Dmitri Shostakovich was born on this day in 1906, So here's the 1966 Soviet film of Katerina Izmailova (his 1962 revision of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) directed by Mikhail Shapiro, with a towering performance by Galina Vishnevskaya as Katerina. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A6K...

Gluck's Armide was first performed in Paris on this day in 1777. The great Frida Leider sings Ah! Si la liberté me doit etre ravie in 1929, with John Barbirolli conducting. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBNE...

Vincenzo Bellini died in Paris on this day in 1835. So here's a live performance of Beatrice di Tenda, his most underrated opera, from New York in 1961, conducted by Nicola Rescigno, with Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Richard Cassilly and Enzo Sordello. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH-U...

There are times when I think there is nothing I hate more in the world than getting duvet covers on duvets ........ 😬

And on my way to the launch event now!

Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov, who last week called for an end to the war during a London concert, was arrested at a demonstration on the Gaza border against the war. “Stop the genocide. It’s ruining everything. Stop it now.”

Maria Callas singing Tu che invoco con orrore from Spontini's La Vestale, with the NDR Sinfonieorchester and Nicola Rescigno, in Hamburg in 1959. To mark the anniversary of her death on this day in 1977 www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpwn...

Dante died in Ravenna on this day in 1321. So let us listen to Louis Kentner playing the Dante Sonata. Its original title, Après une lecture de Dante, derives from a poem by Victor Hugo that opens with the words "Quand le poète peint l'enfer, is peint sa vie." www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzN5...

Rameau died on this day in 1764. So here is Tendre amour from Les Indes galantes, quite simply one of the most wonderful, beautiful things in all music. William Christie conducts Les Arts Florissants. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzi8...

So pushed to one side was this that I hadn't even heard one student had died.

Henry Purcell was (possibly) born on this day in 1659. So here's David Pountney's 1995 ENO production of The Fairy Queen, conducted by Nicholas Kok, with Yvonne Kenny and Tom Randle heading a fabulous cast. It was controversial in its day, but I loved it and still do. www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7zk...

Oh, the joys of spell check. Mine has just changed Rückert-Lieder to chicken-livers ......... 😳 🤣

Richard Strauss died on this day in 1949. Nicolai Gedda sings Befreit with Gerald Moore at the piano in 1966. Among the most beautiful songs ever written. And what a great, great singer Gedda was. www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_14...

Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito was first performed on this day in 1791. Dorothea Röschmann sings Deh, se piacer mi vuoi at the Salzburg Festival in 2003 with the Vienna Philharmonic and Nikolaus Harnoncourt www.youtube.com/watch?v=76yE...

Giacomo Meyerbeer was born on this day in 1791. Marilyn Horne sings O Prêtres de Ball from Le Prophète in radio broadcast from Turin conducted by Henry Lewis. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V5D...

The state of the health service in Sussex, and, I gather, elsewhere. Two and a quarter hours on the phone to get through to a receptionist at my doctor's surgery, only to be told there are no appointments. And not for the first time, either. This is, I hasten to add, a regular occurrence ........ 😳

Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera was first performed in Berlin on this day in 1928. The fabulous Megan Mullally (best known in the UK for Will and Grace) sings the Barbara Song. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLWf...

Oh, excellent! The Charpentier Louise from this year's Aix festival has just landed on ARTE's YouTube channel. So that's this evening sorted 😃

Still can't quite get over the thrill of finally seeing my Gramophone Collection piece on Debussy's Le martyre de Saint Sébastien in print.

"Die Welt is tief, and tiefer as der Tag gedacht ....." Friedrich Nietzsche died on this day in 1900. Lucretia West sings the setting of Zarathustra's Midnight Song from Mahler's Third Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic and John Barbirolli. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aezr...

I love the Habanera from Carmen and have heard it in many guises, but never before as on advert for weedkiller ..... 😳

A live performance of Debussy and D'Annunzio's Le martyre de Saint Sébastien from the Netherlands in 1978, conducted by Jean Fournet, with Bernard Kruysen as the title role. 'Claude de France,' as D'Annunzio nicknamed Debussy, was born on this day in 1862 www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSCz...

A happy birthday to the great and incomparable Janet Baker. So many wonderful performances, but I have always loved her Duparc, so here is Au pays où se fait la guerre, with the London Symphony Orchestra and André Previn. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGxF...

RIP Terence Stamp. A beautiful man and a wonderful actor, unforgettable in so many films. Loved him above all in Pasolini's Theorem: so here's the trailer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCGV...

Rafael Kubelík died on this day in 1996. So here's his 1971 Munich performance of Jenufa. I've posted this before, but it's one of the great things, and it's time to hear it again. Astrid Varnay is simply astonishing as Koscelnicka. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLFH...

Letter of the day (in the Times)

My Gramophone Magazine Collection piece on Debussy's Le martyre de Saint Sébastien is now out in the September issue. I just love this work, and have wanted to write about it for decades, so it's been a total joy and a real privilege to do. www.gramophone.co.uk/features/art...

Shostakovich died on this day fifty years ago. So here's his Sixth, my favourite of his symphonies, with Rudolf Barshai conducting the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ryR...

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on this day in 1792. So here is Irmgard Seefried singing Il Tramonto, Respighi's great 1918 setting of The Sunset, with the Lucerne Festival Strings and Rudolf Baumgartner. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5QZ...

Wounded Angels: Glyndebourne revives Damiano Michieletto's antiseptic, symbolist staging of Kát'a Kabanová. Frankly, it doesn't do it for me as theatre, but it's wonderfully well sung. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...

Suddenly there seems to be a monsoon going on on the South coast ....... 🌧️

Franz Liszt died in Bayreuth on this day in 1886. So here's a film of Louis Kentner playing the second (Italian) book of Années de pèlerinage at a recital in London in the 1960s. This is just utterly wonderful. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJuP...

Bach died on this day in 1750. Kirsten Flagstad sings Erbarme dich, mein Gott from the St Matthew Passion with the Philharmonia and Walter Susskind in 1950. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv_s...

Vivaldi died on this day in 1741. Sara Mingardo sings Mentre dormi, Amor fomenti from L'Olimpiade with Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjjY...

Really saddened to hear Tom Lehrer has died aged 97. We have lost a genius. RIP great man. www.youtube.com/watch?v=L35I...

To mark the anniversary today of Petrarch's birth in 1304, here is Katia Ricciarelli singing I'vidi in terra angelici costumi from Liszts's Petrarch Sonnets, at Carnegie Hall in 1983 with Martin Katz at the piano. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkf...

Béatrice Uria-Monzon singing O ma lyre immortelle from Gounod's Sapho. A really lovely singer taken too soon. RIP. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjAq...

Part 1 of my review from Aix-en-Provence is free to read on Musical America this weekend. A fabulous chamber reworking of Britten's Billy Budd was a high point of the entire festival. www.musicalamerica.com/mnews/newsst...

Prom Night: so it begins. I have doubts about some of the music, but it's finely done. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

Made it back in reasonable time (trains running okay tonight at any rate), if a bit bedraggled, as the storm lands on the south coast. It's deeply unpleasant out there, so please take care and stay safe, good people, as it slowly moves up the country tonight and tomorrow morning. ⛈️

First Night of the Proms tonight. Hope the thunderstorms aren't so terrible afterwards that I can't get home afterwards .......

"Great beauty slowly turning monstrous, obscene and rotten with decay." The LSO's Salome, conducted by Antonio Pappano, with Asmik Grigorian in the title role, and one of the greatest performances I've ever heard of the opera that concerted me to opera. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

Arnold Schoenberg died on this day in 1951. Cleo Laine sings Pierrot Lunaire with the Nash Ensemble in 1974. The first recording of the work I ever heard, and I still have enormous fondness for it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJDM...

Settling in, at long last, for an hour or two of tennis after a trying day at once busy and unproductive (not helped by an electrician in my flat fixing my wiring, though I'm glad that's done ......) 🎾

Really saddened to see Grigor Dimitrov retire from Wimbledon in tears, and in great pain following an injury in the third set (after winning the first two) of his match with Jannik Sinner. Have always been a big Dimitrov fan. So hope he gets well soon.

Gian Carlo Menotti was born on this day in 1911. So here's Patricia Neway as Magda in The Consul, a role she created in 1950. One of the greatest performances you will ever see, of anything. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIB9...

Kirsten Flagstad singing Mahler's Kindertotenlieder with the Vienna Philharmonic and Adrian Boult in 1958. Mahler was born on this day in 1860. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxVp...

Happy London Pride to everyone there and celebrating. Have a really great day!! Can't get in for it, so I'm, going local this year and doing Hastings Pride next month (it was fabulous last year). 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Adolphe Adam's Giselle was first performed in Paris on this day in 1841. This is Act I from a performance given by the Bolshoi on a visit to Covent Garden in 1956. Galina Ulanova is incomparable and heartbreaking in the title role. www.youtube.com/watch?v=heYi...

Insomnia again last night, the worst I can remember for a while. Only two hours sleep. Horrid ......