When classical music doubled up as pugilism: Beethoven knocks out Steibelt
John Suchet first wrote about Ludwig van Beethoven in the form of a three volume fictionalised biography. I recently read the first two volumes, but then switched to reading Suchet’s shorter,...
View ArticleYou cannot be unconventional if there are no conventions
Last October, I wrote about, and quoted Misha Donat writing about, the astonishing outburst that happens during the Andantino movement of Schubert’s penultimate Piano Sonata, D959. In Standpoint,...
View Article“But I am Beethoven.”
I’ve already recycled a bit from John Suchet’s non-fictional book on Beethoven. Here is another bit from the same book (pp. 260-262 of my paperback edition – it follows a description of how Rossini met...
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Funerial thoughts
Strange day. I spent a lot of it planning my own funeral, which will, as is traditional, be an event at which I will be present but not paying any attention, if you get my meaning. The thing is, it’s...
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Bartok (again) – Mozart – Chopin – Purcell
My journeys to the Marsden are now regularly taking me to South Kensington tube, where this elegant gentleman is to be seen, looking particularly fine during a sunny spell, of which there have recently...
View ArticleWhat I now feel able to say about Prince Philip
Nothing at all remarkable, just so you now know. Don’t read this posting for dazzling insights. It’s just that the last couple of days and the next few days are an example of a common thing, which is...
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Danish cows entertained by cellists
Further to this earlier posting about the musical tastes of cows, incoming from Cousin David, in the form of a photo of cows being entertained by cellists: But where was this happening? Image googling...
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Parking baton
Here: The Estonian National Opera greets people in a very unusual manner, at least those who have decided to drive to their chosen event. The parking lot barriers have been converted to resemble a...
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Two favourite footbridges
Indeed: They are both about the same size, and both, in my photos, pointing in the same direction. Otherwise they could hardly be more different. On the left, a footbridge which forms part of the walk...
View ArticleBernstein’s posthumous victory
Last Saturday morning they chose the best recorded version of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. In the course of this, the guest chooser, Edward Seckerson, read out this excerpt from a poem that...
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