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Cultural April
Wednesday, May 4th, 2016 09:44 pm03-APR-16: Brahms, Beethoven, Elgar (Nikolai Lugansky - piano; Yuri Temirkanov - conductor) - RFH
Beethoven's Coriolan overture seemed a little slow, a little hesitant. Brahms Piano Concerto #1 was utterly glorious (as ever). I hear something new every time I hear a live performance. This time around I noted that this is piano as percussion: something you hit. And the piano had evolved massively since Beethoven's day ... also a scale in 3rd movement that may have been borrowed by Holst. From where we were sitting I couldn't see Lugansky's hands (was surprised how much I missed that) and occasionally the piano was drowned out by brass. But yes, glorious, and jubilant.
Second half was Elgar Enigma variations. Still not a fan, though I can see they are fun and clever. I wondered if the mystery 'hidden melody' might be 'Lilliburlero': if so, nobody else has ever noticed, so it seems unlikely.
11-APR-16: Harry, by Caitlin McEwan -- N16 Theatre, the Bedford, Balham
A play about being a fan (in this instance a fan of Harry Styles from One Direction) and the intense friendships that fandom can foster. Harry focusses on Caitlin and Sophie, who meet at university and share an obsession with Mr Styles. But Sophie moves on ...
It didn't seem to me to be a play about fandom -- there was no sense of a wider fannish community, no mention of Tumblr or fanfic or meetups, just the two of them stalking Harry Styles via Twitter. It's more about obsession and evolving / failing friendship than it is about the fannish experience. But is that just because I don't recognise my own experience?
Excellent acting from Poor Michelle, in the persons of Cailin McEwan and Sophie McQuillan: sharp and funny and well-observed.
14-APR-16: 'The Italian Job' (Italian Baroque music) -- La Serenissima, Cadogan Hall
Quite a few pieces here that I wasn't familiar with, enlivened by brief introductions from Adrian Chandler. I learnt that Albinoni's famous Adagio is likely a 20th-century forgery, and observed that the proportions of a Baroque orchestra's string section are different to those of a modern syphony orchestra's. Especially liked Torelli's Sinfonia for Practically Everything [free translation] which confirmed my suspicion that Baroque brass is what really grabs my attention. Though Vivaldi's Concerta alla Rustica was also fab.
23-APR-16: Doctor Faustus (Marlowe, with modern interruptions from Colin Teevan), Duke of York's
I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to call this Doctor Faustus -- Marlowe's glorious text frames a comparatively trite and facile centre section, in which Faustus becomes a rock star or possibly a stage magician. There are some clever bits, and some interesting alterations (Wagner and Mephistopheles both female, as was Valdes; Faustus' book a Mac; pre-show soundtrack of songs about hell and the devil): but there is also gratuitous nudity, murder, rape and coprophagia.
Kit Harington was surprisingly good in the title role: Jenna Russell was outstanding as Mephistopheles (complete with a rendition of 'Bat out of Hell'). But I can't say that it was, on average, an enjoyable performance. As one of my companions pithed, "Less than the sum of its parts."
28-APR-16: Captain America: Civil War
( no spoilers )
Beethoven's Coriolan overture seemed a little slow, a little hesitant. Brahms Piano Concerto #1 was utterly glorious (as ever). I hear something new every time I hear a live performance. This time around I noted that this is piano as percussion: something you hit. And the piano had evolved massively since Beethoven's day ... also a scale in 3rd movement that may have been borrowed by Holst. From where we were sitting I couldn't see Lugansky's hands (was surprised how much I missed that) and occasionally the piano was drowned out by brass. But yes, glorious, and jubilant.
Second half was Elgar Enigma variations. Still not a fan, though I can see they are fun and clever. I wondered if the mystery 'hidden melody' might be 'Lilliburlero': if so, nobody else has ever noticed, so it seems unlikely.
11-APR-16: Harry, by Caitlin McEwan -- N16 Theatre, the Bedford, Balham
A play about being a fan (in this instance a fan of Harry Styles from One Direction) and the intense friendships that fandom can foster. Harry focusses on Caitlin and Sophie, who meet at university and share an obsession with Mr Styles. But Sophie moves on ...
It didn't seem to me to be a play about fandom -- there was no sense of a wider fannish community, no mention of Tumblr or fanfic or meetups, just the two of them stalking Harry Styles via Twitter. It's more about obsession and evolving / failing friendship than it is about the fannish experience. But is that just because I don't recognise my own experience?
Excellent acting from Poor Michelle, in the persons of Cailin McEwan and Sophie McQuillan: sharp and funny and well-observed.
14-APR-16: 'The Italian Job' (Italian Baroque music) -- La Serenissima, Cadogan Hall
Quite a few pieces here that I wasn't familiar with, enlivened by brief introductions from Adrian Chandler. I learnt that Albinoni's famous Adagio is likely a 20th-century forgery, and observed that the proportions of a Baroque orchestra's string section are different to those of a modern syphony orchestra's. Especially liked Torelli's Sinfonia for Practically Everything [free translation] which confirmed my suspicion that Baroque brass is what really grabs my attention. Though Vivaldi's Concerta alla Rustica was also fab.
23-APR-16: Doctor Faustus (Marlowe, with modern interruptions from Colin Teevan), Duke of York's
I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to call this Doctor Faustus -- Marlowe's glorious text frames a comparatively trite and facile centre section, in which Faustus becomes a rock star or possibly a stage magician. There are some clever bits, and some interesting alterations (Wagner and Mephistopheles both female, as was Valdes; Faustus' book a Mac; pre-show soundtrack of songs about hell and the devil): but there is also gratuitous nudity, murder, rape and coprophagia.
Kit Harington was surprisingly good in the title role: Jenna Russell was outstanding as Mephistopheles (complete with a rendition of 'Bat out of Hell'). But I can't say that it was, on average, an enjoyable performance. As one of my companions pithed, "Less than the sum of its parts."
28-APR-16: Captain America: Civil War
( no spoilers )
