David Latane wrote:
> Last night we heard the 25-year old concertmaster of
> the Richmond Symphony (Karen Johnston) play the
> Sibelius violin concerto, with her new old fiddle. The
> audience for Classical music may be dodgy as Douglas
> says, but the quality in places like Richmond,
> Virginia, is better than ever.
> http://www.standmagazine.org (Stand Magazine, Leeds)
I think eccentric might be a better word than dodgy. Saturday last in
Leicester, at the beautiful and should not exist church of St James the
Greater (built 1899-1914 and not too many doors away from Larkin's favourite
attic-flat), we heard the Berlioz Te Deum, some songs by Faure, excerpts
from Vierne, and the Duruffle Requiem (a work which was new to me). The
performers were the amteur but dedicated City of Leicester choir, fronted by
semi-pro bass, tenor and soprano and supported by the church's organist.
Things like this go on all the time, and get little publicity, as a friend
of mine is in the choir I know just how much hard work goes into preparing
their 6 to 8 concerts a year, you know, rehearsals twice a week, almost week
in week out, they get the odd 'holiday'.
It's quite comparable to the amount of work that goes into supporting
'serious' poetry in the fact of its unpaidness, though I would suggest that
the musicians on average are more au fait with the techiques of their art. I
didn't report, btw, just how enjoyable Jack Mapanje's reading here the other
week was, one of the interesting things was this was a joint venture with De
Montfort University, which is literally over the road from where I live, for
the first time, after living next door for over seven years, I was able to
make links with people based there, the irony of our mutual co-existence at
close quarters without mutual awareness was a treat.
Anyhow the Mapanje reading was a 'success': we had 34 people there! (The
concert had about 150, a 'smallish' turnout!)
Just read Hamburger's translation of W.G.Sebald's 'After Nature' - anyone
else know the work - I'd be interested in discussion of aspects of it.
Best
Dave
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