Life must be filled up

If you ever listen to Classic FM for five minutes, you’re sure to hear a plug for this book. At first I disliked it, because it breaks all callmemadam’s rules of biographical writing. It’s full of ‘I am certain that’, ‘no doubt’, ‘he/she/they would have’ etc. No! The only place for the biographer’s fancy is in a fictionalised life and I’m not keen on those, either. I was also slightly insulted to have explained to me the extent of the Holy Roman Empire and who Goethe was. But come on, be fair. Suchet’s book is not intended to be a work of scholarship; he didn’t even want to write it, asking who needed yet another book about Mozart? Classic FM persuaded him that there was a need for a book written in an accessible style to appeal to CFM listeners, which is what he has produced.

His qualifications are: a great love of Mozart and (I didn’t know this), an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Music. He’s also trawled Mozart scholarship extensively. The result is a readable account of Mozart’s life, with liberal quotes from the many letters written by Mozart’s father Leopold and by Mozart himself. (If anyone is going to be upset by discovering that the revered genius was also a filthy minded potty mouth, they’d better not read this.) You can’t help but be drawn in by the tales of the travels Leopold Mozart undertook with Wolfgang and his sister Nannerl. The gruelling conditions of travel in those days! The terrible illnesses suffered by both children! Could it have shortened Mozart’s life? Probably not, since Nannerl lived to old age.

The book is lavishly produced, with many coloured illustrations. The contemporary pictures of the young Mozart seated at a keyboard with his little legs dangling are strangely touching. Quite rightly, you finish the book in a suitable state of awe and wonder at his astonishing genius, ‘God given’ according to both Leopold and Wolfgang, and a saddening sense of what was lost by his early death. It’s hard to read about the end of his life without a tear. The 225th anniversary of his death falls in December 2016.

I was sent a copy of this book by Elliott and Thompson.

In other news, this is the only book I have finished this month. The sole reason for this is that I never want to get back to A Footman for the Peacock and am only reading it in bed. I must finish it and find something I actually want to read.

Look away now all purists who only listen to Radio 3 and anyone for whom the word ‘popular’ is a term of abuse. To mark the twentieth anniversary of its Hall of Fame of favourite music chosen by listeners, Classic FM has brought out this Ultimate book, written by Darren Henley, Sam Jackson and Tim Lihoreau with illustrations by Lyn Hatzius. I thought I’d better write it up today, as Easter weekend is when the countdown begins, with the top choices revealed on Monday.

So what do you get when you buy or borrow this large, lavishly produced book? First, the aggregated list of the top 300 pieces of music picked since the Hall of Fame began. Then, potted biographies of the composers on the list, with comments on the chosen works but nothing about the rest of their output. There are recommended recordings and a list of ’25 Recordings You Should Own’. The full page illustrations are very striking; I had trouble picking a favourite.

The chart (what else is it?) has some surprises. Mozart comes in at #3 with his Clarinet Concerto. Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto is #4. But you have to get right down to #37 before J S Bach makes an appearance with the Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins. God is thirty seventh; what kind of taste is that?:-) There’s a lot of film music on the list, with John Williams featuring several times. I was pleased to see that The Warsaw Concerto (from the film Dangerous Moonlight) is included, as well as more modern works. I might have hurled the book from me in disgust had there been no Purcell but luckily he does get in.

Why should you read this book (or at least, look at it)? Everyone loves a list to disagree with and this one is a genuine representation of popular taste in classical music. It’s a useful basic reference book. You will almost certainly find some music mentioned here which is unfamiliar and may be worth exploring. ‘What is number one in the Hit Parade?’ I hear you ask. The people’s choice is Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 in C Minor.
Many thanks to Elliott and Thompson for sending me a copy of the book, which I’ll be referring to again, I’m sure.
( not a poll )

Could it be more miserable? I got up at six in the dark and could hear rain dripping off the roof. It’s still pouring. The bright spot is that Radio 2 is playing Elvis and the Beatles all day long. I can’t make out whether or not it’s supposed to be some sort of ‘which is best’ day (pretty silly, if so) but it’s all based on charts i.e. Elvis’s fiftieth best-selling track followed by The Beatles’. You guess which I’m enjoying most and then pick your own favourite.

[Poll #2021099]

According to Spotify, my most played artist is: Bob Dylan. There’s a surprise.
Their categories are odd. This is the breakdown.
I’ve listened to: 30% Folk Rock; 21% Singer-Songwriter; 17% Merseybeat (what?); 17% British Invasion; 17% Folk.

BBC Music - BBC Music - #LoveBBCMusic - Tonight 8.00pm

I've watched it three times already. I can never get tired of this song.

A happy and peaceful Christmas to all.

I had a bad day yesterday, for various reasons too tedious to go into, but I was cheered up in the evening. First, I read a book I’d picked up at a charity stall earlier in the day; written for children, it’s one of the best books I’ve read for ages.* Then I watched a programme I’d recorded, Let’s have a party! The piano genius of Mrs Mills. How could Mrs Mills not cheer you up? Pre-Beatles, I was young enough to watch The Billy Cotton Band Show with my parents, which is how I remember Mrs Mills. I also liked Russ Conway, who I thought was lovely and greatly admired Winifred Atwell, another former star you never hear about nowadays. I was obviously too old for Bobby Crush when he came along; I had no idea who he was.

The theme of the programme is also a pet obsession of mine: that performers like Mrs Mills have been written out of musical history because they don’t fit with people’s idea of the sixties. She had albums in the charts for years! She recorded at Abbey Road, where she had a dedicated piano, specially tuned for her distinctive honky-tonk sound. It gives you a good idea of the musical overlap in those days to learn that The Beatles used the same piano on some of their tracks, notably Penny Lane. The piano is still preserved at the studios.

Most of the people interviewed were pianists themselves and they were all at pains to point out the technical difficulty of what Mrs Mills did and how well she did it. Typically, the BBC didn’t seem to have much footage left and we kept seeing the same old clips, mostly from The Morecambe and Wise Show. There are quite a few clips on YouTube and I picked this one because you can actually see her playing.



There was much talk of the decline of piano playing as pianos were banished from homes and pubs to make way for television sets. Nevertheless, Mrs Mills still has her fans. I found 113 singles/albums offered on eBay this morning. The album covers are so bad they’re good, collectable because they’re so kitsch. Click here to see young kingofthekeyboard playing the piano Mrs Mills style. How I’d love to be able to do that! I’d like to be the quiet, shy person at the party who can sit down at the piano and knock out any tune people ask for. We also saw young people reviving the pub singalong, with a vamping piano and customers roaring out Roll Out The Barrel like extras from In Which We Serve, then wondering how it is they know the words. Rick Wakeman pointed out that to someone of fifteen, this kind of music would be something quite new. Highly recommended and still available to view.

*Huck and her Time Machine by Gillian Avery

I have some neat new headphones and yesterday tried them out on Spotify. I know most people have moved on from Spotify but I still have the old free version and although I hadn’t used it for ages, my playlists were still safely stored. Almost. My favourite list is the one I call the LJ 100 and you can see it here.

Since I last listened to this great list, Bob Dylan has disappeared completely and Graceland is sung by Willie Nelson instead of Paul Simon. This is bizarre. Have copyright laws changed in the last three years? Luckily I was canny enough to sneak in a few Dylan covers and still comply with the rules of the meme.

Photo from the Telegraph
Lots more pictures here.

Earlier this year, I filled in an online opinion poll which included questions about ‘what events you will watch on TV this summer’. The Thames pageant? Check. The Olympics? No. Wimbledon? Check. The Jubilee concert? Nah, the one they did ten years ago was embarrassingly awful.

As it turned out, the Thames pageant, though brilliantly organised, was rather disappointing. Some sunshine would have improved it. The next day, in spite of my misgivings, I was seduced into watching the concert, mainly because I wanted to see Madness perform on the Palace roof. The concert was a triumph of age over youth. Rolf Harris was much better at continuity than all the comedians were. These people are used to performing on the small screen, not working huge crowds; nor did they seem to know what sort of joke would be appropriate for such an occasion. I started feeling sorry for Prince Harry for the constant ribbing he was getting. Rob Brydon and Miranda were the best of the bunch.

There are stars and there are superstars. The latter were: Tom Jones, Elton John and Stevie Wonder, who cleverly reworked Isn’t She Lovely to suit the Jubilee. I cried my way through Your Song and later through All My Loving. Poor old Paul, he can’t really sing any more but he only needs to stand there and be looked at, really. Rather an indignity for him to be introduced by that terribly unfunny man whose name I can never remember. Not only did he get Paul's name wrong (surely any fule kno that it was John who was called Winston?) but said he was the greatest influence ever on popular music, so ignoring the towering figures of Elvis and Bob Dylan. Pity Madness didn’t sing Baggy Trousers but I liked ‘one’s house’.

You learned a lot watching the audience, although we could have done with more shots of it. The entire royal family, it seems, dotes upon Elton John. Princess Anne likes Stevie Wonder. The Archbishop of Canterbury loves every single person in the world and knows the lyrics of all the Beatles’ songs. It was rather a damper to be told at the very end that the Duke of Edinburgh is in hospital. Tsk, I knew he should never have stood up on a boat for all that time in the cold and rain the day before. Prince Charles spoke well and it was surprising to hear the crowd shouting 'Philip!' I hope it pleased the Queen.

If, like me, you’d been up at half past five this morning (I’ve had enough of this) you could have heard most of the concert music reprised on Radio 2, in its original form. Heigh ho, I still have my vinyl albums of Elton John and Songs in the Key of Life.

I had a weird experience on Saturday as I was driving to the market. I had SOTS on the radio and suddenly found that I knew every word of a song I swear I haven't heard or given a thought to since the sixties. It was If I Had A Ribbon Bow, the first single by Fairport Convention and I sang along merrily. It took me back in an extraordinary way, yet I can't remember why. Here it is; it takes a while to get going.



The singer is Judy Dyble, not Sandy Denny.