Mozart beyond the glass

 We are regular goers to Mostly Mozart series in Melbourne Recital Centre.
As the name indicates there is W.A.Mozart music in the program plus someone else.

This time the title was surprising - Glass Harmonica.
Glass Harmonica?
I do not think I ever heard such an instrument, I dimly recollect that it produces music similar to xylophone, it sounds in some cloudy, watery way - definitely not Mozart style.

Day before the concert I decided to widen my knowledge of the subject and practically it took me the whole day and I am still not satisfied.

Firstly I learned that glass harmonica is a most dangerous musical instrument in history of music - people exposed to it experienced - attacks of panic, epilepsy, women - miscarriages - consequently it was forbidden to play it in public places - more HERE.

Secondly - glass harmonica was invented in 1761 by Benjamin Franklin, I knew this name as an inventor of lightning rod. After reading an entry in Wikipedia I got to conclusion that he was a most capable brain ever - just check -- CLICK.

So what Mozart could get out of glass harmonica?
The answer is HERE.
No surprises - not much Mozart brilliance here.

The important question was - who will support Mozart this time?
It was Hungarian composer Gyorgi Ligeti, I heard before few pieces of his music and thought that it may suit glass harmonica.

The last question was - do we have a glass harmonica in Australia?
If so, where it was hidden? Why it was never publicly played?

The answer was simple - Glass Harmonica will not be there!
It was replaced by various combinations of xylophones, vibraphones, marimbas and...

... yes, glasses and glass bowls half filled with water. All operated by 4 people...

And it produced amazing sound.

And here is a piece by G. Ligeti, here played by a "proper" orchestra, but combination of various percussion instruments and glass gave similar effect - CLICK.

Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First point probably nullifies my whole review - I did not read it, I watched the movie.
Here is my story...
Seeing many enthusiastic reviews of the book I was very keen to borrow it from the library but the queue was very long. Then I noticed the movie on the library shelf so I borrowed it.
I do not regret.
First point - I was very touched by the story, I would rate the movie at 4+.
Second point - few times I found the story absolutely naive or improbable but the vision works differently than the logic - I followed the action putting reservations aside.
They came together after finished watching the movie and had some time for reflection.
(view spoiler)[
First doubt - mother and sibling abandoning their little daughter/sister without smallest hesitation, regret, single word.
Second doubt - nobody around takes any practical interest in young girl living alone.
Third - Kay is taught first few letters of alphabet and from it she emerges as highly qualified scientist and artist.
Fourth - the court case against her is raised without any proofs. Actually, in the movie the case stays unexplained.
(hide spoiler)]
I read few reviews of the book and I fully sympathise with readers who abandoned the book after 50 pages.

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The Warsaw Protocol

The Warsaw Protocol by Steve Berry
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

First book I read written by this author and I think the last.
Mostly I should blame myself, simply I am not interested with stories where in every second chapter someone is killed.
Other fault on my side is that I have difficulty to concentrate on very complicated and messy plot, specifically when the plot doesn't make much sense to me.
The only reason I gave it 2 stars were details about Polish history. I was amazed how many of them are included in the book and wonder how interesting they were for non-Polish readers - I am Polish.

Another point...

The plot of the book does not make any sense to me.

The idea is that presidential election in Poland is coming and president learns that a file of discrediting him information is to be sold for the highest bidder.

There is not a word of clarification of actual political situation in Poland - who is a possible contender in the election, what are main political parties, which of them is supporting the president.

There is an elaborate description of evolution of political situation in Poland after the Second World War and it looks that result in NIL. All power is in hands of a single person, so even worse than in the communist system.

Some logic.  

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The Cellist of Dachau

The Cellist of Dachau by Martin Goodman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My highest rating for a book in many years.
Amazing book confirming a saying - music starts where the words end.
Of course there are words, 318 pages of them but for most of the book they are very discreet, transcendenting words, music, life, feelings, emotions - impossible to be expressed in other words.
Story line... not just one, few - all of them connecting Holocaust victims and music.

Of course everything comes to the end, here I experienced disappointment - in the last few chapters the author confronts two key characters and tries to explain all what was unclear and mysterious throughout the book. In my opinion it is a failure.

Second thoughts...

Over one week since fished reading - still thinking about connecting in the book quite contradicting story lines. Final conclusion was surprising - Rose - granddaughter of Adiutant of Dachau concentration camp is in some way also a granddaughter of Otto - victim of Holocaust. I do not know if it was authors intention, but I suppose he could expect such conclusions.

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Roseanne

Roseanna by Maj Sjöwall
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The book bored me terribly - some mysterious crime and then snapshots of actions or rather waiting of inspector Beck.
Lot of names of police inspectors and names of cities they visit to find any tracks of the crime.
I understand that it may be a honest picture how really looks work of police inspector, but there are so many professions, I am not able to get familiar with all of them.
Additionally there are many mentions about inspector's Beck family life and these are really depressing.
I have to confess that I skipped some 60 pages to eventually learn about the outcome of the investigation.
I consider it wasted time.

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The Pole

The Pole by J.M. Coetzee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Beatriz, middle aged, Spanish, attractive woman with a solidly established family is asked to take care for a Polish pianist visiting Barcelona for concert of Chopin's music.
The concert doesn't make a good impression on her, the pianist, almost 25 years her senior - even worse.
Still, almost against her own will, she got entangled in a web of his dreams.
What struck me most is the fact that all very intimate thoughts and feeling of Beatriz are described in detail by the man.
It happened that the 3 last books I read were written by women and I am sure that they could not be written credibly by men.
So I have to treat this book as a sort of sweet dream of old man.
On the other hand I appreciate the language and style of J.M. Coetzee writing and this I liked regardless of the story.

P.S. Interesting point is that the book has been originally written in English but was first published in Spanish translation by an Argentinian publisher.

J.M. Coetzee explained that he wanted to break domination of Northern hemisphere over the book market.

Privilege of rich and famous.  

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rental person who does nothing

Rental Person Who Does Nothing by Shoji Morimoto
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Strange book, after reading half of it I think I found the explanation - the author is a specialist of Twitter communication, books with text are definitely not his element.
On the other hand I am not a Twitter person, I am not a fan of Facebook too so natural is that I did not enjoy the book too much.
I rated it as OK mainly due to very honest approach of the author. He presents himself as a person who avoids emotions and situations which could require him to declare his position, to make judgement, to give advice.
I appreciate his honesty, on the other hand, he is rather alien to me which is exactly who he wants to be.


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The Road to Wigan Pier

The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After reading The Animal Farm and 1984 I appreciated G. Orwell but was not keen to read his other books. The inspiration came from unexpected source - Anna Funder - Wifedom.
After reading Wifedom I got interested to learn a bit more about Orwell's interests and style of work.
I think The Road to Wigan Pier answers these questions.
The book itself I found a bit strange - few chapters are devoted to very realistic description of life conditions of British proletariat - workers on pension or disability payments, miners at work, tramps.
Here Orwell does really good job - he goes to the source - crawls in low tunnels in coal mines, lives in accommodation for pensioners, hits a road as a tramp.
Unfortunately very soon Orwell changes position - he describes and analyses various aspects of British society.
It is maybe well done but in my opinion these issues got quickly outdated and are not so important for non-English reader.
So we got quite funny analysis of British class structure - differences between people from lower upper-middle and proper upper-middle class. Additionally it changes dramatically when you move to the North or West.
What I found more interesting was analysis of Socialism in England - its relation to Fascism, different approach of intellectuals and common people and very important remark that low level clerks and bureaucrats, most numerable group of working people, are not considered as "real" proletariat. I think this discovery leads straight to 1984 and The Animal Farm

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Poland, a Green Land

Poland, a Green Land by Aharon Appelfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Strange book.
I found there 2 separate worlds with practically no connection.
World 1 - real life of Yaakov - from early years alienated from his family.
As a result of some mid-life crisis he visits Poland - a country of his parents and grandparents.
World 2 - in Poland he meets a person - Magda - who in matter of minutes frees him from all complexes and inhibitions and brings him first time in his life full sensual satisfaction.
After some 4 weeks the reality calla back - Yaakov, without much concern, leaves Magda and tombstones of his ancestors in rather hostile surrounding and returns to Word 1.
On one hand I liked the style of writing, I got a feeling that a gentle person it telling me some naively beautiful story. On the other hand I felt a bit nervous all the time, I got a feeling that the reality is not so nice, they are dangers and I worried - why the narrator treats them too light?
One more hidden stream - folk tales about God, religion, Jews - again, mostly they sounded like nightmares, still I got feeling that they are told by a good and gentle people.

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The Bookbinder of Jericho

The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked very much The Dictionary of Lost Words so I was very pleased that the next book by Pip Williams kept a very similar climate.
Gentle world created by women - I feel great respect for it and for them.

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Wifedom

Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life by Anna Funder
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

After reading first few chapters of this book I was quite impressed with author's care for details and diligence.
I was also impressed by Anna's Funder talent to present wifedom as magical ability to knit a fabric of satisfactory family life.
With some difficulty I can swallow her accusations of patriarchal system for unequal treatment of men and women.
And here comes a marital life of George Orwell and Eileen O'Shaughnessy.
Very unsatisfactory life for Eileen.
And at that point I lost most of my interest for this book.
I acknowledge, it is my fault, simply I am not interested in stories which lead to nowhere and that is exactly how I receive this book.
I am additionally disappointed that so much effort of such smart author has been invested

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Sound Bites

Sound Bites by Ed Le Brocq
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Last book I read by this author was The Whole Notes - I liked it although sometimes I felt lost.
This time I got a strong impression that Sound Bites was targeted to a specific auditorium,
What auditorium?
I cannot say, definitely people familiar with current popular music - Madonna, Abba, Andre Rieu etc.
48 bites from some 4,000 years of music development.
Very good selection but... in most cases there were not bites, I could not feel the taste.
For me it was rather chaff.
In my opinion it would fit better on some youtube channel where we could hear Ed's pleasant voice nicely combined with selected music pieces.

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