Music: André Previn and the LSO Tuesday night caught André Previn and the LSO performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No 24 in C Minor and Shostakovich's Symphony No 10 in E Minor. Previn's 75 this year ( or he may be 76 but little facts like that get in the way of pressing schedules) and as a tribute to their former music director, the LSO have been holding a series of concerts to mark the occasion. It was an amazing performance. Previn played the piano for the concerto as well. The Mozart was probably a little too light after a busy day in the office, but there was no chance the Shostakovich would send you to sleep. At times it was like it would wake the dead. Whatever his age may be, he has been a prominent figure for so many years it is easy to remember most of the photos around of him are often a decade (or two or three) old. But today, on Tuesday night, he was quite an old man. He shuffled on stage with his head arched low. He changed glasses for conducting and playing t...
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The awful truth Post Sunday's event at Clapham Common it was confirmed to a fellow Australian by a person working at the event that there were few bottles of wine on sale after the New Zealanders trashed the place the day before smashing bottles and having sex out in the open. Now those familiar with Clapham Common would say that this would not be different from any other night there, but the fact the Australians on Sunday couldn't take a bottle of foine woine on the grass made any New Zealander as popular as Russell Crowe at Concierge Convention... And he is a New Zealander too...
News: Live 8
Despite it being a mostly white lineup, the buzz around Live 8 was enough for it to get 2m texts from people wanting one of the 65,000 tickets on offer... From last Monday you had to text the answer to a very simple question (where is the G8 Summit being held) from your mobile phone to be eligible for the lottery of the tix... Part of the money raised will pay the Prince's Trust for agreeing to cancel its party in the park so the Live 8 shenanigans would be the main event for the summer... Such a noble cause full of best intentions no doubt, but how a group of rock acts will free up trade to enable the economies of Africa to be able to trade freely and fairly with the rest of the world is anybody's guess...
Scenes from Clapham Common 14:29 - Toast Australia Festival . A chance to sample some foine woines from Australia (and plenty of crap ones) and queue for everything. This is the food queue. An hour later I had a burger... Half an hour again after that I ran into a friend who pointed out that I had some ketchup on the side of my mouth. So that explained the look I got in the Wolf Blass tent... Interestingly bottles of wine were not on sale in most places after the New Zealanders reportedly trashed the place when it was Toast NZ yesterday... On the plus side there were plenty of broaaad Austrayian accents around, and Kath and Kim made a guest appearance. Along with the real thing there were plenty of Kath & Kim lookalikes... Some were intending to dress like this as well... Ricky Ponting was there too.
Idle Friday Chatter #1 Scene: As Paul heads out to lunch he waits at the traffic lights at Brixton. A police siren suddenly goes off and the woman beside him lets out a shriek Mad woman on the street: Oh this place I can't stand it it's 'orrible, it's too noisy and I just can't take it anymore. I just can't take it anymore and I think I'm about to lose it. And that woman on the bench over there yeah she just said to me that I need a long hard screw and they are all just taking cocaine and this place is a mess and I just can't take it anymore and I think one more thing and I am just going to lose it I really am I am really just going to really lose it.... Her voice trails off as Paul crosses the street and walks away faster and faster... all the while trying to remember the minute details of monologue... Idle Friday Chatter #2 Scene: Friday afternoon in the office, F has just returned from the ladies... F: Ethel from accounts doesn't blend her blush. ...
Theatre: House of Bernada Alba
Caught on Monday the National Theatre The House of Bernarda Alba - my second Lorca play in a week (although this one didn't have any Mexican male movie stars)... Actually it was an all women play with the translation by David Hare. It reminded me of "The Women" without the gowns. I was half expecting the line "Chin up, both of em" amongst all the bitchy banter. It didn't come, but there were plenty of talk about class, positions and deadly obsessions.
During one of the intermissions one woman quipped to another, "Oh it's good that Garry didn't come, it's such a woman's show" which is a pity as there is a very exciting passionate and (possibly Spanish) story amongst the banter. Penelope Winton plays the title character who rules a household of women with an iron fist (and occasionally a strap or a whip). There is high drama and the set consisting of a Spanish villa was quite impressive (and impo...