“I don’t really know the first thing about Classical Music,” writes Neil Atkinson in a Thursday (3/6) blog post at The Anfield Wrap, a Liverpool, England-based sports and pop culture publication. “You know how much I don’t know? I just capitalised the words ‘Classical Music.’ You don’t see me doing that with ‘indie,’ ‘hiphop,’ or ‘techno.’ Though perhaps with ‘Rockabilly.’ It feels that in not knowing the first thing about Classical Music I might just be about to make a fool of myself.… Last night I went … to the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Why? Mostly because they are there. And because I hadn’t before.” In Elgar’s Symphony No. 2, “I heard drama; I saw drama, great swaying, soaring playing full of determination and vigour, its pace never letting up…. I reckon me and Elgar hit it off. However it isn’t a test. They don’t give you marks. You don’t pass or fail. You experience. And it’s an experience that doesn’t need that explanation or base knowledge.… And so know this: this music is neither dead nor dying. It’s being played with startling aggression and pride in most cities… It’s being played with incredible virtuosity but much more than that it is being played with soul-searing passion.”
Posted March 11, 2014
