Chill's Photo Blog (Free subscription) | 28/11/2009
Southwold Originally uploaded by chill . We got married in July but 24th (ish) November is our official anniversary weekend which we celebrate by going for a short break somewhere. It's a nice time of year, there's still some autumn leaves in the trees, it's not too cold yet and Christmas is just round around the corner. This year we rented a little cottage in Halesworth Suffolk, ten miles from the...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
Powerful Greek soprano who was a specialist in French song The Greek soprano Arda Mandikian, who has died aged 85, was a powerful presence on stage or concert platform, appearing to be much taller than she really was. Her face was not only beautiful but awe-inspiring, like an ancient statue, with a noble nose that seemed to start in the depths of her forehead. Of Armenian Greek stock, she was born...
DownWithTyranny! (Free subscription) | 22/11/2009
Tenor Edmundas Seilius sings the Prologue to Britten's ghost opera The Turn of the Screw (with pianist Joyce Fieldsend) in what we're told is the dress rehearsal at the Opéra National du Rhin. I don't suppose any director's going to let the Narrator just stand in front of the curtain and tell what he has to tell about this "curious story," but this performance at least starts surprisingly...
DownWithTyranny! (Free subscription) | 21/11/2009
Dawn on the North Sea coast of Suffolk at Aldeburgh, where Britten lived nearly the last three decades of his life by Ken Back when we took our original Sneak peek into the sound world of Benjamin Britten , when I was dependent on YouTube scavengings for musical examples, I was relieved to have Leonard Bernstein's rather tired DG recording of the mesmerizing "Dawn" interlude from Peter Grimes...
Joe. My. God. (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
My loyal companion Aaron writes from his exile in Oregon to suggest that opera fans here on JMG would enjoy Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten, which comes out today. A review in the Guardian UK headlined Boys, Bitching, Brilliance notes: Benjamin Britten's early years are often ignored, overshadowed by the spectacular success of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, when he was 31....
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 31/10/2009
Writings show composer as lonely but driven and with low opinions of his rivals Benjamin Britten's early years are often ignored, overshadowed by the spectacular success of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, when he was 31. But now, the diaries the composer kept for a decade from the age of 14 are to be published and they reveal a lonely but driven schoolboy; a young man exposed to a glamorous world...
On An Overgrown Path (Free subscription) | 26/10/2009
Benjamin Britten in reflective mood outside the Old Mill at Snape while completing Peter Grimes in 1945. That opera, like all of Britten's output, is a mystical fusion of music and place. We talk of Britten's Aldeburgh, Bach's Leipzig, Elgar's Malvern, and Bernstein's New York, yet the relationship between music and place is only just starting to be explored by pioneering projects such as musicDNA...
Mighty Fine Art (Free subscription) | 10/10/2009
I've been out and about with my camera this week, hoping to get some good reference pictures for some local scenes I'm planning to do over the coming weeks. This boat, I've already incorporated into several paintings. It's the texture and colours of the peeling, rotting paintwork which attracts me. This one is a more modern fishing boat, and no rusty old winch for this guy! This is Maggie Hamblings...
the concert (Free subscription) | 30/09/2009
Before we headed out to Aida last night, I realized that I was going to be adding a new opera to my “list” of works I’ve seen. I’d never actually written them all down, though, so this morning I’ve been going through my memory (and opera company archive websites), and I think I’ve come up with most of them: 67! Not bad, I think. Do any of you do this? Maury ? JSU...
DownWithTyranny! (Free subscription) | 20/09/2009
At the heart of Britten's haunting opera Peter Grimes are the four Sea Interludes , orchestrally evoking life in a poor Suffolk-coast fishing village. The first, "Dawn," which joins the Prologue and Act I, is played here by the Boston Symphony in Leonard Bernstein's "Final Concert." by Ken Way back when ( in August 2007 , actually), writing briefly about some music of Igor Stravinsky,...
Arts Admin (Free subscription) | 08/09/2009
While I was driving to work today, WFIU played Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" from the opera Peter Grimes , a piece I have always really enjoyed, and that seemed appropriate on this foggy morning. Here's Leonard Bernstein conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. And some Turner to look at, a natural choice.
Chandos Records (Free subscription) | 08/09/2009
The Richard Hickox foundation will be launched on 15 October with a concert by the City of London Sinfonia and the London Symphony Chorus. Celebrated conductor Richard Hickox died prematurely in 2008, one of the world's greatest conductors and a pioneer of British music. The Foundation aims to continue Richard's work by supporting recordings of British composers, especially those who have not received...
On An Overgrown Path (Free subscription) | 12/08/2009
The fascist and racist sympathies of conductor Reginald Goodall were the subject of yesterday's post, The flawed genius of Valhalla . From 1940 to 1943 Goodall was the principal conductor and driving force of the Wessex Philharmonic. This orchestra was based in Bournemouth in the west of England and had links with the London Philharmonic. There is a delicously ironic story from Goodall's time with...
George Szirtes (Free subscription) | 09/08/2009
I have long meant to put this up, but today Joan Bakewell chose it - not this recording (Leonard Bernstein) - on Desert Island Discs, and it reminded me. We saw Peter Grimes with Jon Vickers in the role a good few years ago. Quite overwhelming. And this is as good a sense of the North Sea coast in orchestral terms as I know. * Down to my father's birthday. We eat, eight of us, in a Cafe Rouge which...
Question Darwin (Free subscription) | 24/07/2009
http://www.questiondarwin.com/ The BBC Promenade concerts are getting in on the Darwin year, which seems to have otherwise pretty much fizzled out, not that most people paid much attention. On Saturday 1st august Saint David Attenborough will be introducing EVOLUTION! A Darwin–inspired extravaganza for kids The Prom concert programme reads as follows CBBC presenters Barney Harwood and Gemma Hunt...
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