EastEnders actor Nina Wadia will introduce the London Gay Symphony Orchestra’s first Family Concert this December

25 NOVEMBER 2014 | BY DAVID HUDSON

Photo: www.justindavid.co.uk

 
The London Gay Symphony Orchestra (LGSO) always throws an annual Christmas concert, but this year’s event will be a little different as it will be the company’s first ever Family Concert.
The concert will take place on Sunday 14 December at 5pm at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate on Holborn Viaduct in central London.
The event will be introduced by actor Nina Wadia (EastEnders and Goodness Gracious Me), who will also take on the role of the narrator in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. This tales tells the tale of a brave little boy outwitting a big bad wolf with the help of a supporting cast of birds, ducks and cats – who will all be played by orchestra members.
Other works that will receive an airing will include Ravel’s Mother Goose, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, and Suppe’s Light Cavalry.
The company promise mince pies, milled wine, some seasonal surprises and instrument demos during the interval, with the opportunity to younger members of the audience to have a go with some instruments themselves.
‘The orchestra always do a Christmas concert: this year we fancied trying something different and a family concert is an idea we’ve had simmering away on a back burner,’ said the orchestra’s Nathan Evans to GSN.
‘There are a couple of reasons why we’re doing it. One is selfish, in that it gives us opportunity to play some great repertoire we’ve never played before – and to work with Nina Wadia [pictured right]. The other reason is musical, in that it gives us chance to do our bit and introduce a younger audience to classical music.’
‘Most importantly, culturally, members of the orchestra, and of our audience, have been starting their own families for some time and we wanted to create an event that they could share with them.
‘Eighteen years ago, on our foundation, such an event may have generated negative press but it’s a refreshing indication of the changes in social attitudes, and family units, that no-one has batted an eyelid.’
 
If you are in London, then Gay orchestra  family concert for Christmas is the place to be.
For more information, check LGSO’s official website.

– See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/gay-orchestra-stage-family-concert-christmas251114#sthash.nIVJZszq.dpuf

All American Boy

New country sensation Steve Grand says his past wasn’t as picturesque as the scenes in “All American Boy”.
Grand told ABC that he has endured ex-gay or reparative therapy after coming out to his family. He said the program was designed to turn him straight.
“I felt like I really was a shame to my parents,” Grand said. “I felt like there was no way I could ever make them proud and I felt like I was a constant disappointment.”
Grand says song “American Boy” is testament to how the feelings about his sexuality have grown. He needed to tell his story and went into debt to do so. The effort payed off. Grand’s video went viral on YouTube racking up 650,000 views in just six days.
[framed_video column=”two-thirds”]http://youtu.be/pjiyjYCwNyY[/framed_video]
(Published in About.com July 10, 2013)

Out-take from upstart Vol. 9 No. 4 (1997)
 
Agitato con fuoco
The Daily Torygraph sorry, Telegraph (Thurs. 17.04.97) had a ‘think-piece’ by Norman Lebrecht.  It was on the position of women in (what record vendors call) ‘classical’ music.  It isn’t really very secure.  Lebrecht quoted some orchestral musicians’ sexist (and racist) utterances.  They were German-speaking musos, which was… interesting.  He admitted that the managerial end of the ‘classical’ game is a male preserve.  As is – his- critical end.
His musings on opera, however, take the (dog) biscuit.  Here is the paragraph in full:
“Why must classical music be a boy’s own zone?  The reasons are twofold: orientational and orchestral.  Like all arts, music attracts a dis-proportionate influx of minorities, including a sizeable homosexual element.  Homosexual men preponderate in areas of operatic and vocal activity, as organisers and audience, chorus and critics.  Their input is indispensable, both creatively and commercially, but their collective attitude is resistant to women.  Of all the impediments to openness and equality, theirs is the most deeply embedded.”
Another minority in classical (and other musics) is pompous Tory gets.  Lebrecht – inevitably – bashes musicians’ unions.
This article was to be entitled WITHOUT COMMENT – but Lebrecht’s assertion is not merely absurd and childish, it calls into question his adequacy for his post.
Gay men have tended to dominate the operatic stage in the English-speaking world.  But, apart from Britten’s all-male Billy Budd, they all wrote substantial pieces for women.  Britten’s first and last large vocal pieces Our Hunting Fathers and Phædra were written for sopranos (Sophie Wyss and Janet Baker respectively).  The opera Lucretia was tailored to Kathleen Ferrier’s voice… but this has the look of excuse-making and accommodation.
Lebrecht’s assertion is so breathtakingly bigoted that it is difficult to believe it was published in a broadsheet that fancies itself as an intellectual power house of the political Right.
If Lebrecht, or his editor, Max (‘Hitler’) Hastings, want a heterosexual Tory to carry the banner for vocal music they’ll have to go back to Elgar.  And he was a plebeian Papist.
 
Andante febrile
The Style section of the Sunday Times (May 4, 1997) has a piece about Ms Marta Brennan.  She is suing the New York Metropolitan Opera.  She was an assistant stage director.  The ‘Met’ subjected her to a “hostile work environment”.  Her grounds were that the management (in particular her immediate boss David Kneuss) favoured young Gay men.  Brennan (“a 46-year-old heterosexual female”) also claims that other employees had been “similarly discriminated against”.
The ST (aka Rupert’s Sunday Liar) emphasises the Gay male aspect of the case.  But Brennan’s formal complaint suggests that Kneuss “favoured younger homosexual male and younger homosexual female employees” (our emphasis – upstart).  The Times dug up another case of ‘reverse discrimination’, in 1988, (by the ‘Met’).   Dr. Leonard J. Lehmann’s contract was not renewed (by the director, John Dexter, who is English).  Dr. Lehmann claims the latter had a reputation for “pinching little boys’ behinds”.  The relevance of which to his case seems a wee piece strained.  (Where did Dexter find ‘little boys’ in an opera house?  Were they wheeked-in off the streets?)
 
Allegro con brio (tempo di balletto)
We were always under the impression that opera was the butch element in these great theatres.  Ballet was – allegedly – the queer’s own art-form.  Especially in the eyes of simple-minded, fat-arsed journos.
They found it difficult to square the fact that many of the men in dance were screaming binkies.  And superb athletes.  They (the drunks – sorry… journalists) decided it was all done by wires (and padding).
The real problem most non-ballétomanes had with ballet was the fact that dance in the twentieth century in the English-speaking world has been the domain of powerful women: de Valois / Mrs Connell, Rambert / Ramberg, de Mille, Martha Graham.  Even in Ireland the most substantial figures are Patricia Mulholland and Joan Denise Moriarty.
Strong women and muscular homos with painted faces (and tights!).  Is it any wonder Sexual Norm stuck a cork up his bum and ran?
 
Scherzando giocoso
The US Southern Baptists’ denunciation of Disney for extending spouse-right to Gay employees’ long-term partners gives us a piece of Urban Mythology:
Ten-year-old, having heard the news, wakes parent at (or before) the Skraik o’Dawn:
“Hey, Pop, I’m so glad we’re Catholics — we can still go to Disneyland!”
 
Allegro agitato
In his Monday column in The Times (14.07-97) Must we learn to hate Norman Mailer?, Melvyn Bragg mused on the differences between individuals’ personal and artistic attributes.
(Mailer has been exposed as a vicious wife-beater).
Bragg writes:
“Do you think less of Peter Grimes when you know what we do now know about the often vicious sexual exploitation of young children by Benjamin Britten?”
What “vicious sexual exploitation of young children”?
Even ‘biographies’ designed to slag Britten off can’t dig up anyone younger than 17, in whom BB took a sexual interest.  And there is no evidence that he actually had sex with anybody in their teens.  He almost certainly did not have sex with anybody until his mid-twenties.
(Peter Grimes was Britten’s first opera.  Premiered in 1945 it gave many listeners a great post-WWII boost.  And the illusion that England was embarking on a – musical – ‘Golden Age’).
Possibly a (very long) moratorium should be put on journalists (even quite superior ones like Bragg) throwing wild, un-researched allegations about.  The painters Dalí and Matisse are described as “endorsing Fascism” in this short article.  You might as well call the ardently Catholic composer de Falla a Communist.  He endorsed the (entirely bourgeois) Spanish Republic.
This is penny-plain, tuppence-coloured, let’s-not-engage-our-minds journalism.  And a tribute to the Blessed Rupert’s dumbing-down of a great (if overly staid) newspaper.

I recently came across a new up & coming disco singer because my friend Womble had been raving about him for months. so i checked out his Myspace pages. Given the right promotion he has a chance to make it big. possessing an amazing voice and a stylish look please let me introduce Slivio.

1. Hello Slivio , please give us some info about yourself

I am a multi talented singer, songwriter and producer who is looking to bring back melody to music. I am more than a one trick pony and I am determined to reach my goals. I am UK based, but would like to be a global phenomenum.

2. How did you discover that you could belt out a tune ?

I discovered that I could belt out a tune when I used to go to family weddings at the age of 5 or 6. I had a knack of getting free ice cream for singing. I usually sang songs such as “I am Just Wild About Harry.” They must have known I was screaming at a very young age…

3. Your music has a classic disco sound with an up to date twist, who are your musical influences? And also your favourite artists?

Without doubt I totally adored Sylvester which shows in my style of music. For a more recent artist I respect (Oh how gay.)

4. in the golden age of disco and hi-nrg , we had very stylish artists such as Boy George, Sylvester , soft cell , Duran Duran and Spandu ballet. Most recently we have major artists such as the Scissor SisterSeand nightclub darlings like massive ego. Where does your style persona come from?

My style persona comes from my vivid imagination. I am always looking and finding inspiration… from the color of somebody’s curtains to the color of their hair. Inspiration is all around us, and most people draw inspiration from what they see. That style era will never repeat itself (the 80’s) and some people may say that is a good thing… but I just love shoulder pads with a hint of Alexis Colby (meow)

5. You have 2 band names Space Monkey & Culturedub , please tell us more about each band and how they differ from each other ?

Culture Dub iSean 80’s revue. It is a project based on the hits of the 80’Seand is a covers band. It is a tribute to the artists of that era. Some people may say it is selling out, but I just say it is having fun. Space Monkey is a name I dreamed up for the studio projects I perform with Phil Pickett. It is my alter ego. It is where I can express myself without being judged.

6. I know that there is a Culturedub cd out 1st May, is there any space monkey materiel due out soon ?

Yes. Of course there is… I hope you will all be buying a copy. It isn’t cheap to keep a girl in diamonds these days. My CD “Plastic Fantastic” will be available through my official Silvio site (coming soon) and through the Culture Dub website at www.officialculturedub.com

7. Your fans will be familiar with the tracks posted on Myspace and your official Culturedub pages, is there a full track list available yet

I have too many songs to list. All songs that you hear are MySpace are for test purposes. I listen to the opinions of the fans because they mean a lot to me. If they don’t like it, I change the song. I am always up for critisizm as long as it is constructive….

8. Any plans for a single or remixes of any tracks yet ?

We have lots of potential record labels interested. The problem is finding a record label that will find the balls to take a chance on an artist who will stand up and be counted.

9. Any chance of any duets with disco hi-nrg stars such as marc almond , Jimmy Sommerville or the one and only Boy GeorgeI

I won’t collaborate with Boy George because I sound like him on certain projects, so it would be like singing with him already. I do respect all those artists mentioned. I totally think they have added so much glamour to the pop world. I hope to achieve as much success as they previously have.

10. What download sites will your fans be able to download from? And will stores such as HMV be selling physical copies of it ?

Right now, our CD’s will be available through our official websites. I like to keep control of my destiny…

11. You work with Phil Pickett on Culturedub who wrote some very successful tracks for Boy George and Culture Club and is also a member of 70’s legends Sailor. How did that come about ?

Who’s Phil Pickett? Only joking! Phil is indeed a very multi talented individual who I totally respect and have started to call father as I feel I am his secret love child. I met Phil at an audition for the new and now defunct Culture Club, which dissolved due to lack of interest the band. A strong friendship was made and struck between me and Phil during that time. We have always encouraged each other to follow our dreams.. I thank Phil for this, without him, I would probably be selling ice cream on Blackpool Pier right now.

12. Have you ever entered a TV talent show such as X Factor? And what is your opinion of such shows ?

Sadly I entered X Factor against my better judgment. This is not a television show for talent. It is a television show for controlled talent. I feel deep sorrow that such shows have destroyed the music industry and made it what it is today. Hence stopping artists who work the old fashioned way to reach their goals. Long live expression.

13. Do you have any forthcoming shows that you fans can go to see you

I just got back from a successful trip to Egypt to promote my music. I have a trip to New York scheduled in April and September. We have multiple bookings which will be listed on my MySpaceSeand official website. Right now, I am concentrating on interviews to promote my upcoming CD release.

14. You are an openly gay artist, the music industry is notorious for keeping artists in the closet because they don’t want to lose record sales, please give your thoughts on this.

The closet has been open for so many years that if you look deep inside you’ll see so many people stuck in Narnia. The word gay artist is not something that I would like to be labeled. I do not want to put obstructions before me. I am a universal artist who loves everybody and can relate to anybody despite their sexuality, gender, race and creed. Saying all that, I love my sexuality and have no problems with who I am.

15. And finally Slivio please leave a message for your fans

I love you all. I thank you for all the hard work you are doing by clicking on my MySpaceSeand listening to my music. Your support means more than you can ever mention. Let me be your voice for the new world that is about to arrive. God bless… love your loyal subject…. Silvio xxoo

Here are links to Silvio’s site. Please check out this very talented artist.

The Official Culture Dub Site

www.officialculturedub.com

MySpaces

www.myspace.com/culturehub

www.myspace.com/subbstar

www.myspace.com/iamsilviogigante

www.myspace.com/officialsilviostreetteam

www.myspace.com/theoriginalsilvio

Very special thanks to Slivio and Barbara for this interview. And to Womble for his invaluable help.

To make a ballet of the life of Oscar Wilde is to run many risks, mainly to do with the public’s perceptions of the man and his history. He was, after all, a great literary figure, and as the dramatic aspects of his life were somewhat lurid, the risk of melodrama is also run. The Israeli choreographer Domy Reiter-Soffer has not been able to avoid purple patches completely, but the end result vindicates his decision to tackle the subject.

He also arranged the score from various pieces by Bax, whose reputation as a self indulgent musical reactionary will not survive this outing. It was played superbly by the RT Concert Orchestra. Bryan Love’s lighting was also beautiful. Patrick Murray’s designs, based on Art Nouveau motifs brought to mind a giant bras bedstead.

Wilde’s life is observed chronologically, apart from the Prologue, in which John Kavanagh’s voice-over, reads Wilde; an early letter setting out his high literary ambitions. Kavanagh affects the lugubrious, rounded chest-voice’ and enervated manner usually used in reading Wilde. The only recording of Wilde’s voice demonstrates it to have been high-pitched, almost feminine, as opposed to effeminate, and somewhat staccato in delivery. His quips may have been closer to the modern wise crack’ than to the polished aphorisms of his predecessors as great wits.

Scene 1, The Dream, in which Oscar foresees his downfall, with a Br nhilde-like figure to the fore, is difficult to understand. Why the Wagnerian elements for this least musical of men? Why is he the object of the attentions of a Valkyrie whose duty it was to guide the souls of dead warriors to Valhalla? One can only assume that it is to give to Wilde’s life a satisfying coherence. But his downfall was not coherent at all. It happened when he was at the height of his fame and popularity he was almost solvent.

He fell from grace because he struck a suburban pose, instead of impaling the Marquess of Queensbury on a honed and sharpened epigram. Queensbury was a dreadful human being. His only useful act in a longish life was to give his name to a set of relatively humane rules in Boxing. The only person who managed to be more uselesSeand unpleasant was Bosie’, Queensbury’s son, Wilde’s lover.

Bosie is presented here as a pathetic, almost tragic, figure haunted by d?”mons his youth probably was a factor in his recklessly foolish behaviour. But he used Wilde as a bludgeon in his feud with his father. He was as unconcerned about the fact that he broke Wilde, physically, socially, and almost, spiritually, as he would have been about breaking a stick. He is given jagged, edgy, movements when not engaged in lyrical pas de deux with Wilde.

Because it has to carry a fairly specific story-line parts of this ballet consist of somewhat bland steppin’ and leppin’, Act 1, Scene 3, Oxford Days, being a case in point. This sort of thing is off-set by the CafeRoyale scenes, the street scene followed by the one in the house of Taylor, Wilde’s procurer and betrayer.

Oscar’s Other Self (so described in the programme) surfaces in this brothel scene. He is a clown in a beautiful green silk clown’s suit, with a sad face, not unlike that of Nijinsky in Petrushka.

It is somewhat unfair to quibble about the interpretation of Wilde’s life presented here. It is what the artist, the choreographer, makes of it that really matters. But, judging from Oscar Wilde’s early attempts at drama and verse, he perceived of himself as a tragedian and not a jester.

He also had a quite strongly Leftist perspective on society despite his (apparent) delight in duchesses. Thus, his brilliant pamphlet The Soul Of Man Under Socialism, and the subversive elements in the later comedies.

Oscar’s fairy tales are the measure of the man. He never really became an adult. That is why Bosie found him so malleable. It is also why he never felt real remorse for his objectively outrageous behaviour towards his wife, Constance, and their two sons.

The choreographer appears to think Oscar ought to have had human feelings for Constance, and their are a number of awkward moments where the Wilde figure dithers between Ada Leverson / the Sphinx’ and Constance, then Robbie RosSeand Constance, and eventually Bosie and Constance. Oscar, unfortunately, had the impermeable ego of a five year old.

It is a great pity that this beautiful, substantial, absorbing work of art should be the final product of the Cork-based Irish National Ballet. It iSean especial pity as Domy Reiter-Soffer has precisely the talents to make viable ballets out of Oscar’s taleSeand short stories, not to mention Dorian Gray, Salome, and even, possibly, Vera, or The Nihilists.

He could also make ballets based on the literary efforts of one Dermot O’Byrne (alias Master of the King’s Music, Sir Arnold Bax), especially Red Owen, a play about Eoghan Rua Suilleabh in the last great Gaelic poet of Cork.

?üine n Ph l

From: Gay Star (Vol. 2, No. 2) Spring 1989

On Sunday, November 25, 2007, BBC Radio Ulster broadcast ” a new work by Neil Martin, ossa. The word means bones’ and refers to the words on the Roman reliquary of Hugh O’Neill, (Aodh Neill) the Earl of Tyrone’ (he was rather more than that), Neil Martin’s commentary to the effect that he was treated like a prince of European standing was at odds with the official’ Beeb line, but the oddity was let stand. ossa is a symphony, commissioned to commemorate the Flight of the Earls’ in 1607. This was when the last powerful Gaelic lords (O’Neill and O’Donnell of Ulster who still had armies at their command) departed to mainland Europe presumably to lobby for military aid. They had had military aid from Spain, but it was not very effective.

This was the end of the old Gaelic order (but not culture) in Ireland, the Earls’ in question, O’Neill and O’Donnell were the last Norman-Gaelic princes to exercise untrammelled power in their own territories. They, or their immediate predecessors, had submitted’ and accepted earldoms’ for tactical reasons. The Tudor establishment in Ireland, whose favoured policies were chicanery and mass murder could never get the better of the Ulster Earls Tudor forces suffered smashing military defeats in Ulster. This disaster (the Flight of the Earls) might well have been the result of the Dublin Castle authorities luring them out of Ulster. The immediate cause of their Flight was a defeat at Kinsale in deepest Munster.

The above may seem a very roundabout introduction to a music review, but it is useful to know. The audience for the premiere performance, in Whitla Hall (part of the QUB – the Queens University, Belfast) viewed a television documentary of Neil Martin’s following the trail of O’Neill to his death in Rome, where he was struck by the inscription on his tomb, which included the word ossa’. There was a big build up to this first performance by the BBC, with a television documentary, and a long interview with Neil Martin by John Toal on his Sounds Classical Radio Ulster show, this Invitation Concert was broadcast in the Sounds Classical slot.

So, did the thing itself measure up? On first hearing I’d have said No’. But that has probably more to do with historical pedantry than with the evidence of my ears. The Flight of the Earls’ was a political cataclysm that ranks alongside the social cataclysm of ?ün Gorta M r (of the 1840s) I don’t quite know what I was expecting maybe Sch nberg on a bad day. Listening again, having emptied my mind (insert you own smart remark here) of the historical baggage (and the Beeb’s build-up) I found it an impressive, and genuinely symphonic piece of music making.

The first movement is fuga: moderato’, their being a play on the fact that fuga’ (as well as being a musical form) also means flight’. It was a very substantial movement (and the word movement’ was the operative word, I wondered if Neil Martin had Bart k’s excitingly-named Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta in mind, it’Sean unusual way of starting a long piece. I’m afraid that the things I was supposed to hear in the music went over my head, it waSeand interesting thing to listen to. As was viaticum: recitativo vivace’; viaticum’ is sustenance ” before a journey to sustain a traveller (it is also what Roman Catholics call, or used to call, the Last Rites). Neil Martin imagined the travellers taking sustenance from music, so there are references to an air segueing into a jig, but don’t expect picture postcard’ or Ring of Kerry stuff. Mind you, it isn’t Stockhausen either.

We then get laudate: andante’ (these spellings are in the lower case in the BBC handout about the broadcast. It is a psalm setting for treble. (The treble was Declan Kennedy, who had a slight problem at the beginning of this quite long setting, and was miked-up’ for the occasion. I’d have preferred him to be drowned out occasionally possibly so would he during his very short mishap rather than the unreal sound which was produced. Neil Martin might have wanted an ethereal sound though as a Radio 3 announcer said about a Scottish boys’ choir in Mahler, they sounded more like street kids than a band of angels. An adult choir joins the treble in the course of this movement, which rhythmically and texturally crescendos to a sustained high B flat in the choral soprano voice. There’s something Mahlerian in that description, and in the music, but it is not anachronistic or imitative (there is nothing of Britten, despite the Brittenesque use of the male treble).

The last movement is terminus: allegro agitato – lementoso’ is a setting for choir mostly, of a mixed-bag of words in English and Latin. It does what the label claims: the first piece of writing is by the composer, it is about O’Neill’s travelSeand travails, this is followed by a choral setting of a James Clarence Mangan poem, O Woman of the Piercing Wail, lamenting over O’Neill (and the Gaelic order?). Finally there is the treble singing a fragment in Latin:

ossa principis in hoc sepulcro sunt

hic finis ac terminus omnium

Perhaps colloquially

the chieftain’s bones lie in this grave

this is the end of things as we know them.

My one problem with that is that principis’ translates as prince’, chief’ and chieftain’ were inflicted on the Irish (and on the Africans) to imply that they were at an inferior level to their conquerers. The programme notes were written by Neil Martin, but they are not at the same level of inspiration as the actual music.

ossa has not been, so far as I know, been broadcast by the Beeb on any of its all-UK networks, or heard outside of Ireland. (The border doesn’t mean much to radio waves bouncing about the ether). It might not be a bad idea to ask the BBC to issue a CD of ossa. The audience in the Whitla Hall clearly thought it was a knockout; even at BBC prices it has the potential to being a seller’. Possibly not quite as big as Shaun Davey’s Relief of Derry Symphony. Despite the fact that Neil Martin does not big-up the title symphony’ ossa is more symphonic.

Dee Flatt

I ought not to have attended the World AIDS Day concert by the LGSO (London Gay Symphony Orchestra) on Sunday 25th, November 2007. It had nothing to do with the band, or its peformance. I just realised quite early on in the proceeding that I needed a good night’s sleep. I had also managed to arrive late, despite setting out quite early! This may explain a certain element of the acerbic in what is written below.
The programme consisted of three pieces of English music, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Gerald Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto, and Bax’s Symphony No. 5. I was shooed into the choir/organ loft in the course of the Britten, and would not dare say much about the performance. It sounded fine, indeed superfine, but there were, or appeared to be from where I was sitting, problems of intonation in the upper strings.
There were similar problems at the start of the Finzi Concerto. He is a minor English composer (the name if Venetian Jewish – I think) for some people being a ‘minor English composer’ is the same as ‘unlisten-to-able’. This is probably a masterpiece and is exquisitely lovely. (And ‘exquisitively lovely’ is not a phrase that presents itself to my mind on a regular basis, let me tell you). There is very little ‘English pastoral’ about it, though I had the notion that the end of the first movement was a reference to a fox barking. A very well behaved fox, and very far in the distance, I should say (and it is just my notion). The slow Andante movement was toe-curlingly lovely. The last, rondo, movement has been used as the ‘Intro’ for a radio record request programme – I think – probably several decades before most members of the LGSO were born.
Martyn Robinson, the soloist, gave up the clarinet between 2000 and 2002, to ‘pursue a non musical career’. Thankfully, according to the Programme, “he teaches for the County Music Service”, in Suffolk. And turns in magical performances like this one “in regular concertSeand recitals in and around Suffolk and London”. He is planning to leave in the UK, so if you want to hear him ‘live’ you’ll have to do it PDQ.
Bax is a composer I have a problem with, I don’t really like his music, which is not the same as not being able to appreciate it. But, despite what is claimed, appreciation and liking are closely related. Bax wants his audience to be ‘stirred’ or even shaken, I am rarely either. Dominic Nudd, who wrote the programme notes, and is presumably the same person as one of the Double Basses, mentions Tintagel and The Garden of Fand. They are tone poems, and Bax could shape them any way he liked. They sound, and probably ought to sound like good quality film music. They are not symphonic. Bax encountered the ‘finale problem’ composing what he described as ‘symphonies’.
This was occasioned by the fact that they were writing after 1900. (Admittedly it was a bit more complex that that). Many composers found that a rosuing apotheosis at the end of the final movement was no longer appropriate to the sort of society they lived in. This was partly, in England, a matter of turning away from German models of composition. Bax’s Fifth is essentially a three movement work with an ‘Epilogue’ stuck on the end. It is a gesture towards a triumphant apotheosis. It is, like a number of similar movements in English music of the time, rather half-hearted. It is especially noticeable in a man like Bax, whom one suspects would have loved to ‘give it the gutty’.
The LGSO, under Simon Bowler (the new Leader is Jenny Kortal) gave a committed performance. But, as noted above, I was not in a really receptive frame of mind, and need serious advocacy to appreciate Bax.
I have a wee bone to pick with Dominic Nudd. Bax told pianist Harriet Cohen, his beloved (there waSeanother one, Mary Gleaves) that the two tone poems mentioned were “the last of my Irish music”. Dominic also writes that Bax wrote “playSeand poetry under the pseudonym Dermot O’Byrne”, implicitly “from 1907 until 1914”. ‘Dermot O’Byrne’ wrote inflammatory verse about the Easter Rising of 1916, and was censored by the Military Authorities in Ireland. His Third Piano Sonata of 1920, as Dominic writes was “a symphony, without orchestra”, a matter which Bax soon put right by by 1922. The whole work, and the “new, deeply elegiac slow movement” he (Bax) described as a ‘war symphony’.
The war in question being the so-called Irish ‘Civil War’ ‘So-called’ because there was no question that all of those involved wanted an entirely prosaic Republic. All felt that Downing Street’s threat of “immediate and terrible” war was credible. Some felt it needed to be circumvented rather than confronted. Others felt that their oath and the memory their dead comrades, demanded resistance to even overwhelmingly superior power.
I am bamboozled as to why this band is not more widely recognised, and why it is not turning away hordes of eager listeners, at each and every concert.The LGSO is not just a London but a national treasure.
So rush to give them lots of cash, at: sponsorship@lgso.org.uk

Hello

Not the usual LGSO announcement regarding our next concert, this time we’re after your help!

For the first time in the orchestra’s history, we’ve decided to appoint a professional leader. We thought our supporters might be interested to know we’re recruiting and also help us spread the word. So if you know any violinists out there who might be interested, do let them know.

Details can be found on our website where the job description and application form can be downloaded. The deadline for application is in January and we’ll be interviewing and auditioning in February.

This is a big step for us, please help us get it right. If you work for a music college, if you’re a

music student, if you know friends who know friends, whatever, please spread the word. And if you want to apply, that’s cool too.

ThankSeand we look forward to seeing you at our next concert.

Nicole

LGSO Chair