Half a century ago Peter Roberts and I were members of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society and attended all the Tuesday Subscription Concerts, Saturday Concerts and most of the Industrial Concerts: having season tickets for the same seats year after year. Then life got in the way of our shared times together. I married and moved into darkest Cheshire and Peter went into the Church and became an Anglican priest eventually in South Africa where he died.
During that half century I never lost my love of the music which has been a constant companion through the Bad Days and the Good Days. Yesterday, for the first time since I moved to Lewis, I went to an orchestral concert. I went with Anna to The Glasgow City Halls (a wonderfully refurbished modern venue) to hear a concert by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra which was being broadcast on Radio 3. There is something quite engrossing in watching a pianist (Javier Perianes in this concert) play a concerto one thinks one knows so well having played the CD scores of times over the years. And there is something wonderful about not being able to do anything other than watch and listen and be swallowed up by the emotion of the music and the performance.
We are going to another concert at the City Halls on Monday evening. I'm quite excited.
[The images are downloaded from Google images.]
Sounds a good night. You missed Jools Holland and Joss Stone in Glasgow last night. The SECC is not a patch on the City Halls by the look of these pictures.
ReplyDeleteAdrian it was a wonderful night. I'm not really a Jools Holland person although his pairing with Joss Stone in tracks such as Bei Mir Bist Du Schön is very listenable to.
DeleteSounds like a super night out. I will listen to Radio 3 to see if I can make out your clapping.
ReplyDeleteYP I was one 7 rows up on the left hand side. You can tell me because my left hand is weaker than my right onw.
DeleteWhat fun to be out enjoying an evening of your beloved music....I know the feeling all too well...glad you had a great time.
ReplyDeleteVirginia I know you would appreciate the experience from your mutual love of music.
DeleteOne of the best ways to spend an evening, I think - although I do it far too rarely myself.
ReplyDeleteWhat are industrial concerts?
Meike the Industrial Concerts were sponsored by the big industrial concerns in the Merseyside area. Those were the days when the big industrial concerns sponsored the arts and not those things which brought them huge TV coverage.
DeleteI miss going to the concerts here put on by our little symphony.
ReplyDeleteRed when I'm back on Lewis there are no concerts like this either.
DeleteThere used to be. I remember going to one, sitting at the back of course. BIG issue about whether or not to clap between movements. I joined the plebs and clapped.
DeleteI don't recall them Marcel. At the Town Hall or since An Lanntair was built?
DeleteThe Nicolson hall. OK, 'them' was maybe an exaggeration. Maybe it was only one, or I remember only one.
DeleteI've not been to many big classical concerts like that... Mostly church choir ones, like the Messiah or some requiems, or mixed programs. And only two or three operas, I think. The most memorable live musical performance I've attended was the Oberammergau Passion Plays in Germany in 1990 which lasted like a whole day (with break for lunch).
ReplyDeleteI've been to the opera here in Glasgow more recently Monica. I love opera. In New Zealand we go to the ballet a lot but not concerts. Hawkes Bay was a bit out of the way for big orchestral concerts despite having two opera houses. I have friends who used to go to the passion plays and said the same as you but I've never even been to Oberammergau.
DeleteSounds wonderful. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Happy Christmas to you, xoxoxo DeeDee
ReplyDeleteOh DeeDee Christmas is such a long way off and I'm trying not to think about it!
DeleteNot so long, really -- just 18 short days -- 17 if you celebrate on Christmas Eve. :) xoxox
DeleteWhich concerto was,it Graham? It sounds as though you had a lovely evening.
ReplyDeleteIt was Saint-Saëns Second Piano Concerto Frances. I love Saint-Saëns anyway and one gets so used to hearing 'perfection' on CD but hearing it with all the acoustical imperfections of a less than perfect seat in a hall not designed as a concert hall made me well up with emotion. Tomorrow we are going to see Bruch's Second Violin Concerto (amongst other pieces) in the same venue.
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