Category: Music

A Hit, a Very Palpable Hit

Last year the first day at Queen’s was a wash-out (Anyone for Tennis?). It’s a different story this year with weather so warm that I dispensed with a tie and even considered shedding my coat.

Casanova

I am usually at home but one year I was in Warsaw, another I was on an aeroplane, so Robert had to do it for me, once I was in France and one year I forgot.

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Lunchtime at RCM

Lunchtime concerts at the Royal College of Music are a top tip. They are usually free, only last an hour and though you may know the pieces the performers will be a surprise.

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Let Us Pray

The Royal Hospital Chelsea is an appropriate place to worship on Easter Sunday. The fresco in the apse is Sebastiano Ricci’s The Resurrection.

St Matthew Passion

If you are at a loose end in London this coming Sunday evening this performance of JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion might appeal. There is no charge but there will be a retiring collection to recover some production costs.  

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Tahiti

In 2008 I saw a double bill in Trieste but first a bit about the city. It has one of the finest squares in Europe, one side of which opens onto the Adriatic. The architecture reflects the history of the city as the main port for the Austro-Hungarian empire. In its heyday it was the… Continue reading Tahiti

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The Fox’s Prophecy

  Charles Moore in his Spectator column this week recalls listening to Tristan Voorspuy recite The Fox’s Prophecy when he went on safari with him in Kenya. As you will have read, Tristan Voorspuy was murdered on his farm in Kenya and Charles Moore remembers him with affection.

Halfway to Heaven

Fulham Palace appeared here in July 2015 in All About You and Heaven. It is just as heavenly in February 2017.

Wonderful Wagner

If you find Wagner so long-winded that you wriggle, fidget and long for a drink, I know the feeling. A friend has a special Wagner wrist-watch that discreetly lights up so she can check the time. Another friend told me that the thing is, Waggers takes his time, doesn’t rush things – tantric opera. The… Continue reading Wonderful Wagner

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Great Scott

The St Pancras Renaissance Hotel was originally the Midland Grand Hotel designed by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1865. Did Sir Gilbert think he’d done enough that year?