Benjamin Grosvenor Plays Ravel

Benjamin Grosvenor Plays Ravel
Royal Albert Hall

Work done. 10k Run, done! Quick bath to soothe the aching limbs, and then it's across to the Royal Albert Hall, via Radio 3, for tonight's Prom.

It opens really well with Sofia Gubaidulina's Revue Music for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band. This first piece is rhythmic; nay, it's groovy! [For the record: I've noted down the word 'groovy' before the presenter uses it when the music finishes. It is reassuring to know we are on the same wavelength, though.] We've got guitar, short voice excerpts with a echo/delay effect, and the percussion is all over the place in a good way. It reminds me of the band Yello, and I'm a fan of their sound. It does transition into something a bit different towards the end. Darker, more erratic. Not sure I like it, but thankfully that bit doesn't last too long. Overall, a smashing opener!

Next up it's Ravel, whom we've heard from several times already during this run of concerts. Not that I'm complaining: I've grown to really admire the man and his music over the last four weeks. The main 'riff' (a five-note repeated pattern) is one I think I'm familiar with. There's something longing about it all. The piano is subtle, and threads throughout. Sounds great. 

The encore to the first half is a rocking piano number, showing off the impressive virtuosity of Benjamin Grosvenor (a child prodigy, we're told), who perhaps wasn't fully enabled by the Ravel earlier.

I'm really in the mood for a pizza, but I can't be arsed with the effort, and in any case I don't have one in. I'm not losing twenty pounds for a takeaway, so I settle with putting some frozen french fries in the air fryer, and drown them with Peri Peri salt. And a bit of bread and butter again.

The conversation during the interval is very refined and the chap - Philip I think his name was -obviously knows his stuff. But he isn't self-insistent with it, and I admire that muchly. [I also like that he pronounces 'portrait' the way I do... //Port-Rate//. Nothing shouts hollow grandeur more than someone who favours Port-Rut.]

The second half is Shostakovich with Babi Yar, which is a awareness piece, of the persecution of Soviet Jews during the Second World War. I thought I might resonate with this one, in a manner of speaking, having visited Auschwitz just two months ago from time of writing. And Shostakovich is actually a composer I have gotten into over the last few years, mostly via Classic FM which is my usual go-to for classical music (sorry Radio 3!).

This is a choral-led work, and the male voices are disturbing; reaching the kind of notes our old deputy head at high school would have used when instilling fear into us boys. The whole thing is pretty horrific from start to finish to be honest. But I suppose that's the point, isn't it.

I pour myself a Tamnavulin single malt and take it neat.