Out of Lewisham

Captions by C.C-M. (Above) RR looking glum in the face of a (very nice) glass of wine. (Below) VR drinking water while there is wine on the table.

 

London is England's main cultural swimming pool but out-of-towners like us need a diving board from which to plunge. Ours is in Lewisham a south-eastern suburb, home of the C-Ms.

Apart from being friends dating back to seventies, the C-Ms also represent strong cultural ties in themselves. P.C-M, once a journalist on a mag I worked with, has published Gorgon Times and Out Of Arizona. C.C-M was commissioned to sculpt two of our grandchildren and never was cash more rewardingly invested.

We arrived last Saturday lunchtime, later took a taxi (driven by a former Kosovo-an who was a history in himself) to the Noel Coward theatre in the centre to see Death Of A Salesman. On Sunday a piano-violin recital (Mozart, Brahms) in swanky Blackheath followed by a pretty comprehensive display of paintings by English painter Eric Ravilious in even swankier Dulwich. Then, as the photos prove, we dropped culture and espoused hedonism, drinking three bottles of wine in the C-Ms' sunlit garden. Back to Hereford, Monday morning

Each of the three events would have been worth the journey. I have misgivings about the second half of the Miller play but none at all about Anthony Sher as Willy Loman. The acoustic at the recital grossly favoured the piano (possibly because of large windows behind the players) but the performances, especially in the Brahms, met all my requirements. The Ravilious, my first exposure, was a complete delight. And then the wine... and the sunshine...

Driving home I suffered an attack of yawning. But I had a specific for this: a bottle of Coca Cola kept in the car for at least four years. The taste was much adulterated but the caffeine was as strong as ever. After one glug the yawning ceased. All this under a Tory government!

My favourite at the Ravilious show

Five firsts (not all gold)

FIRST SEVENTY-EIGHT. Bing Crosby, Ghost Riders in The Sky, 1952, Why bought: Peer pressure. Abiding impression: The words

… their faces (soaked?) with sweat.

They’re riding hard to catch that herd,

But they ain’t caught it yet.

Sentimentality rating: Zero. Grossly over-played at the time.

FIRST LP (mono). Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Concertgebouw Orchestra, cond. Erich Kleiber, 1954. Why bought: Mentor’s instructions. Abiding impression: Still favourable; performance highly recommended by Gramophone (magazine) at the time. Sentimentality rating: Highish, would play it again if I still owned it but couldn’t be bothered to buy it as CD.

FIRST CD: Renaissance masterpieces: Allegri’s Miserere, Tallis’s Spem in Allium, Pro Cantione, cond. Brown, 1980s (?).Why bought: I wanted a CD and there wasn’t much choice. Abiding impression: Hardly any for these performances; the two works’ significance only became apparent twenty-five years later. At the time these works got lost in a welter of posh music buying, notably the two Brahms piano concerti. Sentimentality rating: Zero.

FIRST OPERA (live): Mozart’s Magic Flute, English National Opera, Palladium, London,  1974. Why did I go: It was time (finally) to step up to live opera. Abiding impression: Things could only get better than this. There had to be a more acceptable Tamina (the main tenor role) than this twenty-stone Sumo wrestler, balding but with a vestigial ten-hair ponytail, who sang without conviction. Sentimentality rating: Low, but at least it got me started.

FIRST REVELATION (live): Brahms Third Symphony, Cardiff Symphony Hall, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, cond. Herbert Blomstedt, 2008. Why did I go: I’d become a regular concert-goer. Abiding impression: That on rare occasions (See the late date!) you may hear a performance that somehow resembles the music’s first creation. Sentimentality rating: Stratospheric. A conviction that music is the greatest art.