small-circle-of-friends ([info]small_circle) wrote,
@ 2005-07-26 15:58:00
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Current music:Fun And Games: Elephant candy

They vacuum up, your mum and dad.
My parents have been visiting London for a few days, so they've been showing me what to do in this marvellous city. Whenever they come to town, they make me seem like a part-timer. Thus, in the past four days, they've seen three plays, one Prom concert and lord knows how many exhibitions. It's great that they're still enthusiastic about London & what it has to offer, but ferchrissakes, slow down, you'll do yourself an injury at your age. To be honest, given the events of the past few weeks, I'm impressed that they had the courage to visit, but it seems they know no fear.
So on Saturday I took them to see Death Of A Salesman, probably the best play I've ever seen; Brian Dennehy's performance was just so moving, though there were moments in the plot that felt a little too close to home. Then on Sunday -after a grim meal at the Albert Hall's brasserie- we all went to the performance of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius at the Proms. I don't get out to classical concerts too often (normally coinciding with parental visits), and there's really no excuse, cos there were moments in this that were as moving as any live music I've heard this year. It's mainly the massed voice stuff that gets me...and there were loads of dramatic choral crescendos (-di?) in sunday's performance. Wonderful stuff, though I still have trouble with solo sopranos. Or as I still prefer to call them, horrible screetching women. Vibrato: who needs it?

[info]hospitalsoup, is it time for another educational comp?




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irelevantly...
[info]mzdt
2005-07-26 03:31 pm UTC (link)
get my text about pub tonight? there's ladies</s>...

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Re: irelevantly...
[info]small_circle
2005-07-26 03:35 pm UTC (link)
Ooh, yes! Meant to get back to you, but got waylaid by bolshy estate agents (is there any other kind of estate agent?). Sarah's coming round for tea, but maybe later? Would be nice to see Katie. I'll call you...

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Re: irelevantly...
[info]mzdt
2005-07-26 03:45 pm UTC (link)
sevenish onwards at the Salutation. Bring Sarah - I get to see her about twice a year... (and I have something for her that's going in the bin otherwise).

Feel free to delete this thread to leave the way clear for discussions of high art.

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Re: irelevantly...
[info]catsgomiaow
2005-07-26 03:50 pm UTC (link)
Come and see the LADIES! I'll see if Amos wants to come too?

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[info]augstone
2005-07-26 04:24 pm UTC (link)
i've been dying to hear how the kraftwerk thing was. i opted for the clientele that night who i thought were very good but they had to borrow equipment without their normal effects and were pretty grim about their performance. and you're right, the borderline is a sweatbox.

i'm up for any classical concerts if you plan on 'hitting' some more. (not sure of the proper terminology - gig doesn't work, does it?) anything tinged with slavic melancholy usually does the trick for me.

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[info]small_circle
2005-07-26 04:52 pm UTC (link)
Karl: the concert itself was fabulous. Lots of old Kraftwerk numbers (aha!!): The Telephone Call, The Robots, The Model, Neonlights, Computer Love played in an authentic analogue-soundalike style, plus some numbers from his surprisingly great solo records; they're certainly better than that awful Tour De France LP the "real" Kraftwerk released last year.
The lecture was a bit of a joke, to be honest: umpteen different ways of stating the bleeding obvious. He seemed to be under the impression that visuals have been an important part of music only since MTV was invented. Sunday's Elgar concert was ample demonstration that the "performance" has been an essential element of music since the year dot. The guy chairing the Q&A was an idiot of the highest order. A real missed opportunity. One consolation was tha I managed to get Karl's autograph on my copy of Die Mensch Maschine. yay!

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