This concert will have been a birthday/bank holiday present to myself (and Janie). No chance that Pauline would be joining us for this one! My diary pointedly says “J&I” while Janie’s, equally pointedly, reads, “Ged & Me”.
We had already celebrated birthdays with John & Mandy at their place (Cambridge Road in those days) on the Saturday evening.
Back to the Monday Prom – just two big Germanic pieces:
Richard Wagner – Tristan and Isolde (Prelude and Liebestod)
Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 7 in E major
Top orchestra, top conductor, top notch concert.
In fact, we were due to hear Claudio Abbado conduct this concert, but he had to withdraw due to ill health. I was hoping to do for Janie what Jilly had done for me a few years earlier, viz “you’ve got to see Abbado at least once”…but it was not to be.
Neither Janie nor I remember much about this play/production. Nor did I write any comments about it in my log – just the details of the visit.
The play is about a Samaritan helping a desperate young woman and the Samaritan becoming emotionally entangled with her. Janie would doubtless look on the whole thing very differently 25 years on, having been a Samaritan since the pandemic – i.e. for over five years at the time of writing.
The leads were played by Julian Wadham and Claudie Blakely, both of whom we rate highly. I do recall that I had been to see Julian Wadham perform more than once “back in the day” with Bobbie and her work colleagues from the law reports, as Julian’s sister, Sarah, worked with them. I also recall that this theatre visit came up in conversation at Bobbie’s place a few day’s before we went to see this play, when Janie and I visited her for dinner the previous Saturday.
I came across an entry in my diary for 24 August 2000 which had me completely…
…forgive the pun…
stumped.
17:00 Children’s Society, Regent’s Park
I couldn’t remember a thing about this event. It certainly wasn’t a Z/Yen thing.
Following some archaeology on the old e-mails, I ascertained that this was some sort of a match between The Children’s Society and Cable and Wireless; but still nothing came back to my memory.
It was clear from the e-mail trail that both Nigel and Chas had been involved with this match, so I wrote to both of them to see if they had any recollection of this event.
I needn’t have worried – yes they did.
Their replies were so comprehensive…
…and amusing…
…that with a little bit of sub-editing they made a very jolly two-hander for the King Cricket website, which published the piece in January 2018 – click here or below to read the piece.
To my mind, this is one of the wonderful things about Ogblog – an opportunity to re-engage such memories. Sometimes an event that was not so memorable for me might have been, for some reason, especially memorable for someone else.
Nigel – still shouting from the rooftops about the August 2000 match, perhaps?
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?
I gave this production a one word review in my log:
Marvellous.
I remember that Janie and I had awaited this one eagerly. I remember that Ben Daniels was especially good in it, as were James Hazeldine, Paul Ritter, Julie Walters and Catherine McCormack. Howard Davies directing – and indeed the Cottesloe, now Dorfman as a location – were consistently good back then.
Charles Spencer in the Telegraph had to set aside his antipathy towards Arthur Miller because he thought this production so good:
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.
I remember thinking this play and production was rather good, although I wrote nothing positive or negative about the experience in my log. We’re both partial to Frank McGuiness and the Abbey Theatre Dublin as an ensemble rarely lets us down.
Perhaps I was too exhausted to write a comment after a week of total culture-vulturing – three museums/galleries, two concerts, two plays and a heck of a lot of work in-between.
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.
