There are a surprising number of classical concerts around especially if you are willing to look wider than the top concert halls and orchestras. (And I agree with graham55 about Birmingham Symphony Hall)
We are lucky near Oxford with some great venues and performers (the little known St John the Evangelist concert series attract the very best international pianists and then there is the incredibly uncomfortable but rather wonderful Sheldonian Theatre and the Holywell Music Room and … and…). And the point is: there is so much more.
Have a look in your local paper if you still have one. You may be surprised at the quality and enjoyment to be gained from going to the smaller and often pretty informal venues.
I had been thinking about suggesting the “childrens” pieces of music as a way of breaking things down. I think choosing the narrator first is a good idea. My recollection was immediately of Richard Baker, the Classics For Pleasure CD then also gives you Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra.
Novelty option Boris Karloff.
For a modern approach to breaking down and explaining music I really enjoy the Aurora Orchestra playing from memory performances, many of which include pre-performance talks giving an understanding of theme, variation, tone colour. My favourite was the Musical Memory Palace, you can get some of their performances here https://www.auroraorchestra.com/home/aurora-play/
Are you in/near London. I’m from NYC, but the first venue I look at when I’m visiting is Wigmore Hall (for chamber and solo recitals).
Edit - just saw your post re London.
Further edit - I’m not familiar with all of London’s concert halls, but a short hop to Amsterdam wold allow you to attend a performance at the Concertgebouw. I paid my first visit last week and found it one of the best venues I’d ever visited.
For the ultimate VFM in live music of a quasi-classical nature, I’d shout for Choral Evensong. More or less every cathedral in the country does this on a near-daily basis, no entrance fee, no booking. Many university chapels and the bigger parish churches do so too - there’s likely to be one not far from you.
You get (usually) beautiful architecture to look at, a choir which will be, at worst, excellent-amateur quality or, at best, international professional standard. The organists are usually OK too (that’s typical snark from a singer).
It’s not string music, sure, but it’s quite the experience.
I remember the Sheldonian well, as I obtained two degrees there in the space of an hour or so.
Most Oxford University first degrees are Bachelor of Arts, whatever the subject, but you used to be able to convert this, on payment of a small sum (around a tenner, from recollection), to Master of Arts after a space of five years.
Oxford being Oxford meant that students did not have to obtain their degrees on finishing their courses and sitting their dreaded Finals. You could simply wait a few years, and bag your two degrees in a day. Which is what I did.
I assume that nothing has changed much in the 45-odd years since I left.
A few years after I left, Oxford University awarded Herbert von Karajan an honorary degree (Doctorate of Music, I think). Karajan brought over members of the Berlin Philharmonic, and they performed in the Sheldonian after his degree had been conferred (Richard Strauss’s ‘Metamorphosen’, I think). The Warden of my College (Merton) was Vice-Chancellor of the University that year, and it was a surreal experience to see photographs of Herbie in his academic robes wandering around the Gardens in Merton.
Incidentally, Sir Christopher Wren achieved perfect acoustics in his perfectly round Sheldonian Theatre, but the wooden slatted seats are not kind to the buttocks over an extended period.
when i was 10 i grew up to records of Bessie Smith and toscannini. my brother had a
good 78. record collection. i have carried on the tradition jazz blues and classical music.
this was 71 years ago.
before i had a Naim CD player i used to read a book while playing a CD. now the sound
is so good i just sit and listen to the music as if iam in a concert hall.
Yes, you still get a Buy One Get One Free deal on many undergraduate degrees at Oxford and the Other Place. However, most science subjects are now four year ‘undergraduate masters’ courses which, at Oxford, result in an MMath, MPhys, MChem etc, right through to the surreal excess of MMathComSci (no, really).
They used to do so few graduation ceremonies that, about 15 years ago, the delay faced by most people between finishing their course and the next available ceremony was getting close to a decade. They massively increased the ceremonies (three on most Saturdays in spring and summer) so they’re now down to less than a year’s delay for most people. It also means that tourists have a good chance of seeing troops of fresh graduates milling around in silly clothes on most Saturdays of the year.
Sheldonian is still lovely, though the wooden slatted seats are much improved!
I have a horrible suspicion that these young people are being pampered these days.
I read some years ago that Army recruits were having trouble wearing regulation issue boots, as they had grown up wearing trainers, so had ‘soft’ feet.
I suppose that Oxford University and the Army aren’t so very different.
