[144.1] LONDON (RE)CALLING…

Though NFE covers live classical, contemporary, jazz and avant events as far afield as New York, Melbourne and Amsterdam (to pick three recent examples), the emails I get on this subject tend to be about London… why so much specifically on the English capital’s music-making? The obvious answer is that I’m based here in the South-East, and it’s inevitable that a weblog with that kind of geographical gravity will show it, even if NFE aspires to global frontiers and lives in cyberspace. Besides, locality is important to music. And whatever its faults (and they are legion), London is one of the world’s most exciting cultural centres – especially for modern music-making. (As an upcoming example, look at the extraordinary fayre on offer at the City of London Festival, 23 June - 10 July 2003; and, generally, the Classical Source and SBC.). I do understand the frustration of ‘not being able to get there’, however. I often have that feeling when I’m surfing the web and come across some dream concert I won’t be able to experience. But, let’s face it, that can happen down the end of one’s own street too, given the demands of life and schedules.

Still, NFE does try to compensate wherever it can by pointing to radio broadcasts of the concerts it flags – perhaps especially if they’re in the Big Smoke and (as I know) most of you aren’t. That’s one of the many reasons to laud the excellent BBC Radio 3. Is there another single art music station in the world with such wide (and deep) coverage and excellent post-broadcast net availability? I don’t think so. Though that is not to say that their aren’t a host of fine contemporary music stations around the globe – about which I enjoy being informed. Anyway, not to miss out on the treat at the end of the rant, two events mentioned recently on NFE are coming up on R3 imminently are [see NFE 144.2 above]