Not What I Went For

The annual exhibition of the Hampshire Art Society is in the cathedral at present, until 24th. This year I was pleased to recognize the work of Frank Clarke, one of whose paintings I bought last year, and also to see that there wasn't an identical one produced on the back of having sold that to me. There were things to like, plenty not quite to one's taste, but if I wanted any of them it was one priced up at £800 and I didn't want it that badly. I don't expect Rembrandt for that amount but I'd like a small Maggi Hambling.

However, out back by the back entrance were some books available for a donation, most of interest among which was a box of pocket scores. Yesterday I took Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, came home and found I didn't have it on CD. That came as some surprise but it can't be the only essential msterpiece I don't have. Alina Ibragimova is already on her way to remedy that omission along with the 'other' such Mendelssohn concerto and the Hebrides Overture. It goes with Derek Jarman's Caravaggio on the list of this month's new acquistions.

But I like these scores and went back for more today so that I didn't regret leaving them there.

The number of Bach cantatas in the box, and lack of piano pieces, made me think a choral person had had a clear out but I came away with some Brandenburgs, my favourite symphony (Beethoven Pastoral) and a teenage favourite, Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Infanta.

Quite how I get on with these remains to be seen but I know all these pieces fairly well and that should help. I knew the first movement of Beethoven 5, I thought, when it was the subject of a music exam at school. The tape was stopped in 30 places and we had to write down which bar we were on. Sadly for me, I missed the repeat marking that takes you back to the start, was immediately lost and scored 0/30 having given up at halfway and opted to stop guessing and just enjoy the Beethoven. That was one of the last things I ever did in Music at school, finding that finding out for myself served me better which, in the end, it did because it eventually got me the job of honorary reviewer of local recitals.

However, 50 years on there is unfinished business and I'll hope to satisfy myself at least that I can follow music better now. Either that or I can just marvel at how this strange language encodes it, for those who can follow it if not for me.