Random Jottings

The Sound of Julie

I am here in Ealing looking after grandchildren so the chances of reading, let alone reviewing, a book are non-existent. Peace reigns at the moment as the girls are at nursery/school and all is quiet until the return later on this afternoon. Helen is in her study working and I am up here writing this.

In the last month or so Florence has discovered Mary Poppins (MP) and the Sound of Music (SOM) and I have more or less been forced to rediscover them myself. As I watched these with my children to the point of nausea I have avoided them for some thirty years feeling I would rather put pins in my eyes than suffer them again. I was, therefore, astonished to find that I simply loved them.

First up, the music is wonderful.  More so in SOM than MP but the song Feed the Birds has haunted me ever since my first watching of MP a few weeks ago. Dick van Dyke's accents is possibly the worst English/Cockney accent in the world but his charm and talent soon endear us and we forget about it. The excitement of Mary Poppins sailing in with her umbrella caused Florence to shout with delight and the cartoon bit in the middle with Suprecalifragilisticexpialidotious made her jump and down and she can now sing it with the best of them.    Feed the Birds is a simple beautiful and haunting tune that has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it again.   When in Orford we went to fly Florence's kite this was accompanied by me skipping along with her singing Let's go Fly a kite and to hell with what people thought.

And so to the Sound of Music. Glorious. From that fantastic opening scene with that swooping camera work down to Julie Andrews to Climb every Mountain, all glorious. One exception thought, for me at least, is the Goodnight number sung to the guests at the ball at the Von Trapp house. I find it totally nauseating, then and now and can barely watch it, but apart from that I love it all. And the orchestration! at the ball Eidelweiss played in Viennese style in waltz time got Florence up and dancing.

I have always sung Eidelweiss to the children since they were babies, to lull them to sleep or to calm them down and I loved the look of delight on Florence's face as she heard it and realised it came from this film, ditto Doh ray me which she has learned at school.

Both these films are over fifty years old and they are still here and will be for years to come. I love the fact that ipod and ipad savvy children with their seeming sophistication will sit and love these all over again. Helen has enjoyed rediscovering them again as well.

Yesterday we watched Beauty and the Beast, another gem, which the girls love and recently I have sat, with Florence, and seen Peter Pan and Bambi.   Florence's total indifference to the death of Bambi's mother rather surprised me when I remember how I reacted, but later on when Gaston, the 'baddie' in Beauty and the Beast met his fate she said 'Well that's good he is dead isn't it grandma?' ......

Bloodthirsty child.

Colin Davis Brings London Symphony to Carnegie Hall - NYTimes.com

WHEN I put it to Colin Davis that conductors live long lives and go on until they drop, the observation got the withering response it probably deserved. “Apparently they do,” he said, and lapsed into a ruminative silence that I took as encouragement to change the subject.

via www.nytimes.com

A Wonderful interview with one of my favourite conductors, Sir Colin Davis.  One feels, after the loss ofhis beloved wife last year, that the heart has gone out of him and he now looks frail and sad, but his conducting of the Missa Solemnis with the LSO at the Proms this year, which is recorded and will be kept, was quite sublime.

Missa Solemnis at the Proms

I flirted with a separate blog for musical matters, but as my concert going is very limited these days, I decided Random Arts would have to go and I would write about music and opera etc on Random Jottings. Makes life easier. I know this is mainly a book blog but as I write about decorating, gardening and my lack of skills thereof, as well as family matters, I can hardly claim it is for the purists and so everything Random will be here from now on.

On Sunday I watched the Prom live from the Albert Hall.  This was a performance of the Missa Solemnis by Beethoven and conducted by one of my favourite conductors Sir Colin Davis, who I have been in love with since 1968 (yes I can date the first year I saw him at a Prom) and was not to be missed.  I have been fortunate to sing in several performances of this mighty work in my singing days and it is, quite frankly, a killer for the choir.  Not so easy for the soloists either but at least they do get the odd sit down, not so the choir who are on their feet and singing nearly the entire time.

I am not sure where to start in writing about this work.  Beethoven is the one I would choose if told I could only listen to one composer for the rest of my life.  My introduction to him was at the Proms, (where else?) as a teenager when Friday night was Beethoven night and one of my memories of this time was Colin Davis conducting one evening with Stephen Bishop playing the Emperor concerto, my favourite piano concerto of all time.  It was one of those performances that come along every now and then, which are perfect. You know it, the conductor knows it and so does the soloist and you never know when it is going to happen.  I have attended several such evenings and when they happen they bring a joy and wonder that is hard to describe.  I am still working my way through Beethoven and am nowhere near plumbing the profundities of all his works - I have only just started on his string quartets and violin sonatas so feel sure they will see me out.

When singing in a choir you find you perform all the old war horses, Verdi Requiem, Dream of Gerontius, Messiah, Elijah, Mozart Requiem, Bach St John and Matthew Passions etc etc and I love them all. Nothing, however, prepared me for the Missa Solemnis which the choir I then belonged to years ago decided to do. We started from scratch as none of us knew it and it took a year before we were sung in. I am not going to say we were relaxed about it as you do that at your peril with the Missa, the tempi changes are lethal and take a breath at the wrong moment and you are about two bars behind straight away.   But oh it is worth all the hard work - it is simply glorious music. 

For me the moment I wait for at each performance is the Benedictus and the solo violin, almost a mini-concerto, intertwining with the soloists and the choir.  I am saying this now and I don't care if you write in and contradict me, that this is the most sublime and beautiful piece of music EVER composed. I will take on all comers in my defence of this statement and I have sat through magical performances of symphonies, concertos, operas, choral works over my 60 years of classical music listening, and I am happy to have this statement out there in cyberspace.  In fact, when I tweeted that the Missa Solemnis was the greatest choral work ever, the BBC picked it up and put it on their Proms web page so I was thrilled to bits with that as I am sure you will understand.

Every time the violin solo starts with the choir hushed singing I dissolve into tears. I don't know why, but my throat closes up, my eyes fill and I have to sit down and listen and I can do nothing else while this is being played. It is the kind of music that demands you pay it attention and one thing I noticed about the audience on Sunday was their stillness.   There were mini-breaks in between the huge Gloria and Credo and instead of the outbreak of rustling, coughing and moving there was almost total silence as we all awaited Sir Colin lifting up his baton.

Sir Colin is now in his eighties, no longer the vigorous, dynamic man I first fell in love with and he has recently lost his beloved wife and seems bowed over with sorrow.  He sat down to conduct and he appeared tired and inward looking, but he was there all the way and while he conducted with great thoughtfulness and depth, every now and then he would catch the eye of an orchestra player and smile and his whole face lit up.   Very clear that the orchestra and choir loved him and to see the faces of some of the players with rapt expressions and the beauty of what they were playing, was quite moving.   A wonderful wonderful glorious evening.

A friend of mine is a member of the London Symphony Chorus and she was taking part in this performance.   Like me, she adores Sir Colin and after the performance she emailed me with the following comment:

"The Missa is quite an emotional journey:  I couldn't believe it was only just after 9.00 p.m and yet I felt as if I'd been to Mars and back since the concert began......The Benedictus is quite simply sublime, and the other heart-stopping moment is in the Credo; the chorus tenor entry "Et incarnatus est" and the next couple of pages are so unutterably beautiful that I well up each time"

No more to be said......

The Genius of Mozart

Just posted on the Radio 3 'Genius of Mozart' project over on Random Music. Do pop over and take a look.

Dame Joan Sutherland

The lovely diva Dame Joan Sutherland has died and I am so sad to hear this news.  Have written over on Random Music about this lovely lady so do please take a look.

http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_music/2010/10/rip-dame-joan-sutherland.html

Lena Geyer - opera diva

I love books which feature opera and recently I reviewed The Maestro's Voice by Roland Vernon which I found enthralling and it set me thinking about other books I have read in which opera plays a large part.  I have to say that I cannot think of many, but I do remember reading the Mills & Boon books of Mary Burchell, pen name of Ida Cook, biographer of Tito Gobbi, who with her sister travelled around Europe attending the opera.  They seemed to be a slightly eccentric pair to put it mildly, neither of them married, both spending their lives indulging their opera obsession,  but during the Second World War, Ida used the income generated from her very successful romantic novelist persona to help Jewish refugees escape to England.  For further information see this article from The Guardian.

One book I remember well from my teenage years is Of Lena Geyer by Marcia Davenport.  I have yet to come across anybody who has heard of or read this book but am hoping that some Random Readers may know of it.

"Her first novel, Of Lena Geyer (1936, reprinted 1982), is the story of a poor Czech girl and of her ascent to fame and fortune, triumph and tragedy. It is a work of fiction, yet Lena is only partly the child of imagination: she is a composite figure of several singers Davenport had known intimately, among them her own mother. The background of the novel opens a wide vista on the golden age of opera both in New York and in Europe".

The author, Marcia Davenport, was the daughter of Alma Gluck, a celebrated American soprano and spent most of her childhood, indeed her whole life, immersed in the world of music and opera.   In the story of Lena Geyer we are introduced to 'real' people.  Lena works with Gustav Mahler at the New York Met who conducts when she sings in Don Giovanni, Lilli Lehmann is her singing teacher and Jean de Reszke is her co-star in Tannhauser. The production notes and details about her performances were so detailed and informative that they sent me scrabbling to the back of the book looking for a non-existent index and references.

When I first read Of Lena Geyer, I knew nothing about Wagner, but once I saw the light and became a devotee, I re-read all the chapters dealing with Wagner performances and found their detail and background information was spot on.  Hardly surprising as Marcia Davenport must have watched all these productions unfolding in front of her.  What an incredible experience.

Much though I love this story, I do feel that in creating the perfect opera diva in Lena Geyer she strikes me as being almost TOO talented.  She seems to be able to switch from Puccini, Mozart and Verdi to the heavier Wagner roles without batting an eyelid, a feat which is well beyond most operatic singers.  To my knowledge, the only singer who did essay this, though I am prepared to be proved wrong, was Maria Callas who sang all the coloratura roles and, in her early years, also sang some Wagner.  She abandoned the heavier German repertoire though for most of her career.

When writing this post I did some Googling and came across a fascinating article about the great Wagnerian soprano, Birgit Nilson, who was stalked for years by a female fan who sent her flowers before each performance and messages containing quotes from 'Of Lena Geyer'.  Read it here.  Quite chilling.

I am sure this is a cult book for all opera buffs.  I have a hardback copy of this on my shelves which I will not part with as it is no longer in print though copies are available on Amazon, including one with this execrable cover.  My particular copy came from Highgate public library where I worked many years ago.  Somehow it was recommended for withdrawal as it was never taken out and so took up shelf space.

As to who actually put forward this recommendation, my lips are sealed......

STOP PRESS - Dame Judi on You Tube

Well, I said it wouldn't be long before this was up.  Watch it and just see what she does with this song and listen to the shout from the audience when they see her come on.

And doesn't she look simply beautiful?  Read the comments under this video as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHC4pzZh8M

Hot hot hot

Sorry everyone too hot to blog.   Though I don't suffer from hay fever as badly as I used to, my eyes are still bad, itchy and sore and I have just spent the afternoon in my bedroom which is cool and shady.  Fell fast asleep and just coming to now. Had planned all sorts of things to write but it may have to wait and, lovely o lovely, there is a broadcast on BBC2 tonight of Simon Boccanegra by Verdi.  Not one of his operas I am really familiar with but it has the most glorious father/daughter duet in the first act which always reduces me to tears and of course the main reason for watching is that Placido Domingo is singing the title role, which is for a baritone.

This man is a genius. He started off as a baritone and now that his tenor voice is going he is reverting back to his lower and middle register which still sounds rock solid to me.  And this man is SEVENTY next birthday.

Unbelievable.

Also unbelievable that the BBC are actually putting this on an accessible channel all evening.  I may have to lie down again to recover.

Back tomorrow I hope.

SUNDAY - Having watched this my feeling that this is one of my least favourite Verdi operas has been reinforced.  The lovers are particularly wet and annoying but the heart of Simon B is, naturally, in the title role and here was Placido quite magnificent, not only was his voice wonderful (though having watched a broadcast of Don Carlos on the BBC and finding Villazon also magnificent when he was anything but in the House I wonder if the BBC had mucked about with the sound levels which they do) but his acting was top notch as always.  Full of humanity and warmth and at the end a standing ovation from the audience.  There was a sense of farewell about it all as I think this will be the last time he sings here.  I could be wrong. I hope so.  After all I saw him sing Siegmund in Die Walkure just a few years ago and was totally stunned by his performance and the sound of his voice.

Wonderful

Philip Langridge

I am not putting this post on Random Arts where it belongs because I am still building up visitors over there and I want this to be seen by as many as possible.

This is Philip Langridge who died on Friday. An English tenor with one of those voices which are difficult to slot into a particular fache, he seemed to be able to turn his hand to most things. I gather he said that he never had a voice which would 'make me a Pavarotti but rather a useful one which meant he had the chance of a varied career'.  I am paraphrasing his actual words, but it is typical of this man that he should be so modest.

Many years ago when I sang in the London Oriana Choir in London, we did a performance of the St John Passion and Philip was singing the Evangelist, a role which he sang many many times, and apart from the fact that he was quite superb and totally committed, I also remember what fun he was.  He came in wearing a long black coat with a university striped scarf slung round his neck and he and Brian Rayner Cook (baritone taking part) were exchanging back chat and jokes all the way through the rehearsal, save when it came to their turn to sing when they were immediately ready, at one stage BRC in the pulpit declaiming to Philip Langridge below much to the delight of all the choir.  Come the evening, come the performance, immaculately turned out (he always looked so elegant) he produced a stunning Evangelist that left me, hardly the most enthusiastic Bach fan in the world, almost in tears.

A few years ago, at the age of 67 he sang Loge in Das Rheingold at Covent Garden, the night that I attended because Bryn was doing his first ever Wotan.   I was unaware of the rest of the cast so thrilled was I to be seeing Bryn, but when I spotted Philip Langridge was performing as Loge, I was astounded and wondered how his voice would be now and how good he would be.   Silly of me to worry, he was simply splendid and garnered excellent reviews.   While the world is amazed and full of awe at Placido Domingo performing  on the world's opera stages at the age of 69, we should also remember Philip who did the same and with great style.

When I heard of his death, I was genuinely upset as I felt I had lost a friend and somebody who was part of my singing and musical life.  He will be much missed.

Further articles in the Telegraph and the Guardian

Bijou postette

New post up on Random Music. Do read - am trying to get the traffic up on this blog!