You gotta problem with that?

You seem to have a rose petal on your scanner, Don.

Hope nobody knows Mark Bebbington.

           Tonight promised to be a most enjoyable evening, a recital (as part of the Chelsea Festival) free to Music students, when tickets cost £15-20 hurrah Entitled "The Music of John Ireland", it took place at St. Luke's Chelsea, where Ireland was organist for many years. The programme could hardly have been more fortunate. It included Ireland's London Pieces and Ferguson's Piano Sonata, all of which I have either learnt hmmor am currently learning. The pre-concert talk was given by Alan Rowlands, who knew Ireland. This was informative, with snatches of Ireland being interviewed and performing his own music.

In the concert itself I was to be disappointed. I will try not to be too harsh.

           MB wasn't helped by the acoustic of the building, which was so resonant it was swimmy. However it did suit the first pieces (by Gurney) quite well. These were also the only pieces (of those I heard) for which MB did not require the music. Then Ireland Ballade of London Nights and London Pieces. I felt these suffered from over-pedalling, and a tendency to play them as some pianists play Chopin, the left hand frequently playing ahead of the right. Also he used some vibrato (the finger shakes on the key), the first time I can remember seeing this - it looked odd.

         For the Ferguson Sonata, he was either incredibly nervous, or not too far away from sight-reading it. There is a double-dotted "scotch snap" rhythm (i.e. demisemiquaver, double dotted quaver) which recurs throughout the entire work. The accent is always on the first of these notes, despite the fact that in most cases the first note is single, whereas the second is an octave. I don't think there was an occasion when it sounded as it should.
Also, there were staccato notes held - physically - through rests, miscounting, and at the end of the first movement he mistook bass clef for treble
Second movement just so-so, I was not moved.

I left at the interval, deflated. I suppose it might be a rare thing to hear Karg-Elert's transcription of Elgar Symphony 1, but judging by the first half, it wasn't going to be worth hearing. Brr.

Sounds interesting, and since I'll be at a loose end due to SWMBO swanning off to Paris with Ruth Elleson of this parish and Lady DHS of TOP, I may pop along.

Well I should be able to work out who you are I suppose, and i still look reasonably like the photo in my avatar, (though now plus glasses).

Well Strina's concert was lovely, despite missing (through my own mismanagement) the beginning, and the drinks and Chinese taht followed were equally pleasant.

I was at a stunning concert as part of the Edinburgh Festival last Thursday. Sakari Oramo and the Finnish Radio Symphony orchestra played a programme of Janacek and Sibelius. It's a shame they aren't playing the proms too.

It was nice to see a familiar name (that of a messageboarder) as the author of the Janacek programme notes, though not altogether a surprise given his expertise in the composer.

I haven't been to a live concert for weeks - Brum goes to sleep in the (so-called) summer.