WAGS 13.12.2017: A Guest Conductor Behind Silves

AM I ALONE IN THINKING that one must deprecate the current British classical music scene for its adoption of the gimmick of orchestras having “guest” conductors? In the good old days of the BBC Third Programme, which many of us (I am sure) fondly remember, one had John Barbirolli and his Hallé Orchestra, Thomas Beecham and his London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, and the much under-appreciated Malcolm Sargent and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Not a “guest” conductor in sight. And Sargent, too, was never in front of his orchestra without their ever-present leader, Paul Beard.
But now, on BBC Radio 3, the orchestras are bombarded with ordinary guest conductors, principal guest conductors, trainee guest conductors, and even guest leaders. What is going on? The poor orchestras don´t have a chance of getting a stable government; they don´t know who is in charge. I ask you – would the Grenadiers Guards want to train for Trooping of the Colour before the Queen (God bless her!) under the direction of a “guest” Regimental Sergeant Major from the Catering Corps? Would the Red Arrows happily loop the loop under the leadership of some transitory RyanAir First Officer? I doubt it.
But then, perhaps it doesn´t matter very much, because virtually the only  music these BBC Radio 3 programmes put on these days is Shostakovich  -why is the BBC fixated on Shostakovich? - and, with stuff like that, which band needs consistent direction, or indeed any direction at all.
These gloomy thoughts came to mind as we were led up and over and around the back hills of Silves by a self-proclaimed “guest conductor”. How would  this turn out? The individual in question certainly had form – of sorts. Half WAG, half AWW, dubious of loyalty, he had been known to lose 19 AWWs in his own backyard. What on earth are the WAGS coming to? Will they be inviting Ju… St…. as guest leader on some of their walks next? Heavens forfend!
And, actually, it´s not even certain that this week´s jaunt can truly be called a WAGS walk. After all, look who turned up.


Present: Jill, Rod, Maria, Ingrid,Terry, Hazel, Jim, Geraldine and JohnH. 
Of these, only Rod and Jim are fully paid-up, regular WAGS; the rest but casuals, part-timers, birds of passage. Maybe the founder and arbiter will give a ruling on this.

Anyway, off we went up into the hills behind Café Elias, a little bit after the appointed hour of 10 am, because the conductor had first to nip round to Café Retiro dos Pescadores to book lunch. About halfway up the hill we came across an artifact hewn out of Silves´s best red gres or sandstone. Terry tried to lift it up so as to pop it in his rucksack, it probably being worth a bob or two.

But it was a bit too heavy and he decided to leave it there for another time. No-one very sure what it was. A neolithic bidet was the best guess on offer.
At the top of the hill, we circled round to visit one of Rod´s longer-term projects, the potential restoration of , to misquote Fats Waller, a Cottage with Country Views.

We paused to visit the old ruin –(the building, not him there in the window) - and could appreciate its potential.


The view to the east.
Then, a bit of down hill and up hill stuff.  It could be seen that some serious ground clearing has been taking place, making fire breaks, particularly underneath the electricity cables.

We then swung  around almost back to the start before heading westwards away from the hills and down the long valley in the Encherim direction. The recent rains had of course resulted in some substantial puddles which, what with attendant brambles,  took a bit of negotiating.


A little bit further on, we came to Beco da Roupa or Lingerie Lane where we were delighted to see that the same piece of  lace which was discovered on an APAPS walk two or three years ago still survived, even if very much faded from its original splendour (although the manufacturer´s label and its washing instructions seems to be impervious to sun, wind and rain).


This was how it looked two years ago (from the Archive).
Oddly enough, the area where this bit of path goes is actually marked on Google Maps as Roupa Branca. I wonder why. Perhaps there remain some local devotees of an ancient cult involving summertime stripteasing shenanigans……..maybe best left to the imagination.
We didn´t follow the path all the way through to Encherim but left the valley and made for the road, where we passed an organic winery run by a Dutchman. Rod does not recommend his Jaape wines.
Very soon, however,  we could leave the tarmac and make our way leisurely eastwards along the canal in the direction of home.


Java had got quite attached to Ingrid
Later at Retiro dos Pesadores we had, variously, tostas, bean soup and chicken stew – very adequate, the tostas being particularly good value, finely sliced and in three portions.
To sum up, all in all, the guest conductor didn´t do too badly. It seems that the walk statistics were comfortably within WAGS norms, and there were no cock-ups.
And now , to answer the question I started out with
 YES, I PROBABLY AM ALONE IN THINKING ABOUT THIS. 
Who else listens to BBC Radio 3 these days when it´s little but blasted Shostakovitch?
But skip that; let´s click here and get cheered up by some thoughts about cottages with country views, courtesy of Fats:
https://youtu.be/xYoJCK_lwVg