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Showing posts from June, 2008

Moorish Spain - truly multicultural civilisation

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Football doesn't feature here very often , but I have to record my delight at Spain's victory last night in Euro 2000. There is currently a refreshing vibrancy about Spain that is all the more remarkable considering that both Spain and its Iberian neighbour Portugal suffered under right-wing oppression for decades after the defeat of Fascist poster-boys Hitler and Mussolini. The roots of Spain's creative vibrancy go back to the seven centuries of Arab rule from 711 to 1492, which gave rise to a truly multicultural civilisation in which three monotheistic religions and peoples of diverse origins lived in a harmony which should serve as an example in our terror-torn twenty-first century. In Andalucia the cities of Córdoba , Seville and Granada became great centres of cultural, artistic and religous activity in which music and the other creative arts flourished. Three diverse elements came together to create the Moorish music of the region - Middle Eastern, North African B

In the name of cultural diplomacy

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'In a basement studio of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, another wall was coming down. Our education team was working with 28 young Chinese and a group of teachers. Within an hour and a half, they are all producing their own, short, dance piece. To me it seems miraculous. Cultural diplomacy is as important now as it has ever been' - writes the chief executive of London's Royal Opera House in a retrospective justification of the Royal Ballet's tour to China in today's Independent . The Indies' endline reads as follows - ' Tony Hall is chief executive of the Royal Opera House. The Royal Ballet tour to China is supported by Rio Tinto'. Continue the tour here , here and here while a dancer in another company takes some wrong steps here . And more cultural diplomacy here. Header photo is not of Sleeping Beauty which the Royal Ballet took to China but from Indymedia.org.nz . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use&

Harrison Birtwistle's spirit of space

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Spirit of space as well as spirit of place is being celebrated at this year's Aldeburgh Festival. The magic of perspective was present even before the music started with sculptor East Anglian sculptor Laurence Edwards' three nine feet high Creek Men (photo above) menacingly standing guard over the distant marshes. Space and visual images were also at the heart of last night's double-header new music programme which included the UK premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's string quartet Tree of Strings . This totally convincing study in creative fragmentation started with the superb Arditti Quartet inhabiting a single musical and physical space at the centre of the stage. Then, as the thirty minute work unfolded they moved to separate and distanced spaces around the perimeter of the large Snape platform where they spoke with separate musical voices before individually, and silently, making their exits from the famous performing space. In the magical final moments, as the l

Later they brought me their song

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I must confess I rather wish I was at Glastonbury this weekend to hear Leonard Cohen who has been receiving rave reviews for his UK tour. But I'm quite happy to be at Aldeburgh's Faster Than Sound new music festival starting with this double-header tonight: * Arditti Quartet at 7.00pm ~ Bach arr Harrison Birtwistle Fugue (world premiere), Stravinsky Three pieces for String Quartet, Cage String Quartet in Four Parts, Bach arr Harrison Birtwistle Fugue (world premiere), Harrison Birtwistle Tree of Strings (UK premiere) * London Voices with Ben Parry director at 10.00pm ~ Stockhausen Stimmung (Header photo of Collegium Vocale performing Stimmung in Paris in 1971 is from Richard Friedman .) The weather forecast for Aldeburgh is good after rain last night. So we're doing it Glastonbury style with a bottle of wine and a patchouli oil burner for the hour's interval between the two concerts, and Leonard Cohen will be with us in the car. Oh the sisters of mercy, they a

To expel those who do not have the right to stay

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'For this purpose the Roma – those with Italian nationality and those without, EU citizens and those from outside the Community – will all have their fingerprints taken. And the rule will even apply to Gypsy children – for reasons that to many of Mr Maroni's supporters must have sounded obvious: "to avoid phenomena," as he put it, "such as begging". The new measures, he said, were indispensable "in order to expel those who do not have the right to stay in Italy"' - no not in Italy in 1938 but in Italy today. Read the full story in the Independent . I fear it is the shape of things to come, and not just in Benito Mussolini's old stamping ground. Now playing - Bela Bartók's Roumanian Dances with Antal Dorati conducting the Minneapolis Symphony on vinyl LP (SRI75105) in glorious Mercury sound in those wonderful days before the 'benefits' of digital encoding, multi-tracking, multi-miking, multi-editing and multi-promoting. The

Copyright or copywrong?

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'I would be bereft if Viacom succeeded in slimming or shutting YouTube down. Artists are not much bothered by its minor copyright infringements, as they were by file-swap sites, and Hollywood gets more promotion from it than violation. As an educational tool and creative resource, it has untold value' - The Lebrecht Weekly , June 25, 2008. 'The reproduction by whatever means of the whole or any part of any Image (including, without limitation, slide projection, artist's reference, artist's illustration, layout or presentation of Images) is strictly forbidden without our specific written permission' - Terms & Conditions of use of Lebrecht Photo Library , "The world's largest resource for music pictures and all the creative arts". And Glenn Gould's copyright gets an extension here. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at

Recommended for Coltrane loving Democrats

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The problem with most jazz treatments of Bach is that creatively they are somewhere on the moderate side of Yo-Yo Ma . But not so a radical new CD which uses improvisation to bring together the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and John Coltrane. Jazz saxophonist Raphaël Imbert has made an academic study of the spiritual elements of jazz and reveres John Coltrane, who said "my goal is to live a truly religous life and express it in my music" , as the only true mystic in the history of jazz. For the CD Bach-Coltrane Imbert teams up with jazzers Jean-Luc Di Fraya (percussion) and Michel Péres (bass) for the Coltrane, the Manfred string quartet for the Bach, while classical organist André Rossi , counter tenor Gérard Lesne and Imbert spread themselves across a CD which is based on the saxophonist's credo of " wherever we come from, we are all musicians ". Bach-Coltrane departs from the world of Jacques Loussier and the Modern Jazz Quartet by its willingness to i

Piano music from a contemporary icon

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While Deutsche Grammophon brings us " The Gustavo Dudamel album the world has been waiting for" and the NY Times confirms things can get worse at EMI it is left to savy labels like Naxos to challenge and inspire. Released this week is an album that challenges and inspires quite magnificently - the piano music of John Tavener played by Ralph van Raat . If you think Tavener is just 'holy minimalism' this Naxos CD will make you think again. The influences range from Chopin to the Orthodox Liturgy. No requirement for marketing-speak from me, at budget price the best thing to do is buy it . Tavener's music and Ralph van Raat's performance are magnificent, as is the sound captured by producer and engineer Michael Ponder in Potton Hall , Suffolk, just down the road from where I write and, ironically, a venue for many fine EMI recordings . A credit is also needed for the excellent sleeve notes by the pianist. But one small moan if I may. I know I am the only pe

With a little help from my strings

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Someone just raised the bar (or should that be bow?) on Joshua Bell and Tasmin Little . I bet the cellist was truly weak at the knees over this gig . Pablo was caught in action on the streets in vibrant Nantes, France. Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links and strings to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk