I’ve only just discovered ‘Flash Mob’. This piece had me in tears. The spirit of the Europe we’ve rejected? It’s the faces of the onlookers and the children I was particularly moved by. Who says classical music is ‘elitist’?
If you’re new to them too, there’s plenty more of Flash Mob on Youtube, including a wonderful Ravel’s Bolero and a chorus from La Traviata: all surprise performances in public places, with the musicians coming in one by one.
One is at Arlanda airport, where I’ll be flying out to on Wednesday. We ‘Swenglish’ hope to ‘celebrate’ our liberation from the evil European Empire at midnight on the 31st, in the best English pub in Stockholm: the Tudor Arms, if anyone is in the area.
Porter’s Pensées 
My apologies for going off topic; however, Bernard, are you going to be commenting on your preference for Jeremy Corbyn’s successor?
LikeLike
I’d like to look into all the candidates a bit more. At present my preference is for Keir Starmer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, there are some great ‘flashmob’ clips on YouTube; I think you may find the version of ‘Ode to Joy’ performed in Nürnberg even more inspiring! Personally, I very much regret that this great piece of music ever acquired political overtones. There’s no mention of Europe in Schiller’s poem – It probably wasn’t really a concept then! – and in later life, so I understand, he didn’t even like what he’d written. Anyway, it’s nothing without Beethoven’s music, and in sentiment it’s much more suited to the Esperanto movement than to one political union. (Esperanto doesn’t need it as an anthem – we have our own!) Then there’s the (to some) problematic line ‘Alle Menschen werden Brüder’; they just can’t accept that ‘Brüder’ in this context means ‘siblings’, with no male connotations. Pity … But look at the Nürnberg clip and raise your spirits again!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! I’ll certainly look at Nuremburg. – Are you an Esperantist? I tried learning it when I was a boy, under the influence of a great friend of the family, who later became, I think, the President (or whatever) of the movement. His name was Louis Brookes. A shame it didn’t catch on. Too Euro-based, perhaps?
LikeLike
And here’s the Nurnburg version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a23945btJYw.
LikeLike