PrettyInScarlett

Something different for a day: as part of the National Museum of Wales' Cerdd/Music 09 (year of music), on Saturday 20th June, the National Museum Cardiff showcased a performance of Erik Satie's 'Vexations'. The 'Vexations' consists of 840 repetitions of a short work, with 1 repetition composing of theme-variation1-theme-variation2, of which the score is below. Full details of the performance are on the museum's website here . The performance also served as the anniversary of the first Welsh performance of the work in Bangor in 1969, with Saturday's rota of artists including 6 of the original performers. The full 840 repetitions lasts around 18 hours, but I stayed for around 45-50 minutes (until repetition 360). In that short time, I still found Vexations both very interesting and strangely hypnotic - it also fitted in well with the surroundings of Gallery 12 (the Realist and Impressionist part of the museum's collection). I may try and play 1 or 2 ...

Summer finally seems to be on its way, along with 2 excellent shows in a week! Another first on Tuesday 19 th - a concert in the Cardiff University School of Music 's hall. Originally booked as a 'why not' kind of thing, the recital by Emma Johnson (clarinet) and Pascal Rogé (piano) was very interesting. The set (courtesy of the CUSM website): Weber – Sylvana Variations Debussy – Rhapsodie Brahms – Sonata op. 120 no. 1 in F minor Bernstein – Sonata Stravinsky – Three pieces for clarinet solo Debussy – La Cathedrale Engloutie (from Preludes Book 1) Aaron Copland – Nocturne Milhaud – Scaramouche Suite Personal favourites from the evening, both Debussy pieces and the encores, which were Debussy's 'la fille au cheveux de lin ' and a Benny Goodman solo (not sure which) on the clarinet. The hall was fairly full and show well received, so all in all a good warm up for the duo's later concert at Cadogan Hall, London on 28 th May. Back to something a l...

After the unfortunate closure of The Point , there is happily a new live music venue in Cardiff. Last night I went to my first show at The Globe . The building used to be a cinema but has now been renovated into a live music venue. Its smaller than The Point, but seems after 1 visit to be very cosy and intimate. The show? The sensational William Elliot Whitmore . I don't know much about him; the recommendation came to me from the staff at Spillers' Records. An excellent recommendation -Mr Whitmore has a sound similar to that of Seasick Steve . A similarly enthusiastic following, as well, judging by the crowds at The Globe. Woop! The support bands were good too. The first were good but rather forgettable, but the second was much better. Solo show from Christopher Rees (who is back at The Globe on 5th May), whose lyrics and tunes were to me reminiscent Johnny Cash. I may go back again for a second dose. As an aside, I'd also recommend the new Bat for Lashes album Two Suns....

After the delights of Dudamel, something slightly more down to earth at Cardiff Barfly last Saturday 21st. Its been a while since I chose a gig purely on the name of the band (or something else random) but this time it was the turn of The Lizzies , who sounded reasonable from their myspace samples. Together with 3 support bands (all Cardiff based, I believe) there was quite an evening's entertainment, but was it good? First up, the rather forgettable Draw Me Stories. Second, a far more interesting band, Random Elbow Pain . Their songs are a mix of The Kooks and Guns N Roses but work quite well and they certainly drew the most support from the crowd. Worth a bookmark. The final support band, Yeltsin, were absolutely awful, mindless metal. The only vaguely interesting part of their set was the use of a violin for an intro/coda on their last song performed, which from their myspace looks to have been Grape In A Hard Place. The Lizzies were certainly more polished than the previous 3...

A highly anticipated evening of entertainment for M and I, we headed to St Davids Hall to see the conductor of the moment, Gustavo Dudamel , conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra . Highly entertaining, too, and the place was pretty full, though possibly not sold out. We had anticipated the first piece to be Antonio Estevez' 'Mediodia en el llano', but a last minute change meant the first work was (I believe - the posters up in the venue were rather short on info!) Berlioz' Roman Carnival. Initially we may have been a tad disappointed but the replacement work was excellently peformed, cue many smiles. Unfortunately, the smiles soon evaporated, as the second, and for us, least interesting piece, was Mozart's Piano Concert No.17 K453 with Emanuel Ax on piano. M described Ax as mellow, I described him as dull. That may be because neither of us are really into Mozart, but compared to previous visits to St Davids Hall to see pianists Noriko Ogawa and Freddy Kempf, we really...

A very belated first post of the year! Already 2009 is a 'good gig year' at least compared to 2008's gig schedule. A novel experience to kick things off in style. The Wales Millennium Centre , as well as hosting the Welsh National Opera and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, have provided a stage - the Tesco stage - in their foyer for smaller, more informal concerts which are available for free. Last Saturday 24th, M and I ventured to the Tesco stage to see solo pianist Richard Lewis. His recital, which at 1 hour was pleasantly longer than I'd anticipated, included: Chopin (Etude in E Major; 2 Nocturnes; Grande Waltz in A Flat Major), Debussy ('clair de lune' from Suite Bergamasque, plus another Debussy piece) and finished with Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57, better known as the Appassionata. An excellent early evening show, and Mr Lewis certainly drew a crowd from those arriving for the 2 performances that evening. I really like the conc...

Somewhat back to reality after Sigur Rós' extravaganza. Not in the least mundane, though! Wednesday 19th we went to Clwb Ifor Bach to see Cage The Elephant headlining (after their stint supporting The Subways earlier this year). A short word on the support (although we missed 1st band Bleached Wail so can't really comment -try their myspace ): average but pretty forgettable. Obviously friends of Cage the Elephant, Autovaughn were, all in all, pretty dull. They weren't awful, and were pretty competent musicians, but just didn't have any real variety or selling point. Not so with Cage The Elephant . I recall from their support slot with The Subways that they had a very confident prescence, and singer Matt Schulz then had a vague resemblance to a young Mick Jagger. Not any more (hair now shorter and blonde) but the confidence is, if anything, even easier. Handily, their songs (set was, bar 1 song, from current selftitled debut album) have a great combination of new and ...