STRINGS TO DINE BY- THE LOCHRIAN ENSEMBLE
George Gershwin
As autumn falls and our social circles shrink by the week, the heady days of the dubiously titled ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ seem like the summer sun, long gone. If we’re lucky it’s dinner for few every night – or simply solo suppers.
Music is obviously the remedy. No one can conjure a Nigel Slater nightly but if you are looking for a sound track to match a meal you want to make special, the range is endless. It depends on your mood, but large scale symphonies have you all sitting in silence in rapt reverence, so music to eat by is best served as light as you can make it.
Cole Porter in reflective mood
This newly released CD is my top recommendation. The Lochrian Ensemble, four talented women string players, lochrian@greenleaze.freeserve.co.uk zip through this fabulous thirties-style material with musical brio. It makes for a fabulous backdrop to any supper. The tunes are mostly vaguely familiar but the orchestration is carefully crafted for nuance and layers of delight – A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square by Manning Sherwin (had he ever even been to London btw?) has chirrups and trills of birdsong whilst the first violin soars the lovely melody to the sublime heights of The Lark Ascending.
But the stars of the collection are the major writers of the American Song Book, Gershwin’s Summertime is almost too poignant to hear – and frankly the opener Slap That Base is disappointing, rather mimsy and gutless ( keep going, it’s worth the ride as the music gets better and better). My favourite, Our Love is Here to Stay, is a perfect place for you to add your own lyric to the lazy laid back melody,
“’The radio and the telephone and the movies that we know, Are simply passing fancies and in time may go”
And remember the finale
“In time, the Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar may tumble, they’re only made of clay, But our love is here to stay”
Truly they don’t write ‘em like that any more. Almost more tempting to serenade your company is Cole Porter. Born into stylish wealth in Peru, Indiana USA in 1893 (Gershwin was born1898) it is nothing short of astonishing that his fabulous songs are happily up to date in 2020. Remember Victoria Wood in her famous spoof version? Anything Goes is wonderfully amusing in any era, as is the fabulously louche Just One of Those Things: “Goodbye dear and Amen, Here’s hoping we meet now and then, It was great fun but it was just, One of those Things”. Every Time we Say Goodbye, which I do think is one of the saddest songs ever. Made famous by Ella, this faultless instrumental version invites you to add its timeless lyric (we have had a couple of glasses of wine by this time I assume). In the Still of the Night isn’t here but after this healthy injection of Cole Porter genius, you will be looking it up to play. And remember that these world beating melodies all came from the pen – and heart- of a gay man which for me, adds an element of poignancy to their sentiments. Not that Porter couldn’t have whomsoever he wanted in his Scott Fitzgerald Twenties and Thirties heyday. But after a riding accident where, after years of agony, he lost his right leg, the sadness of some of the later work resonates through the melodies.
We are surely at the cheese course by now (no, forget that, cheese is right off the Michael Mosley menu) but the Lochrians will merit a replay as any listener engages with their lovely light songs with, often, the darker lyrics only just behind the scene.
From Hoxa Sound
