Liza Picard’s Victorian London book quotes the following advice for elegant young ladies: “Playing the violin-cello is of course out of the question, while the violin, while not so openly obscene, necessitates an awkward position of the head and neck which is not recommended.”
Today, it is difficult to imagine anything more elegant than stringed instruments – or more beautiful to hear. The low notes make you weep and the high notes make you shiver.
CJ and I saw a fantastic (and free) performance last Saturday – and the most surprising part was that most of the participants were around fifteen years old. They played with stunning precision, having received extremely rigorous extra tutoring from the Australian Youth Orchestra’s exclusive program – leading to the laughable understatement, “They’ve worked very hard all this week.”
Kids these days!
The musical director was Yoram Levy, and this is the list of pieces played:
CPE BACH Symphony for Strings in Bb, WQ.182, No.2
DVORAK Two Waltzes for strings arr. from piano, B101 & B105
BRITTEN Simple Symphony (written at age ten)
DAG WIREN Serenade, Op.11
GRAINGER Molly on the Shore
I made a short video from that night:
PS Today’s Miscellaneous Monday has been switched with Tuesday’s Daily Awesomeness (which you’ve just read). Tomorrow you’ll be reading a short story that I think you’ll enjoy (which I definitely don’t say about all my short stories). It’s a 500-word murder mystery.
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