Rattle's Brahms, Prokofiev and Katherine Jenkins - a merry mix

THIS WAS WRITTEN ON THE 30th OF DECEMBER 2010

I have found this blog title and thought it a good one to start the penultimate blog of 2009. At the moment people are busy shopping in the sales - have I been - no. Christmas is over, and yes I did remember to put the baby in the nativity on christmas day - must be a first. If I see another top ten list of 2009 or another ultimate review of the decade....that was the first decade of the 2000's don't you know, then yes I might just burn the Daily Mail.

I have had an amazing autumn, working with ETO and NMECU and planning in all the hours God sends. I have also been fortunate enough to realise just how good the Halle and CBSO are, and how lucky we are to have had the wisdom of Mark Elder and now the enthusiasm of Andris Nelsons. The Midlands are the new London for the next decade, you heard it first, or maybe I read it in Metro...

Rattle's Brahms - his first is the worst, second not the best but actually I prefer it to the Karajan and Berlin Phil or Barenboim and Chicago. It seems to shed a dead weight. That doesn't mean he takes things at rip-roaring speed. I think Rattle is seeing Brahms not as this heavy bearded, anti-Wagner staunch luddite, but someone searching for innovation. Brahms is a genius. He redefines the use of upbeats and meter and purifies and enhances what has been before. He was right when he said no one can better Beethoven but they can certainly join him. I think the 2010's are going to years of better Brahms, so there.

As for what else happens in the 2010's: Katherine Jenkins should sing her first opera. Yes I know she isn't a proper opera singer, but what is proper anyway, and she has made the mistake of going for lessons with Domingo, who himself has only just realised that he has been "cross-dressing" all his life and he is actually a baritone, not a tenor. However, I have faith.

F

P.S Yes my Christmas presents were nice, no you cant have any, and no I haven't written my thank you letters.