Apparently in 1972 Shostakovich made a rare visit to London for a performance of his Symphony No.15. He had two free evenings. On the first of these, he went to the theatre to see Jesus Christ, Superstar. On the second free evening, he insisted on going to see it again. And said he'd have liked the chance to use some of those instruments. Imagine Shostakovich with an electric guitar...
The JDCMB social secretary informs me that this was gleaned yesterday at the very lovely celebrations for the wedding of cellist Julian Lloyd Webber to Jiaxin Cheng, formerly principal cellist of the Auckland Chamber Orchestra. Many congratulations to the happy couple!
Jessica Duchen is a music journalist and the author of four novels, two biographies and several stage works. She writes regularly for The Independent and BBC Music Magazine. Her latest novel, Songs of Triumphant Love, is published by Hodder.
- World Youth Day Diary: Day One
- Breivik and Anti-Muslim Bigotry
- Who'd be a TLA?
- Daniel Johnson on Elena Bonner
- In praise of the essay
- Told You So
- Analysis: Al-Qaeda After Bin Laden
- Help JIMAS
- How Western Jihadis See Libya
- Sumption plays hard to get
- The Commentator — A Serious New Website
- Supreme Court: runners, riders and delays
- In defence of Quilliam
- Self-censorship in the British Media
- Parliament Square is not Tahrir Square
- How does this end?
- Gaddafi has little to fear from ICC
- "We call them the nutters, because that's what they are"
- Peter Oborne's Hypocrisies
1:07 AM
2:07 PM