Travel, Theatre, Music, Cricket, Tennis, Writing, Life
Say what you like about Daisy, but she does like a nice bit of castrati.
So we made a second visit to the Wigmore Hall that month (a busy start there in 2009 generally in fact) to see this lovely concert, with Daniel Taylor providing the counter-tenor equivalent of castrati singing and Rachel Brown providing beautiful flute and recorder performances.
Here’s what we saw:
A rare visit to the theatre on a Monday – this was Easter Monday.
Janie and I both love a bit of Tennessee Williams and we had only seen an amateur production of the Rose Tattoo before – at the Questors some 10 years earlier.
This was a top notch production at the National – no holds barred.
Zoe Wannamaker was exceptional.
Critics seemed to think the production and performances masked a less than brilliant play – I think I probably agree with that analysis – click here for a link to reviews.
Below is the trailer from the 1955 movie – very different style:
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.
But it was worth it.
I had encouraged Janie to see Roy Goodman and The Brandenburg Consort, as her treasured recording of the Brandenburg Concertos is their 1992 recording – and jolly good it is too.
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:
Below is a link to Rachel Brown performing some utterly delightful Quantz with Roy Goodman and his other lot – The Hanover Band.
Here is the JS Bach Sinfonia from BWV 209 which we heard at the end of the concert:
You’ll get the idea – the concert on 17 July 2000 was a feast for our ears – we metaphorically floated home.
This amazing concert was the culmination of a most enjoyable day off in South Kensington, which started with baroque music at the V&A at lunchtime…
…and got better from there.
The “big Prom” in the evening was really quite special. Here is a link to the BBC stub.
We heard:
I’m not usually too keen on baroque in the Albert Hall, but this worked.
Matthew Rye gave it a good write up in The Telegraph:
Prom 39 1998 Rye Telegraph 18 Aug 1998, Tue The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
We agree.
Our first Prom together. BBC Prom I’m talking about. And when I say, “together”, that wasn’t just me and Janie – oh no – we also had her mother, Pauline, in tow.
In truth Janie wasn’t too keen on the idea of a “classical concert”, whereas Pauline was a keen music listener.
Still, Janie professed to liking Brandenberg Concertos, so this concert, entirely comprising J S Bach works, including three of the Brandenbergs, seemed a suitable entry point. This, despite my reservations about the Royal Albert Hall as a venue for baroque period music.
Here is a link to the BBC stub for this Prom. The Hanover Band with some cracking soloists: Anthony Robson, Benjamin Hudson, Catherine Latham, Robert Farley, Pavlo Beznosiuk, Rachel Brown, directed by Anthony Halstead.
This is what we heard:
Here is a later recording of The Hanover Band doing Brandenberg 5:
Meirion Bowen in the Guardian rated this Prom highly, while concurring with my view about the unsuitability of baroque music scaled authentically in the Albert Hall:
Hanover Prom Bowen Guardian 04 Aug 1993, Wed The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
