A to BUZZ

  Manchester University Music Society (MUMS for short) performed their last concert of the year yesterday at their home inside The Martin Harris Centre a part of Manchester University's sprawling central complex.  Calling it a 'festive concert' however was something of a misnomer. Three full orchestral works were performed, none of which had anything to do with Christmas or the festive season at all! Not that truly mattered since we were totally immersed in the wonderful music in any case! Starting with Aram Katchaturian's Spartacus Suite No 2 (who's first movement is the famous 'adagio') we were transported to a mid-20th century Russia with ease and skill. Following this and we stayed with Russia but going back in time only by a couple of decades to listen to Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no 4. Again, a striking and fantastic piece of music composition. Late Romanticism and early 20th Century music is my absolute favourite musical period, and so I was in...

  'Merrily We Roll Along' is a Stephen Sondheim forgotten gem, superseded these days by his later works. Written in the late 1970s off the back of his more famous 'Company', it tells the story of a famous composer, Franklin Shepherd, and his two best friends, lyricist Charley Kringas and writer Mary Flynn. The catch is that the story covers two decades but told in reverse, and so it ends with the three of them together, young, hopeful, looking forward to their lives and careers with adventure in the air, whilst we have already seen their disintegration and disappointments.  The Arden School of Theatre's Musical Theatre third year students tackled this show today with all the energy and verve they could muster and they came out of it winning and smiling. Admittedly, they were, in the most part, tasked with playing characters that were older and more worldly wise than themselves and as such this was a difficult ask, especially when they have to become mini Benjamin Bu...