(no subject)
Oh how I wish I weren't at work right now! With the sun shining down I've been lugging bits of furniture and paintings and display blocks up and down from our attic which is obviously enormously fun.
Still every now and then I think about the amazingness that has been sport this past weekend and smile and that actually does help *g* Not just Andy Murray (though I'm still quite HOW IS THIS REALITY about that) but also Chris Froome in yellow, Dan Martin's stage win, Alistair Brownlee & Jodie Stimpson with their double GB victory in the ITU World Triathlon Series in Kitzbühel (despite Johnny Brownlee having ulled out with a stomach bug) oh and a whole other bunch of sports.
ALSO I had such a lovely evening yesterday at the latest concert in the Aurora Orchestra- New Moves series.
Memento- Aurora Orchestra @ LSO St Lukes
This series has been really interesting so far, each concert takes a theme and often they work with interesting partners as well. The theme this time was memories and the was filmmaker Jon Frank (of whom, more later)
The first piece was Syrinx by Debussy which is a solo flute piece from a play called Psyché by Gabriel Mourey. In the play it's the echo of Pan's pipes remembering his chase of Syrinx and it's played offstage so the lights were switched off and all you could see was the occasional glint of the flute. I love Debussy so, other than a slight feeling that after all the day's excitement I was drifting away, I loved it.
Next came Mémoriale by Pierre Boulez which was written in memory of a famous flautist and was lovely though I haave to say I don't have very strong memories of it.
The central piece of the first half however was Three Places in New England by Ives with a specially commissioned film by Jon Frank. The lady behind me was VERY concerned that no film ever really lived up to music and she couldn't see the point but by the interval she's shut up so I assume she actually enjoyed it? I really did although it did leave me wondering what pictures I'd have seen in my head otherwise. The first movement is The "St.-Gaudens" in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment) and you could feel the slow march of the regiment and the fleeting hints of songs as well as the sounds of battle and the images showed the memorial to Col. Shaw and his Regiment as well as modern scenes from nearby.
The second movement was my favourite I think. It's called Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut and it starts with the clashing sounds of bands playing different marching songs and then fades into a dream which is meant to be a boy meeting Lady Libery & Putnam before he suddenly awakes to fireworks & the Stars & Stripes playing. The pictures showed a lot of graveyards and flags and military families as well as the land where Putnam's camp was but it's the sort of thing where description probably isn't enough to explain how it worked- the sight of thousands of waving American flags all next to graves with the sounds of these joyful marches and then the slower mood of the dream section was brilliant.
The final movement The Housatonic at Stockbridge is the composers' memory of a walk with his new wife on their honeymoon and amongst other things Jon Frank had filmed water going over a weir and birds circling around it. Apparently he mainly does surf films and the way he'd filmed the water really was magical. Sometimes it was slow, sometimes fast, occasionally backwards but always beautiful. I was entranced.
And I'd love to hear the music again and see which images stuck in my head!
For the second half they'd lifted all of the blinds in LSO St Lukes which I actually didn't know they could do till the lady behind me was complaining they were shut! But it's so beautiful! The church is surrounded by trees so the wall (well the windows are large but not the WHOLE wall) become these beautiful shimmering green & blue always moving pictures. It was absolutely magical particularly with Beethoven's 7th Symphony playing.
I'm generally pretty ignorant about classical music, I know what I enjoy but I forget names a LOT and I couldn't have told you which symphony was Beethoven's 7th till it started playing *g* Apparently it was premièred in 1813 at a charity concert in aid of wounded soldiers returning from the Battle of Hanau (so a memory of battle I suppose). The second movement is so beautiful and I'm rather afraid that with all the emotion of the afternoon I actually found myself getting quite choked up. Or perhaps I shouldn't be afraid to say that. The Aurora Orchestra play so well as a unit and I definitely got the shivers more than once at the sweeping strings and the clarity of the woodwind and brass. They didn't quite get a standing ovation but the audience was VERY appreciative at the end.
I'm so glad I decided to go AND it finished just before 9 so it wasn't even a late evening <3
Still every now and then I think about the amazingness that has been sport this past weekend and smile and that actually does help *g* Not just Andy Murray (though I'm still quite HOW IS THIS REALITY about that) but also Chris Froome in yellow, Dan Martin's stage win, Alistair Brownlee & Jodie Stimpson with their double GB victory in the ITU World Triathlon Series in Kitzbühel (despite Johnny Brownlee having ulled out with a stomach bug) oh and a whole other bunch of sports.
ALSO I had such a lovely evening yesterday at the latest concert in the Aurora Orchestra- New Moves series.
Memento- Aurora Orchestra @ LSO St Lukes
This series has been really interesting so far, each concert takes a theme and often they work with interesting partners as well. The theme this time was memories and the was filmmaker Jon Frank (of whom, more later)
The first piece was Syrinx by Debussy which is a solo flute piece from a play called Psyché by Gabriel Mourey. In the play it's the echo of Pan's pipes remembering his chase of Syrinx and it's played offstage so the lights were switched off and all you could see was the occasional glint of the flute. I love Debussy so, other than a slight feeling that after all the day's excitement I was drifting away, I loved it.
Next came Mémoriale by Pierre Boulez which was written in memory of a famous flautist and was lovely though I haave to say I don't have very strong memories of it.
The central piece of the first half however was Three Places in New England by Ives with a specially commissioned film by Jon Frank. The lady behind me was VERY concerned that no film ever really lived up to music and she couldn't see the point but by the interval she's shut up so I assume she actually enjoyed it? I really did although it did leave me wondering what pictures I'd have seen in my head otherwise. The first movement is The "St.-Gaudens" in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment) and you could feel the slow march of the regiment and the fleeting hints of songs as well as the sounds of battle and the images showed the memorial to Col. Shaw and his Regiment as well as modern scenes from nearby.
The second movement was my favourite I think. It's called Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut and it starts with the clashing sounds of bands playing different marching songs and then fades into a dream which is meant to be a boy meeting Lady Libery & Putnam before he suddenly awakes to fireworks & the Stars & Stripes playing. The pictures showed a lot of graveyards and flags and military families as well as the land where Putnam's camp was but it's the sort of thing where description probably isn't enough to explain how it worked- the sight of thousands of waving American flags all next to graves with the sounds of these joyful marches and then the slower mood of the dream section was brilliant.
The final movement The Housatonic at Stockbridge is the composers' memory of a walk with his new wife on their honeymoon and amongst other things Jon Frank had filmed water going over a weir and birds circling around it. Apparently he mainly does surf films and the way he'd filmed the water really was magical. Sometimes it was slow, sometimes fast, occasionally backwards but always beautiful. I was entranced.
And I'd love to hear the music again and see which images stuck in my head!
For the second half they'd lifted all of the blinds in LSO St Lukes which I actually didn't know they could do till the lady behind me was complaining they were shut! But it's so beautiful! The church is surrounded by trees so the wall (well the windows are large but not the WHOLE wall) become these beautiful shimmering green & blue always moving pictures. It was absolutely magical particularly with Beethoven's 7th Symphony playing.
I'm generally pretty ignorant about classical music, I know what I enjoy but I forget names a LOT and I couldn't have told you which symphony was Beethoven's 7th till it started playing *g* Apparently it was premièred in 1813 at a charity concert in aid of wounded soldiers returning from the Battle of Hanau (so a memory of battle I suppose). The second movement is so beautiful and I'm rather afraid that with all the emotion of the afternoon I actually found myself getting quite choked up. Or perhaps I shouldn't be afraid to say that. The Aurora Orchestra play so well as a unit and I definitely got the shivers more than once at the sweeping strings and the clarity of the woodwind and brass. They didn't quite get a standing ovation but the audience was VERY appreciative at the end.
I'm so glad I decided to go AND it finished just before 9 so it wasn't even a late evening <3