Puccini

Despite some depressing occurrences whilst I wasn’t working last week, there was plenty of music to brighten my mood.

I have mentioned before that working at the Conservatoire brings the advantage of lots of concerts to choose from.  Lunchtime recitals suit me, from a personal point of view (it saves trying to rush home for a family evening meal and then back out again), but they aren’t ideal from an operational point of view! Anyway, I planned to attend lunchtime recitals on Monday and Friday. 

However, I was too late for the Monday recital. The doors closed promptly at 1 pm. I wasn’t inside.

So that left three concerts. I made it to the Friday recital – trumpet and accordion, absolutely fantastic.  Feeling a bit like Cinderella rushing to beat the clock,  I made it back to my desk for 2 pm, so all was well.  (There are aspects of my impending semi-retirement that have considerable appeal!)

The Thursday evening concert was in my home neighbourhood, on a day when I was working from home.  I discovered that the Glasgow Barons were doing an orchestral concert. The first piece was by Hailstork, a BIPOC composer whose name I had literally just encountered that week whilst sourcing music repertoire: how could I resist?  And Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ quartet arranged for string orchestra was sure to be enjoyable.  The Tippett, though? I think I need to gain familiarity with it, to appreciate it fully. It probably grows on one.

It was a glorious evening, even before the concert started. I met someone I knew, so I even had company to sit beside me.

And then this afternoon, we went to a Bearsden Choir concert in Glasgow City Halls.  Arvo Part’s Salve Regina, a new work by Swann, and Puccini’s operatic Messa di Gloria. I sang that in Exeter University Choir back in 1980-2, and I recognised it instantly.  It was a great concert; the choir goes from strength to strength, and the two soloists (an RCS alumnus and a student, both on the opera course) were excellent.

And here we are, Monday again.  Now, the big question is whether to try to get to today’s lunchtime recital! We’ll see…

Post Script. I didn’t make it.