Culture vulture

Tra Nguyen (piano)
At the 1901 Arts Club, Exton Street, London

A tiny shoebox-shaped salon with a Steinway grand piano at one end; heavy gold curtains, and chairs upholstered in plush red; the strains of Waterloo Station in the background: the 1901 Arts Club is an intimate, nostalgic venue. Schubert, Schumann and Raff – not spot on datewise, but at home in this intimate settting – were on the programme, performed by the thoughtful, warm and moving – if not always dazzling – pianist Tra Nguyen.

Nico Muhly • Owen Pallett
Barbican, London

I’m clearly not New-York-kooky-cool enough for this ‘alternative-classical’ evening. Missy Mazzoli’s sea-inspired orchestral opener washed right by me; Owen Pallett’s Violin Concerto had its hypnotic moments; Nico Muhly’s Cello Concerto: piquant, energetic, but shouldn’t composer John Adams get a credit? And all those fabulous musicians left underused by the song-led second half, which became more hyperactive teenage-boy-in-a-bedroom exploring sounds than anything more profound.

Death of Klinghoffer
ENO, London 

John Adams’s opera tackling the true story of a disabled American Jewish man who is pushed overboard by Palestinian terrorists, hijackers of a cruise ship. Controversial for giving both sides of the story, the London premiere only took place this year, 11 years after the world first saw it in Brussels. Yes, I agree it’s an important work, it’s important for composers to tackle tough, contemporary subjects. But where was the drama? It might be more in the Passion or oratorio tradition than an operatic one, but JS Bach’s two Passions are gripping and compelling. There was snoring in the seat next to me at ENO.

Into the Abyss
Watershed, Bristol 

Another controversial subject: the death penalty. The always-fascinating filmmaker Werner Herzog turns his telling eye to this thorny matter, exploring a case of triple homicide. He’s anti the penalty, so am I. Yet this was a well-balanced documentary, and it was hard not to believe the woman, whose brother was a victim, when she said, somehow, on his murderer’s death, there was a sense of closure. Disturbing.

In Darkness
Watershed, Bristol

Too many dark films lately: this is another film based in truth, the story of Polish Jews who end up hiding in the sewers, kept alive by one man. A shocking story, but somehow the film was less than the sum of its parts.

The Kid with a Bike
Watershed, Bristol

Beautifully made, superbly paced film from the Belgian Dardenne brothers. A young boy, Cyril, is rejected by his father and sent to a home. Cyril asks a local hairdresser to look after him at the weekends, and a poignant relationship unfolds, bringing hope in the face of violence and the human capacity to inflict cruelty. Unsentimental and clear-eyed. One of the best films I’ve seen this year.

Aurora Orchestra
St George’s, Bristol

The youthful, dynamic orchestra-of-the-moment on tip-top, ear-opening form. Strauss’s Metamorphosen was the showstopper: rich, heartfelt and turning those note-spinning passages into something inexorable and devastating. Mozart’s grave C minor Adagio and Fugue opened the concert; his chic Parisian symphony followed the Strauss. Bernstein finished it all with a flourish.

King Lear
Tobacco Factory, Bristol

Shhh. Don’t tell anyone. This was the first time I’d ever seen Shakespeare’s King Lear. (Spoiler alert.) The Earl of Gloucester’s eyes are gouged out?! Unbelievably gruesome. After a slow first half, the Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’s cast picked up the pace, giving a moving, grim performance.

Death’s Cabaret
Bristol Old Vic 

I liked the unusual concept: two halves featuring first a mini-concert by a string quartet, who then, in the second part, play in a ghost story told by a single narrator, who also stars as a solo cellist. Shame then that the story was so cliché-ridden. Distinctly un-spine-chilling.

Life and Fate

I'm just about to start reading Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate. It's 855 pages long, with a battle map to start, and an 8-page list of the 'chief characters' at the end. On the backcover, Tolstoy's War and Peace is recommended as further reading. I could be a while.

Knowing it all

The Encyclopedia Brittanica is to breathe its last in print form. From henceforth, the many-volumed reference bible will only be available online. Will it survive the effects of the omnipotent Wikipedia? Or did it gain something from its very physicality? Its unignorable presence on the shelves of schools and libraries? I had a wonderful Russian flatmate when I lived in France who always said that, when she had her first home, her first child, she'd make sure that she had an Encyclopedia Brittanica. It'd be a symbol of aspiration, of hunger for knowledge and learning, a demonstration of the breadth of human understanding. From A to Z, it'd give her child the skeleton of what a grown-up should know, an appetite for exploring elsewhere. I wonder if you can get that sense of knowing what you should know from an online version? Or will its two-dimensionality hide it from us, leaving only a vague sense of what it is that we don't know?

Fraught memories

Time for some homework for this month's BBC Music Magazine podcast. Top of the list is a fabulous new recording of Beethoven and Berg Violin Concertos from violinist Isabelle Faust, the Orchestra Mozart and conductor Claudio Abbado. Berg's luscious, hyper-Romantic piece was written in 'The Memory of an Angel'. Commissioned by the violinist Louis Krasner, its emotional world has a tragic inspiration, the death of an 18-year-old friend of Berg's, Manon Gropius. Berg himself died just eight months after finishing it; he wasn't alive for the premiere, in Barcelona with Krasner. Here's an old recording of Krasner with Anton Webern conducting:

My other blog...

Sometimes, when I'm not blogging here, I'm bundling up my thoughts for a blog with a different purpose - work. Writing about music is of course a pleasure, although it can be pretty hard work too. Here are links to a few of the posts I've written for BBC Music Magazine.

Violinist Alina Ibragimova made a wonderful impression with her Js Bach/Vivaldi/Biber concert in Bath; The Plight of the Page Turner: one of the most nerve-racking tasks in music?; My top nine symphonies; a review of Mozart's Don Giovanni from the Met; the glorious Gould Piano Trio at St George's Bristol; Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito from Aix-en-Provence; Natalie Dessay stars as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata; the First Night of the Proms; Stephen Hough's strange sonatas recital; Beethoven from the Budapest Festival Orchestra; Cellophony: what do you call a group of eight cellists?

That's all for now folks!

I wish it were me…

A hammock on a balcony; a woman with long brown hair lounges in February sun of genuine warmth, reading her book, listening to the strains of music playing inside, every so often gazing at the panoramic view from Royal York Crescent over Bristol. A little moment of contentment.

The Transfiguration Window

What does a window do? It keeps us warm. It lets us see. It shows us what would otherwise be hidden. It lets in the light.

I’m not religious, but even to me the sacred metaphors seem to echo pretty loudly. And I also know that the stained glass of churches and cathedrals are some of the most beautiful windows around, mesmerising creations in glowing colours. Think of the breathtaking medieval glass at King’s Chapel in Cambridge, the Rose window in Notre Dame. Or, my new favourite, the stunning arch window in Durham Cathedral unveiled just over a year and a half ago, made by Thomas Denny.

The first thing that hits you is a bright burst of white light, a brilliant strip that runs down the centre of the window. Glass in orangey amber hues edges it, with purple-blue at the edges. Peer a bit closer, and you see people. Small figures with delicately edged faces populate the window, scenes from the Bible played out in flickering light.

Like Van Gogh's paintings, The Transfiguration Window has a compelling power that comes into its own when you're standing there in front of it – it's a piece of art that's full of vivid life. Perhaps it's because the confluence of religious meaning and artistic means couldn't be more apt. This window depicts Christ becoming radiant; it quite literally transfigures the light.