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I MMORTAL, INVISIBLE, GOD ONLY WISE Walter Chalmers Smith (1824-1908) This Christian hymn was written in 1867 and is sung to the tune St. Denio. Reportedly the favourite hymn of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, the original final two stanzas were different, but this is how the words appear in most hymnals. The parody, as anyone…
KIRILL GERSTEIN Wigmore Hall recital Thursday 14 May 2015 I’ve not been going to many piano recitals recently. Too often in the past year or so I’ve traipsed into London full of eager anticipation, an interesting programme promised, an exciting talent on offer – and I’ve come away underwhelmed, undernourished and generally disappointed. This is…
THREE MEN IN A BOAT adapted by Craig Gilbert from Jerome K Jerome Arts Theatre, Cambridge – matinée 22 January 2015 Cast: J – David Partridge George – Michael Rouse Harris – Tom Hackney Nelly – Anna Westlake Director – Craig Gilbert A co-production by The Original Theatre and The Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds…
DANNY BOY Music: Anon. Lyrics: Fred E Weatherly It sounds like a folk song that’s been around for centuries but the lyrics of ‘Danny Boy’ were written as recently as 1913 by the prolific Fred E Weatherly. He was a lawyer by profession but in his spare time managed…
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) Sudden Light Sudden Light was written in 1853 or thereabouts, and first published in 1863 in Poems: An Offering to Lancashire. It appeared in various versions over the next three decades, finally ending with a different last verse (see below) to that originally published. Rossetti’s déjà vu of an intimate relationship…
JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS Cole Porter The song is best known from its appearance in the 1960 film Can-Can when it was sung by Maurice Chevalier, but it was originally written by Cole Porter for the 1935 musical Jubilee. The title, however, goes back further: Porter wrote a song with this title for the 1930…
IVO THE DIVO I did something last night that I have only ever done once before: I walked out of a piano recital at the interval. If I hadn’t been sitting in the middle of Row K at the Royal Festival Hall I’d have walked out sooner. This was the much-heralded return to the venue…
Thomas Trotter rehearsing my Toccata Festiva on the organ of Birmingham Town Hall in March 2012 (with me as page turner). He gave the world premiere later that day. https://youtu.be/GRSZQiuPhTs A masterclass in comic timing – Jimeoin’s debut on Live at the Apollo. The forgotten Peggy Cochrane (1902-88), a big star in her day, equally at…
Michelle Rocher died yesterday, Valentine’s Day. I never met him but I wish I had. I would have liked to thank him for giving me, in a roundabout way, some of the best paid jobs I ever had as an actor. In January 1982 I was just completing my four months run of Three Men…
LOVE IS HERE TO STAY by George & Ira Gershwin. This great classic of the American song book was penned for the movie The Goldwyn Follies in 1938. It was the last composition of George, the lyrics being added after his untimely death by brother Ira. The parody by the magnificent Allan Sherman (1924-73) comes…