Wednesday 20th August - the Aurora Orchestra

 Drawings

Another traced drawing from my  kindle scribe;

I couldn't be doing with the whimsical castle so I just drew over the top of it. (From 'The Enchanted Forest tracing pages for kindle scribe by Kendra Allsop)

Here's my own version; I miss being able to smudge my pencil lines. I don't miss my pencil lines smudging all the time when I rub them by accident!

Music

The Aurora Orchestra

I cannot begin to imagine how this orchestra manages to play the most complex music ENTIRELY FROM MEMORY. 

Last year we were completely mesmerised by their proms programme. In the first half they staged a dramatised analysis of Beethoven's famous 9th Symphony, all of the movements, alongside an interwoven drama of Beethoven's life and his difficulties with deafness while he was writing it. The second half, a complete performance of the same Symphony, was illuminated by what we learned from the first half. 

Here's just the last section, Ode to Joy. What struck me was the total unity, everyone completely committed all the way through. How do they do it?

This year, at the weekend they did the same for Shostakovitch's 5th symphony. The drama was an analysis again, but incorporating the political persecution of artistic freedom instigated by Stalin at the time of writing. The role of Shostakovitch was performed, mimed, by the most incredible dancer, who brought tears to my eyes as I watched his interpretation of the appalling conflicts he faced between his artistic truth and the strictures and terrors of the time.

This link, or the video below, is the full, 1 hour and 44 minute performance on YouTube, but if you can get iplayer, give it a go, just to SEE the dramatic performance and marvel at the orchestral talent and skill.

We didn't watch the second half, our heads were too full from the first half!