It’s murder on the oriental express!
QUESTION What is the world’s busiest railway station?
Japan is famous for its Shinkansen bullet trains, but they’re just one small part of a vast nationwide rail network with the five busiest railway stations in the world.
Shinjuku in Tokyo carries 1.26billion people a year — that’s around 3.5million people a day.
next on the list are Shibuya station in Tokyo with 1.09 billion passengers a year; Ikebukuro station, also in Tokyo, with 910million; Umeda station in Osaka with 820 million; and Yokohama station in Kanagawa with 760 million.
The Gare du nord in paris is Europe’s busiest railway station, serving 206 million travellers each year.
Zurich Hauptbahnhof is Europe’s busiest railway terminus by daily rail traffic, with more than 2,900 trains passing through the station every day.
Waterloo is the UK’s busiest with more than 99million passengers per year while Clapham Junction has more than 2,000 trains passing through each day.
Keith Miller, Sheffield.
QUESTION For a country with a strong musical heritage, why is Ireland underrepresented in the classical canon?
DESpITE stand-out composers such as John Field (1782-1837) and Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), classical music in Ireland has not endured in the same way as folk music.
Some have blamed British colonialism, the Catholic Church and the Great Famine. another factor is the country’s strong literary heritage, which has meant other art forms have been overlooked.
In his 1998 book The Keeper’s Recital, Harry White argued that nationalists and cultural revivalists emphasised folk music over classical music in Ireland.
The book laments the fact that Field and Villiers Stanford failed to generate acclaim comparable to the country’s literary greats.
Pat Wills, London SW4.
OpERa composers Michael William Balfe (1808-1870) and William Vincent Wallace (1812-1865) were famous in Europe in their day. But John Field, a composer of
piano concertos and the originator of the nocturne, a slow piano piece depicting the beauty of the night, was the most notable figure in Irish music.
His father Robert was a violinist at the Royal Theatre in Dublin. Italian composer Tommaso Giordani, who lived for some time in Dublin, gave John lessons and he became a pupil of Mozart’s arch enemy Muzio Clementi in London, where the Field family settled in 1793.
When he was 12, Field performed for the composer Haydn, who predicted a great future for him.
It cost 100 guineas for Field to be accepted as an apprentice to Clementi, who gave him a few lessons, but used him mainly to demonstrate the pianos in his warehouse, often making him play for hours. Clementi would take the boy along whenever he gave recitals or sold his instruments.
John was a miserable and melancholic youth and suffered from an inferiority complex throughout his life, not helped by Clementi’s treatment, who gave him little food and dressed him shabbily.
We have a description of his sad appearance, having outgrown his old clothes, in the autobiography of German violinist Louis Spohr, who also tells of seeing the miser Clementi and his pupil washing their own clothes to save money.
after visiting paris and Vienna, where he is said to have attended a course in counterpoint with austrian composer Johann Georg albrechtsberger, Field settled in St petersburg in 1802.
Field became extremely successful as a pianist, teacher — he had many aristocratic pupils — and composer despite his indolence, bad manners and alcoholism.
He travelled throughout Europe as a virtuoso pianist and was praised by the
composers Glinka, Schumann and Liszt. He devised nocturnes, later perfected by Chopin, but was dismissed as a ‘sickroom talent’ by envious rivals.
Field died in Moscow, where it was said his intemperance and carelessness played a part in his early death. E. Felix Schoendorfer,
Stoke Poges, Bucks.
QUESTION Are there any places of worship other than mosques in Saudi Arabia?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, not only are there no churches in Saudi arabia, but Christian holidays are banned. Christmas cards, trees and presents are not allowed and only the word ‘seasonal’ is permitted.
Before our first Christmas in Saudi arabia, we visited a large music store hoping to buy some seasonal music CDs. We wandered around the shop and an Indian assistant offered to help, but we were worried about mentioning the ‘C’ word. Eventually we took him to one side and explained what we wanted.
‘Of course,’ he said, and brought out a big box from under the counter. ‘I guess you want something from this collection.’ We left with ten Christmas albums!
If caught the shop would have been shut down for up to three months. Roger Webster,
Manchester.