The best things in life will kill you....

The jazz CDs remain half in, half out, taunting me to take the step which will bring about a shit-load of pointless moving around of CDs...

But, along with the making of pointless lists, the pointless moving of my possessions from one position to another has taken up a stupid amount of my time on the planet and, no doubt, will continue to do so until I die...

I often wonder if there will come a time when I start selling off my possessions having reached the point where I feel I should commence the “wind-down” to death – after all it’s either sell the stuff or it’ll end up in a skip...

And on that cheery note....

I rehearsed an impromptu set of songs for tomorrow night’s 200th Out of the Bedroom, including of course Lindsay West’s “Do As Others Do”. I tried out a good number of songs trying to find one or two which would sit well alongside the cover but failed – I will decide tomorrow at the last moment no doubt...

To the Queen’s Hall again tonight for a concert by the Orchestra of the Scottish Opera....

Anne’s cousin plays for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (bassoon) and, at a concert of their’s a couple of weeks ago, we met Anne’s aunt, who coincidentally lives in the town in which I spent the majority of my childhood – I knew Anne’s aunt long before I knew Anne...

Anyway, Anne’s aunt was there and offered to give us free tickets for tonight’s show as the bassoonist’s husband, Anne’s cousin-in-law, plays clarinet for the Opera Orchestra (although tonight he turns out to be absent due to illness)...

Of course Anne’s aunt could’ve taken the free tickets but she likes to buy a ticket to support her daughter’s husband’s career...

She wasn’t here tonight though, presumably because she’d heard in advance her son-in-law wouldn’t be playing...

It was very much a concert of two halves – half one consisted of arrangements for a wind ensemble of pieces by Arensky and Elgar....

The Arensky started life as part of a string quartet dedicated to Tchaikovsky by his pupil, Arensky. The second movement of that quartet was a set of variations based on Tchaikovsky’s song, “Legend,” from Songs for Children....

Arensky later arranged this movement for string orchestra and, tonight, we heard that piece arranged for winds....

Unfortunately, all that convoluted history didn’t make the piece sound any better to these ears...

The Elgar piece was an arrangement for winds of his organ sonata. While I enjoy his Enigma Variations and indeed ”Land of Hope and Glory”, I was not overly impressed with this piece....

In fact, I have to say that the Romantic period is probably the lowlight for me in the history of classical music. That coupled with the fact it was being played almost solely by wind instruments added to the general boredom...

I was beginning to feel glad I hadn’t actually shelled out for a ticket!

But then came the second half and the winds were relegated to their rightful place in the midst of the forty odd piece orchestra as they performed Bach’s 4th Brandenburg Concerto with solos for violin and flutes. This was exquisite with the solo violin being particularly impressive...

The evening was capped off by Mozart’s 29th Symphony which was another fine piece - again eclipsing the, for me, mediocre first half...

Prior to the concert and during the interval, I partook of a couple of Bundaberg Ginger Beers. However, this may be the end of an era as, on reading the label on the bottle, I discovered that each 275ml of cloudy nectar contains around 400 calories...

And so it was that, once again it proved to be so that the best things in life will kill you....

Highlight of the Day : Bach & Mozart showing Arensky & Elgar how it should be done....