on a warm summer evening (over 30°C
so naturally I was naked, protected
by a cotton napkin)
I was sitting down to dinner
(spinach omelette with grilled baby
artichokes, and a Gaillac Perlé wine)
timed to be accompanied by
a live performance of my All-time Favourite
"piece of music" on the BBC - the beyond-orgasmic
Violin Concerto of Sibelius - and was somewhat dismayed
at the lack of balls and brilliance and brio...
until I remembered to put in my hearing-aids.
It was perhaps my All-time Favourite
performance (on radio, cassette or on CD)
since I heard Ida Händl perform it
(also at The Proms and on the radio)
electrifyingly at least thirty years ago.
Alena Baeva (violin)
ReplyDeleteRoyal Northern Sinfonia
Dinis Sousa (conductor)
[from her website]
ReplyDeleteBorn in Kyrgyzstan with Slavic-Tatar ancestry, Baeva took her first violin lessons at the age of
five under renowned pedagogue Olga Danilova in Kazakhstan before studying with
Professor Eduard Grach in Russia. She also took lessons with Mstislav Rostropovich, Boris
Garlitsky, and Shlomo Mintz, and took part in the Seiji Ozawa International Academy
Switzerland, focused on string quartet repertoire. Naturalised Luxembourgish, Alena Baeva
has resided in Luxembourg since 2010.