99 YEARS OLD AND STILL SOLVING GREAT PROBLEMS ...

AMONG other things, I have written this week about the linguistic problems posed by Brexit and the back problems caused by singing. Only now, however, have I realised the role music could play in satisfactorily resolving the problems posed by a post-Brexit world.

The revelation came to me as a result of a concert I attended at the Cadogan Hall in London. Normally, I am more inclined towards operas than concerts but this one, given by the Spanish Symphony Orchestra of the Excelentia Foundation, included Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar which I have long considered one of the most enjoyable pieces of music written in the 20th century.

After warming up with a light and jolly piece by Gerónimo Giménez, the orchestra was joined by the Australian guitarist Craig Ogden, in a deliciously energetic performance of the Rodrigo.

The second half of the concert featured Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance and Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, both played impeccably by an orchestra kept in perfect control by the Polish conductor Grzegorz Nowak. And that is where the first glimmerings of a Brexit resolution strategy hit me.

This was a Spanish orchestra, with a Polish conductor, an Australian soloist and, in the case of the Mendelssohn, an Italian symphony composed by a German. Then I discovered that the leader of the orchestra was a Russian violinist called Albert Skuratov who showed exemplary discipline and precision in his playing which spread to the rest of the string section.

Indeed, several of the violinists seemed to spend more time looking at Skuratov than they did watching the conductor, which led to a wonderfully intimate cohesion one normally associates only with string quartets.

Only afterwards did I realise that I had been enjoying a Spanish orchestra in a British concert hall (the Cadogan acoustics are excellent, incidentally) with a Polish conductor, a Russian leader and an Australian-born guitarist, who had included in the programme an Italian symphony by a German composer.

If that is not a perfect example of the sort of international cooperation we are seeking to achieve in the postBrexit world, I do not know what is. This was pure communication through music without the need to translate it into 28 different languages. Russia and Australia are not even EU members, yet the harmony they all brought to the ensemble was faultless.

I am now delighted to see that I share my idea with none other than my favourite opera singer. Joyce DiDonato is not only a glorious mezzo-soprano, a superb comic actress and a very bright lady but she is also far more beautiful than anyone with all those talents has any right to be.

She has just released a new album, In War And Peace: Harmony Through Music and on November 21 she will be giving a talk in the Pure Land Series at China Exchange in London on her ideas of the power of music to transcend borders and unify us all. You can find details at: chinaexchange.uk/whats-on/ war-peace-joyce-didonato/