Week 27 - LSO Season Opening Weekend

R.Shchedrin and M.Plisetskaya

My summer was really quiet in the classical music front, so you can imagine my excitement about the London Symphony Orchestra season opening weekend. The principal conductor Valery Gergiev selected Rodion Shchedrin's music as the background for the 2010/11 season and the opening concerts were full of his eclectic music. The atmosphere at the Barbican Hall was charged with anticipation as both concerts were practically sold out. The programme note informed us that the composer is in the audience and we quickly spotted him with his legendary wife – Maya Plisetskaya. She is a super famous Prima ballerina from the Soviet times and I remember as a child seeing her dancing on the television. The fact that this couple were amongst us enjoying the performance made it so much more special.

Anyway, to the actual music. The orchestra was at its best! They played Carmen Suite – a whole opera contrived to an hour long ballet. That was great, as you get the best tunes, only updated (Shchedrin finished it in 1967). After that we could compare the composer's progress, as Denis Matsuev delivered Piano Concerto No 5 from 1999. Not my cup of tea – for me, classical music ends in the seventies... Nevertheless, a standing ovation greeted the humble composer as he came onto the stage. The evening ended with Pictures from an Exhibition, which I wanted to hear for a long time, but only the last movement was memorable (gorgeous is the word).

On Sunday, Concerto for Orchestra No 1 was almost pop music – so jazzy, so catchy. I strongly recommend to check it out on Spotify. And then – an extra long (at least it felt that way) Mahler's Symphony No 5, although first movement caught my emotion with its heavy and grim funereal tread. All in all, the weekend was wonderful and set the tone high for the coming winter with the LSO.

Also this week: watched Shutter Island and loved its soundtrack. 

Week 26 - Floating; Jaadu

The Barbican is showing a trilogy of plays by Hugh Hughes. Two weeks ago I saw 360 and last week went to see Floating. Hugh Hughes is a character created by Shôn Dale-Jones and produced by Hoipolloi. Hugh Hughes is a storyteller with tales inspired by his family and his Welsh connections. He invites the audience to an imaginative world where islands travel around the Atlantic and grumpy bosses in London forces one to travel to Snowdon to refresh the mind. Whereas 360 was just Hugh standing on the stage and let our imaginations working, in Floating Hugh had a helper and lots of decorations. I enjoyed the first play without any multimedia distractions – there are too many screens and monitors as it is in our lives.

Jaadu with Titi Robyn and Faiz Ali Faiz provided us with an overwhelming evening at the Barbican at Saturday's Transcender series. A French guitarist and Qawwali singer from Pakistan fused Western and Eastern into one and managed to create something indescribable. I didn't want the evening to end.

Can't wait for next week - the LSO season opening concert at the weekend.

Week 25 - Punk Rock; Wanderlust; Clybourne Park

A super busy week in the cultural fields of London, but very exciting! It started with a revival of Simon Stephens's Punk Rock at the Hammersmith Lyric. It's a school drama about teenagers – allegedly one of the best plays of 2009, but left me angry and disappointed. No way these kids would hang out together in real life and use that sort of language. It's not worth describing much, just to say that I couldn't wait for the end.

A very different experience at the Royal Court, where they are showing Wanderlust and Clybourne Park. The Royal Court never lets you down and both these plays are simply fantastic. Upstairs in Wanderlust a married couple is having problems with their sex life – a woman wants tenderness and love whereas a man is hungry for sex. A simple traditional story, but it is told in the incredibly funny way by Nick Payne. I saw his previous play at the Bush, which was promising, and with Wanderlust Payne has proved himself as a brilliant young playwright.

Clybourne Park downstairs sparks fireworks. It is also very funny, but in here we laugh at the racism and political correctness. The play is divided into two parts. A couple in white neighbourhood sells their house to a black couple in the 1950s. That causes an outrage between neighbours and we witness their worries how the sale devalues their properties. In the second half the tables have turned and the same house now is being bought by a white couple and the neighbourhood is predominantly black. It's 2009, so there is a lot of politeness and talk about holidays until they open the can of worms and start accusing each other being racists. It's all rather delicious, although the fact that most is what people think is a bit worrying.

Also this week: at the Barbican saw 360, a very sweet play about imagination by Hugh Hughes, and visited Saatchi gallery to examine new emerging British art at the Newspeak exhibition.  

Week 24 - Secret Cinema

Some unprofessional pictures
from Secret Cinema

After a long wait Secret Cinema arrived! It built up the excitement by sending emails telling what to wear, where to come and what to bring. The attire to be Arabic and cushions to be brought, so we figured out the film would be Lawrence of Arabia. Meeting at 4pm on Saturday at Alexandra Palace. Around the station hundreds of cinema goers dressed as Arabs gathered and we proceeded towards the palace. Along the path market hagglers, soldiers and musicians greeted us. There were sheep, horses, even camels. The atmosphere was charged with excitement and amazement. We couldn't believe how much was invested and how authentic everything appeared. Dangerous looking men with ammunition belts round their waists ordered the crowd (probably ~2000 people) into the palace, which was transformed into the British colonial headquarters. You could purchase a thousand camels, play billiard with soldiers, send a telegram to London or play cards with business men.

Enter another hall and you are in a vibrant Arabic town with market selling cockroaches and leather shoes, tea cafés and drink parlours. There was even a beach! We were simply taken aback! In the third hall was a massive screen with places to lay out your blankets, sit on cushions and enjoy the movie. Until this point everything seemed like the best day out possible! But it was only 5.30 and the movie wasn't starting. After two and a half hours sitting on the floor one had either to get drunk or possess unlimited patience. After the amazing start the curve of pleasure was heading south rapidly. It was a canny way to make loads of money, as there were never ending queues for food and drink (what else could one do for nearly three hours!). Anyway, once the film started it should have been a bliss again, as Lawrence of Arabia is considered one of the best films of all times. However, there were serious issues at the sound engineer's desk – it was so loud it was tricky to understand what the characters were saying. LOA is the longest movie winning the Oscar (222min) so we had to leave at the intermission, as our ears started to hurt.

All in all, Secret Cinema disappointed me. It seems they overexpanded and overgrew loosing the intimacy and secrecy.

Also this week: was frozen to the bone at the Scoop watching Don Juan in Love under the stars and visited Magnificent Maps at the British Library and discussed Murder on the Orient Express at the monthly book club.

P.S. Sorry for disobeying my 300 words rule this week – too much to say!