I’d heard so much about Igor Levit as this emerging talent which The Wig was promoting, so when this concert came up in the Twixtmas period, I thought it would be a good one for us.
I thought he was very good, but Janie thought he was showy and our friend Eric Rhode voted with his feet at half time, telling me afterwards that he found Levit’s playing very heavy handed.
He’s certainly getting rave reviews now; perhaps he was still a bit raw in 2014.
Here is a little snatch of Levit playing one of the Bach Partitas a few months earlier than our concert – it’ll give you an idea of his style and you can judge for yourselves:
…little did we know that we were seeing this play about NHS hospital chaos less than a fortnight before mum was to make her final, one-way trip to such a place.
As with Wildefire, there was some great acting, some wonderful lines and some super vignettes in there. Indira Varma was excellent, as usual; in fact the whole cast was good.
Perhaps it was just a bit too near the bone for me – not just in the mum aspect but also because I was doing so much work with NHS Foundation Trusts at that time. Definitely worth seeing, but no wow factor for either of us.
On this occasion, we decided to make the Z/Yen seasonal event “a musical house party” at our offices in Basinghall Street.
We weren’t exactly flush that year and we had a lot of musical people in our midst…
…well, one or two genuinely musical people and quite a lot of people who like to have a go.
It was the year that Mike Smith had induced me to start playing the baritone ukulele.
It was a bit like the definition of jazz – i.e. the musicians were enjoying themselves more than the audience. But that was OK because almost everyone WAS the musicians. And everyone was enjoying the party.
I’m grateful that Janie took pictures to help mark this event.
The usual traditions of Secret Santa, a little giftie for everyone and of course the seasonal song were all in play.
A rare offering in the lyrics department by Michael Mainelli that year. I think we agreed that, as Mike and I were putting together a whole load of musical entertainment, a revival of Michael’s contribution to the 2011 medley would do.
The lyric is not bad at all (is it possible I tweaked it a bit?) and well suited to an event in Basinghall Street:
OH LITTLE STREET OF BASINGHALL
(Sung to the tune of “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”)
Oh little street of Basinghall, On Guildhall’s shady side; Above old Gresham College Hall, Z/Yen’s offices reside.
Yet on the fourth floor slaving, Z/Yen staff work till they sink; While past the fifth floor sliding door, Directors eat and drink.
How noisily, how noisily, They party with the swish; To show off Z/Yen’s new office and, Promote “The Price of Fish”.
But now Z/Yen’s Christmas party, Is here so we can sell; This gastro dome, that wondrous time, To the tune of Jingle Bells.
This was a really excellent piece, performed beautifully.
We went to see this only a month before mum died, by which time her dementia was getting rapidly worse. So I went with a mixture of trepidation and eager expectation.
I needn’t have worried – the play handled dementia as its central theme with great balance and dignity. An excellent effort from a young playwright in his 20s. Barney Norris, you are now on our watch list.
We’d like to see more Print Room at the Coronet, but since this piece, on the whole they seem to be choosing stuff that isn’t up our street. Sort it out, Print Room folk.
Chock full of interesting ideas, this one generated lots of topics for me and Janie to discuss afterwards and had some lovely vignettes within it, yet it didn’t work quite so well for either of us as a coherent piece of drama.
Just occasionally we see something that is stunningly good…
…breathtaking. Good meaning that both of us, me & Janie, are saying “wow” to each other as we leave the theatre.
Pomona was that good.
It cemented our view that Paul Miller’s new regime at the Orange Tree really was going places, despite the dreaded Arts Council cuts.
We saw the play on the first Saturday. Had I been “real time Ogblogging” back then I’d have implored friends to drop everything and somehow get a ticket.
We were treated to a drinks reception, a talk by New York economist Nouriel Roubini who had many interesting insights into the post 2008 crisis world.
Then a delightful recital performed by the City Of London Sinfonia with Dame Felicity Lott. Writing this up more than three years later (February 2018), I nevertheless can report on all the pieces we heard…
…because my memory is so superb…
…especially when supported by some scribbled notes on my programme:
Elgar – Serenade For Strings;
R Strauss – Morgen!;
Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending;
Schubert – The Shepherd On The Rock.
No video from the actual evening, of course, but below is a short video of the City of London Sinfonia performing something else (a charming Mozart presto) somewhere else…
…and here is a live performance of Felicity Lott (with a different lot in a different grand setting) performing Strauss’s Morgen! which will give you a reasonable idea of the sounds we actually heard:
A play about modern policing in the inner-London suburbs, the central character being a policewoman who might have bitten off more than she can chew in that environment.
Roy Williams is a highly skilled playwright and this subject-matter is right up his street.
Lots of subplots – domestic violence, police corruption (or is it) in attempts to infiltrate criminal gangs etc.
In some ways the play was all over the place and in that sense unsatisfactory. We went on a Friday after work (and Harry Mograns) – we were quite exhausted by the end of it, despite the fact that it is a short piece (not even 90 minutes long).
But it was gripping and had some great scenes and some superb acting in it – we were glad to have seen this piece.
An American classic, performed on a very sparse set in a sort-of workshop style.
It worked for us.
There are elements of this play that could easily seem cheesy to the modern and non-US audience, yet this production managed to avoid the worst excesses of fromage and mawkishness – the piece came across to us as charming and touching.
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