“A tribute to Frank and Ella”

Thursday night we attended Cadogan Hall’s “A tribute to Frank and Ella”. It took a while for M to come around to Big Band American music, and when he did I was relieved. We had a Frank S. impersonator sing at our wedding and we often play a collection of Louis A. and Ella F.’s duets in the background. The music programme at Cadogan Hall had some of our favorites: “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “Stompin’ At The Savoy”, “Come Fly With Me” and “Don’t Be That Way”.

The British Police Symphony Orchestra

A friend, the first celloist in the British Police Symphony Orchestra, invited us to attend the orchestra’s 20th-anniversary concert at Cadogan Hall.  Half of the performers are active police officers and the other half are friends and family of cops. The performance of Elgar’s “Cockaigne Overture” offered a solid openining and Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1 in D Major” a tiresome end. The piece I was eagerly looking forward to hearing performed live is Mozart’s “Oboe Concerto”; the composer’s pieces for wind instruments are not nearly as often performed as his piano or violin compositions. I enjoyed how playfully the massive Scotland Yard cop sang into his oboe; from his breathe out and his oboe, he pushed out sprightly music appropo of a lovely spring evening.

Garrison K. at Cadogan Hall

Garrison K. is the first celebrity I’ve ever met. I was thirteen years old. After quickly introducing myself, I told him, “I like to write too.” Facing one another in NYC’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, about as far from the mid-western communities GK writes about in his widely-successful “A Prairie Home Companion,” he must have been struck by the reach and appeal of his stories to an audience that has never known the boredom of driving through fields of corn or for whom a church dance was the highlight of the social calendar. Last night, clad in a formal tux with a red bowtie and red sneakers to match, we listened to GK sing in his modest baritone voice a programme of “American song” or, perhaps more accurately described as, “American limericks”. Expecting an exclusively American audience, I was struck by how many locals were in attendance laughing along to GK’s original songs which describe church culture in the mid-west, provide marital advice, and praise the spirits (not the religious variety). The City of London Sinfonia accompanied GK, playing many of Mendelssohn’s best-known works as the background music for GK’s story storytelling through song.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

You learn something new every day. Last night we attended the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Royal Festival Hall; there I discovered that the wedding march is a movement in the piece.

I always enjoy visiting the South Bank. Whether it’s to pick up pate at Borough Market, seeing a play at the National Theatre, attending the annual Slow Food Festival, visiting an exhibit at the Hayward Gallery, or dining at Oxo Tower, the South Bank has turned into a regular destination for us on the weekends. I never tire of the infinite opportunities for “culcha” and the view of Parliament while crossing the Thames.

“Ermione”

What amazes me about opera is how long it seems to take to convey one single idea, action, or thought. At the Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre we saw Rossini’s “Ermione”, a lesser-known opera where the central action revolves around a constellation of unrequited love. Although I enjoyed listening to the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform, I quickly remembered why opera has never pulled me the same way as straight drama or even some musical theatre.

Pavel Haas Quartet

In a recent “Lunch with the FT”, I read that Ian M., author of “Saturday”, and his wife frequently attend concerts at Wigmore Hall. While waiting for the Pavel Haas Quartet to begin their performance, I eagerly scanned the audience many times over, half wondering if it could be my lucky night: live classical music plus the opportunity to exchange a few words with the first writer to publish a post-9/11 novel. As luck would have it, I didn’t pick out Ian M. from the largely-geriatric crowd, nor was I much impressed by Wigmore Hall itself. Although the performance was a solid one, neither the music nor the venue compared to “Mozart by Candlelight” or any other concert we’ve attended at the RAH. One must always have high standards when it comes to art and culture, but I’ve recently realised how consistent exposure to excellence also generates disappointment.

Symphonic Rock at the Royal Albert Hall

The risk in performing symphonic rock is that it will closely resemble muzak, instrumental love ballads from the eighties frequently imposed on us while riding the elevator at Macy’s department store. Needless to say, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra veered from schmaltzy pop love songs and instead performed a wide range of rock music representative of both sides of the Atlantic. The programme was diverse, including Procol Harum, Coldplay, Enrique Iglesias, Michael Jackson, George Michael, Simon & Garfunkel, and Meatloaf. Surprisingly enough, the songs that resonated the most with the audience members weren’t the timeless classics like Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” or The Beatles’s “Let It Be”; instead, Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer”, Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best”, the Bangles’s “Walk Like an Egyptian”, and U2’s “Beautiful Day” inspired the audience to clap, sing along and do the wave.

No cover performance in England is complete without a Queen Tribute (“We Will Rock You” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”); according to the MC, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the most requested song in the history of British radio. M and I thoroughly enjoyed the concert; between the two of us we knew every song performed. For better or for worse, I could not help but notice the ten-year old sitting two seats to my right; while I considered the songs significant in British/American mainstream popular culture, it was clear that the young audience member did not recognize a single song performed tonight. I was reminded of the value of knowing rock music comes from somewhere, evolving out of a trajectory shaped by advances in technology, fads, cultures, and inspirations. Hopefully the concert will demonstrate to him that music, like all forms of cultural expression, is not formed in a vacuum.

“The Gipsy Kings” at the Royal Albert Hall

Tonight we returned to the Royal Albert Hall for a very different musical experience from the classical music concert we attended last night. There were no clarinets or powder-wigged musicians at the Gipsy Kings concert, but we did notice three left-handed guitarists and two random women from the audience hopping onstage to dance among the band members as they played “classics” such as “Djobi, Djoba”, “Baila Me”, “Un Amor”, “Volare”, and, of course, “Bamboleo” for the finale. The crowd went crazy upon hearing the first few bars of one of the band’s greatest hits and was more subdued when the Gipsy Kings played from their most recent album, “Roots.” It was a great weekend for music at the Royal Albert Hall.

“The Four Seasons by Candlelight” at the Royal Albert Hall

Last night we attended “The Four Seasons by Candlelight” at the Royal Albert Hall which I would sum up as a concert showcasing classical music’s “greatest hits”. The orchestra, clad in eighteenth-century costumes and powdered wigs (men and women alike!), performed Handel’s “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba”, Pachelbel’s “Canon in D Major”, Bach’s “Air on the G String”, and Mozart’s “Clarinet Concerto in A Major” along with two arias from “The Marriage of Figaro.” The concert concluded with Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”. Whereas M was eager to hear “The Four Seasons” live and found it the highlight of the concert, I was entranced with the first half of the evening’s program. Bach’s “Air on the G String” sent shivers down my spine, but of course I am biased since it was the processional music at our wedding (as it is for half of the couples in the Free World!). Listening to the lone clarinet in Mozart’s “Clarinet Concerto in A Major” whose sound had a distinctly low resonance made me think that if the heart could sing it would sound playful and light like a Stadler clarinet in “Adagio”.

Royal Albert Hall- “Mozart the Dramatist”

Saturday night we attended “Mozart the Dramatist” at the Royal Albert Hall. The event is one of many in the BBC’s Prom series commemorating the composer’s work. Along with performing a smattering of his early German arias and later Italian operas, the conducter preceded every piece with a few witty words about Mozart and his work, creating a festive atmosphere. In particular, I enjoyed the sound of the harpsichord for its eighteenth-century tonality, a rare sound.