Random Music

RIP Dame Joan Sutherland

Very very sad to hear of the death of Joan Sutherland today aged 83.  Hard to realise that the opera stars I loved as a child and a teenager are gradually vanishing from the music scene.   Maria Callas, who I think is one of the greatest sopranos ever, died a while back but I can still remember how shocked I was at her death when she was only in her early fifties. One felt her life, despite its great success, had been one of sadness and heartbreak.  Along with Callas I listened to Dame Joan Sutherland, a totally different singer, both vocally and temperamentally.   No diva tantrums or bad press for Dame Joan, she was as
down to earth as she appeared, both delightful and charming.  In some ways her equable and unflappable character impinged on her roles and I felt at times that her characterisation was somewhat lacking, but this was more than compensated for by the Voice.

What a glorious voice it was.  I never heard an ugly note or one that was not hit slap bang in the middle.  Her coloratura and the trills and decorations could make you tingle so precise and beautiful were they.  I saw her in various operas, not as many as I would like, but of course the one which propelled her to stardom was Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti where the wonderful Zeffirelli production, which stayed in the House for many many years, suited her to the ground. Zeffirelli made use of her tall frame, her big boned body and had her running and swooping round the stage particularly in the mad scene where she trilled and sang as she ran in the most breathtaking manner, ending up with a spectacular seemingly boneless fall to the ground.  I was twelve years old when I saw it and it remains as clear in my mind as if it was yesterday.  Words cannot describe the audience reaction - they just went Stark Staring Mad and cheered and yelled and stamped and shrieked and it was a night to remember and bring out and talk about as I am doing now.

I have already posted about Dame Joan in an earlier post and here is the link for you here.

I have two recordings of Lucia with Dame Joan in the title role.  The first one she recorded in 1960 under the conductor, Sir John Pritchard, an elegant and inspirational musician and this is the one to have.  The score is not complete, as it is in the later recording she made with Pavarotti and conducted by her husband, Richard Bonynge, but this captures her voice at its clearest, freshest and most beautiful. I have both of these on my shelves and shall be playing one later on this evening in memory of a wonderful singer and a wonderful woman.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11517601

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8056601/Soprano-Dame-Joan-Sutherland-dies-age-83.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/11/dame-joan-sutherland-obituary

I expect there will be full obituaries and appreciation in tomorrow's newspapers as the announcement of her death has just been made.

Oh I am so sad.

Rigoletto - Placido Domingo live from Mantua

It is a trait in opera lovers to be overly critical and to say when a performance is lauded 'oh, yes but you should have seen Callas/Sutherland/Tebaldi they were the best' as if the only good opera singer is a dead one.  I am guilty on occasion of doing this myself though I try very hard not to and I had to strain every sinew last weekend to not fall into this trap when watching the live broadcast from Mantua of Rigoletto with  Placido Domingo in the title role.

Rigoletto is one of Verdi's greatest operas, in my opinion, and one of my favourites.  I learned to love this opera from a very old recording with Tito Gobbi as Rigoletto, Giuseppe di Stefano as the Duke and Maria Callas as Gilda.  I played it so often as a teenager I wore it out. Now of course I have it on CD and still listen to it and, even though I have heard many other recordings and seen other performances, this is still my first choice.   Tito Gobbi is one of my all time favourite opera singers and I have posted about him here back in 2007, so will not repeat myself and, for me, his performance of Rigoletto is THE one and nobody else, no matter how hard I try, can replace him for me.

This does not mean that I do not enjoy seeing and listening to other interpreters of the role and I was looking forward to seeing what Domingo made of it.  Rigoletto is stuffed full of the most glorious music. I know that can be said about most Verdi operas but this opera was written when Verdi was at the height of his powers and is a stream of fantastic arias, duets and choruses without let up - totally sublime.

I watched the live broadcast of Tosca some years ago from Rome, also with Domingo and remembered just how thrilling it was so my expectations were high. Perhaps too high, as I found the use of the location in Mantua somewhat disappointing.  OK we saw some beautiful interiors and some good long shots of galleries and rooms, but on the whole the camera work was limited and it seemed to me that the producer was using a stage eye rather than a filmic one.  Far too many close ups - most opera lovers are used to viewing from a distance and it can be preferable as we don't really want to see the sweat dripping off Domingo's nose or the spittle flying out of the tenor's mouth, both of which are the inevitable consequences of the heat and the effort.

So from that point of view I did find it a little lacking.  How about the performances?  Gilda was sung beautifully, she is a Verdi heroine for whom I have little sympathy and most of the time want to shake her and Caro Nome, beautiful though it is, goes on far too long.   The Duke's role is a killer. Every single time he is on stage he has a huge sing; Questa Quella in Act I followed by El Sol del anima and a duet with Gilda followed by an imnpassioned farewell Adio, adio when he leaves; Parmi verde la Lagrime in Act II followed by a cabaletta and a chorus and then in Act III, La donna e mobile. Jose Carreras once said in an interview that when he sang this role, he would take a few days of afterwards as he was exhausted. The tenor who sang the Duke was pretty damn good and he looked pretty damn good as well. I would think that even if you were the best tenor in the world, but were bald or plump, there would be no point in auditioning for this particular performance, you had to look good also for the millions of viewers.

And so we come to Domingo.  I love Domingo and think he is a wonderful artiste.  The state of his voice is quite amazing, not sure how the sound balance may have helped but I am pretty sure that the strength and beauty of his sound did not need much   I last saw Domingo sing live about three years ago in Die Walkure at Covent Garden and I was pole axed when he opened his mouth and sang Siegmund's opening phrases.  It was like listening to a golden trumpet and every hair on my neck stood on end.  He was quite simply magnificent and the baritonal quality of his boice was perfectly suited for this part.    Therefore, his taking on Rigoletto and, before this, Simon Boccanegra, is perfectly understandable and they are two great roles and a challenge to any singer.

Domingo was totally committed to the part, that comes as no surprise, his acting and complete involvement is always there and the role is well within his range and grasp.  I thought he did really well and his raging at the courtiers in Act II followed by his plea to them to return his daughter is one of the highlights of the opera for me, and he brought a lump to my throat which is always a good sign.   The final duet with Gilda in Act III is one of the most moving Verdi ever wrote. HIs plea of Do not die, I will be all alone and begging her to stay with him always reduces me to tears and this time was no exception.

All in all a marvellous evening and experience, but and yes there is a but, where does Domingo go from here?  He has essayed two of the great Verdi baritone roles so what will be next?  While enjoying this late flowering of his singing career I am beginning to wonder if he is, perhaps, doing too much and what it is that drives him on.   I am not complaining, believe me, the longer he is with us and performing the better as far as I am concerned and I would happily pay good money to see him do this in the theatre but I felt at times, particularly in Act I that he looked a trifle uncomfortable and his gasping in distress was not just acting.  No doubt in his heavy costume it was incredibly hot and tiring but I did feel a little bit worried.

The difficulty now is finding other great baritone roles which he might want to sing.  Apart from the two he has already sung, most of the other Verdi baritones are supporting, rather than starring, roles and I cannot imagine Domingo doing these.  I almost feel that if he did it would be unfair on the rest of the cast as no matter how good they would be, the attention would be on Placido though I daresay the honour of singing with him would make up for that.  I am not sure that he really should go down this route and my worry is that he will try to sing the last great Verdi baritone part, Falstaff.   Yes, he could do it, no problem but not sure that it would really be suitable for him.  We shall see.........

Sondheim at the Proms

It is Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday and so a Prom dedicated totally to him and his music took place at the Albert Hall last night.  I am a huge fan of Sondheim as back in the 80s my then husband was in a London production of Follies.  My post on this is here so I won't repeat all I have said, save to say that I had a long chat with Sondheim who was charming, delightful and genuinely interested in what I had to say. And how do I know that?  Because I was at a backstage party and we were surrounded by the great and the good, Cameron McIntosh, Eartha Kitt, Julia McKenzie, Daniel Massey and others and not once did he let his eyes stray to see if he could find somebody more interesting to chat to (and there were plenty believe me).  Lovely man.

My favourite of his works are Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd as I know these best, but last night we also had excerpts from Company, Merrily we Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Entire concert was quite superb, packed house having a whale of a time. Stand out performances:  Julian Ovenden who I have only known as an actor playing Foyle's son in Foyle's War.  He has a simply gorgeous tenor voice and brought the house down with a big number from Company, also duetting in Too Many Mornings, a quite gorgeous lyrical song, from Follies.

Simon Russell Beale - knew he had been a chorister as a boy but did not know he could still sing. He and Daniel Evans, who I don't know at all, duetted on Everybody ought to have a Maid from a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, it then turned into a trio with Julian O joining in and then, to a huge roar of laughter and applause from the audience, became a quartet as Bryn joined them dancing and singing and hamming it up. Quite wonderful.

Ah Bryn - well what can I say? All Random readers know  how much I adore him and just a couple of weeks ago saw him as Hans Sachs and here he was, not only being funny and witty as detailed above, but turning in a terrifying performance as Sweeney Todd. I saw him do this a few years ago and the contrast between his raging at his enemies and then his longing to see his long lost daughter, was heartbreaking. This is some of Sondheim's most powerful music.

BUT, even though all the above was stupendous, gorgeous and marvellous, all of this was upstaged by the sublimely beautiful Dame Judi Dench.  She recently said in a newspaper interview that she hated being called a National Treasure but I am afraid whether she likes it or not, she is and will always remain so.

She made her entrance to the most tremendous shout from the audience and made her way to the front of the stage and while it was clear she wanted to get into the part of Desiree from A Little Night Music, she had to acknowledge the applause before it would stop. She was wearing a black velvet dress slit up the side and she looked quite quite beautiful.   Send in the Clowns is the most well known of all Sondheim's songs, it has been sung and recorded hundreds of times (I have seen the show with Jean Simmons in this part and Dorothy Tutin among others), but it is Dame Judi who reduces me to tears. Sondheim says that each song is a mini-play and for the time it was being sung, you could see Judi immersing herself totally in her part. She has a husky voice just perfect for this song.  It was originally written for Glynis Johns who has a similar speaking voice and who, after a lifetime of smoking, had terrible breath control, so it was written in these short phrases so that she could manage to sing it.  Very pragmatic of Sondheim, but out of this has come one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs, full of sadness at lost love and opportunities.

I am inserting a link here to a concert performance given by Dame Judi which gives you some idea of her interpretation of this song.  I recorded last night's performance on my posh new digi-box so am hoping to be able to download Send in the Clowns though I am pretty sure somebody else will get it up on YouTube before me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE3dLzIYKs8&feature=fvw

At the end of the evening the entire ensemble was on the stage singing Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George, and all the artistes were at the front joining in and I honestly thought the roof of the Albert Hall was going to do a take off into the stratosphere (they had a Dr Who concert the previous week so it could be likely...) and the applause, shrieking and screaming was deafening. Sondheim then came onto the stage and the noise levels got even louder.  I was hoping that the audience would sing Happy Birthday and they may well have done but the BBC had to leave as the broadcast had come to an end.

A simply stunning evening. Gosh, the Proms this year so far have been staggeringly good. Last year there was hardly a single concert that I would have gone out of my way to listen to, this year my Prom Prospectus is full of ticks and crosses and exclamation marks and we have another five or six weeks to go.

Coming up soon is another concert of music from the Hollywood musicals. I tried to get a ticket for this but failed as it had sold out in ONE, yes ONE hour so I am trusting to the Beeb to broadcast it on TV as they did last year.  That proved so popular they have shown it three times since.

If you have missed the Sondheim Prom it is on iPlayer for the next week - please don't miss it. Music making like this doesn't come along very often.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/for-one-night-only-dame-judi-to-perform-at--the-proms-2036177.html

What a start - Proms 2010

'"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents" grumbled Jo, lying on the rug' Little Women - L M Alcott

Substitute the words Summer and Proms for Christmas and Presents and now you will know what I feel about the Prom concerts which take place each summer at the Royal Albert Hall.  I started attending these when I was about 14 (difficult to do when the Beatles were driving all teenage girls to a frenzy so that my love of classical music was viewed as very odd to say the least), and for the next ten years or so, attended nearly every concert every night each season and it was there I learned my music, heard the first performance in this country of Shostakovitch's 5th Symphony conducted by Stokowski, my first Mahler 2 with Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw, my first Gerontius with Sir Malcolm Sargent and so many more I cannot list them all here, but it is a place that holds so many happy memories for me.

Last Friday was the first night with a simply stunning performance of Mahler's 8th symphony, the so called 'Symphony of a Thousand' with a huge orchestra, multiple choirs taking up all the seats way up high behind the orchestra, and multiple soloists.  It is in two parts and though I love Veni Creator Spiritus which comes first, my real love is saved for the second half which is based on Goethe's Faust and has the more glorious music (for me at any rate).  All the soloists gave it their all and it was lovely to see the soloists smiling and loving it when their colleagues  were singing.  The most sublime moment for me is when the tenor sings 'Blicket Auf' the orchestra soars away behind him, the choirs come in and from that moment on we have twenty minutes of the most beautiful and uplifting music you could hope to hear. It builds and builds and by the end always reduces me to tears and it did this time as well.

Prom Number two which I attended last night was the Welsh National Opera and Meistersinger with Bryn Terfle as Han Sachs and I have been waiting to hear him sing this for a long time.  Though there was no solo calls and the entire performance was very much a team effort, there is no disguising the fact that Bryn was head and shoulders above everybody else on the stage and of course, as a world famous opera  singer with a huge reputation, this was to be expected.  But, as with his Dutchman last year at the Opera House, which I reviewed here, there was no feeling of a superstar pinching the limelight and for this, I am most grateful having sat through certain performances in the past at an opera house where the Name jetted in, performed and jetted out not forgetting to collect his cheque as he/she left.

The Welsh National Opera, of which I am currently a friend, had two boxes in the Grand Tier and I was offered a place there for Saturday night.  Yes, it cost a bit but as I managed to return my previous inferior ticket and also had to return my ticket for the WNO in Birmingham when I was not well to my irritation and annoyance, the two of them added together more or less paid for this so that made me feel a bit better.  The box was to the left of the stage if you were looking out at the audience and only half way along the side so the view was terrific and to stand looking out at the Albert Hall and the prommers made me feel so nostalgic, but it was a good feeling.

As I said, Bryn was simply magnificent as Hans Sachs as I knew he would be, bringing warmth and nobility to the role of the Cobbler Poet. It is a wonderful part but so long and so wordy and it always amazes me that singers are able to commit everything to memory.  I feel it might be easier with say, Verdi or Puccini, which have more tunes and choruses, but Wagner is a different ball game altogether.  Takes me a little while to get into the Wagner idiom but once I am there I find as the evening wears on the music and the action slowly take me over and draw me in until I am totally engrossed.  Some of my friends recoil in horror that I will sit through something this long but when you love the music the time flies by.

As well as this seat, we also had supper laid on and very posh it was too, salmon, charcuterie, salads, fresh fruit platters, cheeses and good coffee and an endless supply of wine and soft drinks. I was most grateful for the coffee as by the last act I had been up since 6 am and was beginning to keel over.

The final act is quite quite glorious.   The writing of the Prize Song, the quintet at the end of the first half and then into St Johannes day when all the Meistersingers gather together to choose the champion singer.  The chorus came into its own here, the excitement building and the orchestra dancing along, the entrance of the Meistersingers and then THAT wonderful chorus 'Wacht Auf' at which every hair on my body stood on end and goosebumps appeared all over and from that moment on I sat on the edge of my seat on the verge of tears at listening to this simply marvelous and magical music.   And yes I know, Hitler loved Meistersinger, annexed it and used to have it performed at his Nuremberg rallies, and yes I know Wagner was not a nice man to put it mildly, but all this is forgotten when listening to his genius.

Standing ovation at the end and audience yelling and shouting, as was I and hope that the WNO revive this in the next year or so and I shall make sure I get to Cardiff to see it. In the meantime  Bryn is  singing Scarpia in Tosca again next year and shall make a point of seeing that - for the third time - which will keep me going even if his Tosca is Angela G again who I really find irritating.  No matter.

As I write this I am listening to Prom Number 3 which is Simon Boccanegra, the Covent Garden production which was shown on BBC 2 last week.  Talk about an embarrassment of riches, Mahler, Wagner and Verdi, Bryn Terfel and Placido Domings all in three days and if you queued and prommed you could see these marvelous performances for a total sum of £15. Unbelievable.  It is at this time of year, that I forgive the BBC for its arrogance, its total disregard for viewers thoughts and feelings, its dismissal of all criticism and feel that my licence fee is justified (come September when the Proms are over this feeling will, no doubt, fade....)

After the concert was over I headed off to stay the night with my family and so glad that the evening was not ruined by having to get the Vomit Comet home from Liverpool Street, always a most dispiriting experience.  I could curl up in bed in less than an hour and fall asleep just remembering this glorious evening and then drove home this morning with no traffic around and the sun shining .

And just to finish the weekend off nicely, I entered a comment on the Classic FM Facebook page in response to John Suchet (new programme on this station and he is excellent) asking what we were all doing and my response was 'I'm lying on the sofa enjoying thinking about Bryn in a wonderful performance of Meistersinger last night' and lo and behold, ten minutes later he played some Bryn and said 'and  I know this will please Elaine Simpson-Long' and I nearly fell off my sofa in shock.  

So tired but full of happy memories of a simply wonderful evening.  Now I will be drawing my horns in having spent more than I should recently but, as I have said before, I will happily live off baked beans for the chance to attend such performances which are uplifting to the soul and spirit.

The Nation's Favourite Aria - No it's not Nessun Dorma

The BBC radio and TV have designated June the month of opera and we are being showered with goodies, Pappano on BBC4 with his history of Italian opera, full of the usual shots of presenter wandering around Italian streets, with a title appearing on the screen, Milan, Bologna, Venice (the water gives his one away), and looking at the ceilings of various wonderful churches/opera houses with his mouth open. Acutely irritating and if they cut these out I reckon the producers would have another five or six minutes to use more beneficially.  BUT, I must not moan, chances of seeing and hearing opera on the Beeb are very rare and don't come round very often, so I must make the most of it.  And I am.

Radio 3 have gone down the Classic FM route (they now play single movements from symphonies and concertos which they scorned to do before but now do) and have decided to find out the Nation's Favourite Aria and have asked all Radio 3 listeners to send in their nominations.  Of course, Nessun Dorma has been nominated but to my delight features nowhere on the ten top favourites.  I love this aria, make no mistake, but after the Three Tenors and Pav rather high jacking it and turning it into the equivalent of a football anthem, I had rather tired of hearing it played ad nauseam.

The ten that made the final cut were announced this morning and here they are:

• Casta Diva from Norma by Bellini
• Che faro senza Euryice from Orfeo by Gluck
• Der Holle Rache from The Magic Flute by Mozart
• Dove Sono from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart
• E Lucevan le stelle from Tosca by Puccini
• Gluck, das mir verblieb from Die Tote Stadt by Korngold
• Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde by Wagner
• Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix from Samson and Delilah by Saint Saens
• Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben from Zaide by Mozart
• Song to the Moon from Rusalka by Dvorak
• When I am laid in earth from Dido and Aeneas by Purcell

The more eagle eyed of you will have noted there are, in fact, eleven arias. This is because of a tie between two choices.  My thoughts on this list are that it certainly is a mixture and a surprise: ok three by Mozart, not unexpected, one by Korngold which is and what really amazes me is not a single entry by Verdi.  I could reel off dozens I would like to see here but Radio 3 listeners are an eclectic bunch judging by the above.

My choice of one of my favourite arias did not make it.  Un di all'azzuro spazio from Act one of Andre Chenier - a simply stunning show stopper and I have a very old video, now well worn, with Jose Carreras when he was young and beautiful, singing this but I was obviously a lone voice.

We are now asked to choose the Aria of Arias out of these ten and out of the limited choice on offer I have no hesitation in voting for my favourite. See if you can guess which one it is...

Car Crash TV - Popstar to Opera Star

I watched this last week and was left in such a state of stunned disbelief that I decided I would watch the second broadcast before I cast judgment, and also to make totally sure that it really was as appallingly bad as I thought it was.

It was.

Words cannot begin to express just how utterly dire, tacky, crass and cringe making this programme is.  If there is anybody reading this who remembers the film The Producers and the reaction of the audience at the end of the movie on watching a musical all about Hitler, then that was how I reacted upon seeing these z-list, out of date, or failed pop singers trying to 'do' opera.   They are mentored by Katherine Jenkin and Rolando Villazon, a seriously weird combination if ever there was one and while I can understand the Welsh Warbler doing this programme as she never misses an opportunity for publicity, I am a loss as to why Rolando Villazon is here.  When interviewed he said it 'sounded fun'.  I wonder if he still feels that way.

While watching K and R I am mesmerised by their appearance.  Both these mentors have serious hair, and I mean, serious.  Katherine J is a millionairess now I gather and not short of a bob or two, so I wonder why she cannot get hold of a hairdresser who will get rid of the two inch black roots she sports at every opportunity.  Whilst agreeing that this contrasts nicely with the peroxide curls below, it is hardly classy.  Then we have the inch think make up, the false eyelashes, the immobile face, the static smile through which she lilts gently and the total banality of all she has to say, and one wonders just why this woman is so rich and famous.

Now we turn to Rolando (always thought he looks a bit like  Blackadder  in the form of Rowan Atkinson, though I have to say that while Mr A is no oil painting, he has his own charms) who is sporting a Bob Marley who has had an electric shock hair do, that defies description.  When coaching and mentoring he tosses this head of curls around manically and his eyes stare and I am seriously wondering if he is going to get through the series without imploding.

These two form part of the judging panel and the show is introduced by Mylene Klass and Alan Titchmarsch which says it all really.

I sat down after my first watching and I have to tell you now I had to keep leaving the room I found it so insupportably dire, and told myself over and over again not to be a musical snob.  I have had this accusation levelled at me in the past when I have not rejoiced in the likes of Ms Jenkin, Russell Watson and others promoted as opera singers when they have never sung in opera in their life, and I really think that this accusation is unjust.  I have loved a lot of pop music in my life, and pretty sure a lot of it was rubbish, so do not take the moral high ground on that, but now I do like music that is good, no matter what genre it is in.   And my main problem with this show is WHY. Why are they doing it?  The obvious answer is, well to get on TV and to get my fading career back on track, but quite a few of those appearing are doing OK so why bother. 

About fifteen years ago now, a singer called Michael Bolton who I knew only because I had seen trailers of him on the TV sporting long wispy blonde hair hanging down his back, recorded an album of opera arias.  It was dreadful and sold about two copies.  I saw him a year or so later on the TV singing and playing the piano and he was terrific, stylish, charming and comfortable with what he was doing.   A few years ago I actually had to stop the car one day while out driving to sit and listen to a travesty of a singer performing some lute songs by John Dowland.  Turned out to be Sting.  Now whether you like Sting or not (I don't) he is a mega star, hugely successful and a master of his trade.  This record was AWFUL.

The point I am trying to make, albeit longwindedly, is why do they feel the need to sing classical music?  Opera stars perform the so called 'crossover' repertory with success and we know why they do it - money as well as relaxing the voice and enjoying a different style of singing (said in many interviews which I have heard), and of course the records sell well and everyone is happy all round.

The difference here of course is that opera singers can sing the lighter repertoire easily as they are professionally trained and know what they are doing, but I cannot seriously imagine that any opera star is going to want to sing pop music to prove they can do it, and they would likely do it very badly indeed.  So I ask again, why are these pop stars trying to sing opera?  Do they feel that no matter how good they are in their own style, they will not be regarded as 'good' singers unless they can sing opera?   Do they need this validation? 

I suppose in the end, it is a gimmick and an excuse for a TV programme and while I am also no TV snob when it comes to this kind of programme (I am a Strictly Come Dancing addict and also am now watching Dancing on Ice each week), but feel that this series is a big mistake as I cannot see what any of those taking part are going to gain from it apart from publicity, and though the adage that all publicity is good publicity comes to mind here, some of those performing are just so unremittingly awful that I really cannot see that it is going to do them any good at all.

So after watching a woman from the Shakespeare Sisters attempt Un Bel Di on Friday, miked up to heaven with a full echo chamber and the aria cut to 30 seconds, with every sinew on her neck tortuously stretched and quivering with tension, and the week before Alec James ex-Blur singer essaying Largo al Factotum, I have decided that I will not be watching any more.

But, but, but this is Sunday and I have the awful feeling that this programme in its total and utter stomach churning naffness is going to lure me back.  It is pure masochism but I feel I should check in every now and then just to see how much worse it can get....

PS have just come across this review on the Arts Desk.  Oh the relief to know that I am Not Alone

And also a review over on Intermezzo, which is one of my favourite blogs as the owner is an ardent opera lover and adores Placido, as well as finding Katherine Jenkin as annoying as I do.  For all those reasons I love reading her opinions....

And I note that she has also used the expression 'car crash TV'.  Before I did, I hasten to add but I did not copy ..promise.

I Love Ludwig

I cannot remember a time when I did not love Ludwig van Beethoven.  He seems to have been part of my musical life as far back as my memories go.  I cannot recall the first time I heard him or became aware of his music, I didn't have one of those Road to Damascus moments which sometimes happen when you discover something that is going to be important to you (I did have one of these when I first heard Mahler's Second symphony but that is another story).  I just know I could not manage without my daily dose, he was the first composer I downloaded onto my Ipod when I was commuting, the first composer who I stocked up on after my divorce  and if I had to choose just one composer that I could listen to for the rest of my life, then it would be Ludwig van.  Sorry Richard W, wonderful though your music is, it is not enough to totally feed the soul.

Beethoven's 6th Symphony, the Pastoral, was my very first favourite that I can recall. I remember being taken to see Disney's Fantasia and, after the Sorcerer's Apprentice featuring Mickey Mouse, this was the one that captured my interest. It has been called sickly sweet and mildly nauseating with all those pretty cupids, cherubs and coy female centaurs in smartie colours and, while I admit that by today's sophisticated Pixar standards, it all looks a bit twee, it can still delight.

I used to go to the Prom concerts each year from the age of 13 onwards and this is where my musical education took place and where I learned to love the entire Beethoven canon.  I also heard works that I had never listened to in my life, where I listened to Janacek, Shostakovitch, Mahler and Bruckner. I always stood in the arena although where Bruckner was concerned, I usually ended up sitting on the floor after the first movement.  Friday night was always Beethoven night, an overture, a concerto and a symphony after the interval.  At one of these Friday concerts I remember hearing a performance of the Fifth piano concerto, the Emperor, given by Stephen Bishop and conducted by Colin Davis, the equal of which I have yet to hear.  This has remained my favorite of his piano works ever since.

Beethoven only wrote one opera and laboured mightily over it, polishing and polishing and correcting and  changing as he wanted it to be perfect.  Not sure he was every totally satisfied with it, but for me, alongside Mozart's Magic Flute, this is the opera that defines the durability and strength of true love.  It is full of the most sublime music, the quartet in Act 1, the prisoner's chorus 'O blessed light' at seeing the sun for the first time in years, Florestan's aria of despair at the start of Act 2, the heart stopping off stage trumpet call as Leonora is freeing her husband who has been incarcerated in a dungeon for years, and we realise he is going to be safe, the glorious moment in the last scene where she is given the key to free her husband from his shackles and the music they sing at that moment.  Simply wonderful.  Those of you out there who love this opera will know what I am trying to say.

I am not going to write about every single piece Ludwig ever wrote.  I don't know them all and do not have the musical knowledge to analyse anyway and I don't want you keeling over with fatigue, but the final work I simply must mention is the Missa Solemnis.  I think this is the greatest choral work ever written, yes more than Bach's Mass in B Minor, the Dream of Gerontius, Mozart Requiem, even greater than those.  I had found it a difficult piece to get to grips with and did not do so until in my choir days we sang it.  Took us nine months to learn it and get it right.  The first sopranos, of which I was one, seem to sing above the stave all the time and to start with it nearly killed us with our conductor telling us that we sounded like Minnie Mouse. He was right, those squeaky little voices coming out of our throats.  By the time we came to perform, no problem, it was well sung in and we were trilling away like nightingales.

Main problem with this pieces is not so much learning the notes, tunes, whatever but dealing with the changes in tempi which are fiendish. You are just getting into the swing of it, when you suddenly you come to a grinding halt and then you are off again. Nightmare.  There was one long awaited entry in the Agnus Dei when there was an orchestral gap before the choir was due to come in and we had to count like fury to get our entrance right. If you glanced around during this time you could see the look of furious concentration on every singer's face and lips moving soundlessly as we counted.  I never got it right.  Not once, my entrance was always a split second after everyone els.  very annoying.  Then there is the Benedictus with a violin solo to make you weep, but enough.  I had better not start on the Choral symphony and the fact that as I am getting older I am loving the string quartets and discovering the violin sonatas else we shall be here all night.

One final thought.  First time I sang Missa Solemnis I discovered I was pregnant with my first child.  When I sang it again some 18 months later I discovered I was pregnant with my second child.

I have never sung it since....

New Year's Day Concert - Vienna January 2010

Every New Year's Day I sit down and watch the concert from the Musikverein in Vienna, a simply glorious building and full of the most beautiful flowers (which the audience can grab and take home with them afterwards) and would not miss it for the world. 

It puts me in the right mood for the year ahead and makes me feel joyous and light hearted.  Cold and sore throat at the moment but this did not stop me dancing around my flat when the music started - there is something so enchanting and beguiling about Strauss waltzes.

This year the conductor was George Pretre, now 85, and a huge favourite in Vienna. He first made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic some fifty years ago and he still looks full of beans.  Nearly every conductor I have known has lived to a ripe old age, must be all that cardio-vascular exercise with the baton and expanding the chest (so I have been told).  Pretre received the friendliest reception I have noticed in all my years of watching this concert - the audience is extremely wealthy, usually overdressed and dripping with jewelry and not prone to enthusiasm of any sort, but this time cheers and a standing ovation.  I think it is because he looks just so sweet and friendly and is obviously having a wonderful time and this conveyed itself to the audience.  His conducting style cannot be described in any way as expansive, just a little flicker of the finger and a gesture of the hand but he had the orchestra sounding sublime.  Apparently Pretre says it is all in the eyes, he looks at the orchestra and they know what he wants.  I daresay a lot of hard work has gone on at rehearsal to achieve this result.

The players always look as if they are having a good time as well and there was one, in particular, I noticed this morning.  In the violins on the conductor's right (he has the cellos in the middle) who every time the camera homed in on that section was beaming and grinning and such a delight to see.

Good mixture of music this year, as well as the usual Strauss, we had some Offenbach (Pretre is French) and the overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor by Nickolai who, I gather, founded the orchestra, a fact of which I was totally unaware.  Actually the title shown on the screen was Die Lustige Witwe de Windsor which I think sounds much more fun!

I know some people don't like the ballet bits shown, but I always love them and this year there was a marvelous routine to Morgenblatter (Morning Papers), all the lady dancers in costumes designed by Valentino, all pinks and shades of lilac and simply gorgeous.  When other pieces were being played there were outside shots of Vienna and in the case of a piece called Viennese Bonbons this was played while we were shown chocalatiers at work and oh my goodness, some of the pastries and cakes and sweets made your mouth water.  One great sweeping passage on the strings was linked very cleverly to a sweeping of chocolate over a huge cake.  Very clever.

The concert always ends with The Blue Danube.  No matter how many times I hear this piece of music, I am bowled over by it - Brahms said he wished he had written it as he thought it was a masterpiece and he is right.   Hundreds of versions and I have it recorded many times, but every single conductor has his own inflection and timing and this morning it was one of the best I have ever heard.  The strings were just so beautiful they almost reduced me to tears.  Quite wonderful.

I now feel after watching this glorious music that I can look forward to 2010.   Happy New Year to everyone reading this or, as the Orchestra said, Prosit Neue Jahre (and I hope I have spelled that correctly....)