Picture the scene - an eager young 11 year old bludgeons his way through Dvorak's New World Symphony as a teacher looks on aghast. You know, the one from the bread advert... Stick to delivering newspapers the teacher told me. Still, it was my first experience of music and a love affair was born. I'm not cut out to be a musician but I can use my ears, I thought! I guess I'm more of a contemporary music fan and I'm into a wide range of music. The first gig I ever went to was Carter USM, Glasgow Barrowland, 1991. What an experience! Lots of beer, lots of noise, lots of jumping about. I still go to gigs although the beer consumption has lessened, I don't jump about as much and I - and my hairline - seem to be gradually moving further back from the stage...
The first ever classical gig I went to was last year with the ´óÏó´«Ã½ SSO. Beethoven Symphony no.8 and Brahms Violin concerto with Ilan Volkov conducting. Also an incredible experience and not entirely different. The beer had changed to red wine and I took a load off but the fundamentals are the same....
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Getting crossed
A critic gave us a bashing for our Celtic Connections 'crossover' gig, particularly for Dave Heath's Conflict and Resolution. This piece is a pageant of Scottish and Catalan music, and echoing all through it is the Song of the Birds, a plangent folk tune which the great Catalan cellist Casals transformed into a universal plea for humanity. On the surface, simple entertainment; start unpeeling the layers of meaning in Dave Heath's composition, and you've got an onion that my thrawn temperament can't resist peeling.
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Snob off!
Who are these snobs? Where do they hang out? Let's hoick them out into the spotlight and shout some abuse. Let's get them. Ho'd ma co-at, Ah've bin insultit! I got all worked up when I read Stephen's blog. Surely, there's nae snobs comin' tae oor concerts. I'm so with Stephen when he talks about de-mystifying classical music. Anyway, what is music? What's it for? Who's it for? There's music that works, and music that doesn't. That's all. Nothing more. Stay with me, while I add my shout to Stephen's, and a wee bit of a rant.
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