Simon Watterton in Chichester

Simon Watterton, piano, Chichester Cathedral, Feb 25th.

There simply isn't a bad Tuesday in Chichester. There's no such thing. Either that or I'm good at choosing when to go.
It was a bright morning and I won three and drew one to improve my chess rating somewhat over scrabled eggs for breakfast. An unfinished string quartet by Schubert played on the wireless. But it had clouded over and was raining a cold rain when I went to leave home so I went back in, exchanged jacket for coat and put on a less flamboyant hat. The bus ride, on the prized front seat of upstairs on a double decker, affords fine views of that section of coast from Farlington marshes to Bosham.
Simon Watterton began with a Robert Schumann Arabesque that began with rolling lyricism before ending more dreamily. Simon helped me out there with the word 'melting'. The piece set the tone for quiet endings and also Simon doing much of this job for me because he provided a very useful synopsis of the Beethoven Sonata in E flat major, Op. 7 before playing it. At least if I use some of his words, it saves me thinking of any and they will be more accurate.
The first movement is virtuosic and technical, Beethoven newly arrived in Vienna aged 26 and ready to impress. The 'soliloquy' of the second, Largo, con gran espressione, loses all sense of time (time itself, I'm sure, rather than tempo). I wouldn't say that Simon overdoes the 'con gran espressione', ever, but finds a balance between the stormy Beethoven and the delicate, making a coherence of the two rather than a contrast between them. Beethoven, it might seem sometimes, is either producing a storm, one is brewing or is in abeyance. But that is to wilfully ignore how gentle and kindly he was, too, and it was explained that as a young man he was always in love and it was before he had quite so much to rage against.
The third is a good-natured minuet and the fourth confounds expectations with a languid finale rather than the grand endings of so many symphonic movements that are telegraphed from so far out.
Not having yet put away the Brahms and Beethoven Violin Sonatas acquired after a previous visit to Chichester, it's not going to be easy to defer a visit to Amazon to check out Complete Piano Sonatas for there is another inexhaustible source of wonder that should be on those front room shelves.
Further Schumann was the Romance Op. 28, No.2 that Clara asked to be played to her on her deathbed to remind her of Robert. It is a profound and smoothly ardent song made all the more so for the story attached to it.
The Fur Elise is no mere Bagatelle but a popular classic that one can too easily take for granted. Familiarity can make one forget to listen but such pieces aren't popular classics by accident, it's because they are tremendous. Having just read that Beethoven book, one is still left with the scruffy, difficult, absorbed, suffering towering genius but we might remember artists at their beginning and throughout their careers. Recent programmes on television on Picasso and Cilla Black made the point, for me at least, that the early work that establishes a career is as significant, if not more so, as the later work. The same can be said of Bob Marley.
Simon was a great guide and sensible, and sensitive, interpreter of these pieces and I was very glad to be there to hear them when it had looked as if I might be in Luton talking about something considerably drearier today.
On the way back I opened my Montaigne essays. I had been led to them by an essay by Graham Swift but began to doubt if he would live up to the widespread acclaim for his sense, humanity and reason. I've been let down by recommendations before and even if I'd read bits and pieces of our European friend before, I wondered if I'd like him.
He's absolutely fine, finding release from ideas like fear, mortality and everyday anxiety with a commonsense, homemade but astute philosophical approach. 'Release' must be what we are looking for, and hopefully get, from art, not only from the likes of Beethoven sharing his with us but the likes of Simon coming to Chichester to deliver it.
Art is all there is but it might not be enough, as the poet says. Sometimes it's plenty. 

Ted Hughes Night at PPS

Weds March 4th will be a Ted Hughes evening at Portsmouth Poetry Society.

I was glad to be given the job of introducing the subject and that introduction will appear here after the event.

The Portsmouth Poetry Society meet at 7.15 – 9.30 on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month at St Mark’s Church Hall, Derby Road, North End, Portsmouth, PO2 8HR.

Do please come and take part if you have an interest and are in the area.

Cheltenham Preview with the Three Wise Men

I'm glad to have the help of The Professor and Spenno to preview Cheltenham this year, reconvening after last year's chorus of approval for Sebastopol on that impossibly glorious day at Wincanton.
What have you got, Prof?

Here we go again. The wait for the racing fan's equivalent of Christmas is nearly over. The three best bets of the week are -

Altior (nap) in the Champion Chase on the Wednesday. Having witnessed his race at Ascot it made me feel watching "if it ain't broke why fix it" as Cyrname defeated him over the longer trip. Given time to recover by Nicky Henderson we saw the old Altior at Newbury last time. Hitting his usual flat spot during the race he zoomed up the run in to win decisively. If he is anywhere close at the last he wins simple!

Pentland Hills (NB) Champion Hurdle Tuesday. Having needed the run first time at Cheltenham the finish in the Haydock Park trial will long live a nightmare with me. I have watched that finish maybe twenty times and don't understand how Ballyandy catches him. Surely it must have been the ground or Nico going for home too early? Anyway if delivered like in last year's Triumph Hurdle I expect us to collect.

Santini - Gold Cup Friday. After last year's decent run in the RSA he always looked a Gold Cup horse. Whilst looking underwhelming at Sandown first time stepped up markedly on that when defeating Bristol de Mai next time. He jumped well in the main and seems ground-versatile so hopefully this rounds off the final day with a victory.

Other bets that may give us an interest -

Nicky Henderson to be top trainer and Nico de Boinville top jockey (successful last year). Both have a good book of chances during the week.

Thanks, Prof. That's my best bet landed already, that The Professor's tips are a Seven Barrows whitewash.

Spenno, show us yours.

For me the Irish trained horses look a step ahead of most of their British counterparts. Hence my top three bets for the week are all trained across the Irish Sea.

Firstly, in the Arkle, it’s NOTEBOOK. Unbeaten over fences in 4 starts which include 2 Grade 1’s & a Grade 2. Trained by Henry De Bromhead, I think it will give Rachael Blackmore her 3rd festival winner.

Secondly it’s BENIE DES DIEUX in the Mares Hurdle. Would have won this race last year but for falling, when 3 lengths clear, at the last. Has to be Willie Mullins's banker of the week, and is indeed my Nap.

Third it’s the Irish talking horse ENVOI ALLEN in Wednesday's Ballymore Novice Hurdle. Connections were said to have been considering supplementing him for the Champion itself, the fact they had decided to go the novice way should be heeded and should give Gordon Elliott a winner on day 2.

Maybe disappointing prices on their own but they treble up to just over 13/1, not bad in my mind. I will be a very happy boy if all 3 win.

My one over the smaller obstacles, at a bigger price, is Willie Mullins handicap hurdler CIEL DE NEIGE. Went into my notebook when finishing an unlucky 2nd in the Betfair hurdle at Newbury. Gone up 3lb for that but I think he is worth a shilling in his chosen handicap.

Over fences my handicap pick is SPYGLASS HILL. Another De Bromhead horse who may prove to be better than his handicap mark and outrun his price in whichever race he contests.

Thank you, Padraig O'Spencer.

You may as well stop reading now. I'm now known as Racetrack Fallguy rather then Racetrack Wiseguy. And Cheltenham is not really the place to get safely back on track. But the darkest hour is just before dawn, it says somewhere (in the Mamas & the Papas Dedicated to the One I Love).

Thyme Hill, in either the Ballymore on Weds or the Albert Bartlett on Friday, has looked fine each time this season and will make for a good priced nap if carrying that form forward. I imagine Philip Hobbs thought he was Cheltenham-bound all along. It might be a good idea to avoid Envoi Allen if we can but I don't mind taking him on if we have to. 'Never be afraid of one horse' was a saying I heard once. Like Frankel, for example.

Benie des Dieux gets her picture on here because she is the only horse to get two mentions. Probably a different class to the other top mares and one to hold a treble together, perhaps, even if she's odds on already. Possibly the only horse one could call a 'banker' all week.

And I'll go with the Tizzard's Copperhead in the RSA on Weds in the hope that the impressive recent win at Ascot wasn't an optical illusion. I don't desert Champ lightly, who was top of the shortlist for races like this from the start, but there are question marks now and stories like calling a horse Champ and them becoming one don't usually happen. Have you read Flying Finish by Dick Francis. Good book.

I'll hope to start with Mr. Henderson's Shiskin on Tues; I thought Vinndication (also on Tues) might be aimed at more than a handicap so maybe he wins this and then goes on to better things next year if he's what he looked like in the Autumn. I might have Thursday off. Allmankind in the Triumph Hurdle on Friday was another long term hope but it will be different here and if there's evidence that Gary Moore thinks he's got a horse in Goshen, and if I'm still in business by then, I'll be on that instead.

With apologies to Fiddlerontheroof and Sporting John who are big dangers to Shiskin and Thyme Hill and, if I were doing this professionally, I'd be having 'savers' on them.

But I'm not. I'm treating the lurid siren call of cash profit with disdain and just having a go.

All the best. I used to say 'see you in Barbados' but I know better by now.

See you in Waterlooville.

Oh, Babe, What Would You Say

There were a couple of interesting reviews in The Times on Saturday. Seeing a new book on Kraftwerk given a page to itself I landed the odds that my old teenage heroes, Faust, would get a mention and, there it is, in paragraph six. What I didn't anticipate was how much it would make me laugh,
Into this vacuum [of German pop culture] came Krautrock, a colourful musical explosion of experimental music by Can, Faust and Amon Duul, which made Pink Floyd sound like George Formby.
And, ahead of the new Graham Swift novel, Johanna Thomas-Carr is not impressed. Having made further inroads into the Complete Swift recently, Here We Are seemed very promising, on the subject of Brighton end-of-the-pier performers (just like Sickert's Brighton Pierrots) and the possibility it might not feature a corpse but Johanna's not having it so we will see.
These days perhaps I prefer to have a clear run at a book but I will be on the lookout to see if she's got a point because if a writer keeps pulling ofF the same trick one does start to detect how they do it. I'll be letting you know. Not only is prose fiction a very hard thing to do, it is a hard thing to have undisputed favourites in.
Whereas music is the opposite with Johnnie Walker playing Get It On and Let's Stay Together on Sunday. T. Rex and Al Green are among the select few protected by haloes of wonderment, bathed in a glow of 70's light that never dims.
And Ates Orga's book on Beethoven that has been in my possession for decades without me reading it until now, makes a compelling case, alongside the brilliant Kovacevich Hammerklavier I picked up for less than the price of a sandwich last week, with a wonderful Les Adiuex into the bargain. With Chichester next week offering more, I'm having quite a 250th anniversary centenary and why not. At the time I was into Faust, I was very into Beethoven, too. But no matter what he does, or what further glories I find, I can't see him getting past Bach, Mozart and Handel into my Top 3. He does, however, make a case- which isn't mine to make- that there is a Top 4 that no other composer comes anywhere near.

And finally, a word for a film. A film, indeed. I've watched a film. Love is the Devil with Derek Jacobi the very similitude of Francis Bacon. I recorded it off the telly and then found that I had, gladly. What a relief they closed the Colony Club before I found it. I wouldn't have lasted long in there.     

Quiet Triptych

I am pleased to have put these three pictures together. They are above my usual supine reading position so I gaze up at them from below, the Vermeer furthest away and so getting the least attention.
It's the wordlessness that is most attractive about them, and the rest of their quietness, that makes them such a good alternative to the endless bloody books and records.
Although two of them have figures in them they are not demanding of our attention but absorbed with something else. They have in common geomtrical compositions of rectangles and slanted lines. While the Hammershoi in the centre is resplendent in the frame that suits it so well, it is the richest in its detail, which isn't bad when you're up against Vermeer. Gwen John's is one of a number of the artist's room in Paris, others of which have the window open, letting in a little bit of the outside world as the Hammershoi does and so we move, from left to right, from outside looking in, through inside with a glimpse outside, to a pale, closed interior.
It isn't a triptych, of course. Or wasn't until I made them so.
I should have more to worry about than the shadows made by the table and piano legs going in different directions from apparently the same light source.

The books recently have been Graham Swift back catalogue before the new one arrives. The Light of Day was the usual masterclass and Learning to Swim some early short stories. The title story of the latter was some kind of light relief, being only about marital dysfunction and without a corpse or bereavement. Swift's default setting is to have one or the other as a thematic element that presumably either puts the lives of the living into more precarious relief or points up how in the midst of life we are in death. With Ever After looking equally morbid still to come, as well as the essays in Making an Elephant, we will hope that all the characters in Here We Are make it to the end.
In the meantime, I took my old Beethoven book off the shelf because I can't remember reading it and it is an anniversary this year.

None of which is to suggest that Graham Swift is anything less than a brilliant writer. But they all have their recurring motifs as well as their facility. Julian Barnes, for obvious reasons perhaps, meditates on lost love at greater length sometimes than his stories might require. It's hard to appreciate how good they are at it until you realize how hard it is to do.
Swift is not the first fiction writer to make me think I'd like to have a go. It was William Trevor some thirty-five years ago; it was Yukio Mishima maybe twenty-five years ago, which was where Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto had led me. What one doesn't realize is that they've made it look easy and, actually, you might be better off trying to imitate Dickens or even just Harold Robbins.
The first 1500 words of Flowers for Aunt Daisy had lost all discipline by the time I abandoned the evening's work last week and so I'm left with the choice of feeling defeated or returning to the scene of the mess.
I knew I couldn't do it but I still had to try. It's like wanting to be able to play a musical instrument but having neither the requisite talent or application to do it properly. Poetry surely is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

How could Hammershoi apply paint to canvas delicately enough to capture the effects of the light like that.

90th Anniversary Edition

I thought I'd better have a go and reverse recent poor form on the occasion of the 90th anniversary. I'm not going to pretend I didn't need Andy's Word Finder.