Last night was at Opera Holland Park's great production of Verdi's La Forza del Destino (see the review). Extra spice was added to our evening by the fact that we were in the second row, about three feet away from the trombone section and eyeball to eyeball with them, since the setup at Opera Holland Park doesn't have an orchestra pit.

Towards the latter part of the twentieth century, a new force in music performance and scholastic endeavour emerged: the genre of historically-informed music. Straight away, it represented a conundrum: was it the art of bringing music of the past to life and into our own time, or was it rather entering the music of the past through a grasp of its performance practices, instrumental natures and stylistic expectations?

The Verbier Academy is, esssentially, great fun. It has accompanied the Verbier Festival in the Swiss Alps every summer since the early 1990s providing 8 young talents across a number of instruments and musical disciplines (piano, voice, cello, chamber music, violin etc) to work with world class maestros on their understanding of the great works of the standard repertoire. The workshops take place every morning in front of non-paying but appreciative audiences in a variety of pleasant settings in this mountain resort about 90 minutes from Geneva.

Q: I'm looking for the classical piano music which the popular song "No Other Love" is taken from. I think is Franz Liszt?

A: According to Wikipedia, assuming that you're talking about the 1950 song (NOT the more commonly found Rodgers and Hammerstein number from Me and Juliet), the work is Chopin's Étude in E major, Op. 10, No. 3. Click here for a link to our recommended CD of this.

Many people interested or involved in classical music are worried about its future. They may reminisce of the ‘good old days’, when children could be caned for misbehaviour and respected their elders enough not to dismiss classical music as something clearly not for them. The public image of classical music inadvertently presented by the media is too often one of a quite snobbish, pretentious and exclusive nature. Though there have been programmes and schemes trying to engage with young people, such as Gareth Malone’s recent exploits in Glyndebourne, these efforts always seem to be from the top down, importing profound art to the unaware, rather than allowing them to discover it for themselves on a fundamental level. Like a grandfather giving his grandson a Werther’s Original, these top-down imports are about as likely to encourage young people to go to a classical concert as that archetypal grandson is likely to choose a bag of Werther’s over a packet of Haribo. Some would argue that a person’s musical palate matures over time in the same way as their food preferences, suggesting that young people’s apathy towards the world of High Art is inevitable. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, however, has made real progress with schemes encouraging more young people to attend live classical concerts, proving that it can be done.

Honorary degree ceremonies at British universities still bring out the full works. Good helpings of ritual, lashings of pomp, a parade of brightly-coloured academic gowns, a bit of kneeling, even a mace.

First there was a fanfare - Boulez's Initiale, to usher in the "Esquire Bedell," at the head of a procession of six other gowned dignitaries solemnly making their way onto the Dukes Hall stage. Then there was a welcome from RAM Principal Jonathan Freeman-Attwood. Then a citation read by John Suchet, enumerating Boulez's astonishing range of achievements, working the themes of discovery and exploration. And then the conferment of the degree itself, with Boulez kneeling, bowing deep to receive the red and white hood and to pass it over his cap.

Yesterday evening saw us at a rather posh corporate hospitality bash at the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. It's my first time at the Summer Exhibition, and I was well impressed. Like most modern art, there's only about 20% of it that I like - but out of that 20%, there was some really fantastic stuff that appealed to me enormously, not least the life-size King Kong made entirely out of wire coat hangers. I suspect it's the same with everyone, but most probably with a different 20%.

Classical music and football are often uneasy bedfellows. My house is a particularly fine example of this: I love the World Cup, the sense of excitement and anticipation, the sense of belonging to a vast swathe of people all eagerly hoping for the same thing, all of us participating in an event shared by millions around the world. My wife, a professional mezzo-soprano, hates football and everything about it.

But music and football aren’t so distant.

Q: I have 6 complete sets of vinil records in super condition trying to find
out their worth and how to sell them.

A: We're not exactly experts, but there are people on the web who buy and sell classical vinyl - a search for "sell classical vinyl" (make sure you get the right spelling of Vinyl) should get you some options.

These sites all seem useful:
http://www.classicrecords.co.uk/
http://revolutions33.co.uk
http://www.discogs.com/explore/Classical

I can’t help it: Gareth Malone’s series of ‘music for the masses by numbers’ programmes drives me nuts. I feel bad about this, because I can see that the programmes perform a valuable service: bringing classical music to a wider audience, and filling people with enthusiasm for singing and for music.