A definite improvement

Well the Proms is over for another year. We sat and listened then watched the Last Night with our customary bottle of champagne (actually it wasn't our customary bottle since that has become too expensive but another variety that was on special offer). No. 1 son was particularly disappointed at end of the season this year. He has really enjoyed all our involvement and has been asking about going to a lot more concerts. He plays flute and clarinet and is planning to learn other instruments as well. He's opted to do GCSE Music so is becoming more interested in the technical aspects of musical production. This means lots of questions, which isn't helpful when you are trying to listen to something, and is even less helpful when he's not sure how to ask the question that will get him the infomation he wants and I'm not sure I know the answer anyway. That was a bit more important during this year's Last Night because there was much less wasted time zooming around to this park and that park and talking to different presenters who can, in any case, barely be heard above the noise of the crowds. That's got to be an improvement.

We didn't get the Fantasia on British Sea Songs this year, which was a change but still a good programme. I particularly liked the Vaughan Williams and the new piece by Anna Meredith. Quite brave of the powers that be to include this in the second half of the Last Night, but worth it I thought. Of course we also had the magnificent Bryn Terfel and Sir Roger Norrington as well. We commented that they both seemed to be having a great time. We had a great time. For a first effort Roger Wright did a pretty darn good job so we look forward to more of the same next year. And do you know what? I haven't heard more than one person talk about it being "elitist", which is good, because anybody with any sense will know that a) it isn't and b) there's nothing wrong with elites anyway, because if there was, we wouldn't need to bother with the Olympics.

Date posted: 14 Sep 2008

Thank You All

I want to pay tribute to the finest bunch of people to cross my path in a long time. I refer to the BBC Proms Team. All of them deserve at least three big cheers, but special praise for the people who organised and ran the Proms Family Orchestras. A magnificent bunch of really talented individuals who had the energy and enthusiasm to pull music from even the habitually fumble-fingered (me) and make it not only fun but also sound good.

This weekend saw the final session for the season. It was, as ever, enormous fun. No. 1 son and I trundled along there with our instruments and managed, by some fluke, to get a parking place almost outside the doors of the Royal College of Music. Not cheap to park there but still much cheaper to drive than go by public transport - even supposing I was prepared to lug a cello in a hard case on the train and then half across London - and assuming they'd let me on the bus with it anyway.

Some of the pieces we worked on today were familiar, based on things that had been done at previous Proms Family Orchestra sessions, but, as always, linked in some way to what was happening in the next or previous Prom. As is often the case there was a guest musician (sometimes there are several). Everybody had a great time (as usual). I am looking forward to hearing the recording on the BBC web site.

I still have the dugga-dugga theme running round in my brain (anybody who was there will know what I mean). At the end of the session everybody went their separate ways and vanished and it was suddenly all over until next year, which left No.1 son and I feeling a little deflated. We have had the regular excitement and "something to look forward to" for a few months and now it's all over until next year. So, many, many thanks to the team. To everybody who played and encouraged and conducted and showed us how it went. Special thanks from me to Thomas who was so patient with the cellists and who showed us what we couldn't always hear and who was always positive and encouraging. I promise I will practice more before next year. First I have to find a new cello teacher - I can't seem to keep one more than about 6 months, they keep retiring on me. Surely I can't be that bad.

Much praise to everybody for all their hard work. I can't think of a better way of spending my licence fees! I hope to see you all next year.

Date posted: 31 Aug 2008

Simply Perfect

What I like about birthdays is that most people realise that I am practically impossible to buy for. I own more books than is totally reasonable - at the last count, which was a couple of years ago, we had over 4,000 books in this house and I have bought more than I have thrown out since (scarily, apart from the newest ones and the reference, they have all been read at least once and many of them more than once). I seldom buy clothes (I knit a lot), I don't do "girly" stuff and I have such weird (as in varied) musical tastes that nobody dares buy me CDs any more.

As a result I get a lot of tokens for my birthday. Book tokens and Amazon gift certificates mainly. Lovely. Half the fun is deciding what to buy with them and being able to spend them without feeling guilty that it's the food budget or the holiday budget that's being deprived and the money could be better spent (though other than essentials it's hard to see what it could be better spent on than books and music).

My birthday is in July (I may have mentioned it) so I had some Amazon certificates which I spent. Some on books to feed my knitting and crochet habit and the rest on CDs. I saw that Harry Christophers and the Sixteen have a CD of Palestrina and Allegri, with the Allegri Miserere. The Allegri is just fantastic. I was listening to it this evening while cooking dinner. Actually I wasn't listening while cooking dinner, all dinner activities stopped while I listened. It's just perfect. One of those pieces that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and cause you to stop whatever you are doing just to listen. Amazing to think that a human voice can produce that sound.

There probably aren't many pieces that do that to me. The Elgar cello concerto, the Lux Aeterna from the Verdi Requiem, Rhapsody in Blue, the Bach cello suites and the Goldberg Variations and a few other pieces. To some extent it depends on what mood I am in and what I am doing as to what I will play and I often have music on the the car. Beethoven, Saint-Saens, Tchaikovski. Sometimes I even have the window down and the volume up. It must make a change for by-standers not to get blasted with hip-hop or whatever as I pass by.

Date posted: 29 Aug 2008