Piano recital at Frinton Hall
last night in aid of Tendring parish funds. Hall centrally heated, but
draughty. Uncomfortable chairs. Rush-bottomed chair (cost about 3s.) for
pianist. Old Broadwood baby grand. Pedal
creaked. Rotten tone. Ladies of Frinto and of Tendring parishes in evening
dress. Two parsons, who felt they must speechify afterwards. Pianist a man
about 40; agreeable, slightly curt smile. Ferocious look when playing, often.
Beethoven, Rameau, Chopin, Scarlatti, Debussy, Liszt, etc. Piano impossible.
Intense, almost tragic sadness of provincial musical affairs, second-rate or
tenth-rate under bad conditions. A gentle snobbishness (artistically) among the
women. One man (friend of pianist) called our 2 or 3 times after a piece, amid
the applause, ‘’Core, ´core’, very loudly and staccato. And he had his encore.
Audience determined to appreciate high-class music , and applauding the
noisiest and most showy. Crass inertia and stupidity of sundry women around me,
determined to understand and to enjoy nothing.
Arnold Bennett's Journals - Saturday, February 21st 1914
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