Feeling the Cape Ann vibe as I write today. Here is the Essex marsh looking toward the Atlantic out there somewhere. I have sat here many times over the years. Photo from 2023.

Love the piano? You’ll want this. Pulling gems from their archives, Gramophone and International Piano have teamed up to give us a gift. Historic and contemporary pianists Zimerman, Perahia, Lim, Sofronitzky, Hough, Argerich, Lupu, Brendel, and more are here in this special edition’s 100 pages.

I have (2018)! crosseyedpianist.com/2018/05/05/m...

Century Miles! Trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis (1926-1991) was born 100 years ago in Alton, Illinois. He was a commanding innovator in the many styles of jazz in the 20th century, from Bebop and Modal to Fusion. A restless, inspiring force of nature. Photo: Sony Music

They are gone now - The experience of American servicemen and women in World War I is fading into the mist. All have been gone over 15 years now. Frank Buckles (1901-2011) was the last surviving U.S. WWI veteran before he died in 2011. In France, he drove ambulances ferrying wounded Allied troops.

A musical memory as @wigmore-hall.org.uk celebrates 125 years with the start of its 125th Anniversary Festival tomorrow. With this Virtuoso Romantics recital from June 1994 by Marc-André Hamelin, @hyperionrecords.bsky.social introduced us to an exceptional pianist whose art is deeply rewarding.

I'm in the @financialtimes.com this weekend, looking at the impact of AI on classical music. www.ft.com/content/0216...

Today is the birthday of Spain's great pianist, Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009). Small in stature (under 5' tall), she was a giant in introducing us to the music of Spain. She had much to say, too, in standard repertoire. I love her in Mozart with Davis and Solti.

Listening to the six keyboard Partitas of J.S. Bach. I have my biases but know that these baroque dance suites delight on repeated listening. Schiff, Hewitt, Bindman, Goode, Perahia, Anderszewski, Ashkenazy, Gould? Take your pick and let them work their magic.

Happy Friday! Serving tea for my tea-drinking friends this morning. Listening to tea, too: Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens and Michael Franks' album, The Art of Tea. Art: Lemon and Chinese teapot, 2023, oil on board, 6 x 6 in., Postcard from Provence by Julian-Merrow-Smith.

“Simplicity is the greatest adornment of art." Happy birthday to German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), who worked in painting, drawing, and printmaking. Little Owl, 1508, is a watercolor by him in the collection of the Albertina in Vienna.

The Fourteenth Amendment, written in the blood of the Civil War, says in Section 4 that this is blatantly illegal: “[N]either the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”

Two paintings by London artist Madeline Green (1884-1947), who studied at the Royal Academy. Piper in Green, 1916-17, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky. | Self-Portrait (The Chenille Net), ca. 1938, The Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (Paris Salon Gold Medal, 1947).

French pianist Samson François, born May 18, was known for his free, soaring playing, as well as his inconsistency. Concertgoers were unsure which François to expect. Pianist Brigitte Engerer once wrote that she left a François recital “reeling and stupefied” after hearing him (in a good way).

Celebrating the birthdays yesterday of French pianist Samson François (1924-1970) and Englishman Sir Clifford Curzon (1907-1982). Their playing styles were polar opposites, yet, at their best, they were among the great pianists of the 20th century.

Happy positivity Monday! Keep it open. The rewards are many.

Happy birthday to violinist and conductor Sandor Vegh (1912-1997). His partnership with Andras Schiff made their Mozart piano concertos treasurable.

I feel my future may lie not in classical music pr and writing but in…..homemade bagels 🥯

Happy Friday, friends. So much coming up today, but it wouldn't be Friday without a sip or two (maybe more) of coffee. You? Art: Julian Merrow-Smith, Blue Coffee Cup with Coffeepot, Oil on Board, Postcard from Provence

Happy birthday to Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), a pioneer of early opera whose vocal music served as a transition between the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This Pichon/Pygmalion Vespers - with its emotional expressiveness - renewed my interest in Montiverdi.

On his birthday - Conductor Otto Klemperer was often an outstanding partner in concertos, as these EMI LPs with the legendary David Oistrakh and Annie Fischer demonstrate. The Brahms (Paris 1960) is justly celebrated, ideally balanced. Fischer’s LP (1963) is compelling listening.

Today marks the birth of legendary German conductor Otto Klemperer (1885-1973). Tall and intense, he was a serious-minded musician beset by mental and physical challenges and life-threatening accidents. Yet, the music he made had architectural integrity and a towering spirit. Like him, it endures.

Maestro Walter in Autumn – Evening listening to this recording of the Mahler 9th that he considered a “lifelong retrospective meditation." Deeply felt and convincing,

Happy 76th birthday to the musical genius that is Stevie Wonder, creator of "Songs in the Key of Life" and so many other masterpieces ib his lifetime. Photo: Howard Brainen photograph, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

In the 1880s and 1890s, American artists were drawn to Giverny, France, home of Impressionist Claude Monet. Expatriate Frederick Carl Frieske (1874-1939) was prominent among them. He created lush, light-filled works of women at leisure. Art: The Garden Parasol, c.1910, North Carolina Museum of Art.

This month's Gramophone has my review of the new Mahler 5 conducted by Runnicles. Superb playing from the orchestra, consisting of some of the most distinguished in north America and beyond.

Faure on Film - It was 1984. My introduction to the music of Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) came while watching "A Sunday in the Country" - a French film directed by Bertrand Tavernier - at the Maple Theater north of Detroit. The soundtrack: Fauré piano and chamber music (Piano Trio and String Quartet).

French Horn - Who (where?) are today's great French horn soloists? My generation and one before me had Dennis Brain, Barry Tuckwell, and Hermann Baumann. You could add Alan Civil and Dale Clevenger. Who takes the spotlight now? Have French horn recordings gone out of fashion?

"In piano playing, technique provides the means through which expressive intent is realised, but it is not the substance of the art itself." - Fran Wilson, from her excellent CrossEyedPiano blog post today | crosseyedpianist.com/2026/05/11/y...

Happy Positivity Monday! On this day after Mother's Day, remember that every day is a Gift.

Conductor Carlo Maria Giulini (1914-2005) - whose birthday is today - and violinist Itzhak Perlman made ideal partners in their benchmark EMI recordings of the Brahms (1977) and Beethoven (1981) violin concertos. Both have been favorites of mine since their initial LP release.

Cool Summer, Helen Frankenthaler 1962

Happy birthday to one of my favorite conductors, Carlo Maria Giulini (1914-2005). He spoke often about music as a profound source of hope and human connection. “Music gives to life one great thing: hope. If we don't have hope, what we can do?"

“Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple.” – Happy 81st Birthday to jazz pianist and composer Keith Jarrett, who retired in 2018.

Happy Friday. It is time to have another sip of your morning coffee and embrace the start of this Mother's Day weekend (wherever your mother may be). I'm grateful for mine. Art: Roger Fry, Still Life with Coffee Pot, 1915, oil on canvas.

Masayo Fukuda, contemporary master of kirie, or Japanese paper-cutting, crafting hyper detailed creatures from single sheets of paper #womensart

RAOUL DUFY (1877-1953) Devant la mer, 1923-1924

Masterwork in Detroit - Happy belated bicentennial birthday (Monday, May 4th) to Hudson River School artist Frederick Edwin Church (1826-1900). The Detroit Institute of Arts' collection includes his epic Cotopaxi of 1862, depicting the dramatic eruption of the volcano in Ecuador.

I admire Rochester, New York, artist and printmaker Laura Wilder, who creates block prints in the Arts and Crafts style. I first learned about her in American Bungalow magazine. Here is “Spring Blossoms," its fine detail a hallmark of her style, featuring blossoming trees near her home.

Legacy – Thanks Warner Classics for this collection of stereo recordings by English conductor Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983), founder of the BBC Symphony (1930). His advocacy of English composers – Elgar, Vaughan Williams, and Holst, especially – helped advance their global reputations.

Having a Monday? Not to worry. Your friend is keeping an eye on things for you. Art: Julian Merrow-Smith, Resting Cat, 2026, 8 in. x 6 in., oil on board, Postcard from Provence series.

Happy Positivity Monday. Play music. Reach for the stars. Beloved pianist, composer, and music teacher (NYU), Seymour Bernstein (1927-2026) passed away last week at 99. May he rest in peace. (Quote from the film, "Seymour: An Introduction.")

Friday was the birthday of George Innes (1825-1894), my favorite American landscape painter. His marriage of vision and technique made him one of the great landscape painters of the 19th century. He came of age in the emergence of the Hudson River School of artists and grew to embrace Tonalism.

"Through Lupu I first encountered the piano sound I had always dreamt of: full yet poetically vulnerable, inward yet intensely alive. Those qualities lie at the heart of ‘The Unreleased Recordings.'" - Michelle Assay of Gramophone Magazine. www.gramophone.co.uk/content/revi...

Happy 80th birthday to forever-Poirot actor Sir David Suchet.

I find Mozart ideal accompaniment to writing. That is especially so of this treasured set of his six string quartets dedicated to his friend Haydn. He described them to Haydn as “the fruit of long and painful labor.” Quatuor Mosaïques, recorded in 1991, play them with tangy warmth.

Happ-y Friday, friends. Have a sip of your coffee and a bite of that croissant. The peonies (very Latour) remind that Mother's Day is just around the corner. Art: Julian Merrow-Smith, Coffee and Croissant, 2023, and Peonies in a Glass Vase, 2026, oil on board, Postcards from Provence.

Today is the birthday of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899-1974), the great American composer, bandleader and pianist. He was at his most inspired in the company of Ella Fitzgerald. The two ignited each other’s music-making, whether on stage or in the studio, as here in 1957.

Today marks the 90th birthday of conductor Zubin Mehta. Some of his finest work was done accompanying soloists who were friends and colleagues. Here are two such recordings.

Looking at photos from my coastal Florida vacation last week reminded me of American painter Edward Henry Potthast (1857–1927). One glance at his work of around 1920 and you realize that not much has changed about beachgoing in a century.