Archive for the ‘Concats’ Category

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Concert Concat 2025

Published by peter on 2024-12-30 in Concats, Concert Concats, Concerts, Jazz and Music. Closed

This post is one in a sequence which lists (mostly) live music I have heard, as best as memory allows. I write to have a record of my musical experiences and these entries are intended as postcards from me to my future self. All opinions are personal, although music historians from the 25th Century may find some of them of interest.

Other posts in this collection can be found here. The most recent prior post in this sequence is here.

  • Kasparas Mikužis in a recital at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, London on Friday 14 February 2025. The program was:
    • Beethoven: “Moonlight” Sonata, op. 27, no. 2
    • Chopin: Nocturne op. 55 no. 2
    • Chopin: Ballade no. 3, op. 47
    • Chopin: Preludes op. 28, no. 17-24
    • Interval
    • Rachmaninoff: Sonata op. 28, no. 1

    Continue reading ‘Concert Concat 2025’

Recent Reading 21

Published by peter on 2024-12-11 in Books, Concats and Recent Reading. Closed

The latest in a sequence of lists of recently-read books, listed in reverse chronological order.

  • Patricia Ludgate [2016] Butterflies of a Brief Summer: Memoires – Les souvenirs sont faits de tels moments. MoshPit Publishing. This is a very personal memoir by the wife of pianist Roger Woodward, who traveled the world, mostly as a member of the Australian diplomatic corps. The detail of the narrative in places could only be possible if she had kept a diary at the time, but there are large gaps in the story and much is omitted. For example, how exactly did she come to join the Foreign Service? Is it really true that she just wrote a cold letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the next thing was being posted overseas? I wonder if she had some intelligence role. I had not realized until reading her account that even junior Australian foreign service officers traveled first class when flying on business.

    When I read Mr Woodward’s memoir, I was disappointed that he had said so little about his relationship with Ms Ludgate, but her account has too much information about her relationships. I would have preferred she had said less.

  • Roger Woodward [2014]: Beyond Black and White. ABC Books. This book is in two parts, with the first being a memoir of the author’s fascinating life as a concert pianist. Not many Australians spent the decade from 1964 in Poland, for example. The second part of the book – and just as interesting to me – is an account of his relationships with various contemporary composers. These accounts are riveting, even though the author tries to be fair in his recounting of events.

    Mr Woodward does, it seems, like a good list, an affinity I fully share. The editing might have been better (eg, we find composer Pascal Dusapin listed twice in one list).

  • Tess Livingstone [2024]: George Cardinal Pell: Pax Invictis, A Biography. Ignatius Press, Second edition (originally published in 2002), revised. Kindle Edition. Foreword by George Weigel.

    Continue reading ‘Recent Reading 21’

Concert Concat 2024

Published by peter on 2024-04-11 in Concats, Concert Concats, Concerts, Jazz and Music. Closed

This post is one in a sequence which lists (mostly) live music I have heard, as best as memory allows. I write to have a record of my musical experiences and these entries are intended as postcards from me to my future self. All opinions are personal, although music historians from the 25th Century may find some of them of interest.

Other posts in this collection can be found here. The most recent prior post in this sequence is here.

  • A concert to launch a scholarship for musicians from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine in memory of the late Russian pianist Pavel Kushnir in the Swiss Church, Endell Street, London on Saturday 21 December 2024. The Foundation sponsoring this event was hosting a similar event simultaneously in Paris, two days later in Berlin and Amsterdam, and two days later again (on 25 December 2024) in Tel Aviv.

    The London Swiss Church serves both French-speaking and German-speaking Protestant communities, and perhaps both because of its Protestantism and its dual nature, the Church has a very austere interior. The building has recently been redecorated, apparently. The altar appeared to be just a wooden writing desk raised on a single step, and next to it on the step was a simple nativity scene. There was no chair for the pastor nor even a pulpit. A grand piano stood in front of the raised step.

    Continue reading ‘Concert Concat 2024’

Concert Concat 2

Published by peter on 2023-11-16 in Concats, Concert Concats, Concerts and Music. Closed

This post is one in a sequence which lists live music I have heard, as best my memory allows, from the Pandemic onwards. I will update this as time permits. In some cases, I am also motivated to write about what I heard.

Other posts in this collection can be found here.

  • Ariel Lanyi – piano recital at the Wigmore Hall, London, 27 December 2023. The program was:
    • Beethoven: Sonata #2 in A, Op 2 No 2 (1794-5)
    • Franck: Prelude, Aria et Final (1887)
    • R. Schumann: Etudes Symphoniques Op 13 (with posthumous etudes) (1834-7)

    A very refined performance to a house about 3/4 full. Many people seemed to know each other. I was not able to stay for the Schumann.

    Continue reading ‘Concert Concat 2’

Recent Reading 20

Published by peter on 2023-07-15 in Books, Concats and Recent Reading. Closed

The latest in a sequence of lists of recently-read books, listed in reverse chronological order.

  • Peter Godwin [2024]: Exit Wounds: A Story of Love, Loss and Occasional Wars. Canongate Books. A very moving, well-written and intensely personal account of the death of the author’s mother and the break-up of his marriage. How poetically Godwin writes. The feeling of being sick for “home” on three continents – Zimbabwe (Chimanimani in the Eastern Highlands), Britain and the USA (Manhattan and his weekend house at Indian Orchard in north-western Connecticut) – is all too familiar to me.
  • Tim Tate [2024]: To Catch a Spy: How the Spycatcher Affair brought MI5 in from the Cold. Icon. A well-written reprise of what we now know (which still is not everything) of the Spycatcher Affair. Despite the assurances of this author and many others, I remain unconvinced that Roger Hollis was as innocent as he claimed of espionage for the Soviets.

    • Continue reading ‘Recent Reading 20’

Concert Halls

Published by peter on 2022-04-16 in Concats, Concerts and Music. Closed

Herewith a list of concert halls and music performance venues in which I have been fortunate to experience musical performances (excluding working Churches).

  • The Barbican Concert Hall, London
  • Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
  • Brisbane City Hall, Brisbane
  • Cadogan Hall, London
  • Casino Civic Hall, Casino, NSW
  • City Recital Hall, Sydney
  • Performance Space, College Building, City University of London, UK
  • Sir John Clancy Auditorium, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Ballroom, Corinthia Hotel, London
  • Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
  • English National Opera, Covent Garden, London
  • Salle de Flagey, Brussels
  • Salle Gaveau, Paris
  • Hamburgische Staatsoper, Hamburg
  • Hamer Concert Hall, Melbourne
  • Ipswich Civic Hall, Ipswich, Queensland
  • King’s Place, London
  • Leggate Theatre, University of Liverpool, Liverpool
  • Leighton House, Holland Park, London
  • Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, London
  • City Hall, Lismore, NSW
  • Llewellyn Hall, Canberra School of Music, Canberra, ACT
  • LSO St Luke’s, London
  • Auditorium, Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, Paris
  • Matthäuskirche, Munich, Germany
  • Melba Hall, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Melbourne
  • Milton Court Concert Hall, Guildhall School of Music, London
  • Old Museum Concert Hall, Brisbane
  • Studio 1, Old Museum Building, Brisbane
  • Auditorium, St Joseph’s Nudgee College, Nudgee, Brisbane
  • Pamoja Concert Hall, Sevenoaks School, Sevenoaks, Kent UK
  • Purcell Room, South Bank Centre, London
  • Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London
  • Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Southbank, Brisbane
  • Regent Hall (Salvation Army Centre), Oxford Street, London
  • Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London
  • Royal Albert Hall, London
  • Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall, London
  • Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Royal College of Music, London
  • Carne Room (aka East Parry Room), Royal College of Music, London
  • Performance Hall, Royal College of Music, London
  • Royal Festival Hall, South Bank Centre, London
  • Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
  • Concert Hall, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
  • Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London
  • Golden Concert Room, St George’s Hall, Liverpool
  • Recital Hall, Seoul Arts Centre, Seoul
  • Seymour Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney
  • State Theatre, Sydney
  • Steinway Hall, London
  • Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
  • Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House
  • Sydney Town Hall, Sydney
  • Tanglewood, MA
  • Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris
  • Tyalgum Literary Institute Hall, Tyalgum, NSW
  • Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney
  • Victoria Hall, Hanley, UK
  • West Road Concert Hall, Department of Music, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • Westminster Cathedral Hall, London
  • Wigmore Hall, London

Recent Reading 15

Published by peter on 2018-08-06 in Advertising, Books, Burney Family, Communism, Concats, Culture, Intelligence and Espionage, Politics and Recent Reading. Closed

The latest in a sequence of lists of recently-read books, listed in reverse chronological order.

  • Michael Ovitz [2018]: Who is Michael Ovitz? A Memoir. USA: WH Allen.  This is a fascinating and well-written autiobiography by the co-founder and driving force behind Creative Artists Agency. CAA grew from nothing to dominate the agency business in movies and TV, and then entered M&A consultancy and advertising.  I always admired the chutzpah of this strategy and marveled at its success.  The book explains how CAA’s creative bundling of the products of its writers, actors, musicians, directors and producers enabled it to grow as an agency, and also enabled the diversification:  the expertise gained in strategizing and financially evaluating creative bundles was used to value Hollywood studios (with their back catalogues) as potential acquisition targets. Likewise, the creativity in bundling and the access to diverse talent was used to design successful advertisements.  What surprised me reading this book was that the diversification ended after just two acquisition assignments and one advertising project (Coca Cola’s polar bears).  The key reason for this seems to have been the opposition of Mr Ovitz’s partners and colleagues at CAA, despite the handsome and arguably unearnt rewards his efforts brought many of them.  No good deed ever goes unpunished, it seems.  // The book also presents his experiences as President at Disney.  Although of course we only hear his side of that story, he does seem to have been undermined from before he even began work there. // Overall, the writing is articulate and reflective, and he seems to have grown personally through his career and his apparent failures.  I greatly admire his continued desire and willingness to learn new things – new skills, new businesses, new industries, new cultures, new hobbies.  Doing this requires rare, personal courage.  Few people in American business were as willing as he was to immerse themselves in Japanese culture when doing business in Japan, for instance.  One characteristic Mr Ovitz does not ever display is smugness, and this absence is admirable.

    • Continue reading ‘Recent Reading 15’

Recent Reading 13

Published by peter on 2017-07-06 in Books, Communism, Concats, Economics, Fiction, Global Economic Crisis, History, Intelligence and Espionage, Literature, Politics and Recent Reading. Closed

The latest in a sequence of lists of recently-read books. The books are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recently-read book at the top.

  • Dan Shanahan [2017]: Camelot Eclipsed: Connecting the Dots.  Independently published.
  • China Mieville [2017]:  October: The Story of the Russian Revolution. UK:  Verso.
  • Joshua Rubenstein (Editor) [2007]: The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov. USA:  Yale University Press.
  • Henry Hemming [2017]: M: Maxwell Knight, MI5’s Greatest Spymaster.  UK:  Preface Publishing.
  • Evelyn Waugh [1935]:  Edmund Campion, Jesuit and Martyr. UK:  Longmans.
  • Alison Barrett [2015]:  View from my Tower: Letters from Prague, March 1985 – May 1988.   A fascinating series of letters from wife of the British Ambassador to members of her family about her time in Prague, in the period of stasis just before the Velvet Revolution.
  • John O Koehler [2008]:  Stasi:  The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police.  USA:  Basic Books.

    • Continue reading ‘Recent Reading 13’

Central London churches

Published by peter on 2016-09-03 in Concats, Places and Religion. 0 Comments

A list of some central London churches and their denominations, updated as I visit them:

  • All Hallows by the Tower, Tower Hill / Anglican
  • All Saints Cathedral, Camden / Greek Orthodox, originally Anglican
  • Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, Bloomsbury / Baptist
  • Chapel of King’s College London / Anglican
  • Chapel of Hospital of St John and St. Elizabeth, St John’s Wood / Roman Catholic
  • Chapel of St. Thomas’ Hospital, Lambeth / Anglican
  • Christ Church, Spitalfields / Anglican
  • Christ-the-King, Gordon Square / Catholic Apostolic
  • Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden / Roman Catholic
  • St Cyprian’s Church, Clarence Gate / High Church Anglican
  • Emmanuel Temple, Westminster / Evangelical Christian
  • Finchley Quaker Meeting House / Society of Friends
  • Friends House, Euston / Society of Friends
  • St George’s, Hanover Square / Anglican
  • Holy Trinity, Marylebone / Anglican
  • Holy Trinity, Sloane Square / Anglican
  • The Little Oratory Chapel, Kensington / Roman Catholic
  • Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy / Anglican
  • St Andrew Undershaft, St Mary Axe / Anglican
  • St Anselm and St Cecilia, Holborn / Roman Catholic
  • St Bride’s, Fleet Street (the Journalists’ Church) / Anglican
  • St Clement Danes / Anglican (the home church of the RAF)
  • St Clement’s Eastcheap / Anglican
  • St Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street / Anglican and Romanian Orthodox
  • St Etheldreda’s, Ely Place, Holborn / Roman Catholic
  • St Giles Cripplegate, Barbican / Anglican
  • St Giles-in-the-Fields / Anglican
  • Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, Mayfair / Jesuit, Roman Catholic
  • St James, Piccadilly / Anglican
  • St John’s, Smith Square / formerly Anglican
  • St John’s, Waterloo /Anglican
  • St John’s Wood Church / Anglican
  • St Katherine Cree, Leadenhall / Anglican
  • St Luke’s, Old Street / formerly Anglican
  • St Magnus the Martyr, Monument / Anglican
  • St Margaret, Lothbury / Anglican
  • St Margaret’s Putney / Anglican
  • St Martin, Ludgate (the Guild Church of St Martin-within-Ludgate) / Anglican
  • St Mary Abbots, Kensington / Anglican
  • St Mary Aldermary / Anglican
  • St Mary, Finchley East / Roman Catholic
  • St Marylebone, Marylebone / Anglican
  • St Mary-le-Bow / Anglican
  • St Mary-le-Strand / Anglican
  • St Mary Moorfields / Roman Catholic
  • St Mary Woolnoth / Anglican
  • St Pancras New Church, Euston / Anglican
  • St Pancras Old Church, Somers Town / Anglican
  • St Paul’s, Hammersmith / Anglican
  • St Paul’s Cathedral / Anglican
  • St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden (the Actors’ Church) / Anglican
  • St Peter’s Church on Eaton Square / Anglican
  • St Peter’s Italian Church, Holborn / Roman Catholic
  • St Sepulchre-without-Newgate / Anglican
  • St Stephen’s Church, Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead / formerly Anglican
  • St Stephen Walbrook / Anglican
  • Swiss Church, Endell Street / Protestant
  • Temple Church / Anglican
  • Wesley’s Chapel, Finsbury / Methodist
  • Westminster Cathedral / Roman Catholic
  • Westminster Quaker Meeting House / Society of Friends

Musical Instrument Museums

Published by peter on 2015-09-06 in Art, Concats, Culture and Music. 0 Comments

For reasons of record, here is a list of musical instrument museums, ordered by their location:

  • Athens, Greece: Museum of Popular Musical Instruments
  • Berlin, Germany: Musikinstrumenten Museum
  • Brussels, Belgium: Musical Instrument Museum
  • Monte Estoril, Portugal: Museum of Portuguese Music, Casa Verdades de Faria
  • New York, NY, USA: Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Phoenix, AZ, USA: Musical Instrument Museum
  • Rome, Italy: Museo di Strumenti Musicali dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
  • Vermillion, SD, USA: National Music Museum, University of South Dakota
  • Vienna, Austria: Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, Kunsthistorisches Museum