Having spent Monday morning enjoying the recital by Simon Keenlyside and Malcolm Martineau, in the evening I went to the Usher Hall to hear Bostridge and Pappano....
It's impossible to say which I preferred.
Keenlyside's programme was perhaps a little more varied,
while Bostridge and Pappano gave a recital of Schubert in the first part, and Wolf after the interval.
Pappano has always been one of my favourite conductors, and he is a wonderful pianist too!
Superb musicianship from both performers. The Schubert songs were a selection from SCHWANENGESANG _ I especially loved the performance of
STAENDCHEN, which is such a tender, yearning song, and the final song of the selection, ABSCHIED, in which the sadness behind this superficially "jolly" song was conveyed more effectively than I've ever heard it before.
( I later went to an interview with Bostridge in which he confirmed my feeling that there is a great deal of sadness in the sub-text of this song, and that was what he wanted to convey).
The Wolf songs were eight Moerike settings, followed by five Eichendorff settings. From the Moerike settings I would single out BEGEGNUNG for special praise - it's a not very serious song about the aftermath of a
storm, during which a young lad meets his girlfriend and asks if she's tidied her hair after "it got tangled during the storm". Bostridge sang with charm and lightness of phrasing, while the piano part effortlessly
conveys a sense of haste, and the slight embarassment on the part of the young people...it was really enchanting. And I loved the smooth, legato phrasing of UM MITTERNACHT.
As their final encore, they performed the song about the poet who kicks the critic downstairs...I can't remember the exact title, but you probably know the one I mean. When the intruder gets kicked downstairs, the music goes into a parody of a Viennese waltz, first the voice, then a spectacular finale by the piano - a truly wonderful ending to a memorable evening!!
Dr. Jane Susanna ENNIS
http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/leonora/opera.html
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Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano in Edinburgh
Green Left
Wonderful news - a Left tendency within the Green Party. Read the LAUNCH STATEMENT...I especially like the reference to William Morris!!:p
Launch statement of Green Left
Green Left has been launched as a network for socialists and other radicals in the Green Party of England and Wales. It will act as an outreach body that will communicate the party's radical policies to socialists and other anti-capitalists outside the party.
Green Left (GL) is based on the assumption that capitalism is a system that wrecks the planet and promotes war. A green society must be based on economic, political and social justice. GL in short works to promote ecosocialism as a solution to our planetary ills.
GL supports the democratic structures in the party and encourages transparency, accountability and engagement in all organs of the party. We also see the Green Party as a 'bottom up' political organisation where the principles of the membership are paramount and not a 'top down' one where a self-designated political elite decide on policies and principles.
GL aims to increase and improve the international links of the Green Party, building links with radical greens and ecosocialists across the planet. It will work closely with members of other European Green Parties to reform the workings of the European Green Party structures that must be democratised. Green politics must realise the slogan 'think globally, act locally' by linking practical local campaigns to global issues of ecology, democracy, justice and liberation.
GL aims to act within the Green Party so as to raise Green Party politics to meet the demands of its radical policies. Green politics needs to be based on dynamic campaigning and hard intellectual groundwork to create workable alternatives.
GL aims to build regional campaigns and contribute to coalition-building through coherent alignments and open discussion with progressive anti-capitalists. The movement that is required to address the issues across Britain, Europe and the world will not be the sole preserve of one party. The movement requires the development of united action by progressive forces including organisations formed by working people to defend their interests in the workplace. Within this diverse movement GL will stand firmly in favour of the libertarian and democratic traditions of ecosocialism.
It is vitally important that the Green Party works to develop the continuing peace, environmental and social movements. An orientation to organised working people through the Green Party Trade Union Group (GPTU) also requires maximum support from GL, with the emphasis on supporting radical and rank and file currents in the unions. Likewise, GL should seek to promote organisation and solidarity amongst currently unorganised and marginalised groups.
GL will work to enhance Green Party contributions to demonstrations, marches and other solidarity events. Greens must be active on issues that affect ordinary working people in their everyday lives and aim to be known as amongst their strongest defenders.
While GL is keen to build links with members of faith communities, and to fight alongside them against intolerance and discrimination, it will not compromise on human rights - including issues concerning women, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, and people with disabilities.
Since the activism of William Morris in the Social Democratic Federation and Socialist League in the late nineteenth century, there has been an ecosocialist tradition in Britain. Green Left believes that ecosocialism provides an alternative to a society based on alienation, economic exploitation, corporate rule, ecological destruction and wars. Our analysis demands that in the best tradition of the historic left we 'agitate, educate and organise' to build such an alternative.
The time has come for drawing together forces that can present a serious challenge to the disastrous neo-liberal project. We believe that 'another world is possible', based on ecological and socialist values. In conclusion, Green Left would work to enable you to live in a society based on peace, ecological balance, economic equality and inclusion. Come and join us!
Botanic Garden in Pisa
Just back from Italy - one of the best places we visited was the Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico) in Pisa...it's the oldest Botanic Garden in Europe. (Chelsea Physic garden is modelled on it). One of the things I especially liked about it was that some of the trees are really ancient and you can SIT IN THE SHADE!
The graphics are:
(i) Herb Garden
(ii) Peony
(iii) Arboretum

Death of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5243582.stm
An obituary from the Guardian. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, one of the most renowned sopranos of the immediate post-war generation, has died at the age of 90.











