Ensemble 10/10 at St. George's Hall, Liverpool

A rich variety of different ensembles from the Liverpool Philharmonic players conducted enthusiastically by Duncan Ward. The programme was loosely based on the subject of nature in its different aspects and included works from as early as the 1920s to the current period. Most interesting and possibly most relevant to the programme was Brett Dean's Pastoral Symphony with orchestration implying birdsong and natural sounds. Similar themes were addressed by Samantha Fernando's Formations and Duncan Ward's own Greenhurst Way. I was unclear about how Webern's Symphony fitted with the theme but it was a rare chance to hear it live and played with such expertise. Darius Milhaud's more familiar Creation du Monde was the final piece.  It's always worth repeating how privileged we are in Liverpool to be able to hear contemporary music played to such high standards. A pity the attendance is often, as in this case, so low. ❤❤❤❤❤

Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason cello and piano recital at Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

The popularity of these performers means that they have to play to audiences that require the seating of the Philharmonic Hall rather than a more appropriate chamber venue. So the acoustics, excellent for a full orchestra, are not good for a duo. The performances were technically flawless of course and the programme varied and interesting: the last Beethoven cello sonata, a duo by Lutoslawski, and sonatas by Barber and Rachmaninov. The Barber sonata is rarely performed and I only knew of its existence quite recently; so it was good that it is being aired. And the popular Rachmaninov sonata allowed us to see the full virtuosity and expressiveness of the pair. They did appear, however, to take different approaches to the music: she concentrating on precision and he on expression. I wonder how long they will continue to perform together. ❤❤❤❤

Parasite, a film by Bong Joon Ho at Picturehouse at FACT, Liverpool

The Oscar-winning South Korean film defies simple classification; it is neither simply a comedy, nor a thriller nor a social commentary, but a little of each. Clearly the film sets out to expose the gross inequality in wealth in South Korean society and does so effectively as it portrays the domestic employment of workers by the rich. The tension in this arrangement builds up when a whole family manages to arrange for all its members to be employed unknowingly by a carelessly rich couple and the subterfuge comes close to being uncovered. There are some very clever comic scenes as a result.  However, the humour becomes black when another previous employee, who had been exploited and unfairly dismissed, takes revenge. This is the film's weakness: that it resorts to Hollywood-style implausibility for its violent denouement (hence the Oscar?), even although its final scenes cleverly present an improbable image of the future in which the tables are turned in the class war. ❤❤❤❤

Classical Horizons, a concert by the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra at Capstone Theatre

Lennox Berkeley's Sinfonietta and Mozart's 40th Symphony were nicely played by the orchestra under Robin Wallington. But the real treat came between those two: the first performance outside London of Ian Stephens' Clarinet Concerto played by Mandy Burvill. The work contains autobiographical elements relating to the life together of Ian and Mandy and their family, presented in his richly richly complex and virtuosic yet accessible style.  The clarinet playing was, as always, amazing. ❤❤❤❤❤

The Lighthouse, a film by Robert Eggers at Picturehouse at FACT, Liverpool

This film won an award at the Cannes Film Festival and so I was surprised when we arrived in the cinema to find it packed out with (relatively) young people. Part of the attraction was the casting of Robert Pattinson and the fact that the Director's previous film The Witch had had a cult following as a horror movie. 

This film had a similar purpose, a psychological horror story that related the fate of two 19th century lighthouse keepers -- the younger a novice and the older an experienced 'Wick' -- marooned on a rock in the middle of treacherous seas and subject to progressive insanity as a result of their isolation and their consumption of hard liquor. Shot in black & white, the visual effects were impressive, from the ferocity of the sea to the repulsive nightmares and passions of the younger man.  However, the story line was played out effectively in the first half of the film and thereafter the violence and dark and dramatic imaging became repetitive.

Interesting how it has attracted very different critical ratings. I would recommend it as being worth seeing.❤❤❤ 

Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen at the University of Liverpool

This extraordinary piece for violin (James Clark), cello (Sally Pendlebury), clarinet (Mandy Burvill) and piano (Andrew West) was written when the composer was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Silesia and received its first performance in the camp in 1941 in front of prisoners and Nazi guards. The instrumentation and scoring were the result of what was available. The seven movements include solo or duets with piano for each of the other three instruments. 

This was a most moving and technically accomplished performance of this difficult work from a group of brilliant musicians; the solo movements were all amazing. We are so lucky here in Liverpool to have concerts of this quality on our doorstep.  I can't imagine it better performed. ❤❤❤❤❤

Wozzeck, an opera by Alban Berg filmed live from Metropolitan Opera New York at Picturehouse at FACT, Liverpool

An astonishingly dense production of an exceptionally densely written masterpiece of an opera. The co-stars Peter Mattei, baritone, and Elza van den Heever, soprano, were faultless even although both were new to their roles.  It is hard to know, though, if the complex continually changing video screens, all hand-drawn by William Kentridge, were an essential adjunct or a major distraction. The graphics were amazingly beautiful, but at some points it was hard to distinguish the soloists from the background scenery and the thematic material of the backdrop -- something reminiscent of World War I -- was not particularly relevant to the plot. But a brilliantly expressionist experience. ❤❤❤❤❤

We Are Arrested, a play by Pippa Hill and Sophie Ivatts at Arcola Theatre, London

The true story by author Can Dundar, a journalist and academic who was imprisoned in Turkey for speaking out against government policy. The message is: this can happen so easily in a so-called democracy when the government engages in lies and people become frightened to speak out. A cast of three, two of whom effectively play several parts in the plot against the main character. We feel his helplessness and then his elation at the support he receives from his friends and supporters that leads to his release. We are not explicitly told that the government in question is Turkey and so the plot is brought to the UK with a message that tolerating, not to mention voting for, a government that engages in lies and deception can be the first step in allowing them to overturn the rule of law.❤❤❤❤

Death in Venice, an opera by Benjamin Britten directed by David McVicar at the Royal Opera House, London

Perfect performances by tenor Mark Padmore and baritone Gerald Finley, who plays multiple parts, in the tale by Thomas Mann of a widowed artist's last days spent in Venice.  He becomes obsessed with an attractive teenage boy, represented beautifully by dancer Leo Dixon.  The libretto centres on the  meaning of love and desire in older age -- a message with distinct relevance to the composer as it was one of his final works and as such almost certainly had an autobiographical content.  The music is pure late Britten, spare and movingly appropriate to the story. A rare treat. ❤❤❤❤❤

Benjamin Britten plus at the Wigmore Hall, London

Part of a series of his work being performed in London and, on this occasion, on 4th December, on the 43rd anniversary of his death in 1976. This recital had the splendid soprano Allish Tynan in Les Illuminations and tenor Robert Murray in Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with Christopher Parkes providing the fine horn accompaniment. Allan Clayton was the tenor soloist in the world premiere of Josephine Stephenson's A Season in Hell, which, like Les Illuminations,  is set to a French text by Rimbaud. Arvo Part's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten formed a bridge without a pause to the Serenade. 

The new work by young composer Stephenson was an interesting and complex hybrid of lyrical tenor and strings passages alongside jagged dissonance that seemed to reflect well the disparity and unevenness of the text, although a second hearing would be beneficial. The familiar Britten pieces were beautifully done by the soloists and the Aurora Orchestra under Australian composer/conductor Brett Dean.

The perfect acoustics of Wigmore Hall always add to the experience. ❤❤❤❤❤

Joker, a film by Todd Phillips at Odeon Luxe & Dine, Islington, London

This is a kind of back-story to the villain in the Batman movies and in part is a serious reflection on how villainy can derive from child abuse and consequent mental illness. The anti-hero Arthur Fleck, played effectively by Joaquin Phoenix, suffers from a psychiatric condition in characterised by bouts of uncontrollable laughter.  He leads an impoverished life employed as a clown and looking after his controlling mother. How this turns to violence is convincing to start with but -- American movie syndrome -- becomes too far-fetched and implausible, despite very realistic sets and production details representing New York (Gotham City) in the 1980s.

First experience of the smart new environment of Luxe and so-called Dine, in which popular fast food items and expensive drinks are served to you on fully reclining airline (First Class) seats during the performance. ❤❤❤ 

Tchaikovsky and Shostakovitch by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, London

Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda with soloist Khatia Buniatishvilli as soloist in the Tchaikovsky first piano concerto.  A dramatic sensitive performance from the soloist who played with assurance and delicacy in a most undelicate concerto; her ability to place her hands gently on the keys and so naturally engage with the instrument was amazing. 

Shostakovitch's masterpiece 7th Symphony was given a splendid rendering and the searing march in the first movement was done to perfection, even although it was clear that Noseda had to make a desperate effort to get the double basses to play loudly enough to support the intensity of the music.  That was not the musicians' fault; it was entirely down to the Barbican Hall's famously faulty acoustics.  I used to think this was exaggerated as an excuse for London to have yet another major concert hall but there is clearly something wrong when the xylophone drowns out the sound of the tuba. 

Great experience nonetheless. ❤❤❤❤