Putin’s pal is highest flyer
QUESTION Who owns the world’s most expensive private jet?
THE world’s most expensive private plane is an Airbus A340300 owned by Russian billionaire and Vladimir Putin ally Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov.
He is the founder and main shareholder of USM Holdings, a Russian company with metals, mining, telecoms and technology interests. He was once a major shareholder in Arsenal football club. The aircraft cost €228 million with an extra €160million spent on a lavish interior that includes a 20-seater dining table and bedroom suites.
Two aircraft vie for second place. The Boeing 747-8 VIP owned by Hong Kong property tycoon Joseph Lau cost €137million in 2007. An additional €205million was spent on customisation including guest rooms, a bar, a gym and a board room.
The Boeing 747-400 owned by the Sultan of Brunei is gold-plated and so luxurious that it has been nicknamed the Flying Palace.
The cost of the plane is a drop in the ocean for the Sultan, who has an estimated net worth of $28billion. He is a car enthusiast and owns 600 Rolls-Royces, 450 Ferraris and 380 Bentleys.
Toby Wilson, Frome, Somerset.
QUESTION Why did Guy Fawkes, who was born in Yorkshire, adopt the Italian name Guido?
GUY FAWKES called himself Guido to blend in with his Spanish and Italian men-at-arms while fighting against Protestant forces in the 1590s.
Born in April 1570, he was baptised at St Michael le Belfrey in York and named in honour of local notable Guy Fairfax, a respected judge.
Fawkes was raised a Protestant, but became a fanatical convert to Catholicism in his teens.
Aged 21, he joined the Army of Flanders – Catholics who were fighting on behalf of Spain against the Dutch Protestant Reformers.
It was during this time that he adopted the name Guido, the common form of Guy in Italian and Spanish.
In the spring of 1604, Fawkes was introduced to Thomas Wintour, who recruited him for the Gunpowder Plot. On November 5, 1605, the bid to assassinate James I during the state opening of parliament failed. Fawkes used the name Guido when he signed a confession after his arrest.
On January 31, 1606, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Old Palace Yard, Westminster, sharing the scaffold with his fellow plotters Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood and Robert Keyes. Jonathan Keyes, Barnoldswick, Lancashire.
QUESTION Many composers cite J. S. Bach as their key influence. Who was his?
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH was the most influential composer in history.
The key influences in his life were his eldest brother Johann Christoph, German organist Jan Adam Reinken, Danish organist Dieterich Buxtehude, and Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi.
Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685. His parents had died by the time he was ten and he was brought up by his brother Johann Christoph, the organist at St Michael’s Church in Ohrdruf. Bach had learned violin and basic music theory from his father. His brother had studied organ with Johann Pachelbel and introduced Bach to the keyboard and the works of composers of the era.
In 1700, Bach became a choral scholar at St Michael’s School in the northern city of Luneburg. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the school’s organ and harpsichords.
The principal organist in Luneburg was Georg Bohm, who presided over the great organ of St John’s Church. Bach established a life-long friendship with Bohm and copied many of his works. Bohm was well connected to Hamburg’s musical scene and introduced Bach to Jan Adam Reinken, organist of St Catherine’s Church. Reinken was one of the founders of the Hamburg Opera, the first in northern Europe. He introduced Bach to the works of contemporary French composers and to modern instruments.
Aged 15, Bach copied out An Wasserflussen Babylon, Reinken’s chorale fantasia. He improvised a lengthy fantasia on the same chorale in honour of Reinken, who remarked: ‘I thought this art was dead, but I see that it lives in you.’
Reinken was a close friend of the celebrated organist Dieterich Buxtehude. The 20-year-old Bach, then organist of the St Bonifatius Church in Arnstadt, asked for four weeks’ leave to attend the Abendmusiken, a series of concerts held in St Mary’s Church, Lubeck, organised by Buxtehude.
Bach undertook the 250-mile journey on foot. Four weeks became four months, and on his return, Bach was clapped in irons for several days for insubordination.
His superiors at St Bonifatius noticed Bach was transformed: ‘After this long journey, he could play astonishing chorale variations and would combine them with unknown harmonies to an extent that confused the faithful.’
Later Bach’s introduction to Vivaldi had a profound effect, teaching him to ‘think musically’.
J. B. Edwards, Harrow, Middlesex.
QUESTION Are there any ‘lost’ fictional detectives awaiting rediscovery?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, Edith Mary Pargeter is also known as Ellis Peters, author of English medieval crime series The Cadfael Chronicles. Her first Cadfael novel, A Morbid Taste For Bones, was published in 1977.
Few realise she wrote 43 books in various genres from 1937, including a series with father and son detectives George and Dominic Felse, which features the award-winning novel Death And The Joyful Woman. Jane Townsend, Bridgnorth,
Shropshire.
QUESTION Why did Mrs Beeton include potatoes in her bread recipes? Was this a common practice at the time?
FURTHER to the merits of using potatoes in bread, the best recipe I’ve tried for Christmas pudding includes mashed potato in addition to flour. It is beautifully light and moist. Chris Tait, Fareham,
Hampshire.
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