London update
Aug. 20th, 2005 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wavyarmsToday I got hit by a car!
I was wandering down Portobello Market with me mum, and looking at some stuff in a stall. Now, Portobello Road is this long road with vendors set up every Saturday, and there's all sorts of junk and antiques and food and clothes and Victorian trinkets and what-have-you. And it's packed. The street is solid people. Cars do not go down this street, except honking and very slowly to get to their stalls, presumably. So I'm looking at something, and all of a sudden something hits me hard on the back of both calves, and my knees buckle, and I sort of half sit down, and I turn around to see what happened. I'm expecting an extremely aggressive baby stroller or something. And there's a car! I didn't hear it, the driver didn't yell, or honk, or anything. Just decided to hit me. I suppose I should have yelled at him or something, but I (and everyone around) was just so surprised. Generally in a situation where someone is extremely rude or inconsiderate, my first instinct is to assume that I missed some crucial piece of information that would explain their actions, and so it was here. Because you don't just hit people with cars, right? But no. I got sort of a casual apology out the window, but the car just rolled on. I was just so surprised! The license number was LK51-MHX if anyone wants to key it. (I did have the presence of mind to memorize it quickly in case severe medical thingummies cropped up, and I memorize numbers easily if I try.) But I think I'll just be bruised.
I'm mostly just incredibly thankful it hit me on the back of the knees and not the side. I get the willies just thinking about it, so I'll stop now.
I wonder how many points I was worth.
Also, I got to see lots of Proms.
Went to see Sofia Gubaidulina's Light of the End and Beethoven's 9th tonight, by meself. It was sold out, but I kept calling during the day, and got a ticket that was returned! Talk about lucky. Also, there was a talk with Gubaidulina beforehand which was very interesting. The piece was based around contrasting equal temperment with natural temperment (tuning) - she had most of the orchestra playing in equal, but the horns in natural. She said equal temperment has been a boon horizontally, to melody, but vertically, to chordal structure, it has been a problem, and it causes her pain to hear it, and so this piece was about pain in general (coming from this particular pain) being resolved. Unfortunately, after walking around all day, I confess to sort of drowsing during the end of both the talk and the piece. This was not a problem in the talk, b/c the questions at the end were not very interesting, but I missed the whole resolution of the piece where the vertical natural temperment of the horns meshed with the orchestra in some sort of glowing sound. It ended and I was like, "Eh? That was it?" Hopefully![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sen_no_ongaku will still speak to me. The beginning of the piece was quite cool, although the program notes claimed it was quite rhythmic and dance-like, which was not true and a bit of a let-down. She is quite a good sound-scapeist, however, and very dramatic.
Last night I saw Tippett's 4th Symphony and Beethoven's 3rd. Tippett was just not my thing, and I'll say no more about it, as again, I drowsed. So'd my dad. Word of advice: don't walk around London all day for miles before going to a concert. You need a little rest beforehand. It's not just your mind that has to be fresh, as I previously thought. Things you learn.
However, I really liked contrasting the Beethoven last night with the one tonight. Last night was the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis, and tonight was the London Philharmonic with Kurt Masur. Davis and the LSO were utterly genteel, discrete, and water-tight. They were flexible and nuanced and crisp, and for my taste, a little too polite, with not enough bombast, but they turned in a really delightful performance. I appreciate crisp, light performances of Beethoven b/c the voice of the composer comes through so strongly to me. For me, he's not all about bombast, and people who blast through him miss the cleverness and humor and gentleness and genius. However, they really should have eaten their Wheaties beforehand. In contrast, Masur and the LPO were much more energetic and muscular, but without the tight ensemble of the LSO. There were places where I just felt like the joinings were not quite perfect. But given the choice, of course the powerful choice was the way to go for the 9th - I'm glad the orchestras were not reversed! The London Philharmonic Chorus did admirably, as did all the soloists (the alto was clearly audible at all times, and everyone sounded quite good.) They also added a children's choir, which I liked - very "brotherhood-of-man-inclusive-of-all-generations" of them, and they certainly didn't detract.
The chorus stood before the beginning of the last movement. While this sucked for them, the sound of that many people standing in unison is quite arresting - usually we're told to stand silently, but it can be quite an effective aural effect!
3 Proms. I'm not doing nearly all the stuff everyone has recommended in London, and that I wanted to do myself, but I must say, I feel I have my priorities right!
I was wandering down Portobello Market with me mum, and looking at some stuff in a stall. Now, Portobello Road is this long road with vendors set up every Saturday, and there's all sorts of junk and antiques and food and clothes and Victorian trinkets and what-have-you. And it's packed. The street is solid people. Cars do not go down this street, except honking and very slowly to get to their stalls, presumably. So I'm looking at something, and all of a sudden something hits me hard on the back of both calves, and my knees buckle, and I sort of half sit down, and I turn around to see what happened. I'm expecting an extremely aggressive baby stroller or something. And there's a car! I didn't hear it, the driver didn't yell, or honk, or anything. Just decided to hit me. I suppose I should have yelled at him or something, but I (and everyone around) was just so surprised. Generally in a situation where someone is extremely rude or inconsiderate, my first instinct is to assume that I missed some crucial piece of information that would explain their actions, and so it was here. Because you don't just hit people with cars, right? But no. I got sort of a casual apology out the window, but the car just rolled on. I was just so surprised! The license number was LK51-MHX if anyone wants to key it. (I did have the presence of mind to memorize it quickly in case severe medical thingummies cropped up, and I memorize numbers easily if I try.) But I think I'll just be bruised.
I'm mostly just incredibly thankful it hit me on the back of the knees and not the side. I get the willies just thinking about it, so I'll stop now.
I wonder how many points I was worth.
Also, I got to see lots of Proms.
Went to see Sofia Gubaidulina's Light of the End and Beethoven's 9th tonight, by meself. It was sold out, but I kept calling during the day, and got a ticket that was returned! Talk about lucky. Also, there was a talk with Gubaidulina beforehand which was very interesting. The piece was based around contrasting equal temperment with natural temperment (tuning) - she had most of the orchestra playing in equal, but the horns in natural. She said equal temperment has been a boon horizontally, to melody, but vertically, to chordal structure, it has been a problem, and it causes her pain to hear it, and so this piece was about pain in general (coming from this particular pain) being resolved. Unfortunately, after walking around all day, I confess to sort of drowsing during the end of both the talk and the piece. This was not a problem in the talk, b/c the questions at the end were not very interesting, but I missed the whole resolution of the piece where the vertical natural temperment of the horns meshed with the orchestra in some sort of glowing sound. It ended and I was like, "Eh? That was it?" Hopefully
sen_no_ongaku will still speak to me. The beginning of the piece was quite cool, although the program notes claimed it was quite rhythmic and dance-like, which was not true and a bit of a let-down. She is quite a good sound-scapeist, however, and very dramatic.Last night I saw Tippett's 4th Symphony and Beethoven's 3rd. Tippett was just not my thing, and I'll say no more about it, as again, I drowsed. So'd my dad. Word of advice: don't walk around London all day for miles before going to a concert. You need a little rest beforehand. It's not just your mind that has to be fresh, as I previously thought. Things you learn.
However, I really liked contrasting the Beethoven last night with the one tonight. Last night was the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis, and tonight was the London Philharmonic with Kurt Masur. Davis and the LSO were utterly genteel, discrete, and water-tight. They were flexible and nuanced and crisp, and for my taste, a little too polite, with not enough bombast, but they turned in a really delightful performance. I appreciate crisp, light performances of Beethoven b/c the voice of the composer comes through so strongly to me. For me, he's not all about bombast, and people who blast through him miss the cleverness and humor and gentleness and genius. However, they really should have eaten their Wheaties beforehand. In contrast, Masur and the LPO were much more energetic and muscular, but without the tight ensemble of the LSO. There were places where I just felt like the joinings were not quite perfect. But given the choice, of course the powerful choice was the way to go for the 9th - I'm glad the orchestras were not reversed! The London Philharmonic Chorus did admirably, as did all the soloists (the alto was clearly audible at all times, and everyone sounded quite good.) They also added a children's choir, which I liked - very "brotherhood-of-man-inclusive-of-all-generations" of them, and they certainly didn't detract.
The chorus stood before the beginning of the last movement. While this sucked for them, the sound of that many people standing in unison is quite arresting - usually we're told to stand silently, but it can be quite an effective aural effect!
3 Proms. I'm not doing nearly all the stuff everyone has recommended in London, and that I wanted to do myself, but I must say, I feel I have my priorities right!
