Very sad to announce the death of doyen of British musicology and music analysis Arnold Whittall (1935-2026). He had been ill since the beginning of the year. I’m mourning not only an intellectual giant and valued mentor but also a close friend who we saw for the last time on Saturday.

Interview on #Satie and furniture music this afternoon for Canadian Radio! 🇨🇦

#Whistler Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge. VERY different from the new bridge I crossed on the way to Tate Britain @tate.bsky.social

Booked to go to this concert in Berlin on 5 September, and planning to travel by train!

List of (some of the) percussion required for a contemporary French score (Edith Canat de Chizy, Skyline). So 'lion's roar' in French is... lion's roar

You definitely need to read Robin Robertson's "Mortification: Writers’ Stories of their Public Shame" with such luminaries as Margaret Atwood, Irvine Welsh, and Julian Barnes. My favourite is poet Simon Armitage's:

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At the Barbican Centre for the BBCSO including Betsy Jolas - 100 years old next month!

Henri #Dutilleux died 22 May 2013. Already 13 years ago and always remembered with huge affection and appreciation. Here's Dominante bleue?, the final movement of his wonderful Shadows of Time www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJJX...

Amateur pianist corner: #Albéniz Evocación. Want to be able to play this properly: most difficult thing is the page turns in my edition being at the worst possible places!

Henri Rousseau was born #OnThisDay in 1844 🐅 Explore his work in our primary art and design resource 'Surprised by a tiger' 👉 https://artuk.org/learn/learning-resources/the-superpower-of-looking-surprised-by-a-tiger#OnThisDay 'Surprised!' by Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) 📸 National Gallery

Contemporary music publishers: it’s incredibly useful for programme note writers and reviewers to have perusal scores easily accessible (Faber Music is an excellent example) and really unhelpful to have no access to a score

Claire Booth & Christopher Glynn introducing their #Poulenc/#Cocteau programme, peaking at La Voix humaine

Marie Laurencin, Woman with a Rose, in the small queer art exhibit at the Graves Gallery #Sheffield

How about the movement titles of Yvonne #Loriod's Sainte Face, being performed in Berlin in September. Very very surrealist/Catholic www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/musikfest...

Fabulous programme in Sheffield which absolutely had to be experienced live #Beckett #Feldman

On my way to Sheffield, where I’ll be talking about #Cocteau and #Poulenc before tomorrow’s performance of La voix humaine musicintheround.co.uk/events/explo...

My guest review for @thoroughlygood.bsky.social on the recent United Strings of Europe concert at the Purcell Room: blog.thoroughlygood.me/2026/05/17/r...

Wie eine Nachtigall mit Zahnschmerzen: my interview for WDR for Satie's 160th anniversary (I'm translated from English) is now available and is certainly a good workout for my German www1.wdr.de/mediathek/au...

Erik #Satie, born 17 May 1866, photographed by Man Ray. Eternally fascinating and fundamentally unknowable. Also I REALLY want to know if organist John @warblefly.bsky.social managed to sneak Vexations into a church service this morning

On Vexations, written for today’s performance by Andrew Brixey-Williams in Ealing:

Taking a break after listening to 427-471: after a vexatious week, it’s been oddly comforting to listen to the repetitions. Likely to end around 3 am…

#Satie solo Vexations all day today in Ealing with Andrew Brixey-Williams! Ends tomorrow on Satie’s birthday. Planning to be there late afternoon/early evening

Portuguese painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Limitless Corridor, 1948 #WomensArt

Very exciting addition to #Wimbledon, a cheese and wine bar, Local Cheese Cave. Mostly English cheeses. Today I’ve gone for an intriguing British Camembert-style sheep cheese

Saddened to learn that Robin Hartwell died peacefully yesterday. Taught at Liverpool Hope and many other places, always a thoughtful person to talk to about Boulez and a lovely guy

At @kingsplacelondon.bsky.social for the Carice Singers contemporary programme focusing on the late Steve Martland:

On 17 May at 1745 (1645 UK time), ZeitZeichen: a #Satie birthday programme on German radio featuring an interview with me! www.wdr.de/programmvors...

Love the random polyphony of my 30-second recording at Trinity Laban: piano masterclass student (with @ianpace.bsky.social leading), violin, percussion, non-existent soundproofing

The extremely impressive and most definitely non-purpose-built Trinity Laban campus #Greenwich

Today's discovery: Lili #Boulanger attended two of the premiere performances of #Debussy Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien in May 1911, when she was 17. She was a committed audience member: the performance lasted almost 5 hours

At the Purcell Room for a tasty United Strings of Europe programme

This time next week in Ealing, Andrew Brixey-Williams is giving a solo performance of #Satie Vexations, in aid of the Young Minds UK mental health charity: ealing.nub.news/whats-on/mus...

Local news: Labour retains control of London Borough of #Merton with an increased majority news.merton.gov.uk/2026/05/08/e...

At the Âme Darkness Visible programme at the @barbicancentre.bsky.social - mixed bag, liked the film/lighting, and WOW Cassandra Miller’s viola concerto ‘I cannot live without trembling’ is a stunning piece

#Ligeti Piano Concerto sketch. From the latest Paul Sacher Stiftung journal

Looking forward to the #Sheffield Chamber Music Festival: I'll be talking about #Poulenc and #Cocteau on 18 May. Lots of excellent concerts including #Feldman & #Beckett musicintheround.co.uk/events/explo...

#Ravel epigraph, heading his 'Habanera' for two pianos (1895): 'Au pays parfumé que le soleil caresse' from #Baudelaire A une dame créole www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIn2...

My review of Manchester Collective ‘Papillons’ programme for I Care If You Listen - Saariaho the highlight: @icareifyoulisten.bsky.social icareifyoulisten.com/2026/05/musi...

I very rarely go to the cinema but went to this film (based on Camus’ L’Étranger) on a whim and you know? it was very well done. Ended with The Cure ‘Killing an Arab’

Leopard cat in #London

Once upon a time, years of training and competition were required to rise to the top of classical music. But as Jeffrey Arlo Brown reports, the under-qualified ultra-wealthy are skipping to the front of the line, wads of cash in hand.

Just finished a sleeve note on Lili #Boulanger piano music - here’s bars 31-42 of D’un vieux jardin. Tricky for amateur pianist corner: I’m convinced she intended to orchestrate it

At the Purcell Room for Manchester Collective’s Papillons, reviewing for I Care If You Listen. Glorious evening outside @southbankcentre.bsky.social

📣 60% off selected hardbacks! From Beethoven to the battlefields, explore 1,000s of hardbacks all with 60% off 👉 buff.ly/z3dGI9u #BookSky #Skystorians Ends 5 May 2026.

At City University for @ianpace.bsky.social recital: #Boulez 2nd Sonata, #Ravel Gaspard, new 🇯🇵 music. My kind of programme!

Irving Penn John Cage preparing a piano, 1947

None of her compositions were published in her lifetime, but the manuscripts are in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and various researchers have been working on them - Peter Asimov and Chris Murray in particular

A real discovery coming up in Berlin in September, the world premiere of Yvonne Loriod's Sainte Face (1945) for... soprano, eight flutes, woodwind, brass, percussion, small string section, two harps, piano, celesta and two ondes Martenot www.berlin.de/en/tickets/c...

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