The pianist just visible in front of the altar of St Pauls Church in Covent Garden ("The Actors' Church") is Maunel Villet. Manuel was by far the most experienced recitalist I have seen this past eleven months. In the mid-fifties he accompanied Yehudi Menuhin on a tour of South Africa and in Vienna. Today, on the open piazza outside the back of the church, a street performer shouted and a large crowd cheered. Inside the church Maunel drowned the noise with stirring ballades by Chopin and Liszt. He was subsequently joined by flautist Colleen Muriel who preceded her rendering of two pieces I didn't know by telling the audience she was going to play "a couple of pieces I'm sure you know". I slunk out of the church and went home.
In fact I had to go early anyway, because I had a band rehearsal to get to. For some reason The Fat Arthur Band (see day 313) have decided that they like the sound of a cat being strangled to accompany their jaunty, waltzy instrumental tunes and have asked me to return with my theremin on not one, but two occasions (the first time being last Thursday).
On the way back to Charing Cross Station I passed a violinist busker (a very good one) on The Strand. The street cleaner in the photos, between flurries of street cleanery, stood still and stared at the busker. It was hard to tell if he was enjoying the music. He looked gob-smacked, as if he had never seen such a thing before.
And it's been a few weeks since the school was featured so here's one of the steel pan groups performing during the latter part of the parent/teacher evening. The big guy, by the way, is the steel pan teacher filling in for an absentee.
1 comment:
I was glad to see Manuel V performing.
I met him many years ago when I was a student of violin, through friends Nan and Otto Hooper.
Post a Comment