Culture Weekend: Music and Beyond and the National Arts Centre

Following on from a successful 2012 festival, Music and Beyond held a Celebration Concert on Saturday, 29th September. The selection of works included repeats of festival favourites as well as a few new choices. One person commented to me that the sheer variety meant that the flow of the concert was a little disjointed (the stage had to be set for each individual performance), but the quality was superb.

NAC Culture Days - contemporary dance

Again I really enjoyed Howard Cable's The Petty Harbour Bait Skiff along with the evening's offerings from the 'Jewish Composers Through The Ages' concert: Popper's Hungarian Rhapsody and Glick's 'The Rabbi's Wedding at the Palmerston Street Shul' from The Old Toronto Klezmer Suite. Both of these fun party tunes received great applause, even more than Seventeen Voyces' rendition of Java Jive. Yannick-Muriel Noah dazzled with 'Es gibt ein Reich' from Ariadne auf Naxos, whilst Julie Nesrallah added a touch of the unusual with Respighi's Il Tramonto. All in all an enjoyable evening!

Yesterday we headed to the National Arts Centre for their Culture Days offerings. M is a keen photographer so initially we headed to the Studio for a photography workshop on contemporary dance, with dancers from The School of Dance and tuition from SPAO. I caught a few of the dancers myself but also relaxed and enjoyed their performances! Later on we had a look backstage as well as taking in Glenn Gould's piano, Steinway CD318. This was our first Culture Days visit to the NAC; it was really interesting and comes highly recommended for future years.

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Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

Hidden Witness

Moving house completed - for now - and we are back in the Vale of Evesham. The wonders of Facebook unearthed a live gig and St Richard's Hospice fundraiser by slow-burning band Hidden Witness so off we went for an evening out in Worcester. I honestly can't remember the last time either of us did that.... cue pleasant surprise at our venue for the evening, Keystones Cafe Bar . Quite open and spacious in terms of standing room, reasonably large stage and a bar ensconced in the remaining medieval walls - much more atmosphere than many other small bars... A busy few weeks meant I hadn't had time to check out Hidden Witness' SoundCloud page so I had fresh ears and no expectation. The support band, The Miffs , were ok, with a few engaging covers, but sadly (for my ears) nothing memorable. After a short break - in which the background music made me feel both young and old simultaneously - Dan, Chris, Neil and Dan took the stage for an interesting set. A few ...

Mini update

I have finally sorted out my site links to reflect some new/renewed interests and my current location. We have something of a National Arts Centre bonanza shortly: I had already booked to see Angela Hewitt on 16th Feb but found a good ticket offer on LivingSocial.com to see Radu Lupu this coming Wednesday, 26th. In addition to all that, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross (his recent book, Listen To This , is excellent, as well as his previous tome, The Rest Is Noise ) is giving a talk there on 13th February. This is all followed in March by a complete about turn to the Bronson Centre to see Finnish band Apocalyptica . They have been somewhere on my radar for a while but I was spurred on to book tickets after a bout of nostalgia. M and I were regular visitors to Wolverhampton UK to see various bands at Civic Hall/Wulfrun Hall; a few months ago a mutual friend posted on that there Facebook thing about seeing said Apocalyptica at Wulfrun Hall. Nostalgia for the venue and renewed intere...

PrettyInScarlett

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