In July – one of the ‘pleasures’ – relatively speaking – of lockdown has been the time to look a lot at streamed performance, and programmes on Youtube etc For instance this is a lovely and recent film about Mahler’s First Symphony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5DfYcT5icY and here is a super performance by Lenny Bernstein of Das Lied von der Erde https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idRevTkIPts . Both these served to cheer me up – at least for a while.
The Vienna Opera site has had some amazing performances an absolutely gripping performance of Der Rosenkavalier, for instance, with Felicity Lott as the Marschallin from Vienna in the 1990’s, with Carlos Kleiber conducting, no less, on the Vienna Opera website – really worth watching – https://www.staatsoperlive.com/event/2/3bc640b8-f09b-4424-9068-5bf7c5587504/watch. I also saw the recent excellent Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Thielemann. Reminds me again of the 70’s and going to memorable performances of Der Rosenkavalier and Otello at Covent Garden conducted again by Carlos Kleiber and Die Frau ohne Schatten, conducted by Solti. Talking of Kleiber there’s a wonderful film clip of him conducting one of the Vienne New Year concerts in the late 80’s/ early 90’s, enjoying himself but with a very steely glint in his eye – I am sure I have read somewhere or seen a documentary that said he was normally paralysed by stage fright before a performance and that was why he was seen so relatively rarely – at least outside Germany. I also remember hearing that, because he was so well paid as a conductor, he wasn’t keen on doing the New Year’s Day concerts in Vienna at first, and was eventually persuaded only when they offered him, in lieu of any fee, a particular sports car he’d always wanted……He was also apparently a well-known womaniser – how might he have fared in the (absolutely reasonable and needed) #MeToo era, with Levine, DuToit and Gatti all having fallen (or been pushed) on their swords? In fact I have just found the documentary I think all this was from – on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta8Tqjn7Suo . Do have a look – it’s quite moving. While I’m about it, on the subject of conductors, there’s also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e-KWlMl1Q8, a BBC documentary on Goodall.
I have been enjoying hearing composers I am not familiar with, A particular find has been the Finzi cello concerto – very British in its way but a voice that sounds neither like Elgar or RVW. I have a great recording by Yo Yo Ma. The second movement is the one to listen to first – very beautiful. I believe it was about the last work he completed before he died, relatively young, in his 50’s, and it has that sort of autumnal feel. Here is a Youtube link to a recording https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU4eOpFO_k8. The second movement is 16’40 into the recording, which also seems to be by Yo Yo Ma but might be a different performance to the one I’ve got. I used to know someone whose uncle was an amateur violinist who played with Finzi in the amateur orchestra he conducted in Berkshire or Surrey in the late 40’s and early 50’s – he always used to say what a nice, very humble person he was. I find the Finzi work much more satisfying than the better-known Walton one, and I’ve never really got on with Britten’s Cello Symphony. Bax is another one I’m getting to know more – the 3rd symphony is particularly fine
I came across also a wonderful bit of Tudor music I had never heard before – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmLIqk9dQfM. In Media Vita (‘In the Middle of Life is Death’), by John Sheppard, I have been listening to it again and again
And then I also spent a bit of time enjoying getting to know works by Weinberg, a slightly younger contemporary of Shostakovich, who was Polish by origin, had two narrow escapes from German invasions, and finally settled in Moscow from September 1943. He was a good friend and supporter of Shostakovich – who reciprocated. You can hear the Shostakovich influence in the music but it is less spikey, less mordant, than S. The recent recording by ‘Mirga’ and the CBSO of the 21st symphony (Kaddish’) is wonderful – with Mirga herself singing a wordless lament in the final movement. A great work by any standards. I’ve also enjoyed the 20th symphony and a beautiful ‘cello concerto. Masses to discover….!!
Oh and In July I did have a day out to Lincoln , my first outing beyond the Hope Balley since March (apart from a day servicing the car in Sheffield)
At the end of June I will have spent 18 weeks without an evening outside the village. 126 days ‘in’ must be a first for me since childhood, and feels extremely odd. I have determined to do two things in the next few months: one, I will spend a few days at a retreat centre in Leicestershire I know, which is set in beautiful countryside, has a great library and does excellent food, in mid-August. It will be so good to be in a different place. Also, I am planning to do the Pilgrims’ Way walk in ?late September / early October from Winchester to Canterbury (or as much of it as I can walk within 10 days), if I can find sufficient pubs/B and B’s to stay in en route (I loathe camping), and if Covid rules permit
John's musical journey 