Tales #18-22

Tuesday

Sorry it's been so long since I updated this blog!
Today was a great day! After theater class in the morning (where we walked around in the cold for 3 hours!), we made burritos, which were probably the best burritos ever made. Seriously.
After that, I went to my audition for the City of London Choir. It only lasted 5 minutes, and was actually not too bad. The sight reading was really hard, because it was a tempo, with words, without time to look over it first! It ended up going fine anyways though, and I made it in!
After the audition, I walked over to the Royal Opera house to see "The Rake's Progress" by Igor Stravinsky. The opera was very good; the singers were definitely very talented (although Tom Rakewell (the main character) had a little bit of an abrasive voice in my opinion) and the venue was absolutely beautiful! It is enormous, and clad throughout in red and gold; it feels like an opera house in Mozart's day might have felt. It was extremely classy, and all around just an amazing place. As for the opera itself, it was very interesting. Both the storyline and the music hearkened back to the Classical and Baroque eras; the plot was a tragic story of the demise of a man who became a popular movie star. The music, on the other hand, felt like Stravinsky had taken a classical opera and moved 1/3 of the notes around, so it didn't comply to common practice rules. It had the typical harpsichord recitatives. The singing (its rhythm and melody both) was the one part that was more typical of Stravinsky than the orchestral music.

Wednesday

This afternoon, we went to Tate Britain for our British Art class.

Our professor took us on a tour of the history of British Art. Although much of the painting was very good, it did seem as though the British were on the later, and watered down (no pun intended) side of nearly every major trend in art. The only major exception to that rule was the gallery that featured art by Joseph Turner. His art was incredibly varied, from detailed and moving scenes of naval battles, to vague, hazy paintings of various buildings and cities. Though much of his art was "difficult" (read: you can't tell what he painted unless you read the blurb), it was clear that he was a very talented artist.
After that, I went out to dinner with Isabel, who is in town visiting for a week or so. We had fish and chips, which were delicious. It was awesome to see a familiar face!

Thursday

Today was a long day of class. British culture was typically interesting and entertaining, and music history was not that bad. After dinner, we went over to Kings Place to see various players from the Aurora Orchestra perform chamber arrangements of pieces with the theme "From Vienna to Weimar". The composers played were Hindemith, Weill, Krenek, and Schoenberg. The 3 besides Weill (who wrote the Threepenny Opera) were very modern pieces, with various levels of atonality. The Hindemith piece and the Schoenberg piece were my two favorites of the night. The Weill was selections from the Threepenny Opera played on violin with piano accompaniment, and several of the pieces were uncomfortably arranged/played. The musicians were all very good though, and they were all extremely young.

Friday

Today, I worked on my internship in the morning, and then went to Music Theory class. In the afternoon, we went around to Southbank and the the Barbican to buy tickets for upcoming performances. In the evening, a group of us met up with Isabel and went to a Japanese restaurant called "Hare and Tortoise" that we had seen walking around the town. It was incredibly good. I got a ramen noodle soup with salmon, crab, shrimp, scallop, and a mussel in it for 6.50 (which is amazing by London standards!). Everyone else also got really good food, and nothing was above 7 pounds.

Saturday

Today I wasn't feeling very well, so I took it (relatively) easy. I slept in for a while since I didn't sleep well the night before, and then got up and went to the Victoria and Albert museum.

It was so huge, and has a bunch of really cool sculptures. There are a lot of rooms that are filled with relics of the British Imperial era, which is a little off putting, but most of the stuff is really cool. I had nowhere near enough time or patience to make it through the whole museum, but I did get to see some really old harpsichords from th 1500's that were very well kept.
After this, I went over to the Barbican for a concert by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. They played Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, which is a dark piece written for a man who came back from World War I with only his left arm. They also did pieces by Webern, Zimmerman, a Burleske by Strauss, and Ravel's La Valse. The last two were particularly good. Strauss's piece played off of the interaction between the piano and the orchestra very well. Ravel's waltz was more an exaggerated expression (almost a parody) of how frustrated he had become with the romantic, cheezy standards that were common in the waltz.

Tales #16,17

Sunday
First thing today, Will and I went down to the Theater Royal Haymarket to get tickets for the matinée of "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett at 3:00. The tickets were a little pricey, but we got basically the best seats in the house for less than half the original price. After a quick lunch back at metrogate (our dorm hall), we went back to the theater for the show.

The Theater Royal Haymarket



As anyone who has seen the show will know, it is a confusing, and mostly pointless play when it comes down to it. However, it is certainly interesting and entertaining. The acting was incredible; especially the man who played Estragon, who you may recognize from such roles as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films. Of course I am referring to the incredible Ian Mckellen, who managed to give a convincing performance in which never once did I think to myself "That is something Gandalf would do". I probably wouldn't go twice (some of the repeated plot lines and points got a little repetitive), but I enjoyed it.
After the show, I hurried over to Dave and Kathy's (the leaders of our trip) flat for dinner with them. They made lasagna and sticky toffee pudding, which was absolutely wonderful!

Monday

Today, I did some work for my internship during the day, and also went over to the library and got a library card. In the evening, I went to choir rehearsal while everyone else went to the one theater performance we had on a Monday. When I got back from choir, the people who went to the performance told me about it, and apparently it was appalling! I guess I got lucky that I was unable to go.

Tale #15

Saturday

Well, today was another amazing day in London! The day began with going to the Hampton Court Palace, where King Henry VIII (of 6 wives and anglican church fame) lived part of the year and housed his noble guests (sometimes 600 at a time!). The palace was, of course, beautiful and huge (see picture).

Among the things we got to see were a cool tour of the kitchens where we saw what types of food people would eat in the 16th century and how they were cooked, and a funny/interesting series of skits where men in women in full costume acted out the events preceding King Henry's final marriage.
The highlight, however, of the palace, were the beautiful gardens! The hedges were trimmed beautifully all over the place, there were many beautiful fountains, and what I'm sure were beautiful statues, but were covered with trash bags for the winter.

The Main Garden


A courtyard

After a 1.5 hour tube ride to the Barbican theatre, Jon and I went to a pre-concert talk for the BBC Symphony Orchestra concert we were seeing this evening. The talk was less enlightening than I had hoped, as it turned out to be more of a skit than a lecture...
The concert itself, however, was awesome. They played 4 pieces, including my favorite piece from the 20th century (Le tombeau de Couperin by Ravel). The pianist on the Ravel, Angela Hewitt, was very good. The other pieces that were played were a piece by Dutilleux, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. They were all very beautifully played, and shared a 20th century/impressionist style that was wonderful.

Tales #12-14

Wednesday
Today was the least exciting day in London yet, which is saying something! We had a couple of classes today, in which I made a presentation on pianos in Mozart's lifetime and learned the condensed history of British architecture (like all of it) in 3 hours. This was all very fun, although I was tired from waking up at 7:30! In the evening, we went to an Foundation for International Education welcome party, which had "nibbles" which means 10 varieties of fried food and nothing else apparently. It was good though, despite the party's inherent awkwardness due to the fact that despite all being Americans, us liberal and performing arts kids are pretty different from most of the people from other schools. It was still fun to meet people and socialize though.

Thursday
Today, I saw the best concert I have ever seen! But hold your horses, I'll get there in a second. Before that, I had an interesting British culture and politics class where we discussed stereotypes that we have of British people, and vice versa, which was very revealing. Among the most prominent stereotypes of Americans according to my professor: we are puritanical, insular, gun-toting, badly dressed, hospitable (wait, what?) energetic, enthusiastic(loud) idiots. Well, he didn't actually SAY the last one, but... For dinner, we made some penne pasta, which was gloriously good, and we shared with some of our neighbors. Then, we went to the concert, at the Royal Festival Hall (see picture (oh, and I got my camera!))

Well, now to the concert. It was amazing. The program was Mozart's 20th Piano Concerto, with a solo by the "Saucy Frenchman" David Fray, and Mahler's 5th symphony. The piano player was really surprisingly good, with flamboyant and expressive styling and dynamics that were perfect for the piece. (see picture)

The Mahler symphony, however, really stole the show. The orchestra was gigantic (as in they had 2 harpists. that big), and they were absolutely together through the entire 68 minutes. That is just the basics, though. They played absolutely brilliantly throughout the entire thing, capturing the individual melodies that constantly play with each other, and creating a glorious story. The 4th movement in particular, had a huge impact on me. It was all strings, and it was the most intensely beautiful performance and composition that I have ever heard. The conductor, Leif Segerstam, was a giant man who is apparently legendary in Finland where he is from. He conducted extremely well (if you can't tell by the last 3 paragraphs!) (see picture- it was very difficult to choose a picture of him, but this will have to do!)

Friday
Since we didn't have class today, I started working on a few assignments for my internship, which is shaping up to give me a lot of practical experience, and exposure to how choirs work. I am really excited for it so far! I also went down and bought tickets for 3 more concerts at the Royal Festival Hall because of how excited I was about the concert last night. This puts my Ravel quota (the number of times I am seeing his orchestral pieces in the next month from tomorrow) at 4. So excited! I also went to the National Art Gallery today (see picture), which was so enormous I probably only got to 1/15th of it in the 2 hours I was there.

I will have to go back, but I saw some beautiful Impressionist artwork by Monet that particularly struck me. One of the portraits from when he was in London, of the Westminster Palace with the Thames in the foreground, was especially neat.
This evening, we cooked some burritos (they do have Mexican food here!), and Will and I went to a concert at St. Martin in the Fields church. A great chamber orchestra played several violin concertos and other pieces, including Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The Four Seasons was especially great; the piece is incredibly innovative, combining baroque style with programmatic composing that is strikingly chromatic, making for a really interesting combination. I heartily enjoyed the entire performance.

Cheers,
Ethan

Tales #10,11

Monday
Today we had to wake up really early to take the tube over to a tour of Parliament. Parliament was incredible, though. The Gothic architecture was unbelievably intricate, detailed, and ornate. It was actually pretty over the top how expensive and beautiful everything was (see picture).

There was also a lot of history, like the medieval great hall where kings and queens of old would hold banquets, and the people would come to see their rulers. We also went to the Banqueting House (the building on which King Charles I was executed), with its beautiful classical architecture.
Later, I went to Camden market again to have dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. Then I went to a choir rehearsal at the City of London Choir. It was really fun; the conductor was very eccentric, and the music was interesting and very challenging. The choir sounded really good, and I have an audition next week. After the rehearsal, I went out for bo-ri-toes (burritos) with some of the people who were around my age in the choir. Although they were about 6 pounds (10 dollars), they were actually surprisingly good for being Mexican food in London!
Tuesday
For theater class today, we went over to the City of London (which is a small district in the middle of greater London), to walk through some of the places that would have been familiar to Shakespeare when he was in London. We also did readings from old plays that put the areas, such as the Smithfield meat market, into historical perspective (it has been a meat market for over 800 years!). After the class, we went over to a clock museum, with a bunch of ridiculously ornate pocket and other watches and clocks.
In the evening, we went to a pub across the river called the White Bear to see an old play called "A Yorkshire Tragedy". There was a small set, and fewer actors than parts, but the actors and actresses did a great job of telling the story in a way that made sense (despite being in Elizabethan English). As for the story, it was extremely sad, and compressed into about an hour. Definitely thought provoking, but a little difficult to believe.
I hope all is well,
Ethan

Tale #9

Today was another great day. In the morning, Will, Jon, Courtney, Jackie, and I went to Camden market, a much, much bigger, and even a little better version of Portland's Saturday market. It was pretty much endless (we went around for 3 hours, getting lost several times and also not making it to even half of the shops around!) There were also a ton of cheap food stands, and unfortunately I had already eaten lunch. Oh well, there's always tomorrow!
After that, I went down to the Royal Academy of Music for a performance of 3 baroque concertos, 7 baroque dances, and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. It was incredible! The chamber orchestra used performance period instruments, including an awesome wooden oboe for Vivaldi's Oboe Concerto. Dido and Aeneas was unstaged, but it was still really, really good. The soloists, while a little distracting in terms of facial expression, were very good, and the chorus and orchestra were expressive, and pretty much perfect in every way. It was an amazing concert.
Tomorrow, we will visit Parliament, and I have my choir audition!
Cheers,
Ethan

Tales #1-8

Hello everyone. Well, I am in London, across the pond, etc., and it is awesome. I got here on January 10th, and since then, we have done a few things. Here is a partial list of my activities so far.
1. Went to 2 plays.
One, called "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour", was a play about a Russian man who was in a mental prison, but believed he was sane. It was interesting, and there was a giant orchestra on stage for the whole show, which was fun. The other play we have seen was called "War Horse", which was a West End play, and was about a man and his horse, and their tragic split during World War 1, and, I won't reveal the ending, but it's really cheesy. This play also had instrumental accompaniment about all the way through, which made them both seem a little more like movies and less like plays. Although it was cheesy, "War Horse" had some awesome puppets in it (the horses), which were extremely realistic.
2. Went to a Swingle Singers concert.
We went to the Swingles at Kings Place, where they were performing as part of the London a cappella festival. A group from Oxford opened for them, which was cool, and then they performed about 15 songs that were all perfectly in tune, very entertaining, and just all around amazing. They did some songs from their new cd, as well as a few old classics, and it was really just a great show. Far and away the top a cappella performance I've ever seen.
3 Went to a Swingle Singers workshop
Today, we went down to King's place again to see some free foyer performances/try to get returned tickets for the Swingle workshop. We did, and the workshop was great. It was kind of simple in terms of actual content, but it was really fun to see them in an environment other than performance. Also, they performed Country Dances, which was amazing!
4 Went to the Brahms Requiem
I went down to St. Martin in the fields last night, and bought a ticket for the Brahms "Ein Deutches Requiem" as performed by the Whitehall choir and the Brandenburg Symphonia. It was an arrangement of the piece for a smaller strings orchestra, organ, and chamber choir, so it was not exactly what I was expecting. It was certainly a good performance for what it was, but it was a little out of place for Brahms. All in all, it was great to hear the piece.
5 Went to a free Vampire weekend concert
We went over to the Sommerset House (a huge old estate with an ice rink in the middle) to go see a free performance by Vampire Weekend a couple of days ago. It was a beautiful venue, but we got there early, it was cold, and they started a half hour late... my feet were actually numb by the end! The concert was good, although the sound stopped working near the end of the performance.
6 Went to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub and the Old Shades Pub
I had my first taste of English food the first night at the Old Shades, where I had some fish and chips. SO good. Also tried a steak pie at Ye olde cheshire cheese pub which was very delicious, and at the same pub frequented by Voltaire and Dickens, among many other greats!
7. Toured a ton of awesome stuff
We have already been on bus tours, walking tours, about every kind of tour really, and seen, at least from the outside, most of the main sights in London. Some highlights: Of course Westminster Abbey and Big Ben are incredibly beautiful, and are so iconic of London. The tower bridge is also really cool. It is an old, blue bridge across the Thames that is suspended between two beautiful old towers.
8. Went Scottish dancing
This was so must fun! We went to a Scottish church this evening, and did 16 dances that were all SO upbeat, and we all got really in to it. We ate some haggis (look it up if you dare!), and just had an authentic Scottish evening. All around awesome time.

Well, that's the Readers Digest version, so yeah, I've been busy, and I may have forgotten important details that I shall add later!

Ethan