Wednesday evening I went to Milan Auditorium to hear a very interesting concert; but I got more than I bargained for! First we heard Grieg’s suite no.1 op.46 da Peer Gynt. It’s a piece everyone knows and loves, particularly the descriptive “morning” shimmering like sunrays on water!
After the interval Dvorak’s Number 9 commonly known as “the New World ” symphony. In parts reminiscent of Gershwin (in my uneducated opinion) and containing the very lovely Largo.
In the middle and here’s where it gets interesting, the conducter Corte-Real who is also a composer presented his own Noa-Noa (title of Paul Gauguin’s travel diary written while he was in Tahiti). The fascinating thing is that Corte-Real in his introduction, explained that he has a neurological condition known as Synesthesia wherein sounds are colours for him, colours sounds. This is not unlike quite a few famous artists including the French poet Rimbaud who wrote” Voyelles “giving sounds their perceived colour.
It’s very interesting when a half- remembered word or item comes back to life…in fact after the concert I got into various sites and started reading….
English that grows 