Friday 17 June 2005

St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney

I'd always thought that when an orchestra looked bored, or disengaged, on stage, it was a function of the personality or skill of the conductor. I was talking with Ursula Leveaux about it this morning, and she reckons that it's rather a metropolitan attitude that wanes the further you get from London: a kind of learnt or acquired professional cynicism that you have to adopt to fit in. Anyone who looks musically engaged or enthusiastic in that environment sticks out like a sore thumb. And the ones who don't care about fitting in, and engage and enthuse anyway, are usually the ones whose careers are based in another country.