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tamaranthCity of London Sinfonia - Conquering the Antarctic
It's the centenary year of Robert Falcon Scott's death on the way back from the South Pole: this concert programme (with performances in Cardiff, Cheltenham and London still to come) commemorates his life and death.
The concert opens and closes with the music of Vaughan Williams -- first his score for Scott of the Antarctic, and finally the Antarctic Symphony, which builds on and expands the earlier work -- and excerpts from Scott's journals, read by Hugh Bonneville. There's also Seventy Degrees Below Zero, a new work for orchestra and tenor by Cecilia McDowall, who was present at the Corn Exchange last night and took a bow. (I engaged with this one differently to the Vaughan Williams: it's more challenging listening but blends Scott's words -- transformed and reordered by poet Sean Street -- beautifully with McDowall's orchestration.) And there was a slideshow of photos from the expedition, not always well-synchronised to the music: Oates and his ponies to the music of wide open spaces, penguins looking dapper ...
Scott's determination to die, if not live, a hero -- and his sharp disappointment at being 'beaten' by Amundsen -- still bothers me. But now I want to reread my favourite books about the Antarctic: Below the Convergence, Antarctic Navigation, The Birthday Boys, Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica, Ursula Le Guin's South.
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anef and I arrived at the Corn Exchange it was snowing lightly. When we emerged there were several inches of snow on the ground, and a miniature blizzard through which we battled back to base camp our homes. It was dead authentic, though I bet Scott didn't have to contend with young women in short skirts and sparkly stilettos negotiating icy pavements.
It's the centenary year of Robert Falcon Scott's death on the way back from the South Pole: this concert programme (with performances in Cardiff, Cheltenham and London still to come) commemorates his life and death.
The concert opens and closes with the music of Vaughan Williams -- first his score for Scott of the Antarctic, and finally the Antarctic Symphony, which builds on and expands the earlier work -- and excerpts from Scott's journals, read by Hugh Bonneville. There's also Seventy Degrees Below Zero, a new work for orchestra and tenor by Cecilia McDowall, who was present at the Corn Exchange last night and took a bow. (I engaged with this one differently to the Vaughan Williams: it's more challenging listening but blends Scott's words -- transformed and reordered by poet Sean Street -- beautifully with McDowall's orchestration.) And there was a slideshow of photos from the expedition, not always well-synchronised to the music: Oates and his ponies to the music of wide open spaces, penguins looking dapper ...
Scott's determination to die, if not live, a hero -- and his sharp disappointment at being 'beaten' by Amundsen -- still bothers me. But now I want to reread my favourite books about the Antarctic: Below the Convergence, Antarctic Navigation, The Birthday Boys, Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica, Ursula Le Guin's South.
When
anef and I arrived at the Corn Exchange it was snowing lightly. When we emerged there were several inches of snow on the ground, and a miniature blizzard through which we battled back to 
