After eating a sandwich in my flat yesterday for lunch (and after spending the morning grading papers) I took advantage of the London tradition of free lunchtime concerts. I had previously done my research and found a close-by location—St. Mary Abbot's, the lovely church in the photo, which happens to be right across the street from the London Whole Foods!—where students from the Royal College of Music were performing gratis at 1 p.m.I know that I've somewhat neglected to take advantage of the wonderful musical entertainment that London has to offer, so I'm determined to do all I can to remedy that in these last days. It just so happens that St. Mary's is putting on a Messiah production on the 14th, and I bought my ticket for that yesterday, too. So I'm feeling better, music-wise, already.
The short concert yesterday was fabulous. Do Londoners realize how lucky they are to have easy access to such high-quality performances? I mean, this was free lunchtime music, that sounded, at least to my somewhat inexperienced ears, like a top-flight concert at home. The selections were a Bach flute-harpsichord sonata re-arranged for violin and guitar (!) and a Schubert piano sonata. My favorite—surprise!—was the Bach. It was amazing from start to finish. Usually, I prefer the peppier movements to the slow ones in this kind of music, but the two young people performing this piece played the second movement so expressively and beautifully, I was almost in tears. Ahhh, Bach....indeed!
Back to the flat refreshed for more grading (after a trek to the grocery store) and I was greeted by this lovely sunset (at around 4 o'clock!) from my living room window. London is making it harder and harder to say good-bye!
2 comments:
OK. Now that I have visited the blog...still haven't had time to enjoy the whole thing...I must ask about the music you say you have neglected. I may be the only one who will notice, but I don't see a single reference to THE BEATLES! Shouldn't you go to Abbey Road or something? I know I used to give you such grief about your Beatlemania, but now, in retrospect, (yes, I'm finally admitting it!) that we all appreciate what they contributed to music history, I do expect some kind of report before you leave there.
I believe I did mention seeing some of their papers (where they wrote lyrics, etc.) at the British Library. I'll have to check, though. If I didn't mention it in that post, I'll add it!
Don't know if I'll make it to Abbey Road or not, but I think I've got a photo somewhere of a bus with that on the front as an end destination. I can send you a copy if you'd like 8-).
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