No other word has done more damage to the craft of writing in recent years than “content”. Even if you’re using the word “content” ironically, or as a cute little joke, don’t. When someone calls writing “content” they’re pissing on someone’s hard work & passion. “Content” is Technosatan’s henchword.

So much about this has me screaming into my motonormativity cushion. Why further subsidise all the wealthy people who drive? Why NOT subsidise the poorer people who don't drive?

#TheCompleteBritten #88 Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10 (1937) All the elements of Britten's career to date come together in the astonishing work that brought him his international breakthrough, and which rightly remains one of his best-loved works around the world to this day ❤️

He's no loser, baby. You bet your life I'm in my happy place listening to Beck. #NowListening #NewReleases2026 #94

Not now, Elder Gods From Outside Reality Frozen Under The Ice For Aeons

Liar, Liar, Liar liar, Liar liar liar, Liar liar liar liar liar, Liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar, Liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar. The Fibbernacci sequence

He's no loser, baby. You bet your life I'm in my happy place listening to Beck. #NowListening #NewReleases2026 #94

A great way to relax before the start of the working week ... NOT! #NowDrinking #NowWatching

#NowListening Time for yet another composer I'd never heard of before #NewReleases2026 #93 came along. Johanna Senfter (1879-1961) studied composition with Max Reger. Two world wars separate the first and last of her nine symphonies. I'm really enjoying #1 (1914) so far.

#TheCompleteBritten #88 Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10 (1937) All the elements of Britten's career to date come together in the astonishing work that brought him his international breakthrough, and which rightly remains one of his best-loved works around the world to this day ❤️

#TheCompleteBritten #87 King Arthur - radio score (1937) Britten thought the text "dull and derivative", but he was rightly pleased with his own contribution to an epic live radio dramatization of the King Arthur story. ‘The music certainly comes off like hell’ he wrote, and so it does here!

Felicity Lott in concert or opera guaranteed musical loveliness, intelligence and serious charm. When she and her equally great chum Ann Murray were booked for The Last Night of the Proms, i interviewed them. Flott was as gracious and witty as I’d imagined. RIP www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...

Unbelievably sad that the glorious Felicity Lott has passed. There have been many great sopranos, but few had the radiant intelligence of this extraordinary musical legend.

I'm hosting a different kind of Eurovision song contest at my place tonight. #NowDrinking #NowWatching

Are we nearly there yet?

Maybe I'll book tickets for the Highways Festival while I wait. Maybe.

Nail-biting anticipation

#TheCompleteBritten #87 King Arthur - radio score (1937) Britten thought the text "dull and derivative", but he was rightly pleased with his own contribution to an epic live radio dramatization of the King Arthur story. ‘The music certainly comes off like hell’ he wrote, and so it does here!

Thinking of asking Sam Jackson to commission a piece from Caroline Shaw which is just fifteen minutes of a choir going "Fucking refresh!"

It's alive!

Happy "Will Proms booking work?" day to all celebrate.

#TheCompleteBritten #86 Reveille (1937) This haunting "concert study for violin with piano accompaniment" was meant as a musical joke on Britten's friend, the violinist Toni Brosa, who had trouble getting up in the morning, but its ominous tread pre-echoes Peter Grimes's terrifying passacaglia.

Georges Auric Louis Durey Arthur Honegger Darius Milhaud Francis Poulenc Germaine Tailleferre

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! The six fantastic symphonies by Bohuslav Martinů are among the finest cycles of the 20th century. If you've yet to discover them then their DG debut conducted by Martinů's Czech compatriot Jakub Hrůša should be just the ticket. ▶️ open.qobuz.com/playlist/513...

@loveinner.bsky.social If I was a box set buyer, I'd definitely get this #NewRelease.

Despite it being obvious that the time of two-party politics is over, the govt laid out no plans to introduce a fairer voting system in the King's Speech. That's why Green MPs tabled an amendment on the need to bring in proportional representation and make every voice heard.

Super-excited for this on Saturday: an embarrassment of Venetian riches with @londiniumchoir.bsky.social, @ecse1610.bsky.social and Monteverdi String Band... absolutely wonderful music, especially the Selva morale 8-part Magnificat. Do come if you possibly can! www.londinium-voices.org.uk/events

*skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* *skip* -me, in the car, after starting my favorites playlist

Sibelius fans really need to hear the all-Sibelius disc in this box. Grotty sound aside, it’s just fabulous. Finlandia has been tinkered with, but it’s *thrilling*, as is the highly-charged performance of the First Symphony. Ormandy was a great Sibelius conductor.

#TheCompleteBritten #86 Reveille (1937) This haunting "concert study for violin with piano accompaniment" was meant as a musical joke on Britten's friend, the violinist Toni Brosa, who had trouble getting up in the morning, but its ominous tread pre-echoes Peter Grimes's terrifying passacaglia.

We lost Douglas Adams 25 years ago today. This has made a lot of people very sad and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

Atmospheric CO₂ of 340 ppm

#TheCompleteBritten #85 Funeral Blues - song for voice & piano (1937) The Ascent of F6 includes a setting of Auden's poem "Stop All The Clocks", famously featured six decades later in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral. Britten extracted his setting to make a powerful standalone song.

#TheCompleteBritten #84 The Ascent of F6 - Theatre score for female voice, 2 male voices, chorus, percussion, ukulele & piano 4 hands (1937) Britten wrote this incidental music for the stage play by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood in the wake of his mother's early death.

#TheCompleteBritten #84 The Ascent of F6 - Theatre score for female voice, 2 male voices, chorus, percussion, ukulele & piano 4 hands (1937) Britten wrote this incidental music for the stage play by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood in the wake of his mother's early death.

In 1933, Max Steiner composed the first fully-realized dramatic film score: KING KONG. Employing the musical styles of Wagner, Debussy and Ravel, Steiner crafted a stunning and thrilling musical soundscape for KONG, one which is still influencing composers today. 5/15 #filmsky #moviesky

🧵🧵 It's a red letter day in film history! (Does anyone still say "red letter day?") On this day not one, but TWO giants of movie music were born: Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin, both seen here at the recording session for Tiomkin's breakthrough score for LOST HORIZON (1937) #filmsky #moviesky 1/15

Settling in for the film Mark Kermode "came closest to walking out of, without actually walking out of it". Will I watch it all? Certainly not without something to steady my nerves. #NowWatching #NowDrinking

On Sunday at 3 pm (ED), Herbert Blomstedt conducts Mahler's Ninth Symphony with @detroitsymphony.bsky.social, livestreamed at the link below Blomstedt turns 99 in July

#TheCompleteBritten #83 The Way to the Sea - film score (1936) Britten and Auden's final film collaboration is a curious mix of history and satire as everyone from Henry VIII to 1930s holidaymakers heads to Portsmouth, but the music and commentary as "We Seek the Sea!" is certainly stirring.

#TheCompleteBritten #82 Temporal variations for oboe & piano (1936) After their Wigmore Hall premiere, these dazzlingly diverse variations lay unperformed until 1980, but have since taken their place in a quartet of Britten works at the heart of the oboe's chamber repertoire. An amazing piece!

I'm on Bluesky for two reasons: 1. Classical music 2. THIS kind of thing 🔽

#TheCompleteBritten #81 Love from a stranger - film score (1936) Britten's only feature film soundtrack. He hated having his music cut and altered so much that he vowed never to write for commercial cinema again. A pity - there's some great music in this 10-minute suite rescued by Colin Matthews.

I came across this gem recently - Bernstein also loved Haydn. I can watch his face all day, and the encore is a special treat as much for him as the audience. youtu.be/bXEldU1UC70?...

I still love the theory a Year 6 child proposed to me that David Attenborough is actually God and he got fed up with people not noticing the amazing things he'd created, so he made documentaries to show off.

Götterdämmerung Met 1974 Rita Hunter Helge Brilioth Rafael Kubelik youtu.be/Zwqjz8U3-7E?...

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! And happy Haydn2032 day to those who celebrate (including me!). Vol. 19 of Giovanni Antonini's ongoing Haydn symphony cycle includes minor-key masterpieces the Trauer & No. 52, and mournful couplings by Samuel Scheidt and Arvo Pärt. ▶️ open.qobuz.com/playlist/513...

One week to release (well we need *some* non-political news today). Three clarinet concerti written within a few years of each other: Gerald Finzi: Clarinet Concerto Freda Swain: 'Lumen Naturi' Denis ApIvor: Concertante for Clarinet, Piano & Percussion. Peter Cigleris; London Mozart Players