2014/14: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay -- Michael Chabon

2014/14: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay -- Michael Chabon

In later years, holding forth to an interviewer or to an audience of aging fans at a comic book convention, Sam Clay liked to declare, apropos of his and Joe Kavalier's greatest creation, that back when he was a boy, sealed and hog-tied inside the airtight vessel known as Brooklyn, New York, he had been haunted by dreams of Harry Houdini. "To me, Clark Kent in a phone booth and Houdini in a packing crate, they were one and the same thing... It was never just a question of escape. It was also a question of transformation." [p. 1]

I've owned this novel, in paperback, since about 2003. When I first tried to read it, I couldn't connect: I neither knew nor cared about the early years of the American comics industry, or the superhero phenomenon, or the Comics Code.( slightly spoilery review )

Two half-concerts

1. Grand Organ Gala, RFH, 7-Jun-14
Missed the first half due to Abellio Greater Anglia, who did not give me sufficient information to enable me to choose a train that was running on time. Instead, I stood on the terrace drinking wine and firing off embittered tweets, while most of the stuff that I was there to hear (Bach Toccata and Fugue, Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, Mozart Requiem -- excerpts all, but still ...) was playing in the auditorium.

The organ -- which is a spectacular beast -- turned out to be illuminated in colour. I did enjoy Widor's Toccata (blue and red), and Albinoni's Adagio (purple): but I felt that most of the pieces in the second half featured organ as underpinning to orchestra, rather than as the star of the show.

The concert concluded with the Pomp and Circumstance march plus Land of Hope and Glory, featuring full choir. Why, yes, the organ was lit in red, white and blue.

2. Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #3, RFH, 12-Jun-14
Kirill Gerstein on piano: he is a joy to watch and as ever I discovered new aspects of the piece. This was a performance edging on madness, from the histrionics of the flute to the skittery nerves of the piano. (Also, the first time I'd experienced the downside of sitting in the choir: the brass actually drowned out the piano near the end of the third movement.) I'd never noticed before that orchestra and piano play to different beats at several points.

The encore was a showy and virtuousic Etude for the Left-Hand (Opus 36) by Felix Blumenfeld. If Gerstein can play like that with one hand ...

We skipped Shostakovich Symphony #5 in favour of cocktails and dessert at Le Pain Quotidien, because (a) you should quit while you're ahead and (b) adulthood means not having to be grown-up. Or something.