As you know recently I went through my vinyl records that had long been boxed up and stored away.  I played them all.  I recorded to my computer only some.  I re-played several.  Most records took me back to a place I’d once been, a time when things had been different and memories and people from yesteryear.

One album in my collection was by John McLaughlin.  It wasn’t until I played it that I remembered.  Thank you MattM and MarkP for introducing me to the legend that is John McLaughlin.  How he manages to achieve so much from only a few strings of a guitar is utterly incredible.  Jeff Beck referred to him as “the best guitarist alive”.

So how delighted and surprised was I to see he was playing at the Southbank in London this evening as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival!

He may have been playing for over 50 years but blinking bananas he’s still got it! I think I sat mesmerised by not only his incredible guitar talents but also those of the other musicians making up the 4th Dimension element of his touring group.

I think this tweet pretty much summed up my evening.. “@alunvaughan UNREAL! I’ve seen some guitarists in my time but @jmcl_gtr blew them all out of the water! Magnificent!”

Jazz Journal – ReviewThe Arts Desk – Review

OK so I’ll confess to not particularly liking period drama.  I’m probably one of the only people on the planet who’s not seen any Downton Abbey episodes.  I don’t enjoy Shakespeare nor particularly understand why everyone bangs on about his work!  So I’m a philistine and I don’t care!  There, I’ve said it.

So I felt a little duped into being at the Aldwych Theatre tonight for a performance of Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.  A drama based on the life of Thomas Cromwell during the time of Henry VIII.  Oh joy I thought to myself when I realised what we were seeing!

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Conductor – Alan Gilbert with the most impressive of choirs – Members of the Leipzig Opera Chorus; Leipzig Gewandhaus Choir; Leipzig Gewandhaus Children’s Choir; London Symphony Chorus; Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Continue reading →

Conductor – Donald Runnicles with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the National Youth Choir of Scotland.

Tonight’s promenade began with a piece by Scottish composer John McLeod.  “The Sun Dances is a glowing, iridescent work inspired by an Easter folk legend from the West of Scotland”.  An interesting piece, bright, upbeat and colourful.

At the centre of the programme is Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony in B flat major.  Seriously love this Symphony.  It’s robust but elegant.  It’s fast but captures you with every note played.  If you don’t ‘do’ classical music but want to start… here‘s a great piece!  Listen and I’ll be seeing you at next year’s Proms!

Our final selection for this evening’s performance was Mozart’s ever-popular Requiem in D minor.  Mozart’s poignant and prescient anticipation of his own death.  Such an incredible piece that tells such a story about Mozart’s life.  The choristers were the National Youth Choir of Scotland – incredible performance and despite the youth present, the performance given was so experienced.

BBC’s Listen Again to this Prom click here McLeod and Beethoven and here for Mozart.

The obligatory ‘selfie’ with Helen.

A Prom inspired by the National Theatre’s play based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel, featuring a new suite created by Adrian Sutton from his score for the original production, as well as other music from the period with performers including the Proms Military Wives Choir & Gareth Malone.

Life-Size War Horse Puppets by the Handspring Puppet Company, Proms debut artist.

Cambiata North West
BBC Concert Orchestra
David Charles Abell conductor

Without gushing too much, it’d be very hard to truly tell you about tonight’s performance.  So I will.  The performance was spell-binding, emotional, beautiful, visually incredible and audibly amazing.

Never have I believed a puppet to be real as I did tonight.  The War Horse, foal and goose – all puppets worked by humans but to an extent that every movement and mannerism reflected the animal it purported to be.  It wasn’t long before you forgot entirely that there were skilled puppeteers and believed the animals were truly there.

I’ve not yet seen the play The War Horse nor the cinematic version.  I don’t feel I need to now either as tonight’s performance must surely top them both.

The inclusion of the Gareth Malone and the Military Wives Choir was inspirational.  They became part of the story and, on the eve of centenary of the First World War made it all the more present and poignant for doing so.

Clever staging allowed for part of the floor of the auditorium to open up and bring up a canon which was fired during the performance, for soldiers to appear through a field of corn.  There was snow to illustrate the length of the war through the seasons and the writer Michael Morpurgo on stage as a witness and then to hand out the ears of corn.

Truly an utterly brilliant performance on stage accompanied by the most incredible choices of music and song.  I’m quite sure that I wasn’t the only person with a tear in my eye and a little choked at the emotive performance.

Reviews:
The Times
WhatsOnStage
Telegraph
Guardian

Tonight I had my Cirque du Soleil cherry well and truly popped!  Well to be honest it was about time and I think I’m the last one to discover the incredible feats of acrobatics that are performed by the crew.

The show is on at the O2 in London only until 8th June and I’m quite sure the tickets are scarce and hard to come by.  The O2 has been set up so that the performance takes place in the centre with a backdrop forward from the usual stage and presumably full of musicians, equipment and stretching mats!

We  were fortunate enough to be dead centre to the stage and only a few rows back so felt as if we were well and truly in the action.

The story of Dralion draws the inspiration from Eastern philosophy and harmony between humans and nature.  There are four elements that govern the natural order and these are represented by colour in the performance; air is blue, water is green, fire is red and earth is ochre.

I think the philosophy however was lost on us and didn’t become any clearer throughout the performance.  I read the above when I got home!

Not understanding the storyline didn’t make any difference to my enjoyment and awe of the acrobatics.  Amazing!

Definitely worth going, if you’re able to get tickets, just to see the feat of human strength, contortion and showmanship.

As someone who tries to ‘do it all’ the following will come as no surprise!

My friend, Andrew, is celebrating his 40th birthday this year. As part of his celebrations he was keen to take a few of us to a Classic FM Concert at the Albert Hall. Typically it was this evening… only an hour and a half after my plane from Dubrovnik landed in Gatwick!

Logistically it is possible. Gatwick to the Albert Hall in 90 minutes. As we all know that’s only if the trains are working to timetable, the taxis are plentiful at Victoria and, of course, my plane is on time.

The plane landed early… but there was only one member of BA ground crew available so we stood (me at the front of the line) with the door open, waiting to get off. Frustratingly this was over 15 minutes. I could see my escape but wasn’t able to make it! Rushed through passport control, no baggage to collect and headed to the trains. Spotted the first train that said Victoria and jumped on just before it moved off. A few minutes in to the journey the ticket officer told me that I’d not got the right ticket and I was fined £39! Not happy at all. Arrived into Victoria and the taxi queue had relocated and was empty (aha that’ll be the tube strike today). Walked out and found a taxi. Arrived at the Albert Hall at 7.30pm exactly…. but the concert started at 7.30pm! Not bad though.. just missed the first piece.

ClassicFM host two concerts a year at the Albert Hall. The tickets sell out quickly and the program is made up of a mixture of known pieces and favourite numbers. The audience is mixed too. Definite highlight for me was to hear Hayley Westenra live.

What a treat for us all to enjoy this concert with Andrew on his birthday.

Time for a sneaky beer afterward too in the Queens Head. It wasn’t long before we realised that the bar was also filling up with musical instruments – ha, it appears to be where the musicians head after performing too!

No tubes home… a selection of buses later and I’m home and falling into my bed. What a fabulous evening.