Wednesday 5 January 2011

Royal pumpkin pops Pollini

Kate and Mate are riding in a glass carriage after their Royal wedding. In the fairy tale the coach turns back into a pumpkin at midnight. It's not the trappings that make a marriage but the pair involved, so good luck to them as individuals. And also to Zara and her man who both glow with so much genuine  happiness that glitter would be irrelevant.

London will be impassable and impossible. So the pumpkin falls on me!  I've had tickets to Maurizio Pollini at RFH since they went on sale months ago, because he's playing Boulez Piano Sonata no 2. It's brilliant, he's brilliant. But imagine the traffic thru Hyde Park, the Mall and Westminster Abbey. And the security, and the crowds! So any brave heart, please let me know if you'd like to go.(expensive)

1 comment:

Mark Berry said...

It hadn't dawned on me that it was the same day. Still, I shall still be able to go; I bought tickets for the whole Pollini series when they went on sale. Much looking forward to the first book of the 48 at the end of the month.

This will be the third time I shall have heard Pollini play the Boulez sonata: once in Salzburg and last year in Berlin. I have especially fond memories of the first time at the Salzburg Festival. He had been advertised as giving an all-Mozart recital. (It was the anniversary year, 2006.) I was a little surprised by that, since he hasn't tended to play a great deal of the Mozart solo piano music, but it seemed like a wonderful opportunity. Pollini changed the programme late on: I was unaware until arriving at the Grosses Festspielhaus. Mozart remained in the first half; the Webern Variations and the Boulez sonata replaced Mozart in the second. A good number of the audience left, either at the interval, or - pretty unpardonably - during the second half. Those who stayed, however, were treated to some stunning pianism, including some magical Debussy encores.