We didn't go but the kids did including Aggie (it's a 12A). Cost nearly 40 quid to send them all to Odeon Kensington which is closing down soon.
Verdict: Sad but way too long. It's 166 minutes. After 80 minutes, Edith said, you'd got the point. He gets younger while getting older.
Edith said: "It's about getting old, and about getting old as a tragedy."
I suppose for Hollywood stars getting old is a tragedy so this theme was the saddest thing they can think of.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Friday, 6 February 2009
Ben Heppner at the Barbican Hall
Ben Heppner is a very big Canadian with a good big heldentenor voice. It's not my favourite type of voice in the world but it can thoroughly fill the Barbican Hall and is especially good when belting. Piano: Thomas Muraco.
The Barbican did not handle this event terribly well. He announced a change in the song order for the Strauss songs, and said he'd asked the Barbican to change the programme weeks ago but they hadn't done it so he had to tell the audience in advance what order the songs were so they would not get confused following the translations. Later in the shop we found not a single one of his recordings. Actually I noticed (though I didn't look carefully) that the shop didn't have any Quasthoff recordings either - or any copies of his autobiography - even though his face is on every wall you look.
Maybe it is time someone with a genuine interest in the programme started running the bookshop. They would do it differently in America.
In this recital he sang a very interesting mixture of songs in German, English, French and Italian. The Schubert songs were all about God, a fact that the programme writer clearly found very uncomfortable. Time and time again I see the religious faith of composers and writers of the nineteenth century and before either explained away, ignored or somehow downgraded.
The four songs by Richard Strauss ended with a setting of a poem by Dehmel: Befreit (Freed) which is a man speaking to his dying wife, which I loved.
There were three Benjamin Britten songs, one a setting of a powerful poem by John Donne about faith and chastity and the other two really wonderful Hardy poems about country life - the Choirmaster's Funeral - which Heppner characterised and dramatised - and Songsters. I especially loved the poem about the birds who only a few months ago were grains and seeds:
The thrushes sing as the sun is going
And the finches whistle in ones and pairs,
And as it gets dark loud nightingales
In bushes
Pipe, as they can when April wears,
As if all Time were theirs.
These are brand new birds of twelvemonths' growing,
Which a year ago, or less than twain,
No finches were, nor nightingales,
Nor thrushes,
But only particles of gran,
And earth and air and rain.
I wasn't so interested by the Duparc songs in French though Dan liked them, but the recital finished with four Italian songs by four operatic composers - one each by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. They were all absolutely humdingers and I adored them.
Fashion note: Lounge suits. Muraco was sporting a very natty waistcoat in embroidered Chinese silk in kingfisher blue. Ben Heppner sports a curious hair colour: Ben, it's okay to grey.
The Barbican did not handle this event terribly well. He announced a change in the song order for the Strauss songs, and said he'd asked the Barbican to change the programme weeks ago but they hadn't done it so he had to tell the audience in advance what order the songs were so they would not get confused following the translations. Later in the shop we found not a single one of his recordings. Actually I noticed (though I didn't look carefully) that the shop didn't have any Quasthoff recordings either - or any copies of his autobiography - even though his face is on every wall you look.
Maybe it is time someone with a genuine interest in the programme started running the bookshop. They would do it differently in America.
In this recital he sang a very interesting mixture of songs in German, English, French and Italian. The Schubert songs were all about God, a fact that the programme writer clearly found very uncomfortable. Time and time again I see the religious faith of composers and writers of the nineteenth century and before either explained away, ignored or somehow downgraded.
The four songs by Richard Strauss ended with a setting of a poem by Dehmel: Befreit (Freed) which is a man speaking to his dying wife, which I loved.
There were three Benjamin Britten songs, one a setting of a powerful poem by John Donne about faith and chastity and the other two really wonderful Hardy poems about country life - the Choirmaster's Funeral - which Heppner characterised and dramatised - and Songsters. I especially loved the poem about the birds who only a few months ago were grains and seeds:
The thrushes sing as the sun is going
And the finches whistle in ones and pairs,
And as it gets dark loud nightingales
In bushes
Pipe, as they can when April wears,
As if all Time were theirs.
These are brand new birds of twelvemonths' growing,
Which a year ago, or less than twain,
No finches were, nor nightingales,
Nor thrushes,
But only particles of gran,
And earth and air and rain.
I wasn't so interested by the Duparc songs in French though Dan liked them, but the recital finished with four Italian songs by four operatic composers - one each by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. They were all absolutely humdingers and I adored them.
Heppner sang 3 encores. The audience was not by any means all old people - there were quite a lot of young folk - probably an accurate cross section of the population....the old man next to hme had an annoying habit of rubbing his hands during a song, making a horribly crepey papery sound.
Fashion note: Lounge suits. Muraco was sporting a very natty waistcoat in embroidered Chinese silk in kingfisher blue. Ben Heppner sports a curious hair colour: Ben, it's okay to grey.
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Movie day and Tycho's birthday
Tycho's 19th birthday. I took him, Edith and Leo to see The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. Dan didn't want to see The Wrestler but wanted very much to see Valkyrie, and Aggie was too young to see The Wrestler, so those two went to see Valkyrie.
The Wrestler was good, the story was a little too simple for me but it was well told. Tycho adored it especially all the technical data about wrestling.
Aggie was gripped by Valkyrie and Dan was impressed by it, it was accurate, created huge sympathy for the Stauffenberg plotters and clearly got a better thumbs up from Dan than The Reader would.
In the morning we heard Thomas Quasthoff on the radio doing Desert Island Discs. He's a lot more left wing than we'd expected :-) but sounded absolutely adorable and charming, especially when talking about his wife and stepdaughter "I am surrounded by women and my job is just to make them happy" he crowed. He claims he's cutting back his singing engagements to spend more time with "my two ladies" so I'm glad I live in London as even a cut back schedule has to include London.
The Wrestler was good, the story was a little too simple for me but it was well told. Tycho adored it especially all the technical data about wrestling.
Aggie was gripped by Valkyrie and Dan was impressed by it, it was accurate, created huge sympathy for the Stauffenberg plotters and clearly got a better thumbs up from Dan than The Reader would.
In the morning we heard Thomas Quasthoff on the radio doing Desert Island Discs. He's a lot more left wing than we'd expected :-) but sounded absolutely adorable and charming, especially when talking about his wife and stepdaughter "I am surrounded by women and my job is just to make them happy" he crowed. He claims he's cutting back his singing engagements to spend more time with "my two ladies" so I'm glad I live in London as even a cut back schedule has to include London.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Opening of Quasthoff residency at Barbican
10 January 2009
Dan acted on impulse and got us 2 tickets to Haydn's Creation at the Barbican. Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, RIAS Chamber Choir, Rene Jacobs conductor, soloists Thomas Quasthoff, Maximilian Schmitt, Julia Kleiter.
Dan has now bought tickets to ALL the concerts in Quasthoff's Barbican residency series. This makes up for the fact that every time he's been in London we either didn't know or I was doing something else, and to cut a long story short I haven't heard him sing live since that magical evening in 1989 in Passau.
The programme promised an "elementally thrilling" moment at the words "let there be light" but actually it didn't happen like that at all. I didn't think the choir were half as alive as the soloists especially the incomparable TQ who seems to inhabit every note and every word, and make it come alive as well as exploring his fabulous range with humour and charm. Reviewers often note his ability to make contact with the whole audience and we weren't disappointed. He injects personality into the whole performance without being showbizzy.
The Adam/Eve duet was lovely, v tender. I noticed that reviews of this concert were pretty sniffy about the orchestra and direction though not about the singers.
I have to say I do find a little Haydn goes a long way.
Fashion note: the RIAS ladies have to wear hideous brown lurex dressing gowns over their black dresses. The soprano looked charming in a very pretty white strapless gown with a lovely swooshy skirt. Quasthoff looked exactly like himself of course though he does look older... We met some friends in the interval who said they'd heard he'd been ill. I do hope he's not going to fall by the wayside this year as we have booked four more concerts!
The tenor Maximilian Schmitt is perhaps a protege of TQ?
The evening in Passau: it was a chance thing, we were staying there on holiday with Dan's parents and decided to go to hear a Bach concert in a church. Then this extraordinary young man came in. A body cruelly wrecked by the greed and carelessness of a big pharmaceutical company (who eventually paid a pathetic sum in compensation to German victims). A heartbreaking contrast with that rather handsome, sensitive face and the powerful chest. He hopped up on a stool with tremendous self-assurance, and opened his mouth... and my insides just melted! I'd never heard a voice like it. We all knew we were in the presence of a divine talent. Even my father in law was deeply moved and said afterwards, "It's as though God said to this man, 'I'm taking everything from you but leaving you with this one great thing'."
But it wasn't God who took Quasthoff's arms and legs: it was the arrogance of human science ("we've tested Thalidomide quite enough...you take your pills, girl and don't worry your pretty head about the consequences for your baby" and the greed of human nature: ("a pill for morning sickness! Bonanza! Quick, get it on the market!"). God gave him the voice, if you like, and his intelligence and musicality, to make up for the crime of humanity.
So we can say very smugly, we knew all about Quasthoff before anyone in the UK, because this must have been only a few months after he won the 1988 ARD music competition which set him off on his career. Also it was only a few months after we married and so this artist is bound up with important memories for us. Plus he has very nice twinkly brown eyes. I suspect he is a good flirt.
After the concert Dan went to the shop and bought me 2 of TQ's recent albums, Die Stimme and Watch What Happens which is a very syrupy collection of ballads like "I've grown accustomed to her face" and "What are you doing the rest of your life". I like being a soppy middle-aged person.
I've decided to make this my "Learn to Love Lieder" year and I'm listening to tons of Schubert and Schumann on my Zen.
Dan acted on impulse and got us 2 tickets to Haydn's Creation at the Barbican. Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, RIAS Chamber Choir, Rene Jacobs conductor, soloists Thomas Quasthoff, Maximilian Schmitt, Julia Kleiter.
Dan has now bought tickets to ALL the concerts in Quasthoff's Barbican residency series. This makes up for the fact that every time he's been in London we either didn't know or I was doing something else, and to cut a long story short I haven't heard him sing live since that magical evening in 1989 in Passau.
The programme promised an "elementally thrilling" moment at the words "let there be light" but actually it didn't happen like that at all. I didn't think the choir were half as alive as the soloists especially the incomparable TQ who seems to inhabit every note and every word, and make it come alive as well as exploring his fabulous range with humour and charm. Reviewers often note his ability to make contact with the whole audience and we weren't disappointed. He injects personality into the whole performance without being showbizzy.
The Adam/Eve duet was lovely, v tender. I noticed that reviews of this concert were pretty sniffy about the orchestra and direction though not about the singers.
I have to say I do find a little Haydn goes a long way.
Fashion note: the RIAS ladies have to wear hideous brown lurex dressing gowns over their black dresses. The soprano looked charming in a very pretty white strapless gown with a lovely swooshy skirt. Quasthoff looked exactly like himself of course though he does look older... We met some friends in the interval who said they'd heard he'd been ill. I do hope he's not going to fall by the wayside this year as we have booked four more concerts!
The tenor Maximilian Schmitt is perhaps a protege of TQ?
The evening in Passau: it was a chance thing, we were staying there on holiday with Dan's parents and decided to go to hear a Bach concert in a church. Then this extraordinary young man came in. A body cruelly wrecked by the greed and carelessness of a big pharmaceutical company (who eventually paid a pathetic sum in compensation to German victims). A heartbreaking contrast with that rather handsome, sensitive face and the powerful chest. He hopped up on a stool with tremendous self-assurance, and opened his mouth... and my insides just melted! I'd never heard a voice like it. We all knew we were in the presence of a divine talent. Even my father in law was deeply moved and said afterwards, "It's as though God said to this man, 'I'm taking everything from you but leaving you with this one great thing'."
But it wasn't God who took Quasthoff's arms and legs: it was the arrogance of human science ("we've tested Thalidomide quite enough...you take your pills, girl and don't worry your pretty head about the consequences for your baby" and the greed of human nature: ("a pill for morning sickness! Bonanza! Quick, get it on the market!"). God gave him the voice, if you like, and his intelligence and musicality, to make up for the crime of humanity.
So we can say very smugly, we knew all about Quasthoff before anyone in the UK, because this must have been only a few months after he won the 1988 ARD music competition which set him off on his career. Also it was only a few months after we married and so this artist is bound up with important memories for us. Plus he has very nice twinkly brown eyes. I suspect he is a good flirt.
After the concert Dan went to the shop and bought me 2 of TQ's recent albums, Die Stimme and Watch What Happens which is a very syrupy collection of ballads like "I've grown accustomed to her face" and "What are you doing the rest of your life". I like being a soppy middle-aged person.
I've decided to make this my "Learn to Love Lieder" year and I'm listening to tons of Schubert and Schumann on my Zen.
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