A Lark Ascending

Enjoyed this though I did find myself checking my watch quite a lot towards the end. Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves set in a Mississippi swamp (though the Confederate baddie, who seemed to always appear as the enemy at points of high tension, was no match for Alan Rickman). Suffered, like so many history based films from being a series of vignettes of key historical parts of the story. Fiction seems to allow for a more integrated film. I suspect British audiences would get totally confused by the post 1865 parts. Reconstruction and the abandonment of Reconstruction always confused me - doesn't quite fit with the 'Lincoln freed the slaves' narrative of the Civil War that is mainly known over here.

It was quite common to mock Brahms in the late 19th/early 20thC - often derided as boring and stodgy. But he was revered by some composers for his sense of structure. Schoenberg was a big fan even arranging some of his pieces. The thing I've never got is the war between the Brahms and Wagner/Bruckner factions in the late 19thC. I know it's all tied up with musical politics at the time that has since evaporated - but I can't imagine why an ear adjusted to Brahms should find Bruckner so outlandish (or vice versa). People do like to be against something. I think there is a Stravinsky arrangement of the Volga Boatmen. Ah, here it is: Yes, I can hear part of the Rite there.

Beautiful new disc. The Harris concerto sounds as you'd hope - tuneful, atmospheric, suggestive of wide open spaces. Should appeal to RVW fans as well as those who enjoy Copland and that era of American composers. Would have preferred something more unusual than the Adams concerto (which I like) - it has already had several recordings - but can see it is probably a marketing decision. A popular composer to balance up someone who doesn't get recorded much these days. Don't know much about Waley-Cohen but she seems to have off-the-beaten path instincts - already had a fair few contemporary pieces written for her. No 2. Using the Robert Simpson book again as a guide. He writes assuming you have a score in front of you but you can still make out the gist of his argument. He's a terrible snob (and barely contains his contempt for atonality/serialism etc) but I got more from listening to this piece than ever before. The reappearance of the main theme of the third movement just towards the end is a spine-tingling moment. The Szymanowski concertos have taken their time to worm their way into my affections (20 years!). Think the recording might be the problem - one of those with a wide dynamic range that has to be turned up for the quiet parts. You then get blasted in the loud bits. The first concerto in particular reminds me of the Korngold - that rather lurid, bejewelled style that prefigures the Hollywood scores of the 40s. Suits me just fine.

Part of Walker's 'Bruno' series - standard police procedural but set in Perigord with a lovely sense of place, mouthwatering accounts of cooking local dishes (you could probably cook the dish yourself if your local supermarket has truffles) and a very fetching new puppy. Essentially a larger than life yarn (won't be being studied in a university English Department near you any day soon) but great fun and idle for winding down.

Off Spotify. Only previously heard Sessions 4 and 5 (Berg came to mind there) and by reputation as an educator. Found this disc really engaging - the 1st is very much in thrall to neo-classical Stravinsky; 2 + 3 reminded me of those central European composers of the 20s/30s like Schulhoff. Recordings are old (sorry...'classic') - the first particularly ropy. Music deserving of modern recording. Come on Seattle - no-one needs 'your' Beethoven. Such touch, such tone on the sirens on the latter. No 1. First time I've really got into this despite having listened a dozen or more times over the years. Used the first chapter of Robert Simpson's book on the composer as a guide. A lot there that was too technical for me - he's mainly interested in tracing the way the harmony progresses through the music. But there was just enough for me to hang on to - helped to indicate where sections were changing and I even followed some of the technicalities of how Nielsen manipulated the keys...could have done with a few more references to the instruments at the transitional key points. I can hear harmonic changes but only have a very woolly idea of how they relate (X being the subdominant of Y etc) and certainly can't label them or hear his labels. Disc 1: BB 5, 4 (piano version), 6 and 1

Gaga for Dada (BBC 4) I don't know much about Dada but this was a nice little survey carried out in a suitably absurd style by comedian Vic Reeves. Never realised how influential it was on the world of commercial advertising - when it's pointed out to you it stares you in the face. And punk was actually a form of neo-classicism.

Nancy Kerr Sweet Visitor Band (Greystones Hotel, Sheffield) Triumphant hometown (well, adopted hometown) gig from leading folk fiddle/singer/songwriter to kick off new album(s).

Violin concerto. And t'flute.

A wander in the woods today:

Disc 2 of Rameau

Re; Schuman - you can hear where Adams' 'A Short Ride in a Fast Machine' came from at the end of the 3rd.

The Brahms VC is worth pursuing. I was relatively indifferent to Brahms until a chance hearing of it on the radio one morning. It suddenly clicked and unlocked the door into Brahms - I've been slowly learning to enjoy Brahms' other music since. The Rite of Spring was one of the first classical pieces I got to know - I knew it by reputation so wasn't particularly surprised by the aggression and irregular rhythms/accenting. What surprised me was how good the tunes were. It's not that far away from Petrushka.

And this afternoon: Cinema broadcast of a current London production (the live broadcast went out to cinemas last week, this was a repeat). Another old favourite though very different (musically, politically and philosophically) to Der Rosenkavalier. A raw, savage production with minimalist staging largely made up of theatre props. Brilliant stage band - got the edge and sleaze of the music perfectly. Sung in English which took a bit of the shine off - English doesn't have the rasp of the German. But understandable given that the production aimed to be comprehensible to the unfamiliar as well as people who knew the score. Diction was good - because it's not sung in conventional opera-ese you don't lose lots of words because of the exaggerated vocal styling. The language of the translation was deliberately coarse (fs and cs) - a number of the audience in the Sheffield cinema I was in left at the interval, unhappy with that. There was a health warning in the publicity.

I can't remember where I read it - possibly a Guardian article in the last week or two. I got the impression it was suggesting Apple might stick to plain streaming. After all, if it ditches the headphone socket from its phones despite protests I'm sure it won't worry about some annoyed downloaders. It must have done the maths and decided that downloading is not worth continuing. I could be totally wrong. I am very old. No idea about FLAC/ALAC/any other acronym - I'm not techky-astute.

No 6. One of the most peculiar symphonies by a 'mainstream' composer. Every movement seems in a state of disintegration with some very odd interjections. A bit like Shostakovich at his most sardonic though Shosty never sustained the instability throughout a whole symphony. One I've always struggled with but it's starting to intrigue me. Disc 3 off first: Structures, Livre 1; Le Soleil des eaux; Le Marteau sans Maître Disc 1 off second. ************************ The following morning:

Very moving - an unlikely ending but apparently based on reality. As a kid in the 60s living on the Changi RAF base I used to regularly visit a small museum about the Japanese occupation. One of those things that sticks in your memory.

Things kicking off in the old world too. My first for the autumn last night: Der Rosenkavalier - Opera North, Leeds Grand Theatre Easily my favourite opera - like a big box of chocolates with all soft centres. On the surface a mixture of love story and farce but with a deeply affecting meditation on the passing of time running through it - the different way it is perceived by the young (eternal) and the older (the thread visibly being seen to be running out). Strauss unspools endless melodic delights over the 3+ hours - no more so than in the Act II love duet and the trio/duet at the end of Act III where he demonstrates his ability to manipulate listeners' emotions to perfection. Real tear duct moments. Good production set in the late 18thC as planned - not in 1930s Argentina or on some Mars space station. Though I suspect some enterprising producer is already planning a production with the appalling Baron Ochs dressed as Donald Trump. The similarities are uncanny. Proper (if somewhat 'darling') review of an earlier performance here: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/18/der-rosenkavalier-eloquently-staged-revival-belies-its-age

I read somewhere recently that Apple are likely to pull downloading in the near future. Would explain why they've shown no interest in pursuing FLAC and the like.

Bought this along with the other two discs in the series as part of a recent repackaging (i.e. a cardboard sleeve put round the three!....cheaper though!). Absolutely spectacular recordings in terms of sound - in a previous age they'd be used to demonstrate hi-fi. Music I've heard before but listening over the last few days these pieces really grabbed me. Perfumed modernism - alongside the post-war music you'd expect to be reminded of, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Symanowski all come to mind. With a good push these could gain a foot in the concert hall (I'm sure they appear in London but I don't recall any regional appearances this way) - they might not have the big tunes of the warhorses that return again and again but the orchestral colours and timbres are really arresting. Looking at Seattle Symphony's other discs they seem to be pretty adventurous with their releases. Hope they do more with the lesser known American repertoire of the last century - under Schwarz they were champions of some of those pieces. Their recent Mahler 10 (with a different conductor) has had some very good reviews in the British music press. If I needed another Mahler 10 I'd be tempted. The first.

More a series of historical tableaux than a developing drama. Beautiful photography. Enjoyed it. Earlier in the week: National Treasure (Channel 4) Robbie Coltrane in a drama based around Operation Yewtree and the other such cases running at present. Haven't seen Coltrane in a drama for a while but the opening episode was very powerful. As one of the reviews said, why is Channel 4 paying excessive amounts poaching off the BBC when it can produce original drama like this?

Tom Hewson Trio (Bonington Theatre, Arnold, Nottingham Tom Hewson (piano), Calum Gourlay (bass). Tim Giles (drums) Programme built round Herbie Hancock's 'Maiden Voyage' on the grounds that it's 50 years since release. Tunes from the album, some originals derived from those tunes and a few standards - Minority, Four, If I Were a Bell. Skylark. All very well played but I found myself wool gathering after 30 minutes, not something I've experienced since retiring (common when knackered from a working day). I thing we're suffering from a surfeit of Evans/Jarrett/EST-ish piano trios in Europe at present.

No 5 of latter. As exciting as anything from the early 20thC in my world.