The organist librarian

Tuesday blood test at surgery cancelled, Mass. Henry to Whitgift centre softplay and he loved it. The works could not trace order. Bank and Post Office. Quiet time and 2 new people there. Clapham picturehouse  Fabulous Queen of Spades from ROH. Wonderful singing and production. The chorus Wow! Dame Felicity Palmer, Westbrook, Stoyanov and stand-in tenor, Pappano on great form. My tweet about the coup de theatre at the end of first part appeared on the screen! I love the idea of the posh audience standing for the arrival of the "Empress"! Sat next to Biddy Spidir chair! Wed up early for blood test at Mayday, swam only 4 in pool and sauna, Mass. Went to see Mary Queen of Scots slightly disappointed not historically accurate or easy to follow. Brilliant acting. Popped into St Mary's Clapham for the first time. Fine Seacole statue outside St Thomas hospital. Excellent champagne tea at the library Marriott County hall. Had a lot to drink and hunky fireman from Tampa and his p...

Met Henry and family at the new playground at the lake - you can play music! I went off the Mass St Maximilain Kolbe. Greenwich picture House for 2007 Met Eugene Onegin conducted by Gergiev. Renee Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky (what a loss he was) fab acting and singing, loved the bare sets. And the tenor Ramon Vargas was moving and impressive. Had a good meal at Imperial College Union and the discussion on ecstasy was fascinating. Barenboim added Eugene Onegin polonaise and violin concerto changed to Tchaikovsky. I brought the Brahms score as that was in the prospectus. Very well played. East West divan orchestra.Hamilton too long and never heard a single word! Scriabin was impressively loud well done the brass.  12.30 Mass at Chiswick for the Assumption. Carluccios in Chiswick is shut so we had an excellent meal at Kitchen and Pantry. Sean enjoyed his icecream. Discovered we had managed to leave the keys inside the house so got a locksmith who eventually changed the loc...

To Balham library to get scores. Greenwich Picturehouse for the repeat of #ROHswanlake which is just gorgeous. Beautiful production, dancing, costumes, sets and the music!! The Great British seaside at the National Maritime museum is fun! South Norwood community festival free concert by the excellent Edge Ensemble- Turina, Alwyn, Janacek, Poulenc, Glinka and Haydn. It was delightful - who needs a comedy festival when you have Haydn! The South Norwood con club is run down. Great to see Judy and Nick. I saw Julie on the train this morning. 

First the crisis with the cleaner and the comments after choral evensong on Sunday, then having to cancel to talk on dementia awareness in November and great unhappiness over that, then Sheikh Ramzy cancels October 18th talk so woe! Trying to get another speaker. On the plus side encouragment at Belmont from the group and George, a kind email from Philip explaining things in a better way and now this morning a delightful coffee and cake concert by the London Mozart Players sextet at St John's. Mozart Divertimento and Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence what a joy and a large audience. The wit and the passing of melodies from cello to violin - a delight. Nancy is 93. Ian is coming tomorrow and so is Fr Andrew. Hovering around 30/40 at the moment. We got home at 6.45 last night and I collected Bruce at 9.45 at East Croydon - great to have him home. He has gone to Louise's. Collected the cake from Alena in Tooting and it is a triumph!  German choir from Bernkastel at Mass sang Pales...

Played poco adagio and Finale from organ symphony of Saint-Saens. Have been trying some Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Bruch and The Swan. Not sure I would play the latter at a service and some interesting Face Book comments about that.  Mass at St Mary's much better without Fr Michael rabbiting on. But the priest never introduced himself  and spoke about who Jesus is!  Just listening to the repeat of Christiane Karg Cadogan Hall prom - glorious voice but the diction is not great. Heard the rest of the Peckham garage prom including Bantock and Whitley.  Nearly gave the prom tonight a miss as lunch in the garden was so pleasant but glad we went for the Cincinatti SO Prom debut in Bernstein, Copland and Tchaikovsky 5. Brass in stunning form, great strings. I think they loved playing that music at the Prom! Interesting talk on Lincoln. Wierd journey home 452 tube and fast to Selhurst which said it was not stopping there but it did! What Tchaikovsky say to two young men kiss...

Mass and art. Interfaith lunch was enjoyable and had a good chat about truth to Fr David walking to our cars. Went to Battersea to collect mosaics in the mddle of bingo. Decided to park at Selhurst.  A really unpleasant 52 bus ride to the hall. Woman in front of me put purse up to pay and said the man in front of her is with me. She then argued with the black driver and was very rude to him and other passengers. In the end the driver drove off and the man got a free ride but the driver should have called 999 and had them both arrested as the man kept on talking to him when he was driving which is dangerous. I have reported to tfl and praised the driver for keeping calm and polite under extreme provocation. Had I been quicker I would have discretely videoed the incident on my mobile phone.  Super Tchaik 6 and well done Mena for ignoring applause and going on into 4th movement. Not happy with Mark Simpson interesting talk but not to be able to hear a single word in a choral wor...

Spoke to  Bruce Woodhouse  and  Dennis Woodhouse .Caught up on Iplayer San Paolo orchestra prom. It seems BBC4 changed so Mozart from memory not recorded but the other Mozart prom did record!  Served at Mass and got to the Prom in time for the amazing new work and Tchaikovsky 4. Watched Bake off extra! CBSO new conductor is very dynamic. Barbara Hannigan has an amazing voice. 

To Balham library after swim for scores. To Bedford Park but no organ duet recital as organ no. 2 not ready. Mass at cathedral and saw Mary Cullen. Welcoming busy and Edward Tambling playing for wedding. Bride came in to Saint Saens 3!  I saw Grace.  Interesting preProm with Helen Grime and BBC Scottish under Thomas Dausgaard. Watching it later on TV Pekka Kuusisto came over so well better than in the hall I think. Improvisatory approach worked.  Home in an hour - pity Liz missed it - two evenings running train problems.  Rosa is back! I reckon the Grime piece was composed on a filthy Scottish day. Interesting to hear Petrushka again having seen the Haitink film. 

We really enjoyed "Eddie the eagle". I went to the National Portrait gallery Russian show - great to see Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky,Dostoevsky portraits. Catenian provincial executive group at Swanley. Cancelled dinner dance and quiet day - nil response! Watched canal journey in Sweden, steam locos and Pathe news.

Galilee painting delivered to go to Bishop of Kingston's office. New watch battery (had a nice chat to the jeweller who is an organist) ears syringed, yellowfever injection at Trailfinders clinic.  Scores returned to Balham and bought ear drops. The BBC proms poetry winners were great.   An excellent Prom the St Petersburg phil with Temirkanov playing Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Elgar and Stravinsky. Wednesday Sean in good humour and he enjoyed Snakes and Ladders. We had lunch there and Liz spent the day at school. The evensong at St John's to celebrate the Queen becoming the longest reigning British monarch was great with a good sermon from Colin Boswell. Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Parry and Handel. Why we had to have Ives at the end is beyond me! Wine and nibbles - Martin was there. 40 singers. 

Tuesday swam 24. To AgeUK for hearing aid clinic. The lady was late and there was one lady before me who had a mould problem so I thought I would miss the start of the opera. She gave me keep dry tubes but I have to ask the hospital for thicker ones. I parked at Selhurst and by train and tube got to Hackney picturehouse just in time. Gergiev conducted Iolanta by Tchaikovsky and Duke Bluebeard's castle in extraordinary productions by a Polish film director. The opening of the fourth door was extrordinary. Anna Netrebko was great as were all the singers. This is definitely the best cinema for opera as it is smaller although I could not see at all when I came in! To Acton and we had pancakes. Watched Inside the House of Commons. 

The Archdeacon Paul Wright led family eucharist - one child out of 18 present! He gave an excellent sermon on his job and resolving disputes in parishes. Hope John was listening! Bill raised the question of the Big lunch clash with first organ recital next June. I did raise this initially and did not get an answer. I played Darke on Brother James air, Andrew Moore and Karg-Elert Nun danket for our ruby wedding. We did sing The summons. Straight to St Paul's cathedral via Waterloo for Graham Usher's talk on Places of enchantment finding God in nature. He was vicar of Hexham and is now Bishop of Dudley. He spoke a lot about mountains. I commented that Peter would have whipped out his Blackberry at the Transfiguration as we live in a recording age. I also said the liturgy needs to convey something of the grandeur of God and he advocated more silence. It was most interesting.  Of all the wonderful places I have seen very seldom was I alone. The 3.30 prom featured the Qatar philhar...

Tuesday did not swim and had a lie-in - miserable weather. Completed 2 paintings while watching CBeebies Prom - saw Mia and listened to Prom of Kiss me Kate which was excellent. To talk on Brahms. Budapest Festival orchestra under Ivan Fischer played Brahms 3 and 4 superbly. Saw Peter Stevens. The late Prom was Gardiner conducting Missa Solemnis with Monteverdi choir and period instruments. Some of it was far too fast, one generally got the feeling the pros had no idea what they were singing about. What soft passages we got were not expressivo at all. The soprano solosit was squally and the bass (Matthew Rose) sounded angry and a bit like Pizzarro. Tenor and alto soloists were fine. Met Revd Michael Bourdeaux on the bus briefly and got a taxi from East Acton. Wednesday took the boys o the Osterley Park trail and they enjoyed the logs and den and swings. To the garden centre for lunch and soft play. Tom came home early so we got bus and tube to Liverpool street in good time for the 7 ...

Watched Matthew Bourne's version on TV - very well done! Woke up early as had to be up at 6 to take EJ and Bruce to station. They should be home by 10.15.

Had a lie-in. To see Fr Paul to discuss Sept 29th. Treasurer has gone - hurrah! He was talking of doing away with the psalm which I think would be a pity. Any way I am appreciated. Had nice cakes with coffee. He was very relaxed in shorts. To Hackney picture house on overground to see 'Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach' and it was very well done. I got to the hall before Liz who had been packing for the weekend and baking cakes. Joseph Calleja gave us some Verdi arias with ringing tone and the Milan orchestra did well in Tchaikovsky Manfred. Came home and listened to Schubert pianos prom on radio. Printed off fliers for recitals. Met Linda who told me about the Met.

Tuesday swam 20. To King's college hospital and X-ray and dentist advised a denture to fill gaps at top on both sides. Anythign else would be a waste of money! I was seen quickly. To talk on Bruckner - my question to the current organist of St Florian never got asked - do they have Bruckner's scores anf annotations to Bach and any comments on the the Albert Hall organ? Beethoven and Bruckner 4th well played by Petrenko and Oslo philharmonic. Lat night prom David Hill conducting Boy was born and George Lloyd requiem. To Acton and there by midnight. Wed had a lie-in. Ciaran's friend came to play and I took Sean to the park for a coffee. I also looked after him in the afternoon and he was good as gold! To swimming but the class was too big and Ciaran not happy although he is very confident in the water. To pre Prom meeting with Roger Wright, Petroc and Chris Cotton. I got to ask my question about better lighting in the gallery (agreed!) seating fixed down and asking people to...

Swam 20 before I went I rang Nicky and she confirmed I am invited to do the spiritual direction course every 2nd Friday for 2 years at St Matthew's - very pleased. I rang Sr Campion and told her. To mosaic and tai chi - progress very good on badge 1 although it is fiddly. To Balham library - traib developed technical fault ar Clapham Junction so all off and to platform 13. Mysteriously the train move doff and we came back to platform 15 to board another train. Stir fry then off to PreProm on Edward Cowie - his music is attractive. I particularly like the marimba piece inspired by painitng of canyon in Oz. The concert conducted by Noseda was good -  an ideal prom - Borodin, Prokofiev, Cowie and Tchaikovsky 2. I got wet going as had sandals and shorts on! Man gave me 2 books on meditation as a result of our conversations.

Woke up too early - still have Wagner on the brain! Swam 20 - the pool was busy! To British Library to finish what could be looked up there. Shopped at M & S St Pancras and got the train back to East Croydon. Arrived early at St Matthew's but the caretaker let me in. 3 ladies interviewed me about undertaking the spiritual direction course over years on 2nd Fridays. Went well.  I had bought flowers and chocs for Liz for the 39th anniversary tomorrow. Put shopping away and then off to the preProm talk with the composer Naresh Sohal. We heard string quartet extracts and an attractive song. John East gave me some details for the reunion yearbook.The commissioned by Sohal was attractive. Rachmaninov Piano concerto no. 3 very well played by Nikolai Lugansky but the miniature score was very small. I was drooping for Tchaikovsky 5th. Finished late but we were home by midnight. Apparently the young man we met last night is Nicholas and he is to study organ at the Academy and be scholar...

Sunday took Bruce to the station with his boxed up screen and clothes. It was good to see him. We went to the Prom and the pre-Prom talk with composer Sean Shepherd and a discussion on the Jewish influences on Shostakovich. Excellent playing from the National Youtb Orchestra of the United States of America who have been in Russia. Gergiev conducted Tchaikovsky violin concerto with Joshua Bell and a lovely Brahms encore and Shostakovich 10. Monday to mosaic and started on the St John's badge pair and tai chi. To dentist for a checkup and clean and straight to the hall. Excellent pre-Prom talk and Rheingold superby conducted by Barenboim. We had raffle tickets in the queue! Got my usual seat and the lady next to me had a weekly season for the prom costing £42. Trains delayed so came via Norwood Junction and bus. Rain!!! 

Helped Liz with Power point about interfaith group. Practised Bach on piano for Sunday and started to play Britten "Death in Venice" score. Nice dinner of sweet potato and carrot. Enjoyed Eugene Onegin from ROH on BBC4 with Simon Keenleyside - an interesting production which is one I really wanted to see. Dennis rang in the middle of it about Bruce staying here rather than at Glyn Close. Booked for Zauberflote on student scheme and La Boheme on two for one scheme. Still have not decided about cinema membership. Come dine with me and Pagans and Pilgrims.