 The painting is Dreams of Flying and is a much deeper and intense sky blue than it looks here... Pianist Vikingur Olafsson says of Bach Bach is always a good idea. Whether you are feeling happy, sad, whatever it is, he makes things better. I would add especially when played by Olafsson, and when played loud!
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I simply have no words to express the horror and dismay about what is happening in Ukraine. I won't be mentioning it here in the blog, although like everyone, including my nephew's Ukrainian wife, I will be thinking about it. Words may fail me, but music doesn't. The first in person concert in over two years was a resunding success. Webern, Schoenberg and the Bruckner Fourth, it was being recorded for BBC Radio 3 and is being broadcast tonight (Mar 1). It was thrilling to be in the elegant City Halls in Glasgow. My favourite was The Song Of The Wood Dove by Schoenberg, sung by a wonderful mezzo soprano Karen Cargill whose voice just took your breath away, and conducted by balletic Alpesh Chauhan who almost danced off the podium in the Bruckner! The Scottish Symphony Orchestra were at their dazzling best.     Paul McCartney;s Blackbird by Hiromi. Fabulous. The musician in yesterday's post made such a difference to the atmosphere on the Glasgow street on the wet cold day, with his cheerful fiddle. It lifted my spirits and I was glad to have some coins in my pocket. He wished me a Happy New Year when I dropped them into his box. (It was the day before Hogmanay.) York is a great city for street music. I remember a harpist and cellist in Stonegate, a soprano with a voice like an angel in St Helen's Square, a pianist who trundled round a piano on wheels to various locations, a man with a very fine voice singing sea shanties in the Shambles (we also saw hm in Whitby and Lincoln), and Ed Alleyne who drew a crowd in Parliament Stree with his electric violin. There was also, long ago, a little frail man with a shock of white hair who merely leaned against a wasll and breathed in and out of his mouth organ.. In Oxford there was a man with a zither-like instrument who played twinkly music with canddles in jars around his feet and a beatific smile on his face. Are there street musicians where you live? I am finding both music and the talk about music and creativity inspiring. You can hear this pianist on BBC Sounds in In Tune of 12th August, and in a video on YouTube -Vikingur Olafsson Debussy Rameau EPK/Trailer. I would love to know what you think.. The days are flying by and I am feeling quite tired, not having worked this hard for years! This is the start of Ice And Lemon.  I am enjoying The Proms on Radio Three and the wonderful Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson. I love listening to him talk about his art. When someone commented that he made it look easy, he replied that it is easy. You have to love it, he said. If you love it enough to spend the time required on it, then it becomes easy. What an excellent point. I am looking forward to his concert this Saturday.   Thank you Grace for leading me to this! Oops! If this will not play a notice will say Watch on YouTube - if you click on tht it should play....sorry about that. ..and a bit tearful, so sending you this lovely little piece of music. I have been searching for this for years and found it yesterday... ..on my make it rhrough list is make music. Time for an update on my Desert Island Disc choices. (See under Simply Listen in sidebar.) So far I have Beethoven, Mozart, Oscar Peterson and Pablo Casalsand I have been enjoying some of your choices too. I could not miss out this one which lifts my spirits every time and makes me long for Italy. Joyous. Pure escapism. I suggest full screen and full volume! What do you think?
..so clean, so fresh. It has given me such a lift to have the house decorated. If you are thinking about it, I would urge you to just do it! It is bringing out the minimalist in me and I like it empty and am reluctant to put things back.... I will do it slowly, enjoy the process, and be very particular..    Like a few things in my house, the CD player worked sometimes, then stopped working all together. I spent some time today trying out all possible permutations of the controls, to no avail. I walked away then on an impulse turned back and lifted it up, turned it upside down and shook it a bit - telling myself 'This is silly Freda, it won't work'. Well, you've guessed it, it did work and the sparse notes of Alvo Part's Fur Anna Maria at full volume floated through the house, reflecting it's new spaciousness and simplicity. Magic! The sound quality is wonderful. I can create my own concerts this season. I have only got to number four on my list of eight desert island discs. Would love to listen to your fourth choice too... Sorry this has an ad (definittely mundane!) at the beginning. Hear first three choices under Simply LIsten. I am having fun with two friends and now with you, choosing the 8 pieces of music I would take with me to a desert island! I am enjoying taking my time choosing, spending long evenings going through my collection and reading and listening around them - so easy online - different recordings and artists.. but there is only one artist for this one. Oscar Peterson playing Hymn to Freedom. I taught in an art department where we played a lot of music and this literally stopped me in my tracks.and still does. I have to stop what I am doing if it comes on unexpectedly and just soak it in to my very core. What will your third choice be, and shy? IMy second choice of music I would take to my desert island is this one I shared here two years ago. Have you decided on your second choice? I mentioned recently that friends and I are sharing our choice of music we would take to a desert island. As in the long-running poplular radio show we are allowed 8 discs, one book and one luxury. Here is my first one. When this started to play on the car radio, Barry and I pulled over to listen properly. It is one of the most profoundly moving and beautiful pieces I have ever heard. This is a lovely (7 min) video, but my favourite recording is by The Vanburgh Quartet. I'd love to know what your first choice would be! Two friends and I are sharing our Desert Island Discs and Lynne's second choice is my current favourite.. Perhaps because I've just seen my younger daughter for the first time in four months, and we had such a happy (and almost normal) day together. Scotland still has many lockdown restrictions in place but the worst is surely over.. I hope you have a reason to be happy today! Barcelona Opera re-opened with a performance to over 2,200 plants. There are shorter versions of this but I love this 8 minute one, especially when the musicians bow to their audience. Venice has 409 bridges!  This is the one I see when I open the shutters of the bedroom window in the morning. If you are staying at home with someone for an extended period of time it's probably a good idea to talk about how you might cope! This was how we discovered that Heather crosses bridges when she comes to them, and I (ever the grasshopper) jump over every bridge in sight and back again.  Some bridges, and some people, are just puzzling. I'd say do talk about it. Explain how you feel. Ask for what you need. Negotiate a little. Give and take. Give each other space (though how some households can manage that is hard to imagine!) Respect the differences between you. There's probably no right or wrong way. But ways must be found to reduce the stress, and to make sure you are still speaking to each other at the end of this. It's hard. Be kind. What would your advice be? Do you have any tips to share? Here are some ideas from Katrina of The Body Toolkit.  Only two of Venice's bridges have no parapet. Scary, but you can still get to the other side. So will we! NB This is a CV-FREE post :-)  I pass this gem on the way to the supermarket. The architecture here is astonishing as you know. Much of it influenced by Palladio by whom I am currently fascinated. Have any of you seen the film Palladio? All I can find are a few very tantalising trailers. While looking for the film I found this wonderful piece of music. I hope you enjoy as much as I did. What wakens you every morning?
This morning I awoke to the sound of two angry men in London shouting right in my ear about politics (radio alarm). Given that I was in a lovely cottage in the peaceful Highland town of Narin on the Moray Firth this seemed incongruous, and disturbing if not downright insane! (Sorry C!) I resolved to always switch off someone else's alarm and on the long journey home I tried all the different sounds on my phone alarm to find the most delightful and uplifting. It is called twinkle. :-) Sounds corny I know but at least it makes me smile. Call me idealistic but I want to start my day gently - ideally silent or to the sound of birdsong, but when I have to use an alarm I will make sure it is my own.  An exciting and flawless performance by Scottish Opera on Wednesday evening in Glasgow's Theatre Royal. Scroll down on this page for a tiny video snippet... I think I stalled in my review of Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules For Life at Rule Six because it was the hardest to read (hardest in the sense of painful). It deals with suffering and malevolence.
Rule Six is Set Your House In Perfect Order Before You Criticize The World. He quotes one of the Columbine High School killers who wrote; The human race isn't worth fighting for, only worth killing. Give the Earth back to the animals. They deserve it infinitely more than we do. Nothing means anything anymore. I thought when I read this of David Attenborough saying that human beings are A plague on the Earth. And of a man discussing how young men come to be radicalised - You are a young man seeking adventure. Do you want to stack shelves in Wolverhapton or be a Desert Warrior? I admore people who are willing to bravely address the tragic aspects of life. Around the time I was reading Rule Six I heard on Private Passions (my favourite programme on BBC Radio 3) barrister Sarah Langford. She is a defence lawyer representing criminals - from thieves to child abusers. Articulate and honest, her insights into lives most of us can hardly imagine, were riveting, if painful to hear. She has written a book called In Your Defence. I don't know if I could bear to read it. In his very dense chapter, well worth reading, Peterson gives examples of people who emerge from terrible pasts and do good, not evil, and he ends with two pages of advice to those who think they may be heading to despair and nihilism. I am full of gratitude to people who do difficult work with in Sarah Langford's words the mad, the bad, and the broken. Rule Seven will be light relief! If you can access it Private Passions with Sarah Langford can be heard here (and I loved her choice of music!) Unlike most of the country we have had a few clear and calm sunny days. So beautuful.   This is currently for sale. Fabulous position on the shores of Loch Long. The beach above is just below the house. Any takers? After the Immersive Van Gogh experience, today I was immersed in the wonderful music of pianist Edward jCohen at the University of Glasgow where he played an unusual programme - here is part of the description from the notes... Today's recital consists of pieces that have been chosen to move seamlessly from one to the next, without pause. Movements of exotic 20th century works, alternate with gems from the Romantic era.... (Liszt, Mompou,Brahms,Rautavaara,Schumann,and Hovhaness. I didn't recognize a thing but it was utterly marvellous!) ..and ended up listening to over 70 talented young people making music. What an unexpected joy! All week I have been hearing music drift across the field from the Outdoor Centre and on the way back from the postbox I asked two women if they were from the centre and were they perhaps putting on a concert? Yes, tomorrow night in Glasgow, but, they said, I would be wecome to sit in on their rehearsal in the afternoon. It was wonderful. The GSSO - Glasgow Schools Symphony Orchestra has players aged 13 to 18. The programme of Dvorak, Sibelius and Borodin will be performed at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow on Thursday evening at 7.00pm. Listen out for superb solo violinist Anna McKenzie. Three of the staff came up to visit later in the afternoon and after a look in the studio we sat out in the sunshine in the garden. The talent, enthusiasm and commitment of staff and students were uplifting and heartwarming and made my day! In other news - the sun shone all day, four baby swallows hatched and a Red Admiral butterfly sat on my shirtsleeve for a while - oh, and I planted out the mina lobata and gave them blue painted canes to climb up. Altogether a delightful day.  Overheard on the No 489 bus... Some people. Moan, moan, moan. Ah said away ye go tae Yemen an' moan. Well said! I thought. Yesterday I mentioned the words from a Lloyd-Webber song and trying to find it on YouTube, I ended up spending an hour or so listenigng to Elaine Paige - what a combination those two were! If you have time for the first four minutes of this it will take your mind off the news... And I find this combination rather touching... (sorry I couldn't find versions without ads.) |
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