Viardot reborn

Last night I attended an extraordinary concert staged by Opera Rara and Prima Donna Productions at the Wigmore Hall: a programme with narration by Fanny Ardent about the life and music of Pauline Viardot, the great mezzo-soprano who inspired everyone from Chopin to Berlioz to Turgenev, whose lover she may or may not have been (this account, twinkle in eye, suggested the former). It was quite a marathon, starring three stunning singers: fabulous dramatic soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci, classic Russian bass Vladimir Chernov and the legendary Frederica von Stade, as radiant as ever and in fine form at 60 - remarkably, it was her very first appearance at the Wigmore.

The narration, written by Georgia Smith, was witty, informative and sensitive, even if Ardent didn't always sound comfortable speaking in English. If you're in Paris, try to catch the same concert at the Chatelet tomorrow, 1 March, presumably in French - it may go with a little more pizzazz. But the real star was Viardot's music. I've heard a number of her songs before, but many of yesterday's were new to me - heavens, they're beautiful! The variety is astonishing - she set poems in four or five languages, including Russian; and the warmth, melodic flow, drama, sensitivity to words and imaginative flair mean that, programmed alongside her admirers Gounod and Berlioz (his gorgeous La Captive, for mezzo-soprano, cello and piano) and her friend Chopin, her music more than holds its own. For me, top spot was the gorgeous Die Sterne, again with cello: breathtaking lyricism and a profound soul shone out of it.

Viardot has been a special interest of mine for a few years, but until now, I must admit, mostly because I adore Turgenev. I wrote a piece trailing this concert for the Indy which was in last week (read it here), but came away from the event itself feeling I'd discovered a new dimension to a story I thought I knew. This concert wasn't merely a rare music faction trying to convince us that second-rate music is worth hearing. Instead, it revealed a composer of real genius.

Opera Rara recorded the concert live and the CD will be released in due course. Grab it when you can and hear these unsuspected wonders for yourself.

UPDATE: 3 March 2006 - read The Independent's review by Robert Maycock here.

I've got an iPod...

...and I'm gonna use it. I must be the last person on earth to acquire one of these little snazzcards, but it's worth the wait. It's a Nano, a birthday present from my brother, and it's taken a few months for me to get it up and running due to what is now a defunct computer. New computer works smoothly and beautifully with it, however (touch wood), and this morning I uploaded my current favourite CD and switched the thing on. A second later I was swimming in technicolour Chausson.

HEAVEN.

Now I understand why people wander about in worlds of their own while using their iPods. I well remember the Walkman effect in the early 1980s - when everyone went nuts for Sony portable cassette players, a friend of mine wrote a song for his band called 'Year of the Zombie'. The difference with the iPod is staggering. They're light, the sound quality is amazing and you can carry hundreds of pieces without resort to plastic boxes. But of course, everyone else knows this already...

It makes me wonder how we'll be playing our recorded music after another 23 years.

Time out

Apologies for lack of blogging at the moment - a lot going on - but I'm still here (kind of) and will attempt something nice, normal and sensible, like CD recommendations or a concert and/or opera report, over the next few days.

Today...

...my book arrived.

I have been waiting all my life to hold my first novel alive and printed in my hands. Today it happened.

To say this is a happy day would be rather an understatement!

What do you mean, French horn?!

The latest issue of MUSO, the upbeat magazine for youthful classical musicians, has a nice article this month about blogging. Yours truly got interviewed for it (thank you!), as did Swen Emmerling and Zachary Lewis.

As I am distinctly longer in the tooth than the mag's target market, I must admit I don't always read this publication in detail, but my eye was caught this time by a quiz that aims to identify which instrument you ought to play by your physical and character traits. Results proved interesting.

Do you enjoy your own company? Yes, I quite enjoy spending time on my own
Do you enjoy reading? Yes, I read a lot
Do you have big hands? No, they're fairly small
Do you have full lips? No, my lips are quite thin
RESULT: FRENCH HORN

Eh??!? That's one instrument that never so much as occurred to me...

The quiz may upset others by declaring that if your answer to the question 'Are you clumsy?' is 'Yes, I'm always knocking things over,' then your instrument is the cello. Apparently if you're ill a lot you should take to the recorder. Are you a couch potato? Do you daydream all the time? Then play the flute. Do you have big teeth? Go for the guitar.

My beloved piano, according to this, would be removed from under my lilywhites just because they're smallish. But actually plenty of pianists have small hands - Pletnev's are almost the same size, or lack of it, as mine. That seems to prove that it ain't what you've got, it's what you do with it. Meanwhile I'm trying to recall whether I've ever spotted a horn player reading a book.