Tales from London # 43-50

This is going to be my longest post ever! Hooray!

Saturday

We had to wake up at 6:00 in the morning today to catch a 7:30 train to St. Ives. The train ride was really long (6 hours), but when we got there, it was definitely worth it.

St. Ives

St. Ives is a small, seaside town, traditionally known as an artists' colony. The air was so clean, the sky was a gorgeous, deep shade of blue, and the weather was beautiful. It was so nice to be by the ocean for the weekend, though it was certainly too cold to go swimming!
We went to the art gallery (Tate St Ives) in the afternoon, which was pretty interesting, although it was small. After that, we went out to dinner at a pub on the waterfront, which was really delicious.



Sunday

Today, we woke up, went out to a local bakery, and got some scones. We went over to the waterfront and ate them with local jam and Cornish clotted cream. Cornish clotted cream is incredible. It must be terribly unhealthy, but it tastes so good!
After that, we walked around for a little bit, and hiked up into the hills. The entire place is so green and beautiful. It was sad to leave after such a short time, but we had to go.
We hopped back on the train, but then got off in Exeter to walk around and explore a little. We walked through the cathedral, which was very pretty, and then walked along the wall, which was very old and medieval.
Then, we went back to London.

Monday

Today was a fairly uninteresting day. I went and took care of a few errands during the day, including going to the library.
In the evening, I had a choir rehearsal, the second to last before the big concert. My voice was very tired after the rehearsal; it's a very difficult piece of music.

Tuesday

Today, we had Theatre class in the morning, during which time we acted out some scenes from a melodrama from the 1800's for the rest of the class, which was very dramatic and entertaining. After that, we went to the Handel Foundling Museum.
The Museum was on the location of where a house for babies and children who were found abandoned by their parents would be taken. There was a lot of art work in the museum, which was kind of strange, and only one room had anything to do with Handel. It was interesting to hear what life was like for these children, though.
After that, we went to a preconcert talk about Handel's Belshazzar, which is an oratorio. After a couple of hours, we went to the concert at St. James Hanover Square, by the London Handel Festival. It was an extremely long oratorio, with a choir and 5 or so soloists. 2 of the soloists were male altos, which was very interesting. Although the concert was very long, it was also very beautiful (if repetitive).

Wednesday

Today, we went down to the Apollo Theatre at 8:30 to queue for 10 pound front row tickets to Jerusalem, which we succeeded in getting. After that, we went to our final class for Fine Arts in London, where we all had to give presentations on various art related topics. My project was on Damien Hirst, a very controversial British artist who likes to display dead animals. He is also the richest artist in the world, which is cool I guess.
Anyhow, after that, we went to Jerusalem, a long play on the West End. It is about a Gypsy who lives in a trailer home in the woods in rural England, in a place where his family has lived for decades. The plot of the play circles around his impending eviction, and (without giving away the details too much) explores many difficult questions about how he is leading his life. Mark Rylance, who played the main character, was absolutely awesome in this role. It was a very intense, emotional performance, particularly in the final 20 minutes. Although I feel as though I should see it again to try to understand exactly what happened, I definitely think it is the best theatrical performance I have ever seen.

Thursday

Today, we had class all day, none of which is particularly worth noting.
In the evening, I went to a pre-concert rehearsal for the concert on Sunday. We were in a big church, and I could barely hear anything the conductor said.

Friday

Today, I went to work for my internship all day. I worked on getting things like the seating plan and budget for the concert ready, which was very hands on and useful. There were a lot of final details to take care of, and it took the whole day. In the evening, I had dinner, went out for gelato with Jon, Will, and Jackie, and then went to see "The Last Station", a film about Leo Tolstoy (supposedly). It was really more about Tolstoy's secretary and his wife, and about Tolstoy dying. It was entertaining, but not really what I was expecting going in.

Saturday

Today was the day of the big Barbican concert! I had to go in at 1:30 to start setting up for the concert, getting flowers and refreshments ready, and carrying things all around the building. We had a long rehearsal at about 4:00, and then I had a quick dinner I had packed earlier in the day, and then the concert started!
It was extremely hot on stage, with the lights on and a basically sold out crowd of almost 2000! We performed Beethoven's "Choral Fantasie" and "Der Glorreiche Augenblick", the latter of which hadn't been performed in London in over fifty years! The concert went really well, and it was an absolutely amazing experience. I performed on the same stage that Yo-Yo Ma had played only 3 nights before!


Sunday

Today, I was going to go out to Dim Sum with some friends, but after we got separated, my phone died, and I never was able to find them! I went out to a cheap Chinese buffet by myself instead, which was tasty, and I ate the most meat I had eaten in a long time, since it's so expensive at the supermarket. After that, I went to see the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. They performed Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto and "Symphonic Dances". They were very impressive, but didn't really blow me away.
After that, I went to the Barbican Centre for the day's second concert, this one by the London Symphony Orchestra. The piece was James MacMillan's (a contemporary Scottish composer) St. Matthew's Passion. I went to an unenlightening preperformance interview with him, but the performance itself was absolutely awesome. It was conducted by Sir Colin Davis, and the piece was reminiscent of "Carmina Burana" There were many beautiful choral parts, as well as epic and emotional instrumental parts. It was very interesting, and I thought it was a unique adaptation of the story.

Tales #26-30

Wednesday

Today, our only class consisted of going to Tate Modern! The museum was way more interesting than I thought it was going to be. The first exhibit we went into was basically just a giant dark, black box that you walk in to. It was absolutely surreal to walk into the darkness, not knowing what to expect, and just explore. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed a lot of the artwork in the museum as well. I was expecting it to be mostly ridiculously abstract (as in a completely red canvas), but much of the artwork was really insightful. I loved many of the early 20th century artists especially.
For dinner, we went to Hare and Tortoise (the amazing Japanese restaurant) again; I had Yaki Udon, which was 6 pounds of amazingness.
This evening, I went to see the New York Philharmonic (the first time of 2). They played Lindberg, Prokofiev, and Sibelius, which were all very polished, but not mind blowing. The pianist for the Prokofiev was very, very good though.

Thursday

Today, we had class all day. British culture was pretty good; we talked about the structure of British politics, which was very interesting.
After dinner, we went to the second New York Philharmonic concert. They played a Haydn symphony, which was pretty dull, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, which was beautiful, Adams' "The Wound Dresser", which was beautiful (and sung by Thomas Hampson!), and a piece by Alban Berg. The concert was once again good, but not amazing. Certainly several of the concerts I've been to of London orchestras have been better, and many have had better song choice!

Friday

Today, I was going to work for my internship, but found out that I couldn't today, so I decided to go on an adventure instead. First, I went to the British library, where I totally dorked out in the rare music section of the museum. Among the pieces on display were the original manuscript of Handel's Messiah!!!! aaaannd Ravel's original scoring of Bolero for 2 pianos, which I got way too excited about. There were also pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Elgar, and just about everybody.
After that, I went and got an onigiri (a Japanese rice ball with seaweed) and edamame from a Japanese fast food restaurant for really cheap, which was awesome. Then, I went over to Regent's park, which is another huge, open park in the middle of London. I walked around, looking at the birds and trees, and reflecting on the trip so far.
In the evening, I went down to the Southbank Centre to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time. They played Sibelius' 6th and 7th symphonies, which were very beautiful. The orchestra was very good. The conductor was a funny man, who kept grunting, which was a bit strange...

Saturday

Today, we woke up early and made way on an 8:30 train for York.
When we got there, we walked over to the hostel and checked in, and then went over to the park, where, since it is the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's ascension, a band was playing, and then they fired off a 21 gun salute with giant canons. It was very exciting and British, and extremely lucky that we got to see it!






After that, we had lunch at Pizza Express, where I got a pizza with artichoke and asparagus! It was really, really good.
Next, we went on a walking tour of the city. Some of the highlights:

The Shambles:

A cramped, medieval style street in downtown York, with authentic architecture still in many of the buildings. There were a lot of really neat shops, including one where we went back for hot chocolate later.

The Wall:

There is an old, medieval wall that spans York. We walked around on the top of the wall, and it felt like we were medieval soldiers!

The York Minster:

The York Minster is an enormous cathedral, which is on the site of where a church has been for about 2000 years. The current version dates from 1250-1400, and is enormous, gothic, and medieval. It is stunningly beautiful on inside and out, with giant arches, gorgeous stained glass, huge towers, and intricate carvings throughout.

Later in the evening, we went back to the York Minster for the choral evensong, which is a choral church service. It was sung by a Men's choir and a children's choir, and was wonderful. The singing was so pure, and it echoed throughout the halls of the cathedral. It was probably my favorite experience in England so far.

For dinner, we found a really cheap restaurant where I got steak and prawns for 6.99! They were absolutely delicious. We went back to the hostel, getting to bed early since we were really tired!

Sunday

This morning, we woke up early again and walked around York for a bit before catching the train to Birmingham. We walked over to the Tower, which was cool but we couldn't go in.

In Birmingham, we saw the Black Dyke Band (the current best brass band in the world (they won a contest)), which is a really old British tradition. The band was amazingly talented, playing way faster than I thought was possible on tubas, cornets, horns, and trombones. The music wasn't extremely inspiring for the most part, but it was entertaining, loud, and epic throughout. It was certainly an awesome concert.

And, now I'm back

Cheers

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.

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.