A lovely concert of fairly standard baroque fare, beautifully performed by Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante.
We heard:
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in G Minor for Strings RV 157
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach – Sinfonia in F major F67 Die Disonanzen
Johann Sebastian Bach – Violin Concerto in G minor (after BWV 1056)
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Violin Concerto in B flat major op 8 No 10 La Caccia
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in D minor Op 3 No 11 for two violins, cello & strings
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in G minor for 2 violins and cello Op 3 No 2
There’s not much video of Europa Galante from that early period of their existence – but this one of them performing the delicious Vivaldi RV558 gives a good idea of what they looked and sounded like back then.
I had been a bit of a Kinky Friedman fan for a while before I met David Seidel. Michael Mainelli had recommended/lent two or three of Kinky’s novels to me, which I had very much enjoyed. Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola is a title I especially remember.
Also, fascinated by the idea that a group could even be moderately successful with the name Kinky Friedman & the Texas Jewboys, I had bought a couple of his albums on CD and found myself listening to them surprisingly often. Sold American in particular pleased me – here’s a link to the album on YouTube Music. I also have a copy of Lasso From El Passo – here’s the YouTube Music link to that one.
Anyway…
…Kinky came up in conversation with David Seidel one day, as well it might have done, given our shared interest in humorous music. David said that Kinky was due to play Brighton in November and that he and Rachel planned to go, as they lived out that way – Hove, actually.
Would Janie and I like to…
…naturally, that Sunday meet up was set.
I remember that afternoon/evening fondly. We started off at David & Rachel’s house – I think it might have been the first time that Janie and I met Rachel, then went under their local guidance to the show.
I’m pretty sure we all thought the show was good fun.
I remember talking about Janie’s and my visit to the Royal Court the previous evening and agreeing that we would arrange a reciprocal visit to London for the Royal Court in the new year, which we did.
But the centrepiece of the evening was Kinky Friedman, accompanied by but one of the former Texas Jewboys, Little Jewford, who was the last of that sub-tribe.
The following previous piece by Clark Collis in The Telegraph (of all sources) provides more background than most readers will want about Kinky and that tour…with plenty even for the most diligent readers.
Article from 18 Nov 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England)
Kinky’s performances at that time looked a bit like this. Trigger warning – Kinky Friedman parodied bigots and misogynists by using their style of language, some of which is very offensive:
And if you would like to learn more about Kinky through a documentary, here’s a 50+ minute documentary made about a year after that concert.
No idea what Part One was about – presumably Part Two looked the more interesting concert to us or Part One was on a date we couldn’t do.
We heard:
Josquin Desprez – Missa Sine nomine
Josquin Desprez – Memor esto
Josquin Desprez – Victimae paschali
Josquin Desprez – Tu solus qui facis mirabilia
Heinrich Isaac – Tota pulchra es
Nicholas Gombert – Magnificat IV
The Tallis Scholars under the leadership of Peter Phillips are always terrific at this sort of stuff. Among the finest exponents of Josquin, The Tallis Scholars have recorded the lot.
Here’s a recording of them singing Heinrich Issac’s Tota Pulchra Es:
While here is a short excerpt from the Gombert Magnificat.
I’m pretty sure that I bought my copy of that CD, with all the Gombert Magnificats, at that concert. That’s a recording I return to quite often, as it is so good. Here’s a link to the whole thing on YouTube Music.
Actually Julian Bream had to drop out of this concert at the last minute, so we got everyone else, but not him. We also got all the other pieces, but not the Bach Cello suite on the guitar.
I made no note about a replacement piece, so I suspect we had a shortened concert. This is what we heard:
Thomas Tallis – Loquebantur
John Taverner – Quemadmodum
William Byrd – Tribue, Domine
Fryderyk Chopin – Ballade No 1 in G minor, op 23
Johannes Brahms – Intermezzo in A major, op 118 no 2 –
Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner – Isoldens Liebestod
Leos Janacek – String Quartet no 2
My only other log note is that we bumped into James Davidson, who was (or probably by then, had been) the Director of Finance at Cancer Research Campaign, one of my earliest Z/Yen clients in the mid 1990s. He lived nearby in Notting Hill Gate and used to address me (in the street or at CRC) as “Lord Harris”, because he said my fee rates were so high. When we asked him for a testimonial to put on our spanking new Z/Yen website, he said:
expensive, but worth it…
…which we thought at the time was as good as it gets.
I suspect that this Tuesday night charity concert was expensive but worth it too.
Sadly, Julian Bream never recorded his live party piece of playing the BWV1012 Cello Suite on the guitar, but here’s a recording of a fine guitarist, Paulo Martelli, who has recorded his playing of part of it live:
So there’s the stuff we didn’t see or hear.
Here’s a recording of the Tallis Scholars singing Loquebantur, which is wonderful:
Here’s the Gesualdo Six singing Taverner’s Quemadmodum
Back to The Tallis Scholars, as there is a vid of them singing The Byrd:
PHILLIPS: Hey, are you looking at my Byrd?
There’s not a lot of Martin Roscoe to be found on-line – but here is Krystian Zimerman playing the Chopin:
I don’t suppose the Janáček string quartet much pleased us. Here’s the Amphion String Quartet doing their level best with it:
Gluttons for punishment that year – Janie and I took The Duchess to the Proms yet again.
This concert would have very much been my choice – perhaps endorsed by her ladyship. I am especially partial to Bach two violin concertos and a bit of Mozart 29. The English Chamber Orchestra were one of my favoured bands too. Maxim Vengerov too – what was not to like?
Pauline, The Duchess of Castlebar, was partial to a youth orchestra concert at the Proms. We always used to book at least one of those for her per season.
This one also had a fair smattering of her favourite type of English composers (Elgar, Walton) plus some family favourites. The royal theme to the first half of the concert was because that very day was The Queen Mother’s 100th birthday.
Unknown – National Anthem (arr. William Walton)
William Walton – Coronation March ‘Crown Imperial’
George Frideric Handel – Music for the Royal Fireworks
Edward Elgar – Overture ‘Cockaigne (In London Town)’
Article from 7 Aug 2000 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England)
After the concert, we went to a new restaurant in Ealing named Parade, which Janie and I had wanted to try. I don’t think Pauline was as keen on this idea – I have a scribbled note in my diary “Pauline will try”. I think she preferred familiar food and guaranteed fawning waiters by that stage of her life.
To mark the 250th anniversary of Bach’s demise, the Wigmore Hall treated us to a concert entirely comprising his music:
Johann Sebastian Bach – Contrapuncti Nos 1-5 from The Art of Fugue BWV 1080
Johann Sebastian Bach – Cantata: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit BWV 106
Johann Sebastian Bach – Cantata: Lass, furston, lass noch einen Strahl “Trauerode” BWV 198
Johann Sebastian Bach – Contrapunctus No 18 from The Art of Fugue
I don’t think the Purcell Quartet ever recorded The Art of Fugue. It does sound great in the string quartet format – here’s the Emerson Quartet’s recording:
The Purcell Quartet did record Bach trio sonatas around that time – the recording sounds great to my ears. I’ll be listening to all of these later – here’s a sample:
I cannot find Fretwork recordings of the pieces we heard that night, but this Netherlands Bach Society recording of “Trauerode” is rather lovely – albeit a larger orchestra than we heard at The Wig:
Here’s a recording of Nancy Argenta singing an aria from a different Bach cantata. It’s a rather yummy sound:
This concert will have been just the ticket for us after a busy week. No doubt one or both of us nodded off during some stage of the proceedings…in a good way.
This one has Pauline, Duchess of Castlebar’s fingerprints all over it. Not in terms of who paid for the evening, obviously, but in terms of who chose that concert.
A Wednesday evening (virtually guaranteeing a rush job for me and Janie after work), a large concert hall, big sound music…
…Janie does not much go for Beethoven orchestral works nor Mahler on a large scale. Mahler’s 6th would not be my first choice of Mahler symphony. I’m not sure it would even be my 6th choice.
Tim Ashley in The Guardian rated this concert “unmissable”. I always think that a bit harsh on anyone who wasn’t there at a concert, as they are by definition one-offs so anyone who wasn’t there missed it:
Article from 27 Jul 2000 Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England)
So, it was no doubt a seriously good concert, and in those days I still enjoyed the opportunity to hear large orchestral works…
…even if The Duchess was part of the price, both additional ticket-wise, plus the costly sense of nervous tension before and after the concert.
“Did the evening continue on to dinner with The Duchess, even after such a long concert?” I hear sympathetic readers cry, while sensing a wave of pity for me and Janie.
Yup, if Janie’s bookings diary is to be believed. Atlantis in Pitshanger Lane – one of the few restaurants in Ealing that would take such a late booking – probably still would 25 years later:
No doubt The Duchess insisted on one more cigarette, one or two more anecdotes hurled in the direction of the tolerant…some might say sycophantic…waiting staff, and zero appreciation that Janie and I both had really early starts the next day.
At sparrow-fart the next morning, Janie headed off to Ham to visit patients, while I headed off crack of dawn to Bristol to visit a Children’s Society site. It was “just what we did” back then – we wouldn’t dream of packing it in like that 25 years later.
Janie really was on a Baroque kick at that time – we even booked a Monday evening concert on a working day. Janie had cunningly arranged to see Carita, our dental hygienist, around the corner in Cavendish Square, but then ended up having to move that appointment. Once again, in the end, I recall that Janie hot-footed it (if you can hot-foot in a car) to the Wig, after making a late client visit.
Anyway, this concert focussed more on CPE than JS Bach, and was mostly an opportunity for Rachel Brown to show off her flute skills, which she did with aplomb.
We heard:
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Flute Concerto in G Wq 169
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – String Symphony in C Wq 182/3
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – Flute Concerto in D minor Wq22
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – String Symphony in G Wq 182/1
Johann Sebastian Bach – Sinfonia from Cantata “Non sa che sia dolore” BWV 209
Janie (Daisy) and I weren’t there for the tense ending of that match either. But we were nearby – there in spirit if not in body.
We had been eagerly following the match all day.
But that day was also the birthday of Daisy’s mother, The Duchess of Castlebar. I had bought tickets for the three of us to see a Bach concert at the Wigmore Hall for that evening.
Janie had quite recently acquired a taste for chamber concert halls and baroque music, perhaps a year or two earlier. The Duchess tended to prefer large scale concerts of the Proms variety; we mostly booked those for her. But the Proms don’t get going until a bit later in the summer and it was the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death that year. So Bach at The Wig it was to be.
Anyway, that afternoon the Lord’s Test Match was beautifully poised and/but for reasons I cannot recall – had there been a lot of overnight rain? – the day’s play had been delayed and was playing out until quite late.
The Duchess is an avid follower of the cricket as well as a music aficionado. We called her to let her know that we were on the way to collect her. We could all listen to the ending of the cricket match together on the car radio on our way to The Wig.
As we drove to the Duchess’s residence, England wickets fell and the match seemed to be drifting in The West Indies direction. Daisy and I anticipated a dark mood and we were not disappointed.
Thrown it away, they’ve thrown it away…
…said The Duchess. We set off for Marylebone (the southern end thereof).
The Duchess explained to us, as she had several times before, that Denis (Compton), Ted (Dexter), Colin (Cowdrey) Ken (Barrington), Geoffrey (Boycott) and players of that ilk – whom she had met together with her late husband in the good old days- would not have thrown it away like this.
We arrived at The Wigmore Hall. England hadn’t lost a wicket for a while. Was it possible that they could snatch victory from the very jaws of defeat?
Daisy parked up – it was a warm sunny evening so we sat in the car with the roof open and the car radio on, listening to the denouement of the cricket match.
The Duchess Of Castlebar
Try to imagine the scene, dear reader, as it must have looked to passing tourists who understand little or nothing about cricket. A distinguished-looking septuagenarian with her family sitting in a car leaping around in their seats, oohing and aahing every 45 seconds or so as the commentator spoke.
Then, those same seemingly dignified folk whooping with joy for a while, before sealing up the car and entering the Wigmore Hall. Tourists: meet the English.
Basically it was an organ recital of JS Bach works by Jennifer Bate. When you click that preceding link you get some eye candy as well as the organist in question, as Jennifer Bate shares her name with a subsequent Miss England and sporting WAG.
Click the pic to read about the organist Jennifer Bate
It was a fine concert of mostly well-known Bach organ works. An example of one of the pieces (Bach after Vivaldi as it happens) can be seen and heard below.
To be precise, extracted from my log, we heard:
Johann Sebastian Bach – Chorale Partita BWV 767
Johann Sebastian Bach – Prelude and Fugue in D Minor BWV 539
Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata No 4 in E Minor BWV 539
Johann Sebastian Bach – Chorale Prelude BWV 740
Johann Sebastian Bach & Johann Ernst – Concerto No 4 in C BWV 595
Johann Sebastian Bach & Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto No 2 in A minor BWV 593
Johann Sebastian Bach – Pastorale in F BWV 590
Johann Sebastian Bach – Chorale Prelude BWV 645
Johann Sebastian Bach – Fugue in G BWV 577
A sad coda to this Ogblog piece was the discovery that Jennifer Bate died in March 2020, just a few weeks before I wrote this piece.
Here’s another video of her playing one of the pieces we heard that night; Concerto in C BWV 595 (Ernst arr. Bach).
Below is the sort-of programme handed out on the night – it wouldn’t be an organ recital without an organ appeal, now would it?
