Dreaming of Freedom » Music

Kettle’s Yard and the Fitzwilliam – Riley, Vermeer and Redouté

Suzi — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:10:21 +0000

There is a super Bridget Riley exhibition on at Kettle’s Yard – be warned your head will be spinning! Kettle’s Yard is the place to be as term has started again there are the usual lunchtime concerts to look forward to.

The current exhibitions at the Fitzwilliam are a must – Vermeer’s Women: Secrets and Silence and Flower Drawings: Redouté and his Pupils. The Vermeer exhibition has the The Lacemaker on loan to the UK for the first time ever. The painting has a dream like quality to it – so clear and yet when you look again it seems the lines and features are elusively slipping from distinctness.

Gareth Rowan gets ‘em dancin’

Suzi — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:45:15 +0000

I spent the evening dancin’ – yes really dancin’. I just couldn’t help it – Gareth Rowan was playing in the Buttery at Homerton College and it was toe tapping good. At first the feet went, then the heads and after a few minutes people were up and dancing. You just couldn’t keep them down – there was bopping and bouncing, jingling and jiving, wiggling and walking, laughter and talking. There was hand holding, hand waving, twists and turns and a whole lota whistles and cheers. At one point people got so excited that for sheer joy they did the Conga! I don’t know how he does it but Gareth can sure make ‘em dance! Yee ha!

Swamp Truck – Weird name – Awesome band

Suzi — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 10:57:34 +0000

Spent a very pleasant day eating cucumber sandwiches and supping tomato soup with K who was up in Cambridge for the day.
Met up with Nic in the evening and we ended up in the Portland Arms birthday celebrating with Andy from Swamp Truck and the rest of the band. Someone get these guys some gigs in Cambridge – I’ve been listening to them online and they are awesome. Nic introduced me to the music room at the Portland and we had ourselves a time listening to a couple of acoustic artists. The Portland has a full gig calendar which you should be sure to check out if you love the music.

Gareth Rowan

Suzi — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:27:12 +0000

Gareth is a dark horse indeed – turns out he is an all singing all dancing kind of teacher. Check him out at garethrowan.com.

A brief sojourn in Paris

Suzi — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:32:14 +0000

I did spend all of Saturday and Sunday eating French bread and drinking red wine and it was as good as I imagined. I also discovered a liking for espresso after our trip to Paris on Monday. We caught the very convenient train from Maisse to Paris – it took about 1 hour 20 mins and brought us right into the centre. After dropping our stuff off in a borrowed student room in Cité Universitaire – we headed for the Louvre. The Louvre was so much bigger than I remember and absolutely crammed full of people. Anyone lucky enough to be under 26 gets in for free otherwise it costs a cool €9.50 for entrance to the main exhibitions. I saw the usual things one has to see and a few more besides. It feels like you need a lifetime to look at everything.
Paris prices make the entrance to the Louvre look reasonable. A typical cappuccino costs around €6, hence my sudden liking for espresso at a cheaper €2.
After all the culture I’d crammed down my throat, we munched an expensive croque-monsieur at the Hotel du Louvre which was calm and peaceful after the hustle of the streets.
After a walk through the Tuileries we found some Velib bikes and after registering we cycled round for an hour or so. They are cheap to use and in good condition. The first 30 minutes are free so if you know where you are going it’s a great way to get around Paris. We didn’t really know where we were going and it took us an hour to find our way to Notre Dame. Check out the system and the prices on wikipedia. Compared to a single ticket on the metro priced at €1.60 it seems like the best and cleanest way to get around Paris.
After only 24 hours in Paris K went off to Umeå to present a paper on captive designers and I came back to see Half Man Half Biscuit play at The Junction in Cambridge.

Furse and White charm the audience at the Fitz

Suzi — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:03:37 +0000

Mike and I walked along the waterlogged path to the FitzWilliam – I just can’t get enough of the place. I can get enough of this rain though. It’s been raining for about a week now and today the river was high and muddy. Parts of the river bank near the boat houses were flooded which added a touch of excitement to the walk. We got to the Fitz in time to hear Edward Furse and Craig White playing the cello and piano. They played some wonderful music by Dvorak and Chopin which made for divine listening. There is nothing as nice as to stand in Gallery 3 on a Sunday afternoon listening to the music and imagining the people in the portraits hearing it and what thoughts and feelings it would stir in them. Afterwards Mike and I sat on a bench discussing the problems of mass manipulation if in the hands of the mass media and the giant corporations – we felt like teenagers again – knowing all the answers!

Samuel Queen at the FitzWilliam

Suzi — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:14:18 +0000

I cycled along the tow path into Cambridge just for fun today and it’s so much nicer when you’re not on your way to work. I went to the FitzWilliam to go to the lunchtime concert. Today Samuel Queen was singing and Stephen Rose was playing the piano. Queen has a wonderful voice that stirs you up inside and lifts that part inside your chest that only music can get to – the audience sat transfixed by the sheer beauty of the singing. Afterwards I just wandered around the medieval/early modern art part of the museum until the religious aspect got too much for me and then I ventured out into the rain which is always a bit of a dampener to come out into. This afternoon I’ve been enjoying the luxury of doing nothing – in preparation for the next week’s work.

Joe Button plays to crowds on the Southbank

Suzi — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:21:31 +0000

For all you music lovers in London you should check out Joe Button playing guitar with Anna Mudeka on Sunday at the Southbank Centre in London.

Art and music with Emi and Paul Neale

Suzi — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:16:39 +0000

The last few days have been full of art and music. I finally got Emi’s cd and have been listening to it all evening. Emi rocks. Check out her latest tracks on Fairtilizer. I spent some time looking at Paul Neale’s pictures – you’d never know from his troubled paintings he was an amazing wit.
Then to add a bit of joy to my own life I went out and brought a guitar. A week of practicing on Tim’s left handed one probably did me no end of good but I felt it was time to splash out. The tips of my fingers are numb and this makes typing a real problem so I’m hoping the sacrifice of my nerve endings is worth it in the end.

Sargeant and Taylor at FitzWilliam

Suzi — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:28:39 +0000

I went to hear Chris Sarjeant and Benedict Taylor at the FitzWilliam on Sunday. The Sunday music concerts are really nice – nothing quite like sitting in an art gallery listening to gentle music. Sargeant and Taylor are folk musicians … Continue reading →