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Showing posts from March, 2005

Pianissimo

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I am sure that I am not the only one who finds coughs, watch alarms, sweet papers, even mobile phones (e.g. Rattle's Rite of Spring at last year's Proms ) at concerts maddening. There is an interesting take on the problem on the Ink Pot web site which publishes reviews of classical concerts in the Far East. Each review includes an 'Overall Noise Rating'. Here is an example and explanation............ OVERALL NOISE RATING: 0 (Except for that 10pm beep, all was quiet.) The Noise Rating Index is a partially-objective measurement of pager and handphone blasts, 9pm and 10pm watch beeps, coughing-during-the-pianissimo-bits, intra-audience conversation and other mind-bogglingly inept noises emitted in the concert hall during actual performance of music. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 5, in increasing annoyance. Silence is golden - so are noise ratings on concert reviews a good idea?

Easter at Aldeburgh

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Iken Church in the distance from Iken Cliff, all photos taken today under a typical East Anglian sky. The overgrown path led me to Iken Church this Easter Saturday morning. The church is on a promontory sticking out into the River Ald downstream from Snape . It is a place of inspiring beauty and peace, a wonderful setting for a monastery. St Botolph built his minster at Iken in the 7th century, and became the first person in Britain to follow the Rule of St Benedict . The monastery was destroyed by raiding Danes in the winter of 969/70, and parts of the current church date from the rebuilding which started in the 11th century. The story of destruction by Viking invaders is a reminder of how this part of East Anglia is on the margins of civilisation. During World War 2 the village of Iken was evacuated and the church closed to make way for a practice battleground. And despite the beauty of the area the Sizewell nuclear power station to the north is a constant, and visible, reminder

Soli Deo Gloria

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Photograph by Steve McCurry ; he provides the cover images for John Eliot Gardiner's cycle of Bach cantatas described in this post, open this link to see more images by this superb photographer . Musician owned record labels have already been the subject of postings on On An Overgrown Path, including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' MaxOpus , Michael Nyman with MN Records , The Sixteens' Corro label , the Brodsky Quartet , and even as I type this the London Philharmonic Orchestra announce the launch of their own label. But the acid test for any recording project is whether the artists have anything important to say. With his latest recording venture John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, and the English Baroque soloists with distinguished soloists pass that test with flying colours (this choir also brought us the superb Santiago a Cappella disc mentioned in my Pilgrimage post ). The project started with the Bach Pilgrimage . This performed and recorded all Bach's survi

The Chorus sings Tallis and Tippett

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Although The Chorus may not be attracting the audiences in UK cinemas our leading vocal ensembles are packing them into concert venues. Last night The Sixteen with their founder and conductor Harry Christopher were visiting the superb English Perpendiular church of St Peter Mancroft in Norwich (see my post Bach at St Peter Mancroft ). Tallis meets Tippett - medieval meets modern: St Peter Mancroft Norwich seen from the new Forum Pilgrimages are all the rage among vocal groups as well as on this blog (see Pliable's Travels ). I have been listening to the first CD releases from the Monteverdi Choirs Bach Pilgrimage project (which also brought us the sublime Santiago a Cappella disc - see my Pilgrimage post) and will write about that shortly. The Sixteen are on their own Choral Pilgrimage taking an innovative programme of Tallis and Tippett to our great cathedrals, including Canterbury, York, Lincoln, Douai Abbey , and last night St Peter Mancroft in Norwich. (Interestingly St. P

The Chorus

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We went to see The Chorus last night with some trepidation. The UK critics had given it a luke warm reception, with mutterings about 'feel good movies'. In case you've missed the story Christophe Barratier's film (which was nominated for an Oscar) is a remake of an obscure 1945 film about an unemployed music teacher who becomes a supervisor in a boarding school for boys from troubled backgrounds. The music teacher, brilliantly played by Gerard Jugnot, changes the lives of the boys, and the school, by introducing them to choral singing. Jean-Baptiste Maunier is now a huge star in France, but what will his audience be in the UK and US? This was the first week for the film in the UK. It was preceeded by trailers for mass market Hollywood trash - yet another Woody Allen movie of middle aged Americans acting out their mid-life crises with their heads up their rear ends, and a Kate Winslet epic of how the US will save the world from the terrors of the axis of evil. There wer

Online aarti

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Fish Frenzy 2 by Neill Murphy - £350 Virtual art galleries which display and sell paintings online fascinate me. I have already posted in Serendipity 2 about Julian Merrow-Smith who paints in the Vaucluse and has an online gallery at Still Life , and a blog with daily paintings instead of words at Shifting Light . Now On An Overgrown Path has put me back in touch with an old colleague from my IT days. Margaret Horrocks swapped AS400 programming for creating a superb online gallery of contemporary art called aarti.co.uk which she runs from her home on the Norfolk/Suffolk borders. Margaret tells me the name aarti was intended to be an acronym for Advertising Art on the Internet , but has the alternative meaning of "a little prayer" which most artists probably do when they exhibit their work. On her site Margaret sets out her 'manifesto' which should be shouted from the rooftops far beyond the art world..... AARTI thinks that creative people are special. How much

A direct line to Britten

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Saw the superb young Kamus Quartet playing at the Chapel invitation concert in Norwich on Sunday. The Kamus are four students from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki who are making quite a name for themselves on the chamber music scene. The Kamus Quartet show that chamber music doesn't need to be stuffy and boring.... Why do so many brilliant musicians come out of Finland , a country of just five million inhabitants. Coming to that why do so many other important developments like the Linux operating system (first developed by Linus Torvalds) and Nokia mobile phone technology come from the same small country? Presumably it is connected with the fact that the Finnish education system is consistently rated as one of the best in the world? ( In the OECD 's international assessment of student performance, PISA , Finland has consistently been among the highest scorers worldwide; in 2003 Finnish 15-year-olds came first in reading literacy and science, and second in mathematics, wor

Lost in translation

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On An Overgrown Path is hosted on splendid free software supplied by Blogger . But the Spellcheck in the blogger software does throw up some amusing sillies. While I was writing my post Master Tallis' Testament the following were just some of the suggested corrections.... Tallis = talkie frisson = frisian groundplan = grandpa's L'Abbaye = labia ecclesiastical = eclectic Elgar's = eelgrass Howells = howls motets = mutates plainchant = planking Walton's = wilting cantata = candied Pliable at work on On An Overgrown Path

Wot no computers?

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Today the London International Book Fair opens, and for the first time than for more years than I can remember I am not there. I spent the last few years of my time in the corporate world being paid to persuade booksellers and publishers to see the benefits of using computer systems, and to trade electronically using common standards (EDI, XML, metadata and all that kind of stuff - here is a link if you are really interested). This usually meant persuading the small bookseller or publisher to shell out money, and change their established (and effective) business processes. A couple of days ago I was in Malvern for a conference, and followed it with another fascinating monastery hunting trip which took in Belmont Abbey , Dore Abbey (picture above - the Dore Abbey link is worth following, nice web site) and finally a trip up the Honddu Valley in Wales to visit the magnificent Llanthony Priory . When I get time I'll write a post about these visits; but what extraordinary, beautifu

Schubert's last piano sonata

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Heard acclaimed young British pianist Paul Lewis playing Beethoven and Schubert at the John Innes Centre in Norwich last Sunday in one of splendid concerts organised by Norwich and Norfolk Chamber Music . Wonderful technically dazzling playing, but a strangely empty performance of the Schubert Sonata No 21. (My favourite performance is Wilhelm Kempff's which is available in a 7CD bargain box from DGG which is full of riches. This set is available from Caiman USA via amazon.co.uk through the New and Used link for the bargain price of £21.56 plus £1.24 postage, see my posting Brilliant CD Bargains ). I am also attached to Paul Lewis' teacher Alfred Brendel's interpretations , his 'live remake' comes as part of a two for the price of one Philips set. It is worth visiting his official web site via this link , as you would expect it one of the more imaginative artist web sites). Why do so many young musicians feel they have to tackle the peaks of the repertoire relati

Master Tallis' Testament

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Authentic performance is conventionally defined as played on original instruments and in an original style (without vibrato etc), but performances in 'authentic' surroundings can add an equally valid frisson . Norwich Priory became a Benedictine Monastic Priory five years after its foundation in 1096, and the Norman groundplan is the most authentic of any English cathedral. Among many glories the cloisters, which unusually for a dissolved house remain intact, are outstanding. They were burnt down in 1272, and subsequently rebuilt with an unusual covered upper story for the monks to use for work and contemplation in winter. (It is a common mistake to think cloisters were simply used by monks walking in silent, contemplative circles. Together with the Chapter House and church they were a central point for the monks, used for working, reading and writing. When I arrived to stay in the Benedictine L'Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine du Barroux I didn't know the etiquette of monast

Dog eats dog....

In the classical music world musician owned record labels are all the rage, and my post MaxOpus was about Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' innovative web site, which is complete with music downloads. Michael Nyman of 'The Piano' fame is the latest to join the bandwagon (pun intended). Neglect by his corporate label Warner Classics is the accusation, and MN Records is Nyman's own label. But Warner Classics are not taking the accusation lying down, here is their letter from today's Guardian. There is one very simple reason that Michael Nyman is starting his own label: no one else will release his records any more. He blames the low profile of Facing Goya and Sangam on "inadequate marketing by Warner's". Sadly for him, the real reason was inadequate music which is, I imagine, a harder pill to swallow. Matthew Cosgrove , Director, Warner Classics

Shifting Light

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I always looking out for blogs that push the envelope, and here is a nice one. Shifting Light is a gallery of small oil paintings created mostly daily, by Julian Merrow-Smith, an English painter based in Crillon-le-Brave, in the South of France (Julian is the other half of cellist Ruth Phillips , whose blog Meanwhile in France was featured in my posting Serendipidity 2 ). This is a sort of daily diary in paintings. The paintings are small, the size of an envelope, and are available for purchase. Prices start at $100/€78/ £50. A picture is worth a thousand words (or a million on some blogs), so enough said. From Shifting Light - Green Olives: 15 x 10 cms, oil on gessoed card PRICE: £50.00 [$100.00/€75,00]

Brilliant CD bargains

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I buy a lot of CD's, and am always looking for value for money as well as great service. The four Brahms Symphonies with Mackerras conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in his highly acclaimed 'deconstructed' performances on 3 CD's from Telarc are £41.99 from Amazon UK. I followed the 'Used and New' link to Caiman USA and paid £17.47 plus £1.24 shipping for the same set listed as 'new' - less than half price, and a saving of more than twenty pounds. Caiman offer online order tracking. They responded to the order with an email and said they are shipping in three days. They must be selling at less than US cost, but they have 119067 ratings from buyers in last twelve months with average 4.6 out of 5. The set arrived seven days after ordering. Beautifully packaged, factory shrunk-wrap, and half the price of Amazon - saving more than £20. Caiman ship via Frankfrt in the same way as amazon.com. I would highly recommend Caiman on this experience. Fantastica