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Came in earlier than usual from Keep-Fit this evening and was in time to catch a lovely programme about Kathleen Ferrier on BBC4.  Would be 9 o'clock our time.

Hello, allanb and hello, Norman Couldn't agree more about CDs and DVDs.  I do envy your nearness to musical events, Norman.  In fact, if I were to be unhappy about anything regarding our lives here in France, it would be access to live music.  In the UK, we lived near Cardiff, and so a concert or an opera would just be a short drive away. BTW, we now have a Bose system and the quality of the sound is so magnificent that you could close your eyes and imagine your room filled with musicians[:D] We used to have a HUGE sound system with massive Goodman speakers which took up half of our sitting-room, yes, I know, totally ridiculous and then we'd have to keep the volume down as it was a semi-detached. Now, I could just open the windows and have music in the garden as well[:D] Other thing about the Bose is that it's so compact and light you could carry it from room to room if you wanted to.

[quote user="NormanH"]Thanks for reminding me. One of my best friends and ex-colleagues teaches composition and general keyboard skills to the Korean boy who didn't win the keyboard finale. Apparently he has a brilliant keyboard technique (as was obvious) but has no idea of either improvising or harmonising at the keyboard. This is a dichotomy I have observed before. It seems that the hours spent acquiring the ability to play extremely difficult pieces by heart can also lead to a sort of paralysis of the more intuitive side of music making. In a related point I feel that the competition is becoming a contest between a few well-known teachers who supervise their students so closely they are almost puppets.  Fortunately there are a few with enough character to escape their Svengalis.. [/quote] Reading your remarks about the Korean boy has reminded me of a conversation I had only last week with one of the professors in the Guildhall. He said he'd noticed that there are many, many very technically brilliant youngsters from the Far East who don't however seem to have a clear understanding of the music.  Their technique is faultless and yet their music-making lacks what I suppose you might call soul? Apparently many of these youngsters have been "hot-housed" from a very young age. I know that this boy actually lives in the UK and I don't  know whether my friend's observations in his professional capacity as teacher, examiner and performer would apply to him. It could be that Western music do not have the same ressonance for someone from such a different culture. Though I always think that music is the ultimate international language.  I remember making this statement at a civil service interview (I DIDN'T get the job!) and going on to show how a "c" sounds like a "c" in any language in the world and that no translation is necessary.  Won't tell you how I enthusiastically went on to demonstrate the "grammar" and structures that are inherently built into music and how the notation lends itself to nuances of meaning and blah, blah, blah as I got more and more carried away and the interviewers got less and less impressed [:$] 

Norman, just watched the final.  I'd better not tell you the winner as you won't get it for a couple of days, will you? OH and I both picked the winner!  A first as we don't always agree. Let me know what you think when you have watched and listened.[:)]

Norman, I hope you are catching Young Musicians on iplayer? Last night's string section was won by an enchanting 14 year old cellist. When the Forum was "down", I didn't bother using it for ages (and I still don't like how it works these days) but I did miss being able to tell you about a couple of very good TV programmes.

The moment I listened to your clip, I realised that it indeed works very well as a carol. Then, I got to thinking about carols; advent ones, ephiphany ones (as your clip shows) and easter ones.  So, here is something that might be of interest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_(music) "Dance-like", so no wonder l'Arlésienne is so appropriate. I was most interested in your following link  as well.  Learnt a new French word, "mages" [:D] I associate Lully with ballet music.

[quote user="NormanH"]Is this near you? http://lechoeurvoyageur.fr/files/AfficheBacch-r%C3%A9duit.jpg http://lechoeurvoyageur.fr/ [/quote] Alas nowhere near. There is an Easter concert near us; Haydn, Bach and Handel but I know the people involved so I shall be giving it a wide berth.  Don't get me wrong, I am all for encouraging amateurs and enjoy live music and have sat through many a youth orchestra, school, village hall, etc concert but somehow, now that I am no longer under any obligation to attend, I'd rather stick to my CDs! BTW, you probably won't think much of this but I hope others might enjoy it. It's just that last night, I read L'Arlèsienne from Daudet's short story and I was so impressed that, from such a little scrap, Bizet managed to write such catchy tunes. So.............here's the Farondole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y09pD1r-Qs Incidentally, I might be a bit snooty about books but not at all too proud to enjoy even the most popular pieces of music.  

[quote user="NormanH"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iNHC1c5koQ&feature=related I remember him singing 'ad-hoc' in a Cambridgeshire village pub one evening over 40 years ago when we were both students... [/quote] Ah, yes, always good to remember from BEFORE they are famous! I remember Terfel in the Bristol Hipodrome and, next thing I knew, I heard him in New York!

Norman, about that concert by the Britten Sinfonia that I asked you about last week, here are the details if you are interested in listening.... BBC Radio 3 live from QEH on Mon 27 feb at 19.30; Couperin, Ades, Ravel, Stravinsky... Same concert over the next couple of weeks in New York, Norwich, Cambridge. Don't know if I'd like the Ades; could be too modern and incomprehensible to me but I intend to listen and see if I learn anything new![:)]

Yes, got that recording.  Beautifully played as you would expect from two such performers.

[quote user="sweet 17"] Not season-appropriate but, oh, so beautiful and heart-string-tugging..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mgaICZS79Y Norman, does it remind you of Fauré's "Elégie"? [/quote] Wonderful, Norman. And here's L'élégie again in case you didn't see my previous post....sorry if I am being a bit insistent.  I so love this piece! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gmTSWmRXGc&feature=related Edit:  Actually, BOTH the Max Bruch and the Fauré.  Perhaps that's why I keep getting them mixed up?

So.......you have now converted to "later" music![:D] OH and I greatly enjoyed your links.  "Après un rêve" is an all-time favourite as I am convinced that it helped me get over quite a severe illness when I was in my thirties.  I played it incessantly in the hospital. After listening to Souzay, I couldn't help listening to Régine Crespin. also  Sublime! Thank you. BTW, I whizzed through the written info and, to my own utter amazement, I was able to understand enough without having to stop and keep consulting the dictionary.  Can't believe how my French has come on!  Well, the comprehension anyway......thanks again![:D] 

Looked it up on the Britten Sinfonia website: www.brittensinfonia.com, hoping it might say broadcast on French radio da-di-da, but there's nothing like that.

There is a Britten Sinfonia concert in Dijon this evening. How do I find out if it is (will be.....at a future date) broadcast on French radio? Do you know, Norman or Pacha or anybody else, please?

Jonz, I see you are getting more adventurous with your designs and your skills are improving all the time. This is such a nice piece; good to look at and very functional. That's the essense of good design, of course:  beauty AND funtionality.  I don't like the one without the other! Well done, Jonz [:D]

Not quite so joyful but the radio seems to be playing les nuits d'été every morning! Perhaps it's to make us forget momentarily the recession and the freezing temperatures?[:P] Here is my favourite of the 6 songs in les nuits d'été, le spectre de la rose with the wonderful Janet Baker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJzvqX_phcE Best of all, the words are on the screen. I will now need to google Gautier as I know next to nothing about him other than that Belioz composed the music for les nuits using Gautier's poems. Enjoy and forget it's not yet summer [:)]

Not season-appropriate but, oh, so beautiful and heart-string-tugging..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mgaICZS79Y Norman, does it remind you of Fauré's "Elégie"?

To say thank you, Norman, here's more Strauss and more Schwartzopf...[:)] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_BVNKiphrk OH's favourite opera but the one and only time I saw it live was in the Sherman in Cardiff and the only seat I could get was right up in the gods. Not even a proper chair but a sort of narrow, hard, wooden bench that was so high up you wouldn't sit there if you had vertigo.  However, after 10 minutes, all discomfort was totally forgotten and I just lost myself in the amazing spectacle unfolding w-a-y below me and, of course Strauss's beautiful score.

At Keep Fit tonight and the teacher had changed the music for the final cool-down bit of the session..... So, I'm posting this.  Possibly Pacha will like it better than Norman as it's probably not old enough for Norman... I believe that Mascagni hardly wrote anything else but, if you've written something so beautiful as the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, perhaps you could be excused  for taking things easy after that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OvsVSWB4TI  

And a wonderful programme today about putting on Tosca with Pepano just before the opera itself. Alas, I couldn't sit down and watch properly....too many interruptions, phone calls, etc etc. But Tosca with Gheougiu, Jonas Kaufman, Bryn Terfel..... Did I tell you I actually went to the opera house in Rome with OH one year (it was a "free" year when both cats had died and the dog hadn't yet been left to us) specifically to watch Tosca and to look at the locations of the opera. A once in a lifetime experience I guess as I can't see us being able to afford the time or the money to do it again.

I, too, think of it as for Easter but OH keeps playing it on the Bose and I love it so much that I play it a lot also.

Yes, lovely! Will you be Messiah-ed out like I'm going to be?

Sorry, folk. Just going to give you the website when the neighbour called. Here it is: www.brittensinfonia.com

Thank you.  I am very excited that the Britten Sinfonia now has its own choir and I see from their website that they are touring with this work.  Amsterdam, Norfolk and somewhere else that I can't remember. Will be following closely to see what else they are going to do.  If you looked at the site, you can hear the interviews about the new choir.

A request please, Norman, STP. Can you find me a better recording of L'enfance du Christ than the one I gave you a couple of posts ago?