Prolude: I just had the urge to put into writing some expressions concerning some special pieces of music. For me this is going in a different direction from our escapades in the Motherland. In fact Scotland is hardly mentioned but don't worry I'll compensate for that in the next blog.

10. Schubert: 9th Symphony first movement- Andante

Shubert's 9th is one of the glories of music- sweeping power, beauty and grace mesh together and go forward in a honeyed smoothness. Right from the opening theme in E major played by two horns, you know you're in for a heartwarming musical journey. The main theme later breaks out in the Cellos, this reminds us how Schubert's melodies harness the sheer beauty of music! Not just the intervals but the layering and textures make a Schubert tune utterly heartbreaking. The melody makes it's final appearance at the end of the movement and it is as if  time is in suspended animation while every note is thoroughly explored.

9. Brahms: 2nd Symphony first movement- Allegro non troppo

Brahms seems to mix light and dark more than any other composer it's like being in a Piano lesson and not being able to identify whether your Teacher is playing a piece in a major or minor key. It works to good effect though, this piece just strokes the soul. A languid flow with a lyrically rhapsodic pastiche. It comes it goes it blooms it dies and then it blooms again. Suffused with warmth and underpinned by a sunny sparkling instrumentation. I think you will fall in love with it.

8. Delius: Florida Suite, first movement- Daybreak

 Delius did for music what Monet did for Art. He was unique, there was no composer like Delius before him and there has been none like him since. In this piece Delius uses layers of orchestral sound akin to a pallet of colours, the result, he evokes time, place and even atmosphere. In this movement a glorious sunrise is musically painted right in front of your very ears! The impressionism and communicative power is extraordinary, don't miss the tinkle of woodwind representing birdsong, lovely detail. It's a piece perhaps especially enjoyed at the onset of Spring, with Summer to look forward to, where everything is clean and fresh.

7. Mozart: 20th Piano Concerto, second movement- Romanza

Hearing this makes me wish I could play the Piano. You will soon find yourself swooning in and out of a musical consciousness with this piece of vintage Mozart. There is an irresistible forward momentum here that is very playful, a bit like a cat with a ball of string rolling down the stairs! The Cat is the orchestra and the ball of string is the Piano. The interplay between the two is delicate and charming. Hard to believe that Mozart knocked it up only a couple of days before it was due to be performed! The only negative aspect of this work is that it was Joseph Stalin's favourite piece.

6. Dvorak: 5th Symphony, first movement- Allegro ma non troppo

As in many of his works, Dvorak distills the very essence of his Czech homeland, you can just imagine walking down a dusty farm track at 5:00 a.m on a summer's morning to start work. Overall the piece has a wholesome jollity and a silky poise  but that gorgeous repeated  phrase on the horn definitely brings out some melancholic tendencies. Just close your eyes and visualise yourself in the lush Czech countryside.

5. Schubert: String Quintet, second movement- Adagio

The veil between heaven and earth is pretty thin on this one. One of the rare occasions when Schubert marks a piece as 'adagio' normally he went for 'andante'. This cannot be played too slowly. A soulful cello singing over a sustained flow of music. Occasional pizzicato punctuates the soothing whimsicality only to add a dynamic grace to the overall seated texture. Schubert is coming at you from another level with this one, music really doesn't get any more beautiful than this. Written in the last year of his life when he knew he was not going to recover from Syphilis. The music of Angels.

4. Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves

It isn't really a Fantasia at all, its an orchestration of two English folk songs, okay 'Fantasia' sounds better. Listen to those descriptive flute passages, the quintessence of the English countryside is wonderfully portrayed in this, one of the loveliest melodies in English music. Lush strings, delicate strains on the harp, just like a Wren foraging in your hedge or a Robin landing in your Apple tree. It's one you will keep coming back to time and again.

Heartbeat country

3. Schubert: 8th Symphony, second movement- Andante con moto

What Schubert again! Well he is my favourite Composer. He comes at you direct with this one, a stout marching theme that is thankfully repeated but doesn't come back a third time leaving perhaps a sense of regret and sadness. The march doesn't quite seem to know when to end before the wind section takes full control. It makes me think of plodding down a snow clad Scottish hill after spending a couple of days in the mountains but now looking forward to getting holed up around a roaring fire and having a few pints! Whatever it will sweep you off your feet, but hopefully not off the haystack.

The Saddle, Glen Shiel. Scottish Highlands

2. Beethoven: 6th Symphony, second movement- By the brook.

Play this wonderful work and here first hand the joyful cry of nature's voice! Maybe a an assortment of birds in tall trees surrounding a still lake. the clouds are reflected in it's placid depths, butterflies flit about and you can still here the running water of the cellos. Brimming with gentle prosaic beauty, there is clearly an expression of feeling embodied in this music. Cellos, bassoons, flutes, clarinets, oboe all competing yet all make their statement in a memorable synergy.

1. Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis

This really is a Fantasia! Personally it evokes scenes and memories of the Norfolk countryside and the Lincolnshire Wolds. A sublime Pastoral work in which a bucolic paradise emanates from every bar. There seems to be a call and response theme going on in the string section to good effect but this produces a magnificent hushed relaxation fairly early on in the piece, where the cellos take up the main theme, this will bring you out in goose bumps and make every nerve in your body bristle with energy! That is if you're not asleep on the haystack yet!

Postlude: The inspiration for these ramblings comes from a friend of mine who really does fall asleep on haystacks listening to music Andy, sorry  'and he'  wouldn't mind me mentioning that however far be it for me to divulge pertinent details. So the next time you're driving around the Lincolnshire Wolds look out for someone asleep onn a haystack, it might be him!

I read this blog to this random couple on a train and they really enjoyed it . . .I think!

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Adieux, Mild Mark x