On Friday afternoon, we ventured out to see the exhibition Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes at the Victoria and Albert museum. This proved to be a thoroughly absorbing exhibition, bringing together so many different elements - theatre, music, art, choreography, strong and creative personalties - in the same way that Diaghilev …
Category: music
happy national poetry day
On the radio this morning I hear a setting of a Robert Burns poem, My heart's in the Highlands, by Arvo Pärt, for counter-tenor and organ. An unexpected combination - Pärt and Burns - the ascetic Estonian composer and the libertine Scottish bard. But it works. A charming and wistful song, a perfect piece for …
lushness, sublimity and more
Summer is coming to an end. So are the Proms. Last night, we sat high up in the circle at the Royal Albert Hall to watch and listen to the Berliner Philharmoniker perform some sublime music. First up, Wagner's Prelude to Act 1 of Parsifal - love those lush strings. Then, the extraordinary soaring, immensely …
the week that was
was rather high on stress and somewhat low on culture. The stress arose from a little spate of domestic/technological crises (yes, they do seem to come in threes), and the mundane but wearying frustrations of earning a wage. Still, I did manage an early-ish morning swim at the lido on Thursday, twenty lengths, beneath a …
Hilaire 