)Philip Garton Jonesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-48970310029717968262011-04-08T16:10:31.583+01:002011-04-08T16:10:31.583+01:00I tiptoe in, as my level of knowledge is so rudime...I tiptoe in, as my level of knowledge is so rudimentary, just to say how much I appreciate your reviews. I wonder, always, how much my ears would catch of what you describe so wonderfully--and I am in awe at your ability to describe music in words, which I think so incredibly hard to do. In your lovely piece on Edinburgh just before this, you provided a link to an arts desk review, where, even in a piece that you do not give high marks, I think (though the performance clearly did!), you write this, which will stay with me for a long time:<br /><br />"Then we plunged into the muscly determination of "the Leningrad", and a different sound was upon us even before the wind and brass - lined up antiphonally with the percussion in between them, trombones three and three, trumpets three and four - could make their acid mark." <br /><br />While, should I listen again to that piece, it will not be the same performance, I will want to have a copy of your review in hand to follow along and see what I can hear.Raining Acornshttp://rainingacorns.blogspot.com/2011/03/sailing-past-lachenmann-why-im-ecstatic.htmlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-44341882040679764662011-04-08T13:20:18.837+01:002011-04-08T13:20:18.837+01:00There are performances of Grieg at his house near ...There are performances of Grieg at his house near Bergen and when I was President of my European professional society my Council were taken to a concert there in the middle of the day. The performance was indeed in the house but in those days the audience sat in the open air, and in the first half it began gently to rain ( it always does in Bergen). In the interval I informed my Secretary General that I did not intend to stay....she replied "But you are the President - you can't leave". However I did, by sneaking quietly round a corner of the house. Of course everyone was watching to see what I would do and followed me - very rude of us I agree but ........They have now put up roofs for the audience, I think glass.<br /><br />The real blow was when we eventually got back to the hotel and found - just when one wanted something strong to warm one up - that no alcohol except beer was sold until the evening. What I have done for European unity!David Damantnoreply@blogger.com