Free Music

Music has always been an integral part of my being. Finding affordable venues to hear concerts performed by quality artists is rather difficult in the United States. Clearly, it exists, but not to the extent to which I am finding it in London. Last Sunday, I trucked across town (of course I got lost in the process) to St. George’s in Bloomsbury. It was a beautiful church (with really hard pews). The concert featured a cellist (Sophie Rivlin) playing Arnold, Britten, Debussy. The coolest part of the concert was the interpretative dance. The Britten piece was inspired by his trip to Bali. I’ve never seen Balinese dance, not my favorite, but certain very interesting to watch. It’s about subtleties – facial expressions, small hand movements. The other two pieces were performed with a contemporary/jazz dance performer. What was so cool was the way she danced with the music and the performers and not just to the music. She interacted with the cellist and the piano accompanist. She would take the bow or mimic the movement of the cellist hand. A few times she would reach over and play a note. I’m not doing it justice with my description. But, she really brought the music to life and told a story. Loved it. stgeorgesbloomsbury.org.uk Tuesday I went to a lunch concert at St. Martin-in the-Fields. I ate my lunch next to an odd group of homeless people on a wall in Trafalgar Square! The church has been putting on free lunch concerts forever – over 50 years. Tuesday’s program featured the Karelia String Quartet. The members were all conservatory students about my age…I know I am not cut out to be that good, but it does make me want to practice again! They performed works by Haydn, Schubert, and Britten. The Brits seem to love Brittan – he is in fact buried in West minster Abbey – I walked on his grave on Wednesday. Of course I loved the Haydn piece – my favorite composer. Although reading the program notes, I was a little disappointed…you see there is a lot of controversy surrounding Haydn and some of his works. There is a rather large collection of works attributed to Haydn that are most likely not his. This one, along with my favorite oboe concerto, is most likely not his. But, I just closed my eyes and listened to the music. Moments like that make me realize that it doesn’t really matter who wrote the piece – it’s still beautiful music. www.track0.com There is something really incredible about going to see live, high quality music played in historic buildings that is exhilarating. It makes me want to try to find it when I go home. Hopefully it’s out there because I’m going to be so spoiled when I get back! London has so much to offer – for FREE! I wish I had my own pictures to share – I forgot my camera both days. Eek. The ones attached are some Google images so you can see where I’ve been! More to come about the weeks school related adventures!