Tag: Organ

Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn Festival

A look back at Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn Festival.

I have had a very busy weekend – Saturday was Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn festival, and on Sunday I was involved with a fund-raising event at Norton Hill, and there was a family meal in the evening. This post deals with the Saturday.

HOW EARLY MUSIC DAY WORKS

Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn Festival comprises three concerts – a short one at noon, a longer one that starts at 7PM and a final short late evening concert that gets underway at 9:15PM. I attended with my mother, and we had lunch out after the noon concert. I then went home between that and the evening concerts to catch up on progress in the test match that was going on between England and the West Indies. The end of the early evening concert and the start of the late evening concert are so close together that one cannot do very much in the gap between them.

THE MIDDAY CONCERT

This was an organ recital by Harvey Stansfield and he had chosen some excellent works. Featured composers included JS Bach and the man he once walked 200 miles (each way) to see, Dietrich Buxtehude, among others. The organ at St Nicholas chapel is a superb instrument, and Stansfield’s performance was 100% worthy of such an instrument. Unfortunately attendance at this concert was both very small and very old – my mother looked younger than most of the audience, never mind me. Those who did the find the time to attend got a real treat. The full programme was: Bach, prelude and fugue in E Flat, Buxtehude, Praeludium in D Major, Coleridge-Taylor, Impromptu in F, Schumann, canonic studies 2&3 and Mendelssohn, Sonata no3 in D Major.

THE LUNCH

We had lunch at Marriotts, sat outside overlooking the Great Ouse (unfortunately the scene was marred by the river being at rather low tide which meant that lots of mud was on display). We were joined by my father who had already eaten, but who did indulge in a drink, and my nephew who both ate and drank. I, knowing that my arrangements for the rest of the weekend pretty much ensured that my next proper meal would be the Sunday supper had a steak and chips, which was a gargantuan meal.

THE EVENING CONCERTS

The early evening concert featured the European Union Chamber Orchestra and two guest recorder players, Tabea Debus and Miriam Monaghan. Being a chamber orchestra and hence limited in size the lead violinist, Hans-Peter Hoffman led the orchestra. The programme was Handel, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Corelli, Concerto Grosso Opus 6 Number 1, Telemann Concerto for Recorder in F, Vivaldi, Concerto for two violins in A major, Opus 3 Number 3, Telemann, Suite Perpetuum Mobile and Bach, Brandenburg Concerto number four. This was much better attended than the earlier event, and was just as enjoyable in its own different way.

The late concert was a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in their entirety, by Masumi Yamamoto on a harpsichord (the same harpsichord that had featured in the early evening concert, but a different player thereof). This music when played on a harpsichord by a really expert player (and she is certainly that) is superb, and certainly knocks the spots off any version of it on a piano.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My photo gallery for this post is purely St Nicholas Chapel (where all three concerts took place) and musical instruments…

The organ at St Nicholas Chapel.
The Harpsichord all set for the final concert.
The double keyboard – which comes into play in a big way in the Goldberg Variations.

Early Music Day at the Lynn Festival

A look back at yesterdays Early Music Day concerts at the Lynn Festival, a link from this day last year and lots of photographs.

Yesterday was Early Music Day at the Lynn Festival. This featured three concerts, all held at St Nicholas Chapel. This post looks at all three concerts.

CONCERT ONE: AN ORGAN RECITAL

The Organ at St Nicholas Chapel is a truly magnificent instrument, designed and constructed by the London firm of Henry Willis & Son, and completed in 1900. David Flood proved to be a magnificent performer as well, and he chose pieces all of which could have been played on this organ when it was first completed in 1900.

CONCERT TWO: THE ORCHESTRA OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

This concert did not feature a full orchestra, it was a smaller ensemble, all of whom belong to this orchestra. This means that rather than a conductor being present they took their lead from the First Violinist. The concert was excellent, featuring some splendid music.

CONCERT THREE: HARPSICHORD AND VIOLA DA GAMBA

Masumi Yamamoto was on the harpsichord and Ibrahim Aziz on the viola da gamba, an instrument much closer in shape and size to a modern cello than it is to a viola, in spite of the name. The concert both started and ended with them playing together, but each also played solos in the middle. Here are some photographs (quick reminder, all photos can be viewed at full size by lcikcing on them) specifically relating to these concerts…

St Nicholas Chapel
The organ.
An information board about the organ.
This picture and the the next show controls for the organ.
The wooden angels in the inside roof of the chapel presented and interesting challenge.

FROM THE ARCHIVE AND GENERAL PHOTOGRAPHY

A year ago today I published my all time XI of players whose surnames begin with the letter E. Since then a new name has appeared on the scene: Abhimanyu Easwaran produced a succession of big scores in Indian domestic cricket. I am not yet prepared to break up my opening pair of J Edrich and Elgar just yet, but the latter is under threat, especially if Easwaran gets his opportunity to perform at a higher level and delivers. Now for my usual sign off…

Heritage Open Day 2017 – Overview

An overview of Heritage Open Day 2017 and the solution to a mathematical problem.

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday was Heritage Open Day in KIng’s Lynn, and as readers of this blog will know I was one of the volunteers helping to run the event. This post is a scene setter, giving an overview and indicating which parts of the day I will be giving individual posts to later on. At the end of this post I will include the answer the puzzle I posed at the end of my previous post. 

STARTING THE DAY

I was going be stewarding at 27 King Street from 12 until 2, and knowing that I would find that experience a draining one I decided to see a handful of places before 12. The first place I visited was the one I had marked down as “must see”, because it was probably the only time the opportunity would be there do so –

NO 2 HAMPTON COURT

This property being currently vacant and of considerable historic interest it was open, and within was a little local history exhibition as well as the place itself. I will be giving this a dedicated post, so here for the moment is a single picture to whet your appetite:

Ground plans - 1500 and present day

I decided to head for King Street by way of the river front, and between this property and the river front is…

THE SECRET GARDEN

I knew that my aunt would be running things in this garden, so a quick visit seemed in order.

SG1

SG2
When this was first built those arches fronted directly on to the river.

woman in period dressSG4

The main attraction (especially as the cockling boat Baden Powell was absent) down at the river front was, as on previous occasions…

THE IFCA RESEARCH VESSEL

IFCA stands for Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, and their remit is to insure that population levels of sea creatures living within six nautical miles of the shore do not decrease too dramatically. I will be creating a dedicated post about this, so I offer this picture as bait…

 

IFCA map

My plan on leaving this vessel was to…

PAY A PRELIMINARY VISIT TO 27 KING STREET

I deemed it sensible to familiarise myself with the building that I would be stewarding, so that was my next port of call. As I was at the river front I decided to go by way of the Lower Purfleet, where there was sure to be something interesting happening…

Queen Street
The first three pictures were taken on my out from my flat, before we get to stuff from the section between the river and King Street.

Saturday Market PlaceTown HallBPbusFlying gullFerryLower PurfleetYeomanryYeomanry 2HeadgearHelmet plate

THE TUESDAY MARKET PLACE AND ENVIRONS

After my preliminary look around No 27 King Street I had half an hour to spare, so headed in the direction of the Tuesday Market Place. I paid calls at three buildings in that area, Bishop’s Lynn House, St Ann’s House and St Nicholas Chapel before heading back to no 27…

TMP2TMP3TMP4Bishop's Lynn HouseSt Ann's HouseSAH1SAH2SAH3St NicholasDoorwaySt Nick's interiorFontCourt in cornerConsistory CourtFancy DressCCGbird and bible 2chandelierBird and biblebird and bible 3OrganwindowPlaqueScreen on seaDann'sLumiere posterStage

VOLUNTEERING AT 27 KING STREET

I arrived back at no 27 a few minutes early. My fellow steward for the 12PM to 2PM slot turned out to be veteran councillor Lesley Bambridge.  As I will be writing a dedicated post about this I will say no more here. For a picture, here is a quirky architectural feature:

Ellipsoid skylight 4
I have never seen a skylight shaped like this – for the moment until I get more information I will call it the Ellipsoid Skylight.

A CLUB ON FERRY LANE

After finishing at 27 King Street I made my next port of call the Ouse Amateur Sailing Club, where I consumed a pint. After that I decided it was time to call it a day as I was unsurprisingly feeling ‘peopled out’ – 27 King Street attracted a lot of visitors while I was there. Here is a picture taken while at the club:

View from the terrace
This is the view looking downriver from the club’s terrace.

THE 101 PROBLEM

In “Anderson Joins the 500 Club and Other Stuff” I included the following problem from brilliant:

SC100 - q

 First of all the answer:

SC100 - a

There at least three areas of mathematical knowledge that would give you an ‘in’ to this one – logarithms, compound interest and Pascal’s triangle. Since I have some knowledge of all three this problem barely brought a crease to my brow. Here are a couple of good solutions from others:

solution1

The second solution I am sharing here had a particular appeal to me:

solution2

Just to finish, the exact power  (in terms of positive integers) of 101 that is the the first to begin with a number other than 1 is 70, and 101 ^ 70 runs to 140 digits.