I am running a bit behind with Column posts at the moment – news items and recording reviews – but the heat and humidity has debilitated me. I know I am not alone in this. Add in the distraction of the Snooker World Championship on BBC TV to eat away at the hours, and some frames of which can be compelling.
Heat, humidity, snooker…
Hang on in there, Colin. I sympathise. This barbaric heat wipes the floor with a pale Welsh wimp like me. More civilised temperatures by the weekend, we’re told. Can’t come too soon. Meantime, while inking in editing instructions (donkey work after all my listening to takes and marking up in pencil) for the Chiaroscuro Quartet’s wonderful Beethoven Op. 18 sessions I produced, I’ve been enjoying, inter alia, Sargent’s 1960 Everest Prokofiev 5 with the LSO. Not infallible orchestrally (and with a silly concerto-type balance for the orchestral piano!), but full of animation, power and poetry. Sargent: part of my musical awakening (though even I’m too young to have worked with him in the studio). His secretary, Sylvia Darley, is still with us, an alert nonagenarian and a good friend. Sargent: underrated, complex, emotionally vulnerable man, communicator, capable of marvellous performances. Time for a re-appraisal. I’ll now get off your Archive patch!