Mike Vickers' Blog

Last evening the concert was Patti Smith and Philip Glass celebrating the work of the poet Allen Ginsberg; the concert the concert was outstanding, the audience overwhelmed.  Folk/pop concerts are new to me.  Today I was much more in my normal environment at the Queens Hall. It was a group playing woodwind, string, piano and song. By Mozart, Schubert, Glinka and Brahms.  I particularly enjoyed the Schubert, the Shepherd on the Rock; there is no one better at writing music for poetry in the classical repertoire than Schubert.  The group was fronted by the clarinettist and the pianist. The group were mainly Australian. The clarinettist who played in all the pieces was Nicola Boud as did the pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout. Nicola Boud obviously delights in the clarinet and is reputed to have 30 different instruments varying instruments of from Mozart’s time up to the present. See her YouTube

You can hear today’s performance on the pod provided by BBC Radio Three: it will be available for the next week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0385569

Why do I like the Queens Hall, it’s partly because I’m close to the players, it’s also partly because I am deaf and the groups that play are small and you can hear the each individual quite clearly. And of course the music comes directly to you, so different from either the TV or radio.

But back to my initial comment on “ normal environment”; is today’s concert  really that different from last evenings concert with Patti Smith and Philip Glass. Okay people would say that one is classical, the other approaches folk.  Today and last night I was watching and listening to groups playing, singing and making good music including poetry. In both cases the atmosphere was intimate and a Patti Smith said earlier in the day, it’s not just the players but it’s the audience as well who have to be partners in the performance.