This is not the first time obviously, nor will it be the last so let me remind you that epidemics have always been a potent inspiration for interesting and sometimes great, art. Let's start with my least favourite in this moment. Daniel Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Year" published in 1772 but purporting to be… Continue reading Other Plagues
Category: Music
The Best of times, the Worst of times…
I'm quoting Dickens from memory so I might be wrong. I believe they are the first few lines of "A Tale of Two Cities". So,in this period, I guess we're learning a lot, I think we'll have lost some of our fascination with social media by the time this is all over. Honestly, just how… Continue reading The Best of times, the Worst of times…
Percussion
It was an interesting Friday for music. I was very excited about the first piece of the evening because it was the first time I had ever heard a concert for percussion. When we entered the auditorium the stage was ready with some instruments I can't name but they looked like xylophones or probably marimbas… Continue reading Percussion
Love
la Scala, for Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" . I'm not really used to the style of French opera ( here exemplified as Drame lyrique which avoids blatantly theatrical or grandiose effects) but I can't resist a good love story and apparently nor can a lot of other people.Shakespeare was the major leaguer in this tragic… Continue reading Love
Auditorium ? Wow!
I don't know what was wrong with me but I was vaguely bored last night, my own ignorant fault of course. Or maybe I was simply waiting for what I really wanted to hear. "Thus spake Zarathustra!" Of course it's one of those popular pieces that everybody knows but not everybody knows whose it is.… Continue reading Auditorium ? Wow!
Obstacle race to Beethoven
https://englishthatgrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/beethoven-9-chicago-symphony-orchestra-riccardo-muti-mp3cut.net_.mp3 I really don't mean to grumble all the time but needs must! This year my season ticket to the auditorium gave me the possibility to hear Beethoven's ninth on New Year's Eve. Lovely, until...I caught a glimpse out of the speeding train of the magic stop Duomo but we sped by! Where was the… Continue reading Obstacle race to Beethoven
Special Sunday.
cof There was the possibility to listen to some music this afternoon in Brugherio. I think it's really interesting when they offer free music, even though I'm not sure who "they" are. It was an organ recital held in San Bartholomew's a church standing on a site used for worship since the 13th century but… Continue reading Special Sunday.
Bach Bliss
dav Tuesday: Bach's magnificent, monumental Christmas Oratorio, one of the recurring joys of the musical year. This one was particularly special because it was performed by the Amsterdam Baroque orchestra and choir directed by none other than Ton Koopman. A quick walk through Brera to the Basilica di San Marco, long queues in the pouring… Continue reading Bach Bliss
Traumatic concert,continued..
So we listened to a Chopin piano concerto performed by Boris Petrushansky Rusian-born but naturalized Italian; after the Chopin, Prokoviev's Cinderella suite, composed for ballet. After the concert, back to the tram stop.There's a certain ferment there, what's up? A notice telling us rather tersely that there is no tram but a SUBSTITUTE. The very… Continue reading Traumatic concert,continued..
Traumatic concert
Well actually it wasn't really the concert which was traumatic: it was the journey. I started off in very thick fog and I nearly gave up and came home, thinking about the return journey, which would be late and made amongst mad drivers fuelled by god-knows-what, going out to rave.!! Then I decided to risk… Continue reading Traumatic concert
English that grows 