The South Bank Show, Semyon Bychkov/Musbook.com

End of an era. It was my bread and butter for twelve years and I loved it. Melvyn was a good boss even though I never stopped feeling slightly intimidated by him, more my problem than his. He was very fair, constructive and encouraging who allowed us to take risks. I badgered him for weeks about this exciting young jazz pianist called Jamie Cullum. Eventually he came round to the idea even though ITV was breathing down his neck about ratings. But he really went with it, capturing the zeitgeist as he so often did and was rewarded with very good viewing figures. That and many other fond memories were rudely cut short after reading the vitriolic comments about him and the show on the Guardian's website today. God almighty, what did Melvyn ever do to poor old Guardian readers?

My first head to head interview for Musbook.com today. I interviewed Semyon Bychkov, currently conducting Lohengrin at ROH. Excellent speaker who thankfully doesn't do pompousness like other 'maestros'. Great insights into the world of a conductor. The finished result should appear on the musbook.com tv channel early next month.

Coraline

Based on Neil Gaiman's book of the same name, this treat of a movie centres around a little girl called Coraline. Lonely and unimpressed with her new home, not to mention her non-communicative parents, she is lead into another world behind a disused door where all the wrongs of her current situation are made right. Or so we think...

It's an intelligent, understated handling of the story by director Henry Selick which brings to mind Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are and the more recent Pan's Labyrinth. As ever, Coraline conquers the challenges set before her but not before many a scary encounter. The fact that this film is in brilliant 3D only adds to its beautiful dreamlike vibrancy. Terrific.

Lohengrin/ROH

This 1977 production at the ROH is suitably Teutonic, thankfully lacking those silly visuals that so often plague Wagner operas. Musically too this was a a glorious account of Lohengrin, the conductor Semyon Bychkov drawing out immaculate playing from the ROH band. Good cast, even those suffering from chest infections who held their own stunningly well in the circumstances. Johan Botha's buttery tenor was well supported by the rising star Edith Haller as Elsa while the magnificent Petra Lang snarled and sneered away as the evil Ortrud.

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela/RFH

London's media were out in force at the RFH first thing today to welcome the Bolivars to their long awaited residency at the South Bank. Not surprisingly, since they have been lauded almost non-stop since their Proms debut two years ago, the Simon Bolivar open rehearsal this morning was packed to the rafters. As big a draw is their chief conductor Gustavo Dudemal who ran through Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4. Fortunately (or not) Dudemal didn't rehearse them that much, a bit of tinkering with the balance here and there but otherwise the lucky old audience were treated to pretty much a complete rendition of the work. It's an impressive sound; what you're getting is two orchestras for the price of one since most of the positions are doubled up. This made the symphony's opening brass fanfares even more blistering than usual, almost brash if I'm honest. But there's no question this is one hell of a band that really does live up to the hype.

The success of what the Venezuelans call El Sistema, the project that feeds the Simon Bolivar orchestra, has got a lot of tongues wagging about our own music education system. What slightly depresses me, and others I spoke to, is that we talk about introducing El Sistema here as though we don't have (or did have, depending on where you live) a thoroughly good structure in place through our own music authorities. I'm all for El Sistema being rolled out here, as it already is in Scotland but a decent music authority should be doing - and in many cases is doing - many of the same things El Sistema is famed for. Perhaps we'll notice this a bit more once our love-in with the Venezuelans is over.

South Bank Show/Messiah (8)

Here's something on the above in yesterday's Telegraph:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/rupert_christiansen/blog/2009/04/06/messiah__heart_and_soul_of_middle_england

The South Bank Show/Messiah (7)

Earlier than expected, a short preview on the above makes its way into Norman Lebrecht's column in the Standard.

http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/090325-NL-England.html

Delighted of course but I'm not sure I agree with Norman that the film is disturbing. Despite all the changes that have taken place in Britain, not least Yorkshire - the focus of this film - the Messiah tradition appears to be as strong now as it has ever has been. Certainly the link between singing with a choir and the church has changed but as the very secular Sacred Wing choir from Leeds reminds us, the Messiah is a work that can be enjoyed by everyone these days. Actually, I think there's an argument for it being done too much. Anyway, judge for yourself. It goes out Easter Sunday on ITV.

Stephen Hough/RFH, The Sixteen/QEH, The Grand Union Orchestra/Hackney Empire

An eclectic old week. Starting with Sat last with the dapper British pianist Stephen Hough. I admit, I wasn't all that excited about the show; Mendelssohn's 1st Piano Concerto doesn't rank as one of his greatest works, I don't think. I played it at college more than twenty years ago and was distinctly underwhelmed by it (but playing second trumpet never encourages wonderment about anything much). Luckily in Hough's agile hands it was shot through with such lively colours that it made the concert's opener - Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn - pretty monochrome by contrast. Hough's playing is the perfect antidote to anyone tiring of the more flashy offerings of those at the other end of the concert pianist spectrum.



Choral works by Purcell and MacMillan featured in The Sixteen's gig at the QEH. If there is a better vocal ensemble out there I'd like to know who it is.
James MacMillan's works in particular stretched the singers' technique to the limit. You might think the QEH's dry acoustic might expose the odd muff here and there but it felt as seamless and lubricated as ever. I actually think ensembles like The Sixteen are better heard in a concert hall then in a cathedral where everything disappears into the rafters. I fear I may have made this point in an earlier blog but hey, only two people read this......

I'd never heard of the Grand Union Orchestra before yesterday but it seems to have been around for a good decade or two. It's an interesting and mostly enjoyable experience to hear a band as inclusive as GUO. Most corners of the globe were were represented on the Hackney Empire stage which, with the help of hundreds of school children, explored how post-war immigration has changed London's musical life. The music shifted from one style to the next and never out stayed its welcome. I particularly enjoyed the jazzers and the lovely Bengali singer. Some of the show's exuberance was lost after the interval. There were some fairly challenging songs about liberation which in the hands of one or two of the performers tested the audience a little too much (stifled giggles actually). And boy, did it get loud towards the end that I felt a bit cross on behalf of all the young ears on stage and in the audience. What I wasn't too sure about was whether the show was for children or adults.