Sunday, April 22, 2012
Dorking over
Having missed one concert at Dorking Halls, we made it to what will be the last concert for this season for us last night. A concert for two violins from Jack Liebeck and Victora Sayles, who turned out to be a husband and wife team. The first time we have been to such a thing, certainly for a long time. One wonders what is odder, performing at a concert with one's partner or watching one partner performing in a duet with someone else of the opposite sex? After all, Tolstoy did have a point in the otherwise rather unpleasant story about the Kreutzer sonata. For me, the answer would be not to have a partner in the same trade as oneself.
We got a Bach sonata for solo violin in G minor. We were very close to the performer (Sayles in parade uniform) and the sound was impressive. One small instrument filling quite a large hall. Followed by something modern, a sonata for solo violin, apparently inspired by the Bach we had just heard, from Eugène Ysaÿe. Lots of good passages, but for me the thing completely missed out on the form and grandeur of the Bach. Which may well not have been an accident but meant for me that I would sooner have the Bach. Followed by a Spanish piece, usually used as an encore, of a violin pretending to be a guitar. Very clever it was too, including a back drop of what sounded like plucked notes although I could not see any plucking. Perhaps one can get a plucking noise by banging the bow on a string in the right way.
During the interval the two older ladies behind us regaled each other with stories about colonoscopies and related procedures & operations that they had known. Perhaps topical but we could have done without it. Nevertheless, we managed to refrain from interrupting them.
Followed by what was for me a novelty, a Mozart violin sonata for violin and piano transcribed for two violins by the master himself. Perhaps in days when I imagine that pianos were a lot more expensive than violins, there was a much bigger market for music for two violins than for violin and piano. A very good novelty it was too. Followed by a Prokofiev duo sonata. With another transcribed movement from Mozart as an encore.
My vote rested with the Bach and the Mozart. Familiar stuff!
I close with a factlet which I owe to Ian Hacking. He claims that a pupil of Pavlov was able to hypnotise a wide variety of mammals. And I had thought that hypnotism depended on the human style of speech. A touch obscure, even for Google, but there was confirmation, or at least corroboration, at http://www.danielolson.com.
We got a Bach sonata for solo violin in G minor. We were very close to the performer (Sayles in parade uniform) and the sound was impressive. One small instrument filling quite a large hall. Followed by something modern, a sonata for solo violin, apparently inspired by the Bach we had just heard, from Eugène Ysaÿe. Lots of good passages, but for me the thing completely missed out on the form and grandeur of the Bach. Which may well not have been an accident but meant for me that I would sooner have the Bach. Followed by a Spanish piece, usually used as an encore, of a violin pretending to be a guitar. Very clever it was too, including a back drop of what sounded like plucked notes although I could not see any plucking. Perhaps one can get a plucking noise by banging the bow on a string in the right way.
During the interval the two older ladies behind us regaled each other with stories about colonoscopies and related procedures & operations that they had known. Perhaps topical but we could have done without it. Nevertheless, we managed to refrain from interrupting them.
Followed by what was for me a novelty, a Mozart violin sonata for violin and piano transcribed for two violins by the master himself. Perhaps in days when I imagine that pianos were a lot more expensive than violins, there was a much bigger market for music for two violins than for violin and piano. A very good novelty it was too. Followed by a Prokofiev duo sonata. With another transcribed movement from Mozart as an encore.
My vote rested with the Bach and the Mozart. Familiar stuff!
I close with a factlet which I owe to Ian Hacking. He claims that a pupil of Pavlov was able to hypnotise a wide variety of mammals. And I had thought that hypnotism depended on the human style of speech. A touch obscure, even for Google, but there was confirmation, or at least corroboration, at http://www.danielolson.com.
# posted by Jim @ 2:34 AM 
