I only just made it to the Royal Albert Hall (the RPO and Daniele Gatti) in time thanks to a delayed train. Having arrived after the concert had sold out, I was prepared to be disappointed and had a reserve plan to cadge a ticket off someone leaving at the interval (there turned out to be a number of such people). But as I turned away I was called back by one of the people selling arena tickets, who had an unused complimentary ticket – my gratitude goes to them if they happen to be reading this. (I thought only singers, and in some cases conductors, nowadays had the kind of personal following Joshua Bell enjoys. Maybe there’s hope for classical music yet!)
My free seat was right up by the organ pipes, with an overhead view of the orchestra. It was slightly odd acoustically, as the sound was being projected away from you and it all sounded rather far away (because it was rather far away).
I don’t listen enough to Classic FM to have got tired of Bruch’s first violin concerto; this particular performance erred on the side of being severe rather than sickly, which is how I’d want it. But I was really there for the Shostakovich, his tenth symphony.
I don’t think I’d ever heard one of his symphonies live in the concert hall before. I was glad of my bird’s eye view of the orchestra as the themes were transformed by being passed around from section to section. The only instrument I couldn’t see easily was that vital one, the xylophone. I maintain that when the xylophone comes in, you can tell that a Shostakovich symphony is getting really serious; though actually it isn’t used much in no. 10. One can play the game of finding extra-musical significance almost endlessly with these symphonies; but as a reprise of the brutal music from the scherzo was stomped on by a fortissimo DSCH, it was hard not to sense relief and triumph that the composer had outlived Stalin. For further comments on the performance, I refer the reader to the Guardian‘s review.
Hello!
Just wanted to say that I am sitting here with my father, Donald James, in Beirut! We were just playing with the computer and googled his names and it came up with your entry. Very pleased that his music is still getting performed in Exeter! My parents are visiting me here in Lebanon for a week. My father says that he is still writing music and is currently editing some Francisco Guerrero and Sebastian Lopez de Verasco – would you like to sing any? He wanted to point out that he in fact was not associated directly with the Cathedral but was the founder of the Exeter University Singers, which did several European tours and won the BBC Rosebowl in 1979! Currently they are living in Dartington and enjoying a quiet retirement – apart from trips to Lebanon where I am working for the FCO (but I went to Exeter University – mostly an orchestra person – graduating in 1989!) Good luck with your singing..
Dominic James
I saw your father at the end of evensong. But our choir isn’t ‘associated directly with the Cathedral’ either. We have no fixed base and I think probably won’t be returning to Exeter for a while. See:
http://www.ccchoir.org.uk/
Your father may have known them as the ‘Martin Hall Singers’ – all of this was a bit before my time.
I heard the Exeter University Singers perform in Bath Abbey a few years ago and they were very impressive – it was a great shame that the music department there was shut down.