h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Meanwhile you've posted! Thank you. I promise not to contrive to miss it this time.

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MJ the corrupter of youth, eh. You'd get an ASBO for that these days! Well there's certainly a prominent part for the horn here, especially the plaintive theme that opens and closes the piece.

H

I enjoyed that Serenade! A lot was familiar such as the haunting horn passage that opens and ends it and the "dying, dying" bit. Thanks for not giving up on me H!

Glad you liked it, MJ. I thought your mate did well, as did Mark Padmore though I preferred the James Gilchrist performance broadcast a few months ago. We've got the Nash Ensemble at the Conc Soc in May. They visit us nearly every year as far as I can see. They're really making a name for themselves now.

I didn't like 'Lachrymae' at all. It bored me to tears (geddit??!!). I often find that with Britten. If I don't love one of his works the chances are I'll hate it. Have you heard 'Curlew River'? I had to sit through a staging of it once. Aaargh.

Just off to listen to Alan Partridge on BBC7

back later

H

I agree about the 'Lachrymae' but couldn't turn it off as I'd have forgotten to turn the radio back on for the Serenade!

I suppose I only got to like Peter Grimes as I went to see it quite a few times at ROH. Plenty of interesting music - never a dull moment.

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I don't mind Peter Grimes & Billy Budd but the chamber operas I find a bit of an ordeal.

Classic Alan Partridge earlier. It was the episode with the eight-year old prodigy, the hypnotherapist and the hip-hop lawyer. I know it almost by heart but it still makes me laugh! Off for an early night now, I'll listen to 'The Cheese Shop' in bed.

goodnight

H

Posted: Tuesday 05 December 2006 13:02:27

I like Britten's operas, particularly Turn of the Screw. I find the unrelieved male voices in Billy Budd a bit too much - it's still better than The Flying Dutchman though

He's CotW this week, just heard the end of today's programme.

Pardon the intrusion. I stumbled across this when I was trying to follow up a reference to MJ's lyrical exchanges on another board.

I didn't hear the Britten. I think my favourite of his is still "The Foggy, Foggy Dew". It must have been on "Housewife's Choice" that I heard it one morning in 1948 and bought the record at the first opportunity. It didn't half shock my mother.

I saw Howard Goodall on syncopation but missed the earlier and overlooked the later having missed a phone call to remind me.

I took in "Der Rozenkavalier" by SNO in Edinburgh ao Saturday before last. Hitherto, I had only known it from odd bits on TV and radio so hadn't appreciated the irony of the waltz song.

I just managed a fragment of Don G while washing up the other night. Another I only know in fragments. I was surprised to hear what sounded very like 'Non piu andrei' from M of F. Is this overt quotation or just a bit of canny recycling ?

Lunch calls, Douglas

Good afternoon Douglas and Andy

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You're welcome here anytime as far as I'm concerned, Douglas. Feel free to join in our rambling conversations at any point.

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It must have been a very different world where people could be shocked by "The Foggy, Foggy Dew". Do you think your mother had in my mind that the words probably had a different meaning for Britten & Pears than they did for most people?


I can't answer your Don Giovanni question, I'm afraid. MJ is the one for Mozart. I hope you enjoyed 'Rosenkavalier'. The SNO has a fine reputation. I think most of their 'Ring' cycle has been on Radio 3 in recent years and what I heard sounded most impressive

I've never seen 'The Turn of the Screw' staged, Andy. Maybe it's better with a bit of action. What I found with 'Curlew River' at the South Bank (Purcell Room, I think) about 12 years ago was that there wasn't much to engage attention on stage either.

I'd better get back to work now

back later

H

I'm sure it was for many people my mother's age
I'm also sure she had no idea of the 'special relationship' between Britten & Pears. I doubt if she ever knew, probably not as she died in 1962, and I'm sure it was not until people could be more open about it in the mid-sixties that I heard about it.

Hi MJ

I just got back from a trip to the shops and in our local discount shop (Home Bargains, do you have them near you?) I found they had this in stock:

http://www.lucky-country.com/products.html


check out the 'Black Licorice Bag'. I don't like it as much as the Dutch stuff but it tastes fine and if you click on 'nutritional information' I think you'll find it passes the veggie test. And at 49p for 300g it's competitively priced.

If you're interested and you can't find it locally there's an address for the UK distributors on the bag I bought - though if you have to go to those lengths you probably won't match the discounter's price.

H

Hello Douglas,

Nice to see you over here!
Re Non più andrai: it's Mozart's little joke. Don Giovanni has a wind band playing music from The Marriage of Figaro at his ill-fated dinner party - I don't know the exact words but I seem to recall he says something disparaging about the music they're playing!

See if you can guess my I Spy now!

MJ
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Veggie? It appears to be made of Soft Aussies!

I've never heard of Home Bargains. Maybe neighbour Douglas knows if there's one in our vicinity.

Father Christmas always buys Panda liquorice to pop in the stockings. It is expensive though. (So he tells me.) I try not to eat the stuff as it's very moreish.

< Soft Aussies!>
Are you thinking of the stuff in Lakeland ? I've seen Aussie stuff in their Handforth shop. The liquorice content did not strike me as very high but I don't know what I should have expected.

I've never heard of Home Bargains either.

Should I expect Panda liquorice to be black and white ?

Don't know Douglas - I haven't shopped in Lakeland.

Can't imagine white liquorice!

Hi Douglas & MJ

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It's not nearly as strong as my favourite Dutch 'Drop'

http://www.dcimports.com/autoldeeczou.html

and even that is not described as 'mild salty liquorice'

The reason I suggested it to MJ is that it doesn't seem to contain any gelatine, glycerine etc.

Home Bargains could be a WoM topic in itself. Everyone here calls it 'Home and Bargain' even though that isn't what it says on the sign. This popular usage seems to overtaken the official name because the one in Birkenhead's Grange shopping centre is listed as 'Home & Bargain' on the centre's traders list. And there is a 'Home & Bargain' listed in the phone book for Liverpool and I'm pretty sure that's the same chain. There is this, listed for Stockport:

Home Bargains
telephone: 0161 4771882
32 Castle St, Stockport. SK3 9AD

Time to start cooking

back later

H

correction

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the word 'not' shouldn't be there!

Thanks H - I know where that is. Might have a look one day.

MJ

Thanks for the gen, H. It's years since I was in Castle Street though I frequently drive round it as it is now by-passed and largely pedestrianised.

MJ & H,
The liquorice I saw in Lakeland is 'Australian Soft Eating Liquorice'. For details, see http://www.lakelandlimited.co.uk/product.aspx/!3984_10574_9156
As well a black, you can get 'Red' strawberry flavour, 'Green' apple flavour and 'Yellow' mango. It is labelled as veggie. i don't know how £3.50 for 500 grams compares.