A Lark Ascending

My mum was hard of hearing in her latter days so the subtitles were always on. I realised I quite liked having them on. I like the way that once you've set your TV up they come up on programmes recorded on the digibox recorder as well as in real time.

I thought London Spy was one of those brilliantly unusual and superbly acted series that didn't quite hang together in the end. The denouement (I think that's the correct term) didn't live up to all the expectation. The soppy driving off into the sunset didn't seem to fit either. A classic 'better to travel than arrive' series.

No 3 and 4. Enjoyed these much more than 1 + 2 the other day. Especially 3 which has something of 'Das Lied von der Erde' and the Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony about it. Will have to revisit 1 + 2 again soon. And the CD with the latest BBC Music Magazine - a mix of French piano things including Satie, Hahn, Poulenc, Honegger and Mompou (OK, nearly French). Particularly enjoyed the only orchestral piece there, Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos which I've not played in quite a while. And I watched this afternoon one of those hotch-potch documentaries the BBC put together from their archives, this one on: Remember him (Andre Previn) as something of a TV star in the 70s. I didn't see many of his programmes (I was too cool for TV at the time) apart from the famous M&W Christmas Show. But I loved his unstuffy way with 'classical' music. He was an influential figure around the time I started to listen to 'classical' music and demonstrated how you could enjoy and respect the music without buying into all the arty-farty trappings. Some nice clips - though what was gained by relaxing the dress code was more than compensated for with the peacocky 70s fashions...he did a fine line of bright scarves. Astonishing to see the LSO without a woman in sight apart from soloists.

So do I...on the English programmes as well as those in another language ! I don't have a hearing problem (yet!) but I find it helps me concentrate.

Gripping first episode. I've not read the book so am not going to be affected by the story changes. There's an excellent (and very humble) piece here from Le Carre about his experience of being adapted - http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/20/john-le-carre-the-night-manager-television-adaptation (I only skimmed that...didn't want to read any plot spoilers!). Apart from the tense storyline, the location shots were utterly beautiful. We seem to be in a bit of a golden age for TV drama (or maybe I'm just watching more of it). I knew you'd have no problem...I'm from the South (though I've lived in my castle in the tense borderlands for nearly 40 years) and rarely have too much trouble deciphering Northerners

Ah, I see. I've not seen either Jaws or Dirty Harry (I'm so cool I've never even seen Star Wars (as the radio series has it)) but I remember those scenes in Endeavour. Very silly and breaking virtually every 60s + taboo in the book. But it was nice to hear the songs in their original context.

SQ3 again off the latter.

I enjoyed that one many years ago.

Violin Concerto and In Terra Pax.

Alexander Hawkins Ensemble at the North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford Alex Hawkins (Piano). Neil Charles (bass), Otto Fischer (electric guitar), Jason Yarde (reeds), Dylan Bates (violin) and a drummer whose name I've unfortunately forgotten (Tom Skinner was unavailable). Excellent evening of Alex's more composed music. The first half was an hour long suite of intricate and highly varied pieces. Ended with a short Elmoic, a tune that would get to No. 1 if there were ever a left-field singles chart. Second half had a 30 minute piece, much looser in composition with longer, more pronounced solo features. I particularly enjoyed a long sequence with an intricate piano solo, building up the tension and then leading into a demonic violin solo. The main concert ended with an utterly beautiful slow ballad [edit: subsequently tracked this down as "So Very, Know" off 'All There, Ever Out'] - short, light touches from the musicians, utterly perfect. A nice Steve Lacy tune as an encore. Superb musicians all round but a special mention for guitarist Otto Fischer - I've been struck by him on album and he really caught my ear here. Non-musicians like myself can usually only describe musicians by comparing them to others on the same instrument. I can't think of anyone who sounds quite like Fisher - there's a fluid, agile lightness in his playing that compels you when he's featured but you're often strongly aware of him when he's playing underneath the rest of the band. Well worth the 5 hour round trip to see the ensemble (even the bizarre diversions off the motorways on the way back that took me into the rural badlands around Lutterworth and Nuneaton! Britain is currently a building site.). They are at Cafe Oto in London on 28th - highly recommended.

Just found it interesting that where jazz has been a music of a small (but very dedicated) minority for a long time, it still retains enormous power as a signifier of cool, sophisticated urbanity in the wider culture (in it's 20s to early 60s guise at least). What it has to do with Guinness I'm not sure - I'm not aware of any jazz musicians whose legend is associated with overindulgence in pints of porter. I suppose it is the long time patron of the Cork festival.

Saw this on mainstream TV yesterday. Jitterbug revival imminent. Drink Guinness - be jazz cool and anti-racist.

Yes, hope you get some peace of mind. I remember what it was like being insecurely based in rented accommodation, constantly moving on.

I assumed Udo Lindenberg was fictitious. I spent a fair bit of time in Germany in the 70s and early 80s and German musical taste was very different to Britain. The family we knew well there had two young lads in their early teens who were obsessed with Wham and even dressed like them - in Britain Wham were an uncool band for young girls. One of them went on to be a successful DJ/radio presenter. The way Martin constantly slipped through security was completely daft. Just as well my Dad wasn't around to see it. As an RAF policeman at the time he was involved in security on various bases including Rheindahlen in Germany. The security of our house was better than the military bases in the TV series. You couldn't even go to the loo in the middle of the night without a SWAT team descending on you.

Another one of those bizarre NMCs that leave off the composer's name - Eee Bah Gum Birtwistle in this case.

Are you talking about the Morse spin-off or is there a different 'Endeavour'? I don't recall any beach in any of the last series! Enjoyed it though it got rather far-fetched especially the tiger one. Finished off Deutschland '83 - I thought the ending was anticlimactic and as implausible as the rest. The hero doing action man heroics straight out of a hospital bed where he'd just donated his kidney to his mum (he did wince once). Not bad TV - we're used to the implausible - but I'm surprised how well it's been received. Episode 5 of 'The Story of China' - This really is the BBC at its best. I've been enthralled throughout. My knowledge of Chinese history is patchy but Michael Wood has really done a marvellous overview job on this, sorting out all those dynasties. Beautiful camera work throughout. Above all, Wood brings home just how wrong our western view of China as a closed society for much of its history has been. And in this episode he pulls no punches in demonstrating the greed and inhumanity of the British, bullying their way into Chinese trade in the mid-19thC. Made for a welcome corrective to all the 'We're British, we're special!' nonsense that is swirling around at present (and will only get worse in the next few months). He's got to polish off c.1850 to the present in the last episode next week. I'm sure he'll manage it with his broad brush strokes.

Bugger. Forgot to send him a card again. No 3 of the SQ.

The only Snow I've read is 'The New Men', an 'A' Level text. I re-read it a few years back. 'The Masters' is one to put on my list. One of the joys of reading people like Amis (the older one) and David Lodge is the way they satirise this sort of world. My first experience of Oxford was being taken there one evening along with a fellow six former by a kindly English teacher to attend an Oxford Union debate (I suspect this was an early outreach programme!). I don't recall anything about the debate, even the topic; I do recall being petrified about how to behave in the restaurant beforehand (I suspect it was just a cafe). We never went to restaurants, we brought our own sandwiches (child of the last austerity!). I was much happier going to see King Crimson and Genesis there in the New Theatre a few months later. I do like the olde worlde feel of Oxford but then I've never had to experience the inside - apart from one occasion when a group of us went to a concert there (Caravan/Renaissance, about 9 months before punk swept in) and slept on the floor of a mate of one of my friends. We had to leave very early in the morning to avoid being spotted by a batman or whatever they call them - I can still see the early morning mist swirling round the heads outside the Sheldonian.

Good news for fans of recent French series: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/19/french-tvs-reputation-spirals-upward

Kolomna, Russia: A woman walks through snow near the Holy Trinity New-Golutvin Convent inside the Kolomna Kremlin http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/feb/12/photo-highlights-of-the-day-tea-with-merkel-and-new-york-fashion Tokyo, Japan: A woman in traditional clothing pauses during a wedding photo session at Hamarikyu Gardens http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/feb/16/photo-highlights-of-the-day-amputees-in-fashion-and-wintry-weather

The internal jealousies and infighting that Carey describes are amazing. He talks of one college where the fellows had to sit for meals in order of appointment, regardless of how well they got on. And an attitude to offering places that preferred a 'good all-rounder' from a public school to a 'bright grammar school boy', not to mention the leg ups given to students who are 'our sort'. He also says at one point that the wild scenes in 'Decline and Fall' that see the 'hero' sent down were not just fiction (no mention of pigs' heads though). The redbrick I attended in the mid-70s had a few silly traditions but these seemed mostly aped from Oxbridge (I recall a particular bizarre Christmas ritual that seemed to be a mixture of cod-Medievalism and Carl Orff). Once you'd found your feet you could do your entire three years completely ignoring them and worrying about important things like when the new Henry Cow album was coming out. Another amusing bit is the sacred way Anglo-Saxon literature was treated. Compulsory until about the 70s - Carey is not a fan of what he sees as fragments of dull verse (I rather like what I've read but tend to see it as evidence rather than literature!) - but caused ructions when it was proposed that Anglo-Saxon became optional. I've always felt they should build some nice Stalinist breeze block colleges on the outskirts of Oxford/Cambridge for the university and turn the old buildings into Travelodges and Premiere Inns (or Starbucks!!!!).

Quote: Soundings: New Music at the Nasher Flutist Marina Piccinini and Pianist Andreas Haefliger in Duo Recital Piccinini and Haefliger bring to life fascinatingly different compositional perspectives in a recital that will explore: classical form in Boulez’ Sonatine (1946) and Prokofiev’s Sonata Opus 94 (1943); homage works by Carter in Scrivo in vento (1991) and Adès’ in Darkness Visible (1992); and music written in celebration with Franck’s A Major Sonata (written as a wedding present for the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe) and Dalbavie’s Nocturne (composed an anniversary gift for this evening’s artists). ********************** That's my ideal type of concert progamming - a couple of pieces unlikely to scare the horses and then others to challenge expectations.

Sq 2 of the middle one (and a follow up listen to the online colour-coded analysis) - absolute gem from the almost Vaughan Williamsy theme at the end of the exposition of movement 1 through the thrilling motor rhythms and off-kilter accenting of the middle movement to the strange passage in the middle of the finale where the strings seem to slide micro-tonally creating the weirdest effects. 'Kossuth' is very enthralled by Strauss; I like 'The Wooden Prince' better though its still quite an episodic piece. Just started reading this so I imagine Bartok will be a regular for a few weeks: Something different but very appropriate as the sun went down: No. 1