#otd 1947, John Adams was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. #NowSpinning the 1987 recording of his opera 'Nixon in China'; 1988 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition in the Classical category. Edo de Waart leads the Chorus and Orchestra of St. Luke's. #music #musicsky #opera

#TheCompleteBritten #43 Two Pieces for violin and piano (1931) 1. The Moon 2. Going Downhill on a Bicycle (A Boy's Song) Britten wrote these contrasting pieces, one dreamily impressionistic, the other with a strong Stravinskian spark, for Remo Lauricella, a friend and fellow student at the RCM.

A tiny handful of actors create roles so indelibly that it’s impossible to imagine anyone else ever having got near being cast. Thelma Ritter did it time and again. She’s glorious as Doris Day’s hard-drinking housekeeper in Pillow Talk but at her best here. Happy Birthday! youtu.be/GZdJ-DOn2ss?...

Tom Cheney New Yorker February 10, 2014 💘

#NowWatching some Valentine's Day romance.

#TheCompleteBritten #42 String Quartet in D major (1931) Composed a decade before his official Quartet No. 1 (also in D), we hear Britten absorbing 'English' influences from his teachers at the RCM, and from the madrigals he was singing and studying at the time.

And the Karajan 1970 Meistersinger, at last available again! And it sounds gorgeous. I think they remastered it again (they also did a great job with the 50s Karajan Rosenkavalier recently).

#TheCompleteBritten #42 String Quartet in D major (1931) Composed a decade before his official Quartet No. 1 (also in D), we hear Britten absorbing 'English' influences from his teachers at the RCM, and from the madrigals he was singing and studying at the time.

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! This week's symphony & orchestral #NewReleases offer a kaleidoscope of spectacular variety and colour: exuberant Alfvén and actual birdsong from Neeme Järvi, miraculous Bartók, massive Mahler, Allan Pettersson's darkness, Unsuk Chin & more! ▶️ open.qobuz.com/playlist/513...

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! This week's symphony & orchestral #NewReleases offer a kaleidoscope of spectacular variety and colour: exuberant Alfvén and actual birdsong from Neeme Järvi, miraculous Bartók, massive Mahler, Allan Pettersson's darkness, Unsuk Chin & more! ▶️ open.qobuz.com/playlist/513...

One of the maddest elements of Brexit - and there are *many* - is the rewards that continue to be lavished on the blithering idiots who sold it & continue to be proved wrong about everything every day…

Good morning.

Finding so many treasures in the record collection of my wonderful father-in-law who died recently, aged 90. Lovely to find that on this recording of Holst conducting The Planets, his daughter, Imogen Holst, wrote the sleeve notes. She was also a composer.

#TheCompleteBritten #41 12 Variations on a Theme, for piano (1931) Britten's first piano piece at the RCM tries on a host of stylistic hats in successive variations (John Bridcut hears Satie, Hindemith and Shostakovich) and cocks a few snooks at his composition teacher Ireland's strict rules.

For the classical music world, the original is still the best when it comes to a Bad Bunny performing a halftime* show on Super Bowl Sunday. 🦉🏈🎵 #ClassicalMusic #BadBunny #Superbowl youtube.com/watch?v=WqGE... *And we’d call it ‘cut time.’

On 25 April, my choir will be singing the complete choral works of Thomas Tallis in one day - culminating in his stunning 40-part motet "Spem in Alium". Do come and listen if you're in Oxford, or watch the livestream. And we'd be hugely grateful for any donations! www.justgiving.com/campaign/tal...

John Williams, #BOTD in 1932, is a master at borrowing music phrases and themes from other composers and forging them into his own creations for his scores. One example of this alchemy is his score for E.T. (1982). Williams turned to American composer Howard Hanson. 1/6 #filmsky #musicsky #moviesky

My internet is down (thanks, Old Man Winter), so for John Williams' birthday (Feb 8), I'll be reposting some of my earlier threads about the great film composer. #filmsky #moviesky #filmscores

#TheCompleteBritten #41 12 Variations on a Theme, for piano (1931) Britten's first piano piece at the RCM tries on a host of stylistic hats in successive variations (John Bridcut hears Satie, Hindemith and Shostakovich) and cocks a few snooks at his composition teacher Ireland's strict rules.

#TheCompleteBritten #40 Tit for Tat (1928-31, rev. 1968) in his mid-50s, Britten gathered up and revised "very slightly" five childhood settings of Walter de la Mare. "Once or twice, when the fumblings were too obvious, the experienced middle-aged composer has come to the aid of the beginner."

If that's not worth a boulevardier then I don't know what is.

#TheCompleteBritten #40 Tit for Tat (1928-31, rev. 1968) in his mid-50s, Britten gathered up and revised "very slightly" five childhood settings of Walter de la Mare. "Once or twice, when the fumblings were too obvious, the experienced middle-aged composer has come to the aid of the beginner."

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! This week we've got warhorses, rarer repertoire and complete unknowns, just the sort of list I like. If you like that too, then check out my playlist of the week's symphony and orchestral #NewReleases, updated every Friday. ▶️ open.qobuz.com/playlist/513...

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! This week we've got warhorses, rarer repertoire and complete unknowns, just the sort of list I like. If you like that too, then check out my playlist of the week's symphony and orchestral #NewReleases, updated every Friday. ▶️ open.qobuz.com/playlist/513...

The Washington Post has only a single arts critic left - everyone else got fired today, along with all three arts editors. (There are still a couple of excellent arts reporters.) I was so upset I dusted off my blog to have my say: annemidgette.com/blog/f/a-req...

Just popping by to say Holy Cow! Britten's Double Concerto is fantastic and you should listen to it right now! kthxbai

Remembering Erich Leinsdorf on his birthday 🎂 📷 Reid Miles for GQ, 1967 "He brought to music a kind of rectitude that at its best provided an antidote for orchestra musicians & listeners used to flamboyant & often empty conductorial salesmanship." - Bernard Holland

I've got a heavy schedule the next couple of days, so won't be on Bluesky much. See you on the other side.

Bye bye, Spotify. Subscription cancelled.

#ClassicalMusic #MyDailyDose #18thCenturyMusic Sometimes one can come away thinking the only 2 composers in Vienna were Haydn & Mozart, but even their combined efforts couldn't have produced the thousands of works extant from the last third of the century. Some of it is actually excellent! 🤠

#TheCompleteBritten #39 Three Character Pieces (1930) 1. John Britten spent the last Easter holidays of his time at Gresham's school studying Ravel's Miroirs, and the composer's influence is strong throughout these three piano pieces, each a portrait of one of his Lowestoft friends.

#TheCompleteBritten #39 Three Character Pieces (1930) 1. John Britten spent the last Easter holidays of his time at Gresham's school studying Ravel's Miroirs, and the composer's influence is strong throughout these three piano pieces, each a portrait of one of his Lowestoft friends.

It's not well-known, but Travis Kelce is a huge classical music fan. He even took up piano to learn some of Bach's concertos. He invited his fiancee Taylor Swift to accompany him, but it ended in tears at dueling pianos. "We are never ever gettin Bach together," she exclaimed.

I spent much of this movie listening to the fabulous ondes martenot-filled soundtrack and thinking "they sound like they've been listening to a lot of Messiaen", and as if by magic, the end credits music is 'Jardin du sommeil d’amour' from Turangalîla. #NowDrinking #NowWatching

#TheCompleteBritten #38 Rondo concertante (1930) Britten's first music composed under the tutelage of his new piano teacher, Arthur Benjamin, at the Royal College of Music: "he goes thro’ my concerto, & says he likes it, & when it is finished will try it." Britten never finished it.

Arnold Mendelssohn sounds like a guy Lawrence Welk would have invited on his show to play a new cornet arrangement of the worst polka you've ever heard.

#NowListening #NewReleases2026 #18 A Mendelssohn whose first name doesn't start with F: Felix and Fanny's great nephew Arnie. The sturdy Romanticism of his concerto and symphony is appealing, but ultimately unmemorable. I'm still glad to have heard him in another exemplary CPO release.

#TheCompleteBritten #38 Rondo concertante (1930) Britten's first music composed under the tutelage of his new piano teacher, Arthur Benjamin, at the Royal College of Music: "he goes thro’ my concerto, & says he likes it, & when it is finished will try it." Britten never finished it.

This is starting to become a habit.

Remember this one? “Humans aren’t very efficient movers—until you put us on a bicycle, when we become some of the most energy-efficient land travelers in the animal kingdom.” Proven science via Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social #CityMakingMath

#TheCompleteBritten #37 The Sycamore Tree (1930, rev. 1967) Originally titled "I Saw Three Ships", Britten renamed this charming choral song to its opening words when he revised it, also dedicating it to Imogen Holst, by then his long-time assistant and co-director of the Aldeburgh Festival.

#TheCompleteBritten #36 Two Portraits (1930) 1. David Layton 2. E.B.B. Britten looks back to Gresham's, the school he'd just left. Layton was a schoolfriend, fellow violist and tennis player. The second movement is a sad self portrait. A third portrait, of another schoolmate, was never finished.

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! Only one release this week, but as it's the latest volume of an outstanding and valuable series I can hardly complain. Three premiere recordings among a host of long-neglected music just waiting to be rediscovered. ▶️ open.qobuz.com/playlist/513...

Happy #NewReleaseFriday! Only one release this week, but as it's the latest volume of an outstanding and valuable series I can hardly complain. Three premiere recordings among a host of long-neglected music just waiting to be rediscovered. ▶️ open.qobuz.com/playlist/513...

Good morning @loveinner.bsky.social. You getting this 79CD bad boy #NewRelease?

friend of mine is an undocumented immigrant and has been hiding in Melania theaters bc he knows people assume no one is in there

Surely you don't need to be a music nerd like me to know the answer?

Odd that he doesn’t like Philip Glass considering how much he likes repeating himself.

... By the way, if you'd like to listen to the audiobook, but want to avoid Audible, here's another option: libro.fm/audiobooks/9...