Debussy and friends aid Japan

I've just been to see the pianist Noriko Ogawa about her Debussy festival in Manchester in January. Together with the BBC Philharmonic and friends, she is exploring the cross-currents between Debussy and Japan - the influence of oriental culture on the composer and his influence, in return, on Japanese composers of the 20th century and today. Fascinating stuff and I'll be explaining it all at more length soon. But Noriko was in Japan at the time of the earthquake on 11 March - you may have seen her speaking about it from Tokyo on Newsnight - and she has been hard at work fundraising via concerts and other means for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami, which left vast numbers homeless and deprived of their livelihoods. She has had some Black Cat greetings cards specially designed - each one costs £2 and all profits go to the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund. If you haven't done your Xmas cards yet, here's the purrfect chance. Right, one of the four images. You can buy them online here. Debussy, by the way, used to frequent the club Le Chat Noir in Paris.

The End of Time: 9 January 2012

No, it's not another bleak economic forecast, nor an attempt at the Rapture... Actually it's my Messiaen project, which has undergone a surprising rapture of its own, being resurrected by a dynamic concert manager, a superb team of actors and a quartet drawn from the creme-de-la-creme of young British musicians. Please book soon for our showcase performance at Bob and Elizabeth Boas's beautiful salon in central London on the evening of 9 January. All details below.

The End of Time

Monday 9th January 7pm

22 Mansfield Street W1G 9NR

THE END OF TIME is a unique project, matching drama and music:
a one-act play, A Walk through the End of Time, written by Jessica Duchen  and read by Susan Porrett and Patrick Drury

presented before a performance of Olivier Messiaen's great Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps with:

Viv McLean - piano
Tamsin Waley-Cohen - violin
Gemma Rosefield - cello
Matthew Hunt - clarinet

The performance starts at 7.30 pm with drinks at 7pm.
There will be drinks and canapes afterwards at about 9.30pm
Tickets are £25 (£5 for students) with all the proceeds going to the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust.

 Seating is strictly limited in this intimate venue so you are advised to get your tickets early.
TO BOOK:
1. Contact Mr. Robert Boas by email:
boas22m@btinternet.com
(Payment to: The Nicholas  Boas  Trading Co. Ltd)

2. Alternatively you  can book through Yvonne Evans: 07889 399 862

You may also wish to make a separate donation to The Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust
 

Top of my Liszt: Roger Daltrey...

Someone was away, so guess who landed the column The Week in Culture for today's Independent...?

It was the perfect excuse to do a music-film equivalent of one of the "literary smackdowns" that are so popular on Twitter right now. Pick your Russell: Ken, or Simon R Beale? Now, I love Simon dearly. And Sir Mark. And Dr Deathridge, whose lectures at Cambridge were absolutely the best back in 1986. But just try watching an episode of BBC4's Symphony series back to back with Lisztomania. Just try it...

Who would ever come up with a thing like this now? But of course, nobody would have done so before Ken Russell, either. Here's one of the milder episodes for this week's Friday Historical: Liszt and Marie a la Charlie Chaplin and Edna, in a recollection of love's young dream and its gradual destruction, while the great song 'O lieb, o lieb' is sung by Roger Daltrey. A Friday Historical that is only 36 years old, with a singer who is very much still with us. But historical because it's unlikely that any comparable thing will ever happen again.

It's all going nuts at the ballet

Wall-to-wall Nutcrackers this year, left, right, centre, north and over the Pond too. I mean, how many do we need? My article asking this is in today's Independent (and this morning it has made it to the front page of the Indy website): http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-nutcracker-its-all-going-nuts-at-the-ballet-6270098.html

Meanwhile - with impeccable timing - my dear friend "Entartete Musik", aka Gavin Plumley, has started a Nutcracker advent calendar today. It's wonderful! Find it here.

Overkill? Let's add to it. Please welcome those gorgeous former Royal Ballet stars, Lesley Collier and Anthony Dowell, in the great pas de deux.

Friday Historical: In memoriam Sena Jurinac

The great soprano Sena Jurinac died earlier this week, aged 90. In this film from Glyndebourne 1955 she sings 'Porgi amor' from Le nozze di Figaro. I'd challenge anyone to find a purer and more directly from-the-heart performance anywhere.

Here is her obituary from The Guardian.



This Friday Historical is additionally dedicated by JDCMB to all those who have been forcibly separated from their loved ones.