Chin Stroke at The Disco

Plato wasn't keen on art: he said it's like pretending to be God, and it's only a pale imitation of reality, anyway. 

He thought that the real action was in this spiritual realm, where the perfect form of everything existed. Even the world as we experience it is just a phantasm compared to that.

This is what annoyed Nietzsche, and ought to frustrate materialists and atheists all day long. Plato postulates a spiritual zone that is better than the physical world. No wonder Christianity has a soft spot for Plato.

He didn't mind a bit of music though: he reckoned that good tunes had a positive effect on the soul - if the beats were legit. 

We were saying, when we spoke of the subject-matter, that we had no need of lamentations and strains of sorrow?
True.
And which are the harmonies expressive of

sorrow? You are musical and can tell me.
The harmonies which you mean are the mixed or tenor Lydian, and the full-toned or bass Lydian, and such-like.
These then, I said, must be banished; even to women who have a character to maintain they are of no use, and much less to men.
Certainly.

The big idea here is that listening to Lydian music encourages sorrow, and that doesn't help a man become a become. Unsurprisingly, Plato likes his music to have an educational purpose. 

The Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major (Mozart), as performed in Transatlantic Crossings, probably fits in with Plato's thoughts on 'useful' music. The classical styling - by which I mean the order and zippy melodies that aren't too fussy - and the virtuosity demanded by the score - have a firm manliness. Even when they are played by a woman, Gabriela Montero. 

When I say 'manliness', I'm talking about a notional quality that has nothing to do with willies but probably exists in Plato's World of Forms and is utterly without gender. 

In the next place, drunkenness and softness and indolence are utterly unbecoming the character of our guardians.
Utterly unbecoming?
And which are the soft and convivial harmonies?
The Ionian, he replied, and some of the Lydian which are termed “relaxed”.
Well, and are these of any use for warlike men?
Quite the reverse, he replied; and if so the Dorian and the Phrygian are the only ones which you have left.


I don't think he'd have liked The Novelist, an MC I saw up The Art School. He wasn't do the Ionian thing, but all that shouting he did - mainly to predictable, sparse beats - seemed to require drunkenness to be appreciated. Actually,  Piazzolla's Three Pieces for Piano and Strings sound like they'd fit the Ionian bill. Lively and effusive, they have a relaxed, cool energy, and swayed a bit like a pissed-up invertero.

The Novelist, and Kode-9 who was headlining, might actually fit into Dorian or Phrygian modes... they are kind of macho, and while the MC was shouting his head off to no great end, Kode-9 throws down sinister electronic beats and a rumbling bass that makes me want to watch The Warriors.

Gabriela Montero @ City Halls, Glasgow

The theme for Gabriela Montero's improvisational encore was not promising: an audience member suggested It Ain't Necessarily So from Porgy and Bess, only managing to sing a single line. Yet, after picking out the line on the piano, Montero launched into an improvisation that ignored the song's jazz influences (for the most part), and toured around the pianist's knowledge of classical, romantic and rag-time motifs.

Improvisation is more readily associated with jazz - Adorno, one of those Cultural Marxists who have ruined everything moaned that it gave the illusion of change without ever departing from the theme. It's a political reading (jazz is like a false consciousness, pretending to be radical but relying heavily on existing structures). Montero's deliberate inclusion of improvisation in the concert hall answers his rather disappointing complaint.

This improvisation was a handy spot of musical history - at least for a character like me, who has a relatively shonky grasp of the history of western orchestral music. Kicking off with something that sounded like Bach - ordered, trilling, serious and maybe a little too pleased with itself, Montero soon drifted into more expansive, lyrical and romantic territory. Yet, as Adorno says, she never lost the theme... and that is the point. Putting Gershwin through his paces, pointing out how recognisable moods and atmospheres define the style, Montero both reveals her skills and points out how music is determined by its references to other music.

That last phrase might not be clear - that it, I call a piece 'classical'

or 'romantic' because I recognise it in relation to other romantic pieces. 

Then she went rag-time on it. Syncopated beats, I believe. 

Most of the audience had fun recognising It's Ain't... re-emerging from her runs. I went into the fantasy land of semiotics and thought about how clever I am. That wasn't Montero's fault, but I am learning about this music stuff. 

South Atlantic Crossings with Gabriela Montero (piano)

When she's not winning a Grammy for Best Latin Album, Gabriela Montero likes to knock back by improvising. Of course, this causes great problems for me, since I define 'classical music' by its adherence to the scored performance, and only recognise improvisation when it turns up in dance or jazz. So, thanks once again to The Scottish Ensemble who, when they aren't doing life drawing classes or linking up a selection of contemporary compositions into a coherent suite, have bought her over to the UK for a series of gigs - The South Atlantic Crossings.

It's not like she can't do the mainstays of classical piano: she won a bronze at the Chopin Competition in 1995, and has recorded an album full of Bach (and beyond...). The Scottish Ensemble have got her on board for a programme that includes the Big B, and a selection from Piazzolla, the Argentinian composer who wasn't scared of dropping in a funky tango. 

She's a good match for the Ensemble: far from playing to the stereotype of chamber music, they like to find work that is upbeat and modern (or downbeat and modern), alongside Bach and other favourites from the canon. In classical terms, they combine a commercial sensibility - hence Mozart's Piano Concerto, which can draw a crowd - with an enthusiasm for less familiar numbers (Golijov, perhaps?).

Villa Lobos: a timeline

Gubaidulina: Meditation on the Bach Chorale “Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit” (1993)

I'm not saying the Scottish Ensemble are sexist or anything, but Three Parts Bach does tuck away the female composer's contribution between the two big boys of relaxing Christmas classical composition. I suppose Arvo and JS are the star names, but Gubaidulina deserves a bit more love. 

Oh, she is responding to a Bach choral (“Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit”). So I suppose the name isn't unfair. Plus Three Parts Bach is a pretty cool tag.

Anyway, Gubaidulina is a rare remnant of the Soviet system: she is still at large, but won a Stalin fellowship, but got bollocked by the USSR for 'inappropriate tunings'. If getting in trouble from a totalitarian state for being experimental isn't cool enough (it's one thing if they don't like your politics, but winding them up because of the notes you use is magic), then the support of Shostakovitch really raises the bar.

Gubaidulina's compositions nod towards the god-awful racket that passes for serialism, but her exploration of sound is more mischievous than pompous. Her Meditation on the Bach Chorale sounds like she has cracked open JS' harpsichord and let all the other notes burst out. Then there's the bass/harpsichord duel in the middle, when the other strings try to get in on the action. Sweet.

Between Bach and Part, Gubaidulina is a little more abrasive, roughing up the consciousness to allow the calmer voice of Arvo (and Bach's polite mysticism) to attach to the mind.

Arvo versus Noddy

My Christmas with Arvo Part

 Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers - in my life, my music, my work. In my dark hours, I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning. The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear in many guises - and everything that is unimportant falls away.

 

Time and timelessness are connected. This instant and eternity are struggling within us. And this is the cause of all of our contradictions, our obstinacy, our narrow-mindedness, our faith and our grief.

Your Christmas with Noddy Holder
I don’t think a day goes by when someone doesn’t shout, ‘It’s Christmas’, at me. Merry Xmas Everybody is 41 years old. It’s a pension plan we never realised would happen. 

We were never a cool band, we were a successful band. We wanted to be a commercial band and to sell our music around the world. We wanted number one singles and albums, from the day we formed in 1966. We weren’t bothered about what the critics said about us.

Christmas is not just for good times

Bah, humbug. This year I am going to have a religious Christmas, because it suits my counter-cultural miserabilism and means I can forget that the enlightenment happened. I've been reading Diderot lately (see previous blog-posts) and anything that allows me to ignore the rise of capitalist consciousness is a Vile Favourite this month.

After I have seen my last pantomime, that's it: I'm pretending that is is about 1500, and the only art I'm allowed is Christian. Beat that, ascetics.

On the positive side, I totally win the music. The oft-repeated phrase 'the devil has all the best tunes' is tested by Christmas. Apart from that one song by her off Titanic, Christmas music is rubbish, and mostly celebrates the secular side of the season. So you can have Roy Wood, Chris De Burgh and Slade. I've got Bach and Arvo Part. 


And I've got the Scottish Ensemble. Three Parts Bach is their Christmas offering, and there's plenty of Jesus stuff there. Have some of this for starters.

Here's the lyrics.


German text

Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein
und wissen nicht, wo aus und ein,
und finden weder Hülf’ noch Rat,
ob wir gleich sorgen früh und spat:
So ist das unser Trost allein,
daß wir zusammen ingemein
dich rufen an, o treuer Gott,
um Rettung aus der Angst und Not.
Sieh nicht an unser Sünden groß,
sprich uns der selb’n aus Gnaden los,
steh’ uns in unserm Elend bei,
mach’ uns von aller Trübsal frei.
Auf daß von Herzen können wir
nachmals mit freuden danken dir,
gehorsam sein nach deinem Wort,
dich allzeit preisen hier und dort.
Paul Eber, 1566 based on In tenebris nostrae by J. Camerarius, c.1546
 

English translation
When we in deep distress and grief,
knowing not where to seek relief,
can find no help nor comfort here,
tho’ we have sought it far and near.

Then this alone our comfort be,
that we may all in unity
still call on Thee, true God, and know
Thou’lt save us from all fear and woe.

See not, thou’ great our sins may be,
but by Thy grace, Lord, set us free,
be near us in our misery
and keep us all from sorrow free.

That we with all our hearts may raise,
once more our joyful, grateful praise,
submissively Thy word declare,
and ever praise Thee, here as there.


Seriously, check the rhymes. 'Deep distress and grief... no help nor comfort here'. I'm just asking - what sounds more like the UK in December 2015: this, or that bloke with sideburns bellowing 'It's Christmaaaaas!!!!'?

Okay, I am against the bombing of Syria, and the best way I can imagine to combat ISIL is to celebrate the best of the western tradition. David Cameron might think that an elite group ignoring both common sense and the opinion of a large proportion of the populace is part of the western tradition (and yes, that has been a bit of a theme, especially in the twenty-first century), I am going to listen to the compositions of reverential composers.

Ternary Patterns for Insomnia @ Tramway

I don't actually believe that applying the Bateson/Goffman parameters for play is an effective way to review an event. For that matter, I don't believe that Bateson's observations of otters at the zoo were of play in the first place. I think he was watching an educational process (the otters teaching other otters to fight, or at least rehearsing it -and with a pedagogical process that human teachers could well learn from).

But I am trying to get to grips with Goffman's idea of the frame (which I think is the way in which context is recognised by a performance). So buckle up, it's round two!

A great deal of repetitiveness occurs.

Throughout Ternary Patterns for Insomnia, certain musical forms are repeated throughout the Goldberg Variations (an arrangement for string ensemble provides the soundtrack to the dances). And there are repetitions of movements, some props are re-used, including a big tube and some rope. 

However, I can't accept this as a frame for play, performance or pedagogy. It might have been different in Bateson's day, but life is pretty repetitious these days...


When more than one participant is to be involved, all must be freely willing to play...

Again, I struggle with this... it needs so much clarification. I'm dumping it, calling bullshit. This is no help at all.

Frequent role switching occurs during play, resulting in a mixing up of the dominance order found among the players...

I'm cheating by ignoring a detail, but this does free me up to comment on Ternary. At various points in the production - notably during the Aria, the musicians dance about, taking on a new - and pretty often clearly unfamiliar role. There is even a dance solo by a viola player.

In that instance, a dominance order is broken. It's a relatively subtle order, but the viola tends to hold a supporting  position in an ensemble (not only and always, mind). But then there is another break, of the musician usually being defined by their instrument.

Throughout the evening, there is plenty of cavorting by the musicians - perhaps the dancers could have had a crack on the violins at some point. The contrast between the physicality of the dancers and musicians is very evident.

The play seems to be independent of any external needs of the participants, often continuing longer than would the actual behaviour it is patterned after.

Yeah, this is thin stuff now. Time for bed.  
  

Variatio 30. a 1 Clav. Quodlibet Pissed Up or Pissed Off

Jeremy Denk has a word....

Varario 25 a 2 Clav; Donne and Dusted

Variatio 2. a 1 Clav: Like Dancing Around Architecture...

Variatio 1. a 1 Clav: Take That and Party

Cut it out, Johann, I'm trying to be a tragic romantic poet over here. I liked it in the Aria, when it was all slow and sorry, like a voice gasping for breath before speaking softly. And now this: a jolly little tune that marches up and down the keyboard. 

There's a guy in the studio next door who is either rehearsing a gritty Glaswegian drama or having a serious row with the voices inside his head. I'm nursing a hangover (not so much from alcohol but at the shame of not getting into the Art School), and he keeps shouting at someone to fuck off. Meanwhile, Varatio 1 is rolling over and over like a clockwork machine. 

Apparently the player does cross-over hands and everything, like Liberace or Bobby Crush. According to Wikipedia, some critic says its a polonise, a dance which now gets illustrated with pictures of old people doing a conga line. And, yeah, it's got that forced jollity about it.

If you put it on repeat, it slowly drives you insane. After the restraint of the Aria, it's like opening a window and looking out to see thousands of cartoon characters performing task-based choreography. 

Here's a version on the harpsichord, which really gets that mechanical pulse... although the visuals could be a little migraine inducing.

Aria: Can Music Save My Mortal Soul?

When I am not behaving like a character from a Tom Wait's song, I'll run towards the past in vague hope of finding succour for my battered heart. The alternative is shaping my life as a bitter anecdote, which is funny for about as long as it takes to listen to the Aria  from the Goldberg Variations.

Funnily enough, my anecdotes usually go through thirty versions until returning to their original form (only now imbued with the soul-crushing misery of a mind that has been trying to use words to disguise a clear repeated motif of melancholic despair). And that is just like the Goldbergs. I am the J.S. Bach of romantic failure.

I associate Bach with the baroque - a twiddly, over-ornate and under-emotional era of music, in my dumb précis of the eighteenth century  - but The Goldberg Variations are more sly and tentative. The theme - an aria,  but without singing, just a solo keyboard - echoes the melancholy of the great miserabilists (Dowland, Children of God era SWANS), with the distinctive trills hesitant, and the melody picked up over a steady bass. 

In former Olympic weight-lifter Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka's interpretation (the one that is free on-line), it is as if the melody is being pushed reluctantly onwards by the almost aggressive bass.

Apparently, it is all about the bass: it's based on the sarabande, a dance that was banned in Spain and was popularised by dancing ladies with castanets. Check out this filth...

What's all this about Goldberg, anyway?

Scottish Ensemble Mozart & Moz-art

Churnalism.... from art to music and back again...

Here are  three events that I think will be good, and details of a season's programme by an orchestra I rather like They are all about music. Except the second one, that's about visual art. As always, press release in plain text, Vile comments in italics

Edit-Point: Axe! Music for Electric Guitar and Electronics

Persistently intriguing Glasgow-based contemporary composers Edit-Point dial it up to 11 with music performed by guest electric guitarist, Peter Argondizza. An eclectic set of live guitar and electronics and fixed media music played over a multi-speaker sound system. 

The classical modernist meets the post-minimalist in Luciano Berio’s Sequenza XI and Jack Vees’ National Anthem. Gilles Gobeil’s small, but perfectly full-on Associations Libres takes on Alistair MacDonald’s sparse and intriguingly angular Quite Still. All of this is contrasted by lush, fixed-media works by Manuella Blackburn and Oliver Carman.

7.30pm Friday 15 November, Recital Room, City Halls, Candleriggs. Tickets £6 (£3)

This next one could provoke an intriguing article about how visual art made in Glasgow, at one point excluded from GOMA and the 'mainstream' has become part of Glasgow's Cultural Capital. These artists are getting to go in the Big Important Museum  -have a cheeky keek at Social Sculpture, the book, to see how complicated that relationship is...

The first programme details for a landmark series of exhibitions celebrating 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland have been revealed. GENERATION will bring an ambitious and extensive programme of works of art by over 100 artists to over 60 galleries, exhibition spaces and venues the length and breadth of the nation between March – November 2014, with the majority of exhibitions taking place over the summer of 2014, as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme.

GENERATION has been in the making since 2011. The programme will continue to grow in the coming months, and featured artists announced today include Charles Avery, Sara Barker, Karla Black, Christine Borland, Martin Boyce, Roddy Buchanan, Steven Campbell, Duncan Campbell, Katy Dove, Graham Fagen, Moyna Flannigan, Douglas Gordon, Ilana Halperin, Charlie Hammond, Iain Hetherington, Louise Hopkins, Callum Innes, Jim Lambie, Lorna Macintyre, Sophie Macpherson, Alan Michael, Rosalind Nashashibi, Toby Paterson, Ciara Phillips, Alex Pollard, Charlotte Prodger, Mary Redmond, John Shankie, David Shrigley, Ross Sinclair, Simon Starling, Clare Stephenson, Corin Sworn, Joanne Tatham and Tom O’Sullivan, Cara Tolmie, Sue Tompkins, Hayley Tompkins,  Zoë Walker & Neil Bromwich, Alison Watt, Cathy Wilkes, Richard Wright and many more.

Yep, totally need to deconstruct and elaborate on that line-up... 

WEST SIDE STORY

King’s Theatre 15 - 25 January 2014

West Side Story - based on a conception of Jerome Robbins

Book by Arthur Laurents. Music by Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

Entire original production directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins

Originally produced on Broadway by Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince

by arrangement with Roger L. Stevens

“WEST SIDE STORY” changed the course of musical theatre when it opened on Broadway in 1957 and it still remains one of the most successful stage shows of all time. The 1961 film version won ten Academy Awards. Based on Romeo and Juliet, “WEST SIDE STORY” is set on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and explores the rivalry between two teenage gangs; one white, the other Puerto Rican. When Tony falls in love with Maria, the sister of the rival gang’s leader, the feud takes on a new dimension, and as their love blossoms so begins a fatal journey overshadowed by violence and hatred.   The score includes the unforgettable songs ‘Maria’, ‘Tonight’, ‘Somewhere’, ‘America’ and ‘I Feel Pretty’.

“WEST SIDE STORY” originally directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, has a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein with Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

This production is directed and choreographed afresh by Joey McKneely - former assistant to Jerome Robbins. Joey has worked extensively on Broadway where his choreography credits include “Smokey Joe’s Café” (Tony Award nomination) and “The Boy From Oz” starring Hugh Jackman. His other credits include Hal Prince’s production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Whistle Down the Wind” and Nicholas Hytner’s production of “Twelfth Night”.

West Side Story

15 - 25 January 2014

Box Office 0844 871 764

The Scottish Ensemble’s 2013/14 Season 
Musical journeys around Scotland and EuropeThe Scottish Ensemble will launch its 2013/14 season at the Music Hall in Aberdeen on Friday 7 June 2013. The choice of location is not accidental: it underlines the Ensemble’s commitment to its innovative regional touring model, the City Residencies programme. In October 2012 SE launched residencies in Inverness and Dundee, and in June 2013 Aberdeen and Perth also receive their first–ever Scottish Ensemble residencies.

Throughout the 4-day residencies SE undertakes a wide range of on- and off-platform events designed specifically around individual communities. Events have included: coaching sessions with young and amateur musicians, pop-up performances, late-night and cross-art-form events, tea dances, ceilidhs, and more. This new model is ambitious and has already delivered significant results. It has brought about a considerable increase in audience numbers, strengthened key relationships with community stakeholders and is bringing high-quality music-making to previously unreached groups.
2013/14

The Scottish Ensemble’s season takes audiences on a number of exciting musical journeys around Scotland and Europe; each programme is inspired by place and musical identity. 2013/14 includes four major tours in Scotland, four city residencies, concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall, lunchtime concerts, and chamber music performances. It also includes late-night gigs and a whole range of activities in surprising and unusual locations as part of the city residencies.

Season highlights include:

·         A season of work rooted in the idea of musical place and identify.

·         Performances of Martin Suckling’s full set of Musical Postcards written for the Ensemble.

·         A new commission from Danish composer Christian Winther Christensen in a programme to include classic Scandinavian string repertoire alongside contemporary voices.

·         A major tour of Scotland with rising star mezzo soprano Sophie Harmsen, which will culminate in a performance at London’s Wigmore Hall.

·         Concerts with Chris Stout and Catriona McKay, to include Sally Beamish’s Seavaigers, plus new material from Stout and McKay.

·         A new commission to some of Scotland’s most exciting composers, each writing a variation on a traditional Scottish melody.

·         The continuation of SE’s relationship with key broadcast partner BBC Radio 3.

Nordic Nights
Concerts by Candlelight
 6 December Aberdeen / 7 December Inverness / 8 December Dundee / 9 December Perth / 10 December Glasgow / 11 December Edinburgh

The Scottish Ensemble’s popular December ‘Concerts by Candlelight’ series has a Nordic twist in 2013. The programme includes a new arrangement for the Ensemble of Grieg’s string quartet and an usual journey through ‘Holberg’s Time’ with fascinating detours via exciting contemporary Scandinavian voices. 

Grieg                               From Holberg’s Time (Holberg Suite)
                                      with interludes from contemporary     
                                      Scandinavian composers including
Christian Winther
Christensen                       New Work (SE Commission)

Sibelius                            Andante Festivo
Grieg                               String Quartet No. 1

Love and War in Bohemia
21 February Inverness / 22 February Dundee / 23 February Glasgow / 24 February Edinburgh / 26 February London 
Following her successful UK debut with the Scottish Ensemble in 2012, the thrilling mezzo soprano Sophie Harmsen returns to perform with the Scottish Ensemble in February 2014. She performs Dvořák’s magical love songs alongside virtuosic baroque arias in a concert centring on musical treasures from Bohemia. The concert concludes with a Suk’s beautifully romantic Serenade for Strings.

Pavel Haas              Study for String Orchestra
Dvořák                    Love Songs (arr. Matthews)
Handel                    Selected Arias
Biber                      Battalia
Suk                        Serenade for Strings in E Flat Major

Mezzo soprano         Sophie Harmsen 

Seavaigers
Aberdeen 24 April; residency 21-24 April / 29 April Perth; residency 26-29 April /30 April Glasgow / 1 May Edinburgh 
In April, the Scottish Ensemble team up with folk super duo Chris Stout and Catriona McKay for the final musical journey of the season, one SE will take to Aberdeen and Perth as part of the city residencies. Sally Beamish’s Seavaigers was composed especially for the Ensemble and these two soloists; it describes a sea journey from Dundee to Shetland. The programme also includes Bach’s Double Violin concerto in a performance that explores the work’s folk roots. There is also a composite new commission from some of Scotland’s most exciting musical voices, all writing a variation on a traditional Scottish melody.

Stout/McKay            Sunstone (new material)
Sally Beamish           Seavaigers
Bach                      Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor
Various Composers   Scottish Variations (SE new commission)

Violin                     Jonathan Morton
Scottish harp           Catriona McKay
Fiddle                     Chris Stout

Scottish Ensemble Artistic Director Jonathan Morton said:

Presenting exciting concerts of the highest quality throughout Scotland and in London remains our main objective, but in 2012 our activities broadened significantly in two areas. Firstly, we launched our first annual city residencies, and secondly we raised our profile internationally through two major touring projects in the USA and in China and Taiwan. In quite different ways these experiences have enriched our purpose, and encouraged us to keep striving for deeper and more meaningful engagement with our audiences.

The 2013/14 season is rooted in the idea of musical place and identify. Highlights include a genre-crossing programme with folk musicians Chris Stout and Catriona Mackay, featuring an evocative score by Sally Beamish; our Christmas programme, including new and familiar Scandinavian music transporting you to a Nordic winter landscape; and in February, a musical collaboration with a star of opera stages and concert halls, mezzo soprano Sophie Harmsen.

Come On You Kay

I loves me some sport and art: I am currently trying to promote a performance rematch of the Watford Vs Crystal Palace Championship play-off, in which Richard Dedominici, me and Elton John challenge Palace supporters Eddie Izzard and Mark Thomas to a dance showdown at the Traverse. And I love The Scottish Ensemble: they do that mix and match programming that has the old and the new side by side, making sure that at least half of the tunes have melodies before the other half shoots off into the abstract.

But I am not sure about this...

Britain vs. Germany21 October Aberdeen / 22 October Edinburgh / 23 October Glasgow / 24 October Perth / 26 October London

In October, SE is staging the classic musical football match of Britain vs. Germany. British string music has always formed an important part of the Ensemble’s work and here it is contrasted against German compositional forces in a concert of two halves. A string classic and a new work by both British and German composers, SE invites its audience to root for its team and come along to decide who wins this particular match. 

Walton: Sonata for Strings
Leopold Hurt : Dead Reckoning
Martin Suckling: Musical Postcards 1-4
Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G Major (arr. Morton)

It's not the music - Brahms is always a grand finale, and the Postcards have been part of the SE's repertoire for the past year, although this will be the first time they are performed in one go. I just don't think that Britain has ever competed against Germany as a united body in football. In fact, the one time I remember it being a big deal (and that didn't involve the UK team crashing out in the quarter final on penalties), it was West Germany Vs England in 1966. 

I am sure that there is some other thing that the two nations, united, competed against each other... 

INDEPEN-DANCE, Random Accomplice, Scottish Ensemble

It was about half way through Diva's performance at Stereo that I experienced a sense of temporal disorientation. I realised, with real horror, that Diva is an artist who could not have existed in my youth. It isn't just the use of a computer that sets her apart from the bands that filled my youth: it is the eclecticism of her influences. I know music writers do this sort of thing all the time, but a list of influences rarely does justice to the immediacy of a gig. Diva is mash up of  burlesque movement and costume, abstract electronica, hippy folk lyricism and sardonic humour. Or, as someone younger pointed out, like Lady Gaga before she was put through the homogenising machine.

In line with this recognition, I am no longer going to try and give my top tips a theme. I am just going with the flow. There ought to be a prize for anyone who makes a connection between these.

INDEPEN-DANCE have got a double-bill at Tramway: they have been Glasgow's most visible inclusive dance development company for longer than I remember. This time, they have invited choreographers Natasha Gilmour and Lucy Bennett to make new pieces on their dancers.

Gilmore is another powerful presence in Glasgow: if she isn't working with the Maryhill Integration Network, her own Barrowlands Ballet has a record of making community focussed dance that refuses to sacrifice professionalism for inclusion. Now. No. Now!  teams up with composer Quee McArthur,

Goldfish by Lucy Bennett follows the story of a boy who wishes he was a fish. I relate to that already...

Tramway, Glasgow

Fri 5 & Sat 6 April  7:30pm  

Random Accomplice developed their Random Bites programme so that they could get some of their shorter plays out onto the road, without having to wait for a full scale production. Having been described as ‘one of Scotland’s most versatile and energetic companies’  in The Skinny (well, that was probably me...), it isn't surprising that they've come up with an answer to the Fawlty Towers Dining Experience.

Tips is performed by its author, Mary Gapinski. While lunch is served, she is your waitress. She muses on  marriage, serial killers and ice-cream. Take your time to order - she has got far more interesting things on her menu.

Sat6 April : Eastwood ParkTheatre, Giffnock : 7pm £8

Sun7 April : East Kilbride ArtsCentre, East Kilbride : 1pm £9

Fri19 April : Howden ParkCentre, Livingston : 7pm £16

The Scottish Ensemble will cross the United States performing concerts in leading venues across the county, before they will travel to the Far East for concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, and Kaohsiung.   

It has become an important part of the annual schedule for national companies to nip abroad and show the rest of the world how great Scottish art can be. The Scottish Ensemble, who are more than happy to mix up baroque and contemporary composition, are likely to make the USA envious. And they are going to be at that Scottish Government’s Scotland Week celebrations in New York - the one that always gets in the Metro, usually with a picture of a tax exile giving the country respect. 

The press release notes: 

To mark the Ensemble’s return from the US, they will perform a ‘homecoming’ concert at Glasgow City Halls on Wednesday 24 April at 7.30pm. They will be joined by soloist Jane Irwin for Britten’s late, dramatic masterpiece,Phaedra, and sparkling arias from Handel and Purcell. The programme will also be interspersed with classic works from the Baroque string repertoire, many of which feature during their US tour. The concert also marks the end of the Ensemble’s Glasgow season focus celebrating Britten’s centenary.

Concert Programme

Handel       Concerto Grosso op. 6 No. 7 in B flat Major

Purcell       ‘Dido’s Lament’ ; ‘Hark! The Echoing Air’

Handel       ‘Ah Mio Cor’ (from Alcina)

Biber           Battalia

Purcell       Dance of the Furies ; Chacony in G ; Fantasia upon One Note

Britten       Phaedra