Sunday 15 May 2011

back again

We got back from Ardkinglas yesterday morning after the first AMcG/DMcG duo concert for a couple of years. Before making it to Glasgow we had a quick walk round the azaleas, one of us had a flat tyre, and the other ran out of petrol at Anniesland Cross.  We still have to work on the principle ‘simplify, reduce’ but the concert went no bad, and the Sumsion family hospitality was excellent as ever in the company of Ed and Stephanie, and with a blast on the pipes from Isabella before we left.

the Caspian

azalea astonishment

The spectacle of Eurovision last night was hugely improved with twitter accompaniment, but for me it was a bit short on cheerful confident incompetence this year.  Jedward and their ilk are what make it worth watching for me (and Moldova and Serbia this time), rather than a parade of dodgy pop singers trying to look serious.  But there was still plenty to savour: I particularly liked the Italian guy rhyming ‘disappear’ with ‘nostal-gia’. Unfortunately the credits were too small and too fast to see if there was a ‘Head of Hair’ as was the case a decade or so ago …

later

Back in from a very long Kronos Qt gig, which I had gone to with an open mind, looking forward to hearing if Catriona MacKay could break through their legendary sheen of pretension, which she did of course. The quartet began promisingly enough with Steve Reich’s WTC 911 piece (Different Planes, if you like) before the programme began to develop an air of ‘we’ve found some more young composers and performers to patronise’. A fair chunk of the audience left in the course of the rambling Terry Riley piece in the second half, which wasn’t one of his best, but Kronos still played 3 encores (at least 3, we escaped at that point) indifferent to the indifference which by now was pervading much of the hall. I was quite chuffed to hear them playing a John Oswald piece live as encore no.1, but as we bundled ourselves out the critical reception around us was pretty scathing. When I turned my phone on again, another musician (no names) had been texting me in fury during the second half about how awful it was. 

I don’t think it was as bad as everyone else seemed to think, but for all the classy lighting it did often feel like it would have been more enjoyable and appropriate to hear the concert on the radio rather than sit in the hall and watch the quartet not engage with the audience. Every piece apart from the Reich was way too long for what it had to say, so it felt like we had to suffer the unfiltered indulgence of the composers, who weren’t on the stage, before getting to the encores for some communication from the people who were, and In that respect, the performance came across as curiously old-fashioned.  Maybe I should have gone on a different night – I’d love to have heard the feed from the Hamilton Mausoleum on the Friday - or sat nearer the front.  But Catriona and Chris’s incorporation of some audio archive of J. Scott Skinner was a very nice touch indeed: you could have guessed I’d like that.

I overcame some of my dislike of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall too: it’s not that bad if you ignore the unwelcoming, ugly foyer.  The staff work very hard to be welcoming and friendly to make up for it. And any council-run enterprise in Glasgow with welcoming and friendly staff has got to be a very good thing indeed.

And according to my ticket stub I am Mr United Kingdom.