Monday 13 August 2007

On Friday you can hear the Janis Joplin gig from St Magnus on Radio 3 at 1pm: oddly, we're credited as Concerto Caledonia, even though we hadn't branded ourselves as such for that particular event. I wonder what it sounds like.

I sat through a pretty sloppy concert performance of Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso in Edinburgh last night, with some dreadful singing from singers who should know better.  But it was made bearable by a genuinely wonderful aria from Philippe Jaroussky with the SCO's Alison Mitchell contributing a spectacular flute obbligato alongside. Conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi is a lovely guy with great infectious energy, but his interventionist approach to the music was a bit much for me. Negative capability it certainly wasn't. And I realised as an audient that in 99% of baroque opera recitative, which is incredibly hard work for the continuo team and singers alike, even if you pull it off well, the artistic rewards are feeble. Perhaps there are better ways to spend your time.