Clive James on Nigel Kennedy

Ah, the master is still at it, penning beautifully-written reviews of TV, junk or otherwise.

Here's Clive James, blessing the Telegraph with his presence, on Nigel Kennedy at the Last Night of the Proms:

In The Last Night of the Proms (BBC One) Nigel Kennedy might not have looked like a violinist specifically, but he sure as hell didn’t look normal either.

You could say that his clothes were just an assembly of random cloth that hit him after a mattress factory exploded nearby, but his hairstyle was the dazzling proof that his get-up was all his own idea. Spiked and shining with fixative, his coiffure rose vertically as if it were being sucked into an overhead air duct.

Meanwhile he was playing The Lark Ascending, by Vaughan Williams; and very beautiful it was. Well, if that’s what it takes for an instrumentalist to relax, why not? Although I can’t remember that Vladimir Horowitz ever wore a clown’s costume to play the piano. But then he really was mad, crazy etc. (You can always tell them: they work flat out to prove themselves normal, whereas people who carry on like nitwits crave attention, not solace.)