I'm *walking in the **air *hoovering **lounge

Really good, as ever, to talk to @hugorifkind.bsky.social this morning @listentotimesradio.bsky.social - especially about a subject I think he, I and many people are getting more and more worried about...

New video just up on YouTube: I Drew My Ship is my arrangement of a beautiful Northumbrian folksong for upper voices, sung here by Epiphoni Consort. Please have a listen!

Love this picture. Not the WG Grace we normally see

It never ceases to confound me just how many folks think the point of essays is to provide teachers with essays. That teachers just like, collect them, or need them for sustenance or something. Rather than the point of them being the *actual fucking act of learning how to think about shit*

#WillardWhite #BrodskyQuartet @kingsplacelondon.bsky.social - The legendary singer is still at the top of his game, as long-time collaborators offer great singing but some wobbly playing - review @bernardhughes.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

Happy 22nd wedding anniversary to my lovely pal @kate-hughes.bsky.social - I've always enjoyed the photobombers in the background of this pic

Don’t call me “honey” and expect it to make up for the fact that you SHRUNK THE KIDS

It's Friday. It's the shortest amount of time anyone has ever owned a trouser press. youtu.be/tNqn5bKmKNc?...

100 years old today. Happy birthday to composer György Kurtág! 🥳 Read an interview with Kurtág's close friend and colleague, Pierre-Laurent Aimard: bachtrack.com/interview-pi...

Pure poetry

I always treat myself to a delicious English breakfast at Mighty Tooting after donating blood. To regain my strength and because I’m a pig

It’s the 141st anniversary today of the US publication of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Why had this famously American author’s work already come out in Britain and Canada (on 10 December), though? Well, because someone had drawn a cock in the US version... 🧵

Here's a new video just up on my YouTube channel: 'I am the Song' (in its upper voice version), recorded recently by the Epiphoni Consort of London. It's a lively setting of a wonderful, joyous text by Charles Causley, sung here with real energy and snap. #classicalmusic

Is this my favourite Beethoven piano sonata? It might just be...

A pancake day pancake made for me by my daughter, who is the best daughter

In the middle of ar street

This is such a great piece! Jaakko Mäntyjärvi's Pseudo-Yoik - in a great recent performance by Kantos Chamber Choir

Taking my bow this evening after the performance of Hear My Heart Sing by Sonoro, at their 10th birthday concert. Bravos all round!

My wife thinks she'd be good at the Skeleton as 'I'm good at lying down'

For Valentine's Day, here's my I Sing of Love, sung by the Seattle Pro Musica

T20 World Cup commentators running out of ways of saying 'another 6' while sounding excited. There are just too many of them, it's too easy for the modern players/bats to hit the ball over the rope

For Valentine's Day, here's my I Sing of Love, sung by the Seattle Pro Musica

Mandarins, pineapples and champagne - Scandinavian symphonies, 20th century ballet music and a versatile conductor celebrated in box form in this week's Classical CD picks from @grahamrickson.bsky.social @bernardhughes.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

My wife thinks she'd be good at the Skeleton as 'I'm good at lying down'

A typically entertaining thread by @oddthisday.bsky.social

BIG BOX SETS this week, www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu... including an excellent Sibelius package conducted by this man: @bernardhughes.bsky.social @jeansibelius.bsky.social @torontosymphony.bsky.social @delphianrecords.com #charlesmackerras #carlnielsen #leifsegerstam #herbertblomstedt

Looking forward to this

I'm an enigma, wrapped in a banana, covered in foil, and popped on barbecue

"A jewel in the crown of the London choral scene" - a lovely 20th birthday message from composer @bernardhughes.bsky.social. We're delighted he will be with us and @colla-voce.bsky.social to celebrate with 'Fireworks' on Friday at St John's Waterloo! (Info www.londinium-voices.org.uk/events)

A Three Thing Day is happening threely this month: 12/2: Hen & Chickens Theatre Bar London N1 19/2: @oldwoollen.bsky.social Farsley W.Yorks 27/2: Tom Thumb Theatre Margate It's a comedy concerning affinity, vertigo and phone reception and is smart, warming and weird. Tixdeets via Linktree in Bio.

★★★★ #BethanyHorakHallet #AliceEvans #SergioBucheli #OAE #NightShift - #CivilRights meet Elizabethan song in #BayardRustin-inspired programme that had excellent music, but a bit too much chat, says @bernardhughes.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

Took time out of my busy day to peel an orange and when I ate it, it was average at best.

Animals in an Enclosure https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1569/

Perfect @wigmore-hall.org.uk programme from major pianistic personalities Mariam Batsashvili and Martin James Bartlett, from anchoring Bach to flyaway Lutosławski. theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

I’ve been a cricket nut for over 40 years but the T20 World Cup is filling me with nothing but indifference. Perhaps I’m just old - but this format of 9-an-over batting and 25-ball 50s has become nothing more than a dull lottery #T20WC

Polite cat #caturday

All of us during the Olympics:

A week today! My piece Hear My Heart Sing is kicking off this brilliant-looking programme of choral music on Saturday 14 at St Gabriel's, Pimlico in London. Tickets still available!

As a teenager I read my sister's Judy Blume books, of course I did. On a whim I've just gone back to my favourite, Tiger Eyes, and boy does it still stand up. It's extraordinary. A beautifully observed and heartbreaking story of traumatic bereavement, it moved me to tears more than once

Winter Olympics should just be all the Olympics events but on ice. Weightlifting on ice. Judo on ice. 110m hurdles on ice.

Phil Spector's brother, Crispin, was Head of Quality Control for Walkers.

★★★★ Massed forces for lesser-known Elgar oratorio: Crouch End Festival Chorus, Hertfordshire Chorus, Temple, RFH, but a committed and high-class performance doesn’t quite overcome doubts about the piece says @bernardhughes.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

Take me down to the Parallax city where the far moves slow and the near moves quickly

A new score-follow video just up on my YouTube channel: my setting of Robert Burns' heartbreaking The Winter it is Past, sung here by the BBC Singers. Treat yourself to a listen!

This piece of brilliance from @vizcomic.bsky.social is the story of my life

This piece of brilliance from @vizcomic.bsky.social is the story of my life

Carole had her usual travel sickness so we will have to wash the car out tomorrow.

you have not heard the end of thi