Sunday, 14 February 2016

Slavic Soul

The McLeans heard a performance of this same programme today at Usher Hall in Edinburgh. It was really very good, and Boris Brovtsyn, who played Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 was fantastic. He has in buckets what my old pal Janko (now a conductor) called "Slavic Soul". There was a lady in the dress circle who thought three ovations wasn't good enough so stood up while still clapping her  little velvet gloved hands together as if she were in Toronto or something.

Och, zobaczcie. The Shostakoviches (or Szostakowiczes) started out Polish. This may be of interest to three or so readers.
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous14 February 2016 at 22:34

    "As if she were in Toronto or something."

    Are Toronto audiences enthusiastic? Audiences in Melbourne are NOT. Not sure about the rest of Australia, but Melbourne audiences are so cynical.

    A comedian once made the following observation:

    American audience: Yes, you can!!
    Australian audience: Bet you can't.
    British audience: I don't know why you're even trying.

    Julia

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mrs McLean14 February 2016 at 23:35

    Edinburgh audiences tend not to give standing ovations at concerts. This was at first refreshing to the new girl, as Toronto abounds in them, and at times it seems just too much praise for every single performance of anything (and the peer pressure to stand was annoying). But when a soloist is really great, perhaps the "I kent your father" attitude is a little too much in the opposite direction.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)