Most evenings we listen to recorded music while we are eating dinner, and if I’m cooking I like to hear it then also. At the moment we have had to change our pattern of activity because the apparatus on which we normally play our CD collection is away being repaired/serviced. Fortunately I still have the old hi-fi system that kept me going before we married, and we are rediscovering the joys of our collection of vinyl LPs. This certainly results in some journeys down memory lane, ranging from Steeleye Span to Miles Davis. Last night it was the turn of a Glasgow trad jazz group of which I was very fond while a student …. Sandy Brown and his All Stars. (Where are they now? Is there anybody else out there who remembers them?) Tonight, however, we turned to Bert’s music.
When my wife’s father died we inherited from him a large collection of the music of Beethoven. It wasn’t comprehensive, but my word there is a lot of stuff there! Bert was a great fan of Beethoven, although I never really grasped this while he was still alive. Apparently he was a great germanophile, dating from the time of his service with the British Military Government after the Second World War. He developed a good deal of sympathy for the lot of the ordinary German in the wake of the conflict, and it seems that he also fell in love with the music of Beethoven.
I’m appreciating his legacy very much, because I have little by Beethoven in my own collection. I’m very fond of some of his music, however, including tonight’s offering …. The Emperor. So, many thanks, Bert. It looks as if we are going to be working through your legacy with pleasure and gratitude for some time to come.
The lack of external pressure as a result of our home confinement is turning out to be very beneficial. I have the time to devote to my new ink-drawing project, which demands the most enormous care and patience. I had never appreciated previously the tremendous difference in the effect produced by different nibs. The concentration required to produce even and regular lines, regulating the flow of ink through the pressure of the hand, is something with which I am not familiar. I’m being educated in more ways than one.