Up to Easter
6 April

So, we broke up for the Easter holidays and I started to catch up on some of the living that I had been missing out on.

The first Monday brought another in the Paul Lewis Schubert recitals. Sonatas 14 and 16 were the principal works on offer. Once again the balance of classical poise, romantic stirrings and tonal exploration was thrillingly held. Easily four stars.

The day after, Ross and I went to see John Carter. This silly sci fi epic has been totally panned by the critics but I cannot say that it is any worse than many of the other silly films that come along and which receive universal acclaim. I can't give it more than two and a half stars, mind.

The budget came and went and descended into something like farce. Somebody. somewhere had not been looking at the intended consequences, let alone the unintended ones. There were a variety of squarkings and changing of mind. Most ludicrous was the tax on hot meals and whether or not this would apply to a hot pasty but not a cold one and what would happen when a hot one went cold.

Come Friday night, I parked myself in front of the television for a telecast of Handel's Rinaldo from Glyndebourne. I know that the original was meant to be great fun but I think that Robert Carsen's idea of linking the story to the British Public School system with various nods to Enid Blyton and Harry Potter did not really work. The opera is supposed to be a spectacle of exotic magic and this whole element was completely lost. Singing and conducting were absolutely up to par but I don't know if I'd travel to watch this particular incarnation.

On Sunday, April began and I posted this note to the student notice board.

• Can I take it that we've all noted the Course Tutor's post reminding us that the word count for Assignment 3 is 5,000 rather than 3,500 words.

I got the following replies.

• What????
• Where have you seen this?
• Is this a joke? Where does it say this????
• hahahaha!!!!! oooh David! xx
• I was far too panicked just then to realise what day it was!!! X
• Hahaha I just nearly cried reading that!!
• Me too, I spent 10 minutes on the bulletin board looking! X
• Aghh! You have no idea how i very nearly cried then!! hahaha - that would have been the straw that broke the camel's back! xxx
• David Guy- I HATE YOU!!! xxx
• Haha bloody brilliant! X
• Haha I never even realised it was April Fools' Day!! Haha xxx

Good stuff.

And then I took in a performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion conducted by Vassily Petrenko. Last year, we had James MacMillan's St John Passion at this time and it was one of the highlights of my musical year. This performance was equally as good. It was spiritual. It was communal. It was uplifting. It was a consolation. I hope that the Phil gets into the habit of these religious offerings.

On Good Friday, I went over to see my parents and we talked a lot about family photographs. I want to produce a visual history of the 20th Century and my family for an introductory lesson for my new class. I think that I'm going to be spending quite a bit of time scanning and laminating.