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Music

Mendelssohn’s Elijah/Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Last night at the Royal Festival Hall I attended a performance of Elijah, first performed in 1846 in Birmingham Town Hall. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was something of a young prodigy and also popular in Great Britain. This oratorio employs soloists, a choir, orchestra and organist so you get as [...]

October 4, 2019 // 0 Comments

Something to write home about

As it happens I was out on the golf course yesterday partaking in a traditional practice round in the company of a Canadian relative by marriage in advance of an annual family tournament – an outing in days of yore used to be a welcome warm-up for the main event. Sadly, I fear that at my stage of [...]

October 4, 2019 // 0 Comments

And in The End …

It is in the nature of things that at a Ruster’s stage of life reminders of tempus fugit – welcome or otherwise – tend to come thick and fast in all areas of existence. Recently in the field of music a new edition of the Beatles’ penultimately released (but last recorded) album Abbey Road, [...]

October 3, 2019 // 0 Comments

Perception and memories can play tricks

As I set off upon today’s post I’m conscious that I don’t know quite where I’m going or indeed where I’m going to end up. However – in the spirit of the famous catchphrase of Alfred E. Newman, the hero of America’s Mad magazine of which I was an avid reader about fifty-five years ago [...]

August 16, 2019 // 0 Comments

Disney ditties

Adding to another of our regular themes, here’s another list to add to our … er … list. Spotted today upon the website of – THE [...]

July 19, 2019 // 0 Comments

Remembering lunar exploration

The programmes commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the landing on the moon prompted me to research my memory banks. My interest began before 1969 with Herge’s Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon published some 10 years before. It’s different from other Tintin adventures in that [...]

July 17, 2019 // 0 Comments

Music and Time

Yesterday’s review by Michael Stuart of the Rod Stewart concert at the Hove cricket ground – an excellent piece on the enduring quality and appeal of one of rock music’s greatest vocal performers – brought to mind a slew of thoughts about the complex issues that sometimes [...]

July 14, 2019 // 0 Comments

Rod Stewart at Hove

Hard to believe (or should it be Reason to Believe?) that Rod Stewart made his first recording 50 years ago when he was 24. I can recall him on Top of the Pops throwing his microphone in the air, kicking footballs into the audience, rasping voice … and enjoying himself. 50 years later at Hove [...]

July 13, 2019 // 0 Comments

The Killers play Glastonbury

About the second thing that occurred to me last night as I tuned into the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury is that there ought to have been – ought to be – be a musical subset of The Great Rust Debate On Whether (For Best Appreciation Of An Event Or Contest) It Is Better To Be Physically [...]

June 30, 2019 // 0 Comments

Then and Now

On the back of such as this week’s 75th commemorations of the D-Day Landings it is not hard to be left reflecting upon aspects of the randomness of life. In a sense there was no irony in the “Don’t call us heroes …” pleas made by several of them in their television and [...]

June 8, 2019 // 0 Comments

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