This may be the wisest thing on the internet today.

Classy. #nowlistening #classicalmusic

This isn't a composer I knew till a few weeks ago. Had a listen, she's great. So thanks, @deeplyclassical.bsky.social and, particularly, @kghist.bsky.social, whose words I stole (hope that's ok!) so that I could share them with our subscribers #classicalmusic

#nowlistening #classicalmusic

my library weeded a Marie Kondo book today. i think it’s what she would want. 📚

I haven't listen to this right through for what? 15 years? 20? But it's the album that got me into Purcell. My tastes have changed and it sounds like it was recorded in a tunnel, but Corinna Is Divinely Fair is still an absolute banger. #classicalmusic #nowlistening

I mean, NZ just shuts down and that's a bad thing, right? Right?

Easy: Fleabag.

This isn't really my repertoire so I only know the Nielsen, but what a delightful album. ##classicalmusic #nowlistening

Yes, of course there are more important things going on right now, but I'm #nowlistening to this and I really couldn't recommend it more highly.

The prize for most unexpectedly brilliant Beatles cover goes to Los Lobos. Even the guitar solo is great. m.youtube.com/watch?v=ei2i...

Another water outage out West, on a road that's been down to one lane for six months after the last pipe broke and triggered a landslide that also took out a power box. Councils need funding for instracture more than they need a rates cap.

#classicalmusic Bluesky: Vaughan Williams, I don't get it. What am I missing? (Dives and Lazarus on this disc was ok. Please don't recommend Lark; I get sweary.)

@themerl.bsky.social, can we get a unit rating for our Yorkshire boar, please, and do we get extra points because it was a pet at the Auckland Lunatic Asylum in the 1890s?

Slacker. I'm reading Douglas Coupland's 'Generation X'

I didn't get to as many concerts as usual this year but I still saw some great live music. Here's the best of it.

Interesting, uneven, poignant (look at Rudi Stephan's dates), and, in Reger's case, not afraid of shamelessly swiping from Bach. #nowlistening

Never let it be said that I don't know how to let loose at Xmas #nowlistening

Willa Catkin seems to be enjoying it #nowlistening #nowpurring

Always nice to get a scientific poll to remind us that TalkBack radio and the Facebook comment section are not actually representative of public opinion www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/pub...

In a great year for music, these were the Listener's classical albums of the year. In case you were wondering.

I've developed a real taste for Szymanowski of late. Not sure about Harnasie, though. Not helped by 43-year-old sound, to be fair. The piano pieces are good, though.

Everything Douglas Adams says.

“There will be a number of people, mostly women & mothers, who will be engaging in a chunk of unpaid care work over the summer holiday period.” “Millionaire men mouthing off about ordinary, hard-working Kiwis having the temerity to take the leave they are entitled to is enraging (and hypocritical.)”

It's Friday night, I have the house to myself, time to go kerrazy!* (*Desmarest is not crazy. Very nice, though.) #nowlistening

Love me a good bit of Szym, especially Songs Of a Fairy Tale Princess.

Now: science. Or art. I'm really not sure which.

Slow clap. You just elevated the TPU to the status of serious critic of government policy worthy of a 1-on-1 debate with the minister of finance. In one action you’ve given them the credibility they’ve been trying to buy for years. Just top work. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Interesting. Not my usual fare. Like Mahler reharmonised by Schoenberg. Took a while for the ear to adjust but yeah, I'd listen again #nowlistening #classicalmusic

RIP Steve Cropper 🎸

Kind of expected, tbf #classicalmusic

Like honestly this article is fucking WILD. WHY are we trying to reduce emissions Stuff? Is there any reason at all? Just for fun I guess? #nzpol

Now: art.

I forced myself into the horror of Bruckner, and listened to symphony 7 in preparation for an NZSO concert tonight. Now the Airbus shenanigans means the NZSO can't get enough musicians to Auckland to play it, and Bruckner's been replaced by Mozart. There's a lesson in there.

Just enjoyed a Bruckner symphony. Feeling confused.

Sam Uffindell talking about standing over people and bullying them takes the fucking cake. Irony is dead.

Only just this second learnt that poet Brian Patten died. Immediately thought of @wordsshiftminds.bsky.social #SometimesItHappens

One of the things about getting to the office early, of course, is that you can dance around playing air guitar to Gimme Shelter and only 5 or 6 people will see it.

Fossil fuel companies were given confidential drafts of legislation during their (successful) two-year campaign to weaken oil and gas regulation and overturn the offshore exploration ban - new reporting from me via the OIA www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

I wrote this about NZ's last specialist classical music store. It made me sad.

#RIP :( youtu.be/kGeCeK85sUg?...

#nowlistening #firstlisten A composer I first heard just this year.

We've gone big on opera in the latest NZ Listener, including three pages on the late Sir Donald McIntyre. (Oh, and a feature interview with Joyce DiDonato.)

Overheard in the pub: "We can have a ukulele party for your birthday." #GreyLynn

well now, isn't that an interesting approach to local content? www.c21media.net/news/cultura...

First listen to this. (Which also happens to be my first purchase in the Versailles series - thanks, FNAC Lisbon!) Impressed so far. #NowListening

Swinging #nowlistening

The thing I like particularly about the fact that Isaac Newton invented the catflap is it gives the image of him trying to lay the foundations of classical mechanics but getting distracted by having to let a cat out then in again 40 seconds later and thinking, “Shit, I really need to sort this.”

The SOUNZ Contemporary Award | Te Tohu Auaha category always features artists who take a wonderfully broad range of musical approaches. This year's winner is 'of coral and foam' by Ihlara McIndoe.