As well as the Queen’s Jubilee and Olympics, 2012 is a special year for Classical Partners as we celebrate 20 years since our inception back in 1992. Since those early days we have instigated hundreds, or rather thousands, of new romances and friendships amongst music lovers.

The past twenty years have seen a massive change in people’s ideas and perceptions about love and relationships. The internet now offers endless new ways of communicating but our experience tells us that it isn’t necessarily the easiest or most successful way to meet genuine, intelligent, ‘nice’ people.

According to recent figures the number of single adults in the United Kingdom will rise to 15 million in 2012 and although the divorce rate has fallen slightly of late, the number of divorcees in the over 60s age group has increased by four per cent in the last two years.

At Classical Partners we welcome people in their 30s/40s seeking a life partner with similar background, interests and outlook, and also many people in their 50s/60s/70s who find themselves newly single through divorce or bereavement and would like to meet new like-minded folk with whom to share their enjoyment of the arts and perhaps find a new soulmate.

Last year we launched a new online dating service – www.classicalpartnersonline.co.uk which is proving very popular, however many still prefer the personal touch associated with our traditional introduction service and informal, friendly social evenings hosted by Caroline and Dan.

Upcoming social events early this year include evenings at Royal Festival Hall, Cadogan Hall and Royal Albert Hall, then later in the year our regular visits to the Proms, Opera Holland Park as well as theatre, exhibitions, drinks parties and much more. See our Events page – http://www.classicalpartners.co.uk/Events.html

Our first musical outing of the year to a packed Wigmore Hall on Sunday 15 January was hugely enjoyable, the audience seemingly mesmerised by the faultless and dynamic playing of young Polish-born string quartet Quatuor Apollon Musagète.

Wigmore Hall recital

After the recital we enjoyed a delicious Sunday lunch in the Wigmore Restaurant and people must have been getting on well as we were the last to leave!

Next weekend we’re looking forward to an evening of laughter at The Old Vic with Michael Frayn’s classic comedy Noises Off – http://www.oldvictheatre.com

Best wishes for now,
Dan and Caroline

Over the past year many members have met a new partner and interesting friends through our introductions service and social events. This week we heard of our latest success – John from the Midlands and Sarah from London who are moving to Bath together: we wish them every happiness in their new life.

During the year we have visited many leading venues for the Arts including the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, English National Opera, Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, West End Theatre, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Cadogan Hall, Opera Holland Park, Hatfield House and the Wigmore Hall. As well as enjoying informal soirees in members’ homes.

Our regular monthly informal drinks on the South Bank continue to be popular with members and guests.

This year we also launched a new online service  – http://www.classicalpartnersonline.co.uk to supplement our introduction service and events.

Classical Partners now offers something for everyone –
• personal introductions
• regular informal social events
• online dating service

We are looking forward to our last social outing of the year at the Royal Festival Hall this Saturday – Messiah by Candlelight – which should get us into festive mood. After the break we have lots of exciting events planned for the New Year (see http://www.classicalpartners.co.uk/Events.html)  and look forward to seeing you.

Best wishes

Dan and Caroline

After a delicious meal and couple of glasses of wine in the Barbican Lounge, we made our way down to the Stalls to enjoy this sell out concert. The programme was typical format – a rather strange modern work, Sofia Gubaidulina’s concerto for bayan accordion, sandwiched between two classics, Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony.

Not everyone in our party enjoyed the Gubaidulina – in fact from the interval chat I gather only two of us did! But everyone agreed that the Tchaikovsky was thrilling, even though Gergiev’s variations in tempo can sometimes be a little bizarre, as the critics have made mention of I see in this week’s reviews:

“Gergiev’s way with Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony could not have been tauter or more darkly Russian in coloration. Most of the time he stood on the podium unimpassioned, seemingly bored. But the LSO’s superb players knew exactly what to do, facing the fate motif with fiery strength, neatly swelling and tapering phrases in the waltz, generally keeping the symphony’s neurotic display just this side of bearable” (Times)

Equally critical of the conductor – the Guardian’s critic, Ivan Hewett – “Gergiev’s performance had a bizarre mixture of impatience and sluggishness… the rare moments of genuine feeling were entirely due to the sterling players of the LSO”

Opinion often seems to be divided on Gergiev, but I’m sure everyone in the Hall last Thursday would agree that the LSO sounded magnificent. Our CP group certainly thought so and all had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, meeting new like-minded people and enjoying a memorable concert together.

We will be returning to the Barbican several times no doubt in 2012. Our next classical music outings will be at the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall. See our Events page for details – http://www.classicalpartners.co.uk/Events.html

Great applause for Eugene Onegin opening night

The ENO’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin opened at the Coliseum on Saturday night and our group from Classical Partners had a fantastic view of the performance from the Dress Circle slips.

Before the opera we met for complimentary glass of bubbly (offered to all ENO ticket holders) and delicious early evening supper at Cote Brasserie, just a few metres from the Coliseum.

Deborah Warner’s new production has been given the thumbs up by the critics, with 4-star reviews in the Telegraph, Guardian and Times.  Particularly singled out for praise are the ENO orchestra under Edward Gardner, the direction, set design and lighting.  And most of the central characters’ performances, notably Toby Spence’s as Lensky.

“Ravishingly designed by Tom Pye, costumed by Chloe Obolensky and lit by Jean Kalman, the show has been meticulously prepared.  I enjoyed and admired every soothing minute and can safely prophesy that it will be a big hit.”   Rupert Christiansen, the Telegraph.

“Tradtionally staged and passionately conducted, ENO’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s lyrical masterpiece is full of ensemble virtues.  The orchestra under Edward Gardner’s direction sounds virtuosic…. Warner’s direction is naturalistic and intelligent.  The duel, between the two men whose bond is rent asunder by wounded pride, is superb theatre; brutal and heartbreaking.”  Richard Morrison, The Times

It could be argued that some of the dramatic tension is lost in the English translation, but the music and staging in this production more than makes up for that.

What better way to spend an evening than enjoying good food and wine in the company of an interesting group of people all eagerly anticipating an exciting new operatic production – and the opera certainly didn’t disappoint.

Forthcoming musical evenings see us at the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall, then in the New Year we will be at the Royal Albert Hall for a spectacular in-the-round production of Verdi’s stunning opera, Aida.  Can’t wait for that! 

Do look at our Events page for further details of forthcoming social evenings – http://www.classicalpartners.co.uk/Events.html

Established in 1992, Classical Partners has enjoyed outstanding success in bringing people together using their well respected introduction service alongside a varied programme of social events.

The new online venture  http://www.classicalpartnersonline.co.uk is part of Love and Friends database which has over 75,000 members of all ages and locations. But by joining Classical Partners Online you can search specifically for people with an interest in Music and the Arts.

You can sign up for Free, or take advantage of a special introductory offer of 3-months’ Full membership for less than £10 per month.

Or for information about Classical Partners introductions and events do give us a call on 01582 834334,

With best wishes
Caroline and Dan Boon

The quality of the performances seems to be better every time we go and the Hall’s marvellous acoustic enhances the recital even more. This week we were treated to the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, named after the Swedish town in which they gave their first performance and where they have established an annual festival. Their programme combined a couple of Beethoven’s most impressive works for piano trio along with a brand new work by Hans Henze which was equally stirring but in a totally different style. The packed hall seemed to lap it up.

Forthcoming treats on offer at the Wigmore Hall include the Nash Ensemble, Nicola Bennedetti, Paul Lewis, Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough. See http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on

After the recital we adjourned to the Bechstein Room downstairs for the complimentary glass of sherry that accompanies one’s coffee concert ticket and then in to the stylish and elegant but oh-so comfortable Wigmore Restaurant for a leisurely three-course lunch.

After a couple of hours of delicious food, wine and lively conversation, CP members went their various ways, eg one lady on to her choir rehearsal, and another small group of members were last seen heading towards Oxford Street, for a cup of tea and spot of shopping in John Lewis.

We will be back at the Wigmore Hall early in the New Year for another relaxing Sunday outing. Meanwhile members of Classical Partners have some great concerts, theatre and opera to look forward to. If you are interested in attending top class cultural events and meeting like-minded people at the same time – see our Events page for details of what’s coming up http://www.classicalpartners.co.uk/Events.html

Apparently as many as 200,000 people may have been persuaded last year to give money to fraudsters using false identities to pursue relationships with them. But because of the shame victims feel, fewer than 600 cases were reported.

The fraudsters, usually tied to organised crime and based outside the UK, often use pictures of models when making contact with their victims on dating sites and then act swiftly to move the ‘relationship’ away from the monitored sites to personal online services such as private email accounts to carry out the fraud. This would usually be claiming to be in need of urgent funds and asking for loans of money, or involving their victims in money laundering by asking them to accept payments in their bank accounts.

Recent research carried out by Leicester University – the first to measure the scale of this relatively new crime – found that in a YouGov poll of more than 2,000 British adults, one in every 50 knew a victim.

Of course it seems hard to imagine anyone handing over money to someone they’ve never met in person but these scammers are highly skilled in the art of manipulating vulnerable people.

Although awareness of online romance scams is increasing, millions of people in the UK remain at risk and the psychological impact experienced by victims can be considerable, even leading to suicide in some cases.

Of course there are plenty of people signed up to internet dating and social networking sites, who are genuinely seeking friendship or romance, but it can take time, a degree of nous and good luck to find the right people. Introduction agencies recommended by the Association of British Introduction Agencies (www.abia.org.uk) will have already screened members so are a much safer bet for those looking to find love or new friendships.    To find out more about the sort of people you can meet through Classical Partners, see http://www.classicalpartners.co.uk/Member-profiles.html

Fortunately, money is not everything. Professor Shira Gabriel in her paper “suggests that the events that end up being most important in our lives, the events that bring us the most happiness and also carry the potential for the most pain, are social events – moments of connecting to others and feeling their connections to us….. It was not independent events or individual achievements like winning awards or completing tasks that affected participants the most, but the moments when close relationships began or ended; when people fell in love or found a new friend; when a loved one died or broke their hearts.  In short, it was the moments of connecting to others that touched peoples’ lives the most.”

I have always known that humans are social animals. Professor Gabriel has now shown that we humans experience our most intense experiences when we interact with other individuals. It follows then that to increase our happiness we need to get out there and meet others. So if you are single start dating, expand your social circle, perhaps find a soulmate – and make your life more fulfilling.

Whilst I sympathise to a certain extent with her views, I do have problems with some of the statistics she quotes. She claims that “less than half of women over 40 will ever marry.” Conveniently she makes no mention of how many of these women actually want to get married, she simply uses this statistic to scare women into thinking they are a lost cause. Incidentally, The Times, commenting on figures published by the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales, makes a similar error. Proudly proclaiming that women are going to be overwhelmed by offers as there are now more single men than women in every age group except the over 75’s. Again they do not consider how many actually want to get married. The definition of single as “never married, divorced or widowed” is also a problem. How many are in happy, stable long term relationships? The old adage ‘Lies, dammed Lies and Statistics’ springs to mind. Numbers are great when trying to understand trends but you have to be very careful how you use them.

Back to Lori Gottlieb, she puts forward the view that feminism has encouraged women to think that they can have it all – the perfect man, lifestyle, family and career. In some ways she is right about this. There is not really a whole lot wrong with setting yourself high goals and aspirations. However you do need to be able to be flexible whilst trying to attain them.

Remember to give yourself a good pat on the back when you land on the moon even if you were aiming for the stars.

Recently there has been a lot written in the press about women who are increasingly finding that feminist ideas and legislation are actually holding them back rather than helping them as they were intended to. Feminism was supposed to liberate women and allow them to make all the choices in their lives on their own merits. However they are now finding that sometimes this ideal itself actually has the opposite effect. It is now illegal to ask a women in a job interview if she plans to have a family. Fair enough, but employers know this so don’t ask and women who have no intention of having a family do not get the chance to say so and the employer hires the man as it is less risky for them.

All forms of equality legislation almost by definition have a flip side that encourages positive discrimination. The obvious end-point of positive discrimination is mediocrity and I for one do not want to live in a mediocre world.

What has this got to do with Classical Partners, well, we sometimes meet people with pre-concieved ideas which are getting in their way of finding what they want. These pre-concieved ideas are their prejudices and there is no way we can legislate against them. What we can try and do is educate them to find a better way.

I think it is exactly the same with the proposed equality bill. Learn from the mistakes of feminism and instead of legislating try educating.