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Swans and fish
Aug. 6th, 2019 08:14 pmI suggested to Dad that he have a look through the Proms season and see if there was anything he was interested in, to spend a couple of days in London, and this was one of the options that came up. I joined the online queue in May on the morning the bookings started; although I was about 10,000 places down the queue I wasn't too concerned that the concert would sell out, though I was concerned that the server, or the internet connection, might fail and I'd lose my place. In the event, we got good seats in the stalls; probably the best I've had, as we were looking over the pianist's shoulders from 8 rows up.
The BBC Philharmonic and Ben Gernon began with a piece new to me: Malcolm Arnold's Peterloo overture. There can't be many pieces of classical music that have been commissioned by the TUC. The piece blends Arnold's light touch and lyricism, with military marching and violence; Charles Ives and Shostakovich provide obvious comparison points. Curiously, the work returns to its contented themes for the conclusion, with Arnold expressing a hope that the sacrifice was not in vain.
I had to look up whether I'd seen Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at the Proms before; it turns out I had, in 2007, but in a concert where it was perhaps forgettable among the other works on offer. The soloist for this performance was a last-minute change, Juan Pérez Floristán stepping in for an indisposed Alexander Gavrylyuk. But it was clear he knew the work and played with accomplishment, but not in a showy way. Popular with the audience, he returned to give an encore of an Argentinian Dance by Ginastera.
The second half of the concert was a series of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, sugary easy-listening perhaps, but successfully performed, and it was enjoyable to view and listen from a different perspective, with the woodwind, percussion and harp in particular more clearly in view.
This morning I met up with Dad again at Euston, for a trip to Bletchley Park. It has changed quite a bit since I was last there, with rather more exhibits and huts open to the public. I was pleased to see that the park was quite busy, with young and old alike, despite indifferent weather. Some of the exhibits are rather interactive, but it's not easy to present cryptography to non-technical people, and it seemed to work quite well. As well as Enigma, there is now much more on the Fish cyphers, a more sophisticated system, as well as perhaps bridging the gap from Morse code to modern digital communications.In keeping with the musical theme, I was interested to see in a temporary exhibition on social life at Bletchley Park, there was a programme for a recital given by Dame Myra Hess.
The BBC Philharmonic and Ben Gernon began with a piece new to me: Malcolm Arnold's Peterloo overture. There can't be many pieces of classical music that have been commissioned by the TUC. The piece blends Arnold's light touch and lyricism, with military marching and violence; Charles Ives and Shostakovich provide obvious comparison points. Curiously, the work returns to its contented themes for the conclusion, with Arnold expressing a hope that the sacrifice was not in vain.
I had to look up whether I'd seen Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at the Proms before; it turns out I had, in 2007, but in a concert where it was perhaps forgettable among the other works on offer. The soloist for this performance was a last-minute change, Juan Pérez Floristán stepping in for an indisposed Alexander Gavrylyuk. But it was clear he knew the work and played with accomplishment, but not in a showy way. Popular with the audience, he returned to give an encore of an Argentinian Dance by Ginastera.
The second half of the concert was a series of excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, sugary easy-listening perhaps, but successfully performed, and it was enjoyable to view and listen from a different perspective, with the woodwind, percussion and harp in particular more clearly in view.
This morning I met up with Dad again at Euston, for a trip to Bletchley Park. It has changed quite a bit since I was last there, with rather more exhibits and huts open to the public. I was pleased to see that the park was quite busy, with young and old alike, despite indifferent weather. Some of the exhibits are rather interactive, but it's not easy to present cryptography to non-technical people, and it seemed to work quite well. As well as Enigma, there is now much more on the Fish cyphers, a more sophisticated system, as well as perhaps bridging the gap from Morse code to modern digital communications.In keeping with the musical theme, I was interested to see in a temporary exhibition on social life at Bletchley Park, there was a programme for a recital given by Dame Myra Hess.
