A small stage set up in a ludicrously picturesque courtyard with a backdrop composed of the rusticated stone of the Palau del Lloctinent was the setting for a free concert of ancient music this morning. This was one of a series set in three locations over two days. All free. This is part of the XXXIII Festival de Música Antiga de Barcelona.
We managed to do two concerts before lunch. The first was the Ensemble Estampes a trio which played music by Teleman, Marais and Rameau. The location was also a pedestrian thoroughfare so this incidental music was put to its right purpose as people wandered about and chatted as they went. It was still a delight, though there was a sense of unreality at the historical beauty of it all.
The second venue where the Trio Arethé played was, if anything, even more unreal set in the courtyard of the Pati Reial Académia de les Bones Lletres which looked like a Zefferelli set for Romeo and Juliet! The star of this trio was Juan Rodriguez who played the flauta de bec (superior recorder) as if he was possessed. Spurning a score he played round about a zillion notes in impossible sequences that were truly breathtaking. The music was of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and, not only did I thoroughly enjoy this programme but also I got just a tad browner as, unlike the natives, we sat in the sun!
Lunch was in a quick Wok type restaurant where your freshly made meal was served in one of those cardboard containers that one sees on American television series when the actors have a Chinese meal. Fresh, delicious and spicy – who could ask for more!
The Anatole France book of “Selected Stories” has now been read and I suspect that I have read this before; certainly I have read some of these before – the story “The Procurator of Judaea” is familiar and well anthologized. It is a pedestrian story only made memorable by the last line with its bitter irony. The rest of the stories were attempting an almost classic status as though they wanted to be instant parables, but I found them instantly forgettable. Perhaps in another fifteen years I will open the book again and wonder at the vague familiarity!
The weather, which today has been glorious, is set to return to its evil ways tomorrow and rain (a familiar phenomenon in this part of the world) we are told will fall. This means that the Celebration of the Three Birthdays will take place in Terrassa – to which I will have to take three chickens from our take-away as it is better than the one in Terrassa!
I have, of course, been listening to Radio 4 to find out what Machinations have been going on in the UK. I do not envy the Lib-Dems as they start their flirtation with the Conservatives in the expectation of voting reform and the future promise of real power. It is going to be impossible to wrap up their lust for government in high-sounding “what is good for the country” rhetoric and their alliance with the Conservative will result in their destruction. And rightly so.
Alternatively, any approach to Labour with Gordon Brown still in charge is equally fraught with danger for them. Soon the Labour Party will start its ritual disembowelment of everyone in sight as the traditional post-election-failure syndrome kicks in and in the flurry of indiscriminately wielded knives I am sure that party activists will not make any distinction between new-friend and foe as the blood begins to flow.
The talk of a Progressive Alliance of Labour, Lib-Dem, Plaid and the Scottish Nationalists, oh sorry, and the Green forming an almost-majority and trying to govern is straight out of a comic book – an adult horror slasher XXX rated comic book. Though I suppose it could be amusing to watch such a collection try and govern, as long as you don’t think about the realities of wages, incomes, pensions and investments and all the real things that keep people alive!
Talking of investments, I have been advised not to check on mine for a year or so if I want to keep the smile on my face. I have a feeling that the gains that I have made (taking my savings back to where they were three years ago) might well have been wiped out by the lack of confidence in just about everything that used to be regarded as a “safe and secure” way of looking after your money.
It is at times like this that I am told that I am lucky to have a job – though the only thing about my job that occupies my mind at the moment is the exact date for the start of the summer holidays!
And where is the summer?
We managed to do two concerts before lunch. The first was the Ensemble Estampes a trio which played music by Teleman, Marais and Rameau. The location was also a pedestrian thoroughfare so this incidental music was put to its right purpose as people wandered about and chatted as they went. It was still a delight, though there was a sense of unreality at the historical beauty of it all.
The second venue where the Trio Arethé played was, if anything, even more unreal set in the courtyard of the Pati Reial Académia de les Bones Lletres which looked like a Zefferelli set for Romeo and Juliet! The star of this trio was Juan Rodriguez who played the flauta de bec (superior recorder) as if he was possessed. Spurning a score he played round about a zillion notes in impossible sequences that were truly breathtaking. The music was of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and, not only did I thoroughly enjoy this programme but also I got just a tad browner as, unlike the natives, we sat in the sun!
Lunch was in a quick Wok type restaurant where your freshly made meal was served in one of those cardboard containers that one sees on American television series when the actors have a Chinese meal. Fresh, delicious and spicy – who could ask for more!
The Anatole France book of “Selected Stories” has now been read and I suspect that I have read this before; certainly I have read some of these before – the story “The Procurator of Judaea” is familiar and well anthologized. It is a pedestrian story only made memorable by the last line with its bitter irony. The rest of the stories were attempting an almost classic status as though they wanted to be instant parables, but I found them instantly forgettable. Perhaps in another fifteen years I will open the book again and wonder at the vague familiarity!
The weather, which today has been glorious, is set to return to its evil ways tomorrow and rain (a familiar phenomenon in this part of the world) we are told will fall. This means that the Celebration of the Three Birthdays will take place in Terrassa – to which I will have to take three chickens from our take-away as it is better than the one in Terrassa!
I have, of course, been listening to Radio 4 to find out what Machinations have been going on in the UK. I do not envy the Lib-Dems as they start their flirtation with the Conservatives in the expectation of voting reform and the future promise of real power. It is going to be impossible to wrap up their lust for government in high-sounding “what is good for the country” rhetoric and their alliance with the Conservative will result in their destruction. And rightly so.
Alternatively, any approach to Labour with Gordon Brown still in charge is equally fraught with danger for them. Soon the Labour Party will start its ritual disembowelment of everyone in sight as the traditional post-election-failure syndrome kicks in and in the flurry of indiscriminately wielded knives I am sure that party activists will not make any distinction between new-friend and foe as the blood begins to flow.
The talk of a Progressive Alliance of Labour, Lib-Dem, Plaid and the Scottish Nationalists, oh sorry, and the Green forming an almost-majority and trying to govern is straight out of a comic book – an adult horror slasher XXX rated comic book. Though I suppose it could be amusing to watch such a collection try and govern, as long as you don’t think about the realities of wages, incomes, pensions and investments and all the real things that keep people alive!
Talking of investments, I have been advised not to check on mine for a year or so if I want to keep the smile on my face. I have a feeling that the gains that I have made (taking my savings back to where they were three years ago) might well have been wiped out by the lack of confidence in just about everything that used to be regarded as a “safe and secure” way of looking after your money.
It is at times like this that I am told that I am lucky to have a job – though the only thing about my job that occupies my mind at the moment is the exact date for the start of the summer holidays!
And where is the summer?
No comments:
Post a Comment