11th October 2021

Last Thursday, Rachel and I were part of a live audience in Bath for a concert by the London Symphony Orchestra, featuring a favourite of mine, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, the ‘Pastoral’. Yes, live music! The concert was relayed live to all UK care homes who wished to take up the invitation. In an interview, the LSO’s conductor Sir Simon Rattle referred to music as “one of the great healing arts”. The concert, he said, “is a way of reconnecting with people, to say ‘thank you’ to all the people who have often worked for very little thanks in the last year-and-a-half”. He hoped it would “simply make people feel better”.

It certainly did that, and was received with rapturous applause in the Bath Forum itself, and  one resident in a Bristol care home said, “I really can’t put into words what it means. I didn’t realise it was going to be so emotional. It’s hope for the future!”

Although in Bath, the concert was an initiative by Bristol Beacon (formerly the Colston Hall). It was also part of celebrating our joint birthdays this month; the other’s at the Theatre Royal in Bath next month, Noel Coward’s ‘Private Lives’, starring Patricia Hodge and Nigel Havers. Yes, live theatre! We’re also doing our usual stewarding for the Bristol Bach Choir on Sunday who are singing Haydn’s ‘Creation’, their first live concert after lockdown!

It’s been heartening to make live music again at Tyndale; now the joy of welcoming people again at Tuesday Coffee Shop and ‘time@tyndale’ – live conversation! – even of a live deacons’ meeting at Tyndale last week!

Dave Bell