Tag: Alban Berg

Katarina Karnéus & Julius Drake, Wigmore Hall, 8 April 2019

To “The Wig” at lunchtime for a concert of songs.

Romantic music from the late 19th early 20th century. Not the sort of music that Daisy normally goes for, but there were several songs by Alma Mahler in this concert; as Daisy knows Marina Mahler, the granddaughter, Janie was interested enough to give it a try.

Actually, the simplicity of the solo voice and piano pleased Daisy; the whole concert was very relaxing. Even the Alban Berg, which I thought might be a bit impenetrable, wasn’t.

I really liked the Sibelius song they performed on encore – Var det en dröm? – which I don’t think I had ever heard before.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall resources on this concert.It was one of those Radio 3 jobbies, so if you got here soon enough you can read all about it and/or listen to the concert on-line – click here.

On Janie’s suggestion, we had taken a sneak peak at Massimo Dutti before we got to The Wig. I had some colourful shirts put aside for me to try on after the concert.

But once the performance had ended, we both had a bit of a hunger on, so went to the Wigmore Hall restaurant, just for some soup, to tide us over until evening. Butternut squash soup it was, very tasty.

If you look at the table behind us, I inadvertently caught the performers at lunch –
Julius Drake glancing in our direction while talking to the woman to his left; Katarina Karnéus sitting to Julius Drake’s right

After soup, we legged it to Massimo Dutti where the young lady who had been serving us earlier was just about to give up on us and put the shirts away again. I bought four, which I shall always associate with this very enjoyable afternoon and concert.

A Night At The Proms With The Duchess & The Hallé Orchestra, 5 August 1999

In those days we used to take Janie’s mum, Pauline, aka The Duchess, to the Proms at least a couple of times a season.

She was partial to a bit of Mahler, and a bit of Ludwig van…

…and a bit of verbal ultraviolence, now I come think of it.

Anyway, this is what we heard:

  • Symphony No 7 in A major by Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Violin Concerto by Alban Berg
  • Adagio from Symphony No 10  by Gustav Mahler
  • Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario – Touch Her Soft Lips and Part by William Walton, arr. C. Palmer (encore)

The Hallé Orchestra, leader Lyn Fletcher, conductor Kent Nagano, violinist Kyung-Wha Chung.

All that information and more is on the excellent BBC Proms stub for this concert, which also enables you to hear and read about the stuff we heard – click here.

Janie’s diary suggests that we ate at Golden Chopsticks afterwards, with the helpful name “Mr Chow” jotted beside the phone number. (Harrington Road…long since gone.)

Alpine Symphony Prom, Royal Albert Hall, 5 September 1998

We took The Duchess (Janie’s mum) with us to this one – the only Prom we did with The Duchess that year. She was partial to youth orchestras, so this Saturday evening concert was the obvious pick for The Duchess that year.

Janie and I lived to tell the tale.

Here is the BBC Proms stub for that concert.

We heard:

  • Andrew March – Marine – a Travers les Arbres
  • Alban Berg – Seven Early Songs
  • Richard Strauss – An Alpine Symphony, Op 64

I don’t think the pre-interval pieces went down so well with us, but we were all there really for The Alpine Symphony.

Hillevi Martinpelto gave the songs some proper soprano wellie.

It was a joy to see Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting the European Union Youth Orchestra.

Here is The Telegraph review of that visit:

Prom 63 1998Prom 63 1998 07 Sep 1998, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com