Seen and heard February 2015

Gone Home - according to some players one of the best games of 2013, and according to others not a game at all. (See separate post about this.)

Penguin Café, performing at Saffron Hall - lovely to see them developing their own identity distinct from the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra, with a concert blending old and well-loved PCO tunes (such as Perpetuum Mobile, Beanfield, Telephone and Rubber Band, Music for a Found Harmonium), Penguin Cafe's new tunes from their own two albums (such as 1420), and new works yet to be recorded this year and being performed for the first time. Also lovely, in these days of ISIS and UKIP, to hear beautiful, warm and friendly music, which travels across national and cultural boundaries with ease; so one tune is described as existing mid-way between Africa, Cuba and Ireland, and another transforms a Chopin Nocturne into a steely Mexican romp (Black Hibiscus – the same sort of trick Simon Jeffes and the original PCO pulled with Giles Farnaby’s Dream).

Edward Scissorhands - Matthew Bourne ballet, at Milton Keynes Theatre (see clip). This was our grand-daughter's introduction to ballet (more accessible than, say, Sleeping Beauty or The Nutcracker, which let's face it were the nineteenth-century equivalents), and she loved it, despite the differences from the film (which she knew). The only problem was that she wanted to see it again right away, which wasn't possible, this being the end of the tour. A cracking show, full of invention and wit, alternately funny and touching; Granny and I were both moved to tears at the end, when the snow starts to fall in the auditorium, thus dissolving the fourth wall and bringing us into the scene.

Nicola Benedetti, playing with La Cetra Barokorkester Basel at Saffron Hall. Laser-like coherence, precision and power from the strings, which would have been great on its own; having Nicola Benedetti as a soloist was a bonus.

Laura Mvula, Prom concert from 19 August 2014 - I've come late to Laura Mvula and also to my recording of this concert, and now I can see what the excitement is about. This is sophisticated soul (as one would hope, given her classical training), and the orchestral rearrangements of tracks from her Sing to the Moon album were fantastic. My favourite number, though, was CInnamon Tree: an Esperanza Spalding song, which Mvula performed in duet with her.

Good Omens - BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's novel, by Dirk Maggs who did the radio versions of the later Hitchhiker's Guide books and Gaiman's own Neverwhere. This was first transmitted over Christmas, but it's another set of recordings to which I've only just got. The first episode was a bit slow, but once the story is set up it rattles along with the familiar charm and wit and faith in the essentially decent nature of humanity so characteristic of both Gaiman and Pratchett, brought to life by Maggs' wizard-like command of the aural medium. Some sequences are so surreal that it's hard to imagine them being realised in any way other than on the page or on the radio: for example, the bit where one demon is chasing another not-exactly-nice-but-less-nasty demon through a telephone network, and the less-nasty demon times his exit just before an answering machine kicks in, thus leaving his pursuer trapped on the cassette tape, which he then destroys by pouring holy water on it. Sensational! Can't imagine anyone doing that on film or TV.