Elsie's Column

  August 2005 - Nigel on my Mind........

I miss him ! I arrived back in Canada on June 22nd and here we are almost at the end of July. And I still miss him ! This is Nigel I’m talking about, in case you hadn’t figured that out by now. Actually, I sort of miss Taro Takeuchi too………..could it be that I’ve fallen in love with him as well? It could be, you know………everybody else is in love with him, so why not me ? I’m quite resigned to missing Nigel and Taro, then, if only it stopped there. But it doesn’t ! Heaven help me, I’m finding that I miss the Polish Chamber Orchestra too……….yes, all of them ! I spend my time googling them, looking for pictures and coming up with just one picture and that’s so out of date I don’t even find the ones I’m looking for on it ! Like Jakub Haufa. Would you believe that there’s only one picture of Kuba on Google and that must have been taken when he was a mere boy ?...... nothing more recent than that. Although if you look at Nicky’s pictures at La Seyne, you can get a glimpse of him in profile……….he’s the concertmaster, on the left. Why do I want to look at pictures of him ? Is that what you’re wondering ? Well, he’s a great violinist, he’s more than a match for Nigel when Nigel gets bantering with him, he’s terminally cute…………oh, dear ! It sounds to me as if I’m falling in love with him too, doesn’t it ? I think I’d better cut back on the tai chi a bit………..I think I’m nourishing the chi a little too much !!!! My vital energy is getting the better of me. Oh, well. Maybe I’d better try to think about something else ?

It’s no good………I keep coming back to the Polish Chamber Orchestra. I start thinking about the door I happened to notice…………in Amsterdam, I think it was……….with a sign on it saying ‘KENNEDY’S TOILET.’ I was standing there staring at it when one of the members of the orchestra walked by and saw me. ‘Nigel gets his own private toilet ?’ I ask, somewhat bemused. My friend from the orchestra smiles. ‘Yes,’ he says. ‘Spectacular toilet !’ I absorb this information and then suggest, ‘For spectacular shit ?’ We both smile at each other. See what I mean about this orchestra ? And they play like angels straight from heaven too ! And no, the word ‘shit’ isn’t swearing (I refuse to write sh*t, the way some reviewers do !)……………..I’ve given up swearing, as you well know. It may not be the most lady-like word in the lexicon, but it has a very respectable etymology in Old English and it means exactly what it says, so it’s NOT swearing and you can all stop planning to make a TV mini-series about the fact that I used it !

I’m getting a lovely warm glow reading about the reactions of the French to the series of concerts Nigel gave there at the beginning of the month. Christian01 called the concert he attended ‘unforgettable’ and confessed that he and his friend were ‘dazzled by [Nigel’s] incandescent playing.’ He was also impressed by how approachable Nigel is, how he took the time to speak to each and every one of the people waiting for autographs…… ‘c’est un grand monsieur,’ was how he summed it up. Nigel the gentleman……….not how he usually gets described, but how perceptive of Christian and his friend to notice it !! Henk Labi was at Draguignan and classified his experience as ‘sublime,’ ‘unbelievable.’ He also has some advice for any of us who are swallowing Prozac pills……….throw them away, guys, and buy a copy of ‘Vivaldi II’………….it’s all you need to make you feel good and so dynamic ! And then there’s Discerning Reader, who doesn’t want us to know who he/she is, possibly because he/she is supposed to be reading things instead of goofing off and listening to Nigel play Vivaldi! But anyway, he (let’s settle for a guy, shall we ?) really enjoys it. . ‘This is Vivaldi on steroids,’ he writes, ‘and we get the sense that he would have absolutely LOVED it !’ He demands to know ‘who says classical music can’t rock ?’ for what he heard is ‘another outstanding proof that Vivaldi rocks (Thanks to Kennedy)’ Discerning Reader also thinks that Nigel sounds more like a young Eric Clapton than a classical violinist (I wonder what a classical violinist is supposed to sound like ??)………but I’m getting way out of my depth here, so we’ll leave it at that, shall we ?

There is apparently something called the Mercury Music Prize, which is awarded annually for the best in British music, all genres included. This year, there has been a surprise nomination of a musician called Seth Lakeman, who ‘made his CD Kitty Jay for just £300 around the kitchen at his cottage on Dartmoor.’ This album ‘was inspired by the mysteries and legends of Dartmoor …..and last year he launched it in front of prisoners at Dartmoor jail.’ The songs retell ‘ancient folktales from the moors, including the story of the fresh flowers that appear every morning on the grave of a servant girl who committed suicide.’ Well, he sounds like a really interesting person, doesn’t he ? What he’s doing in this column, which is supposed to be about Nigel, is probably not abundantly clear to you at this point, is it ? Just listen to what Simon Frith has to say about him, though.

‘He’s a singer-songwriter interested in folk traditions and an incredible violin player. He sounds like a demented Nigel Kennedy.’

A demented Nigel ? Oh, wow ! The mind boggles. What in the world does this guy sound like, then ? I am going to have to acquire his CD and hear it for myself………although judging by the way non-demented Nigel himself affects me, I think I’m going to need someone to hold my hand while I listen to it !! Volunteers ? if your initials are NK, you take precedence over all the others !

Actually, some people need to have their hands held while they are listening to Nigel…….or so it would seem. Christopher Morley went to the Elgar-Mlynarski concert at Symphony Hall in Birmingham and appears to have had a somewhat harrowing time of it. For one thing, he didn’t like the way Nigel was dressed……. ‘part-punk, part gypsy-style,’ he calls it. I don’t know what he would have said if Nigel had been wearing his pants with the patch in quite the wrong place, do you ? He also did not like Nigel’s boots………he calls them ‘bovver-boots’……..( Is that really what they are? They don’t look like the bovver boots I remember from the days when I lived in England !)…..and says that ‘they added their own rhythmic punctuation whenever he stamped around the performing area (which was often.)’ Mr. Morley was also upset because the audience applauded between movements, and Nigel didn’t storm off the stage in disgust, he actually ‘clenched his fists in right-on gestures and grinned complacently – even after a searing, soul-baring account of the Elgar Violin Concerto’s opening movement, with two more to go.’ And yes………..there we have it, don’t we ?......... ‘a searing, soul-baring account.’ Nigel’s music speaks for itself. Mr. Morley has to grant that

‘his tone is rich and multi-coloured, his bowing is biting and fluid, his insight into the music is other-worldly…………..the Elgar was wonderfully delivered, culminating in a finale where the epic cadenza, stunningly conveyed, spoke worlds in its regretfulness and longing.’

But what Mr. Morley calls Nigel’s ‘razzmatazz’ is too much for him. Pity. It’s part of what makes Nigel who he is, as far as I am concerned. I laugh at Nigel’s concerts, I cry at Nigel’s concerts……….they are a real emotional workout for me, and I love them all. Perhaps Mr. Morley should take up tai chi?

Do you recall that a month or so ago, I told you that I was listening to Nigel’s original recording of ‘The Four Seasons?’ Well, here’s a chance to hear and see a clip of Nigel talking about the piece way back then and playing part of ‘Autumn.’ Just CLICK and then sit back and enjoy !

Oh, to be so innocent again !

Till September.
Elsie


NOTE: I'm sorry about that link, guys ! When I put it on, it was working fine.......I'm going to leave it........you might want to try it now and again. You never know....it might start working again !