A Night At The Proms Without The Duchess But With Trevor Pinnock & The English Concert, 8 August 1999

Liberated from hosting The Duchess at The Proms, Janie and I went along to this concert on a Sunday evening planning nothing more than a light supper at my flat after the show. It was a Sunday evening and we both had ridiculously early starts the next morning.

Here’s the running order:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach, Singet dem Herrn, BWV 225
  • Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 49 in F minor ‘La passione’
  • Joseph Haydn, Non nobis, Domine, Hob. XXIIIa:1
  • Joseph Haydn, Insanae et vanae curae
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Requiem in D minor (compl. Süssmayr).

This was an excellent concert. You don’t need to take my word for that – it seems it got rave reviews afterwards. It has taken me 25 years to check out those rave reviews, but that’s me.

Here’s Geoffrey Norris in The Telegraph:

Pinnock Telegraph NorrisPinnock Telegraph Norris 09 Aug 1999, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Tom Sutcliffe in the Standard was a little more equivocal, but still wrote very well of the gig.

Pinnock Sutcliffe StandardPinnock Sutcliffe Standard 09 Aug 1999, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Janie, Me & MTT At The Barbican, 18 April 1999

As if being spotted by Elvis Costello at the theatre wasn’t enough celebrity stuff for one weekend…

…we also went to The Barbican Hall to see Michael Tilson Thomas, at the behest of Josh Robison, Michael’s partner/business manager and latterly husband. Janie had started to treat those two a year or so earlier.

MTT more recently

It seemed only polite to go, not least because there was to be a reception after the concert etc.

We heard:

  • Symphony No 21 in A, Joseph Haydn
  • Viola Concerto, Bela Bartok
  • Symphony No 2 in D Major Op 43, Jean Sibelius

We hoity-toitied a bit after the show at the party. I got to meet Josh but only saw MTT from afar.

All good stuff.

Haydn & His English Friends, Wigmore Hall, 20 September 1998

Another Sunday evening concert at the Wigmore Hall, this time to explore the church music of Haydn and his contemporaries with Peter Holman, Psalmody and The Parley of Instruments.

We heard:

  • Joseph Haydn – Three Psalms from Improved Psalmody (Ps 31, Ps 41, Ps 69)  
  • Charles Burney – The Dialogue Hymn: Tell Us, O Women          
  • John Stafford Smith – Horrible is the End of th’Unrighteous Generation             
  • Joseph Haydn – The Emperor’s Hymn: Poco Adagio from the String Quartet in C Major, Op 76/3
  • Joseph Haydn -Give to God Our Thankful Songs
  • William Gardiner of Leicester – Give to God Our Thankful Songs            
  • John Foster of High Green, Yorkshire – The God of Gods the Lord Hath Call’d  
  • Johan Arnold Dahmen – Three Songs from Eleven Sacred Songs           
  • Johan Arnold Dahmen – Two Psalms from Improved Psalmody
  • Samuel Webbe Senior – Where, Lord, Shall My Refuge See      
  • William Shield – My God, My King with Joyful View        
  • Thomas Greatorex – This is the Day the Lord Hath Made            
  • Samuel Webbe Junior – Variations in A Major on “”Adeste Fideles”
  • Joseph Haydn – Three Psalms from Improved Psalmody (Ps 61, Ps 26, Ps 50)

Jolly good it was too, in the hands of these experts.