An account of the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra’s first ever relaxed concert, which took place yesterday at The Corn Exchange, King’s Lynn. Also a photo gallery.
This is the first of two posts I will be putting up today. The second will complete the story of the test match at Edgbaston, which ended yesterday evening. This one looks back at a special event that took place yesterday afternoon.
A NEW DEPARTURE
The Norfolk Symphony Orchestra staged a relaxed concert, the first such that they have done, at the Corn Exchange in King’s Lynn yesterday afternoon. The seating was loosely arranged on an open floor and at the same level as the orchestra. There were no hard and fast rules to adhere to, though there a request was made of people that they not go in among the orchestra as doing would so would disrupt the concentration of the players. The West Norfolk Autism Group had been allocated seats (tickets free of charge), and I was one of those who attended. The concert was scheduled to start at 2:30, and we were advised to arrive early. I was actually the first of the attendees to arrive, getting to the Corn Exchange pretty much on the dot of two o’clock. The performance lasted a little more than an hour.
THE MUSIC
Just before the performance was due to start we were given sheets listing the music – 13 pieces were named in total, and the sheet made it clear that not all would be played.
This image is of an a4 printed sheet which has the official Norfolk Symphony Orchestra header, below which appears “Welcome to our relaxed concert today we hope you enjoy it. We will be some playing music from the following list The pieces will be introduced as we go along so you know what we are playing
Brahms – St Anthony Chorale Variations Pachelbel – Canon Wiseman – Wilde Suite Nyman – Time Lapse Daft Punk – Adagio for Tron Faure – Sicilienne Arthur Benjamin – Jamaican Rumba Ernest Bucalossi – Grasshopper Dance Tchaikovsky – Sleeping Beauty Waltz Vaughan-Williams – Greensleeves Mozart – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Elgar – Salut D’Amour Rachmaninoff – Vocalise”
The first two pieces actually played were the Brahms and the Elgar. They were followed by three film pieces by Wiseman, Nyman and Daft Punk. Debbie Wiseman was voted the world’s best living composer in 2022, and the Wilde Suite provided some indication of why. The performance then finished with three dance pieces, the Jamaican Rumba, the Grasshopper Dance and the Sleeping Beauty Waltz. All were excellent and all were very well performed. I thoroughly enjoyed this event and look forward to the next one. My only mild regret is that the Pachelbel piece did not make the cut.
An account of the grand finale of the 65th King’s Lynn Festival, some splendid pictures from in and around King’s Lynn, a plethora of important links and some cool infographics.
INTRODUCTION
Hello and welcome to all who read this, old and new followers alike. As well as my title piece I have some excellent photos from in and around King’s Lynn, some very important links and a few infographics to share. I hope that some of you will be inspired to share this post in its turn.
A FINAL FLOURISH
Last night’s concert at the Corn Exchange, which brought the curtain down on the 65th King’s Lynn Festival was an unexpected pleasure in two ways. First of all, we had not (my mother and I) originally been going to attend it, but then at a previous concert a family friend had two tickets for this one that she could not use, so we ended up with them. The second sense in which it was an unexpected pleasure was that the star attraction of the evening was pianist Freddie Kempf and I am not the world’s greatest fan of piano music, so I had been a little concerned as to how the evening would go.
The stage pre-performance (obviously no pics once the evening was under way!)
I need not have worried – the Flanders Symphony Orchestra were quite magnificent, and at no point save in sections which were supposed to be solo did the piano (on which Mr Kempf delivered a spectacular performance) drown out the rest of the orchestra.
All in all, this was an excellent way for a great festival to end. I have mentioned before in this blog that King’s Lynn as a town is good at public festivities, and it really showed with this festival.
A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE
Before moving on to the links section, here are some pictures from in and around King’s Lynn…
A huge black backed gull at close range.
A close up of the frontage of the new visitor’s centre at King’s Lynn bus station.
The new seating areas between the bus station shelter and the Lynn Museum
Two boats moored at the jetty yesterday, this one, Blue Bird 2, which I had not seen before, and Kalyptos, a regular visitor.
This year’s blackberry harvest is going to be super massive if these bushes in Hardings Pits are anything to go on.
An albino duck
One brave duckling spurned to wooden walkway down into the water!
Some entertainment in central King’s Lynn yesterday lunchtme.
“Of course the comfy chair is for me – I’m a cat”
LINKS
I am going to start with coverage of various petitions that are running at the moment.
PETITIONS
Within this subsection I am dividing things up yet further for reasons that I hope will become obvious.
TWO PETITIONS THAT RELATE TO WOMEN’S RIGHTS ISSUES
First in this little section, an update on the petition to get the Canadian authorities to deny “Roosh V” entry to their country, as we in Britain denied entry to Julien Blanc:
2)Simultaneously introducing what is to me a new blog, extremecrochet, and pointing you to an excellent piece, posted on that blog, that connects to the above petition.
NEWS ON THE GROUP B STREP PETITION
I am giving this a section to itself because as well as two links to share, I have some news of my own. Namely, that having responded to a call to write my MP I have received a response from Mr Bellingham indicating his willingness to support the Early Day Motion that relates to this petition. The links I have to share are as follows:
My last petition calls on David Cameron to remove Jeremy Hunt from his position on account of his offensive and out of touch comments about NHS workers.
POLITICS
First up in this section, a piece detailing some truly outrageous expense claims on the part of the Downright Dishonourable John Bercow. For the full details you will have to read the piece, but the single most outrageous claim was for £130 for a journey of 0.8 miles in each direction (i.e. 25 minutes walking time for both journeys combined given that Bercow is an able bodied man).
Next up, Vox Political’s latest post about the perfidies of the politician that site calls the Gentleman Ranker in honour of his previous military career.
aspiblog 