Once on Twitter somebody was like “I have a music PhD but apparently I’m not qualified to teach elementary music??” And like. Yeah no, you’re not qualified. The preps+teaching+admin+coordinating concerts would have you sobbing by 1pm on the first day

The best of classical reviewing - new #ClassicalCDs from @grahamrickson.bsky.social @seb-scotney.bsky.social @bernardhughes.bsky.social - Shrouds, silhouettes and superstition in cello concertos, choral collections and a stunning tribute to a contemporary giant www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

It's Saturday! CD reviews ahoy: theartsdesk.com/classical-mu... @bernardhughes.bsky.social @seb-scotney.bsky.social #satie #tippett #AbelSelaocoe #arvopart

'You’d swear you were looking at an outtake from #JohnFord or #HowardHughes' ★★★★ THE SONS OF GREAT BEAR - #DEFA's first #RedWestern: a revisionist take on colonial expansion - the accustomed judicious appraisal @grahamrickson.bsky.social - now on #Eureka Blu-ray www.theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray...

Love this! The toccata from Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, finally orchestrated (not by Ravel, but nicely done) #ravel www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN_-...

Reviewing this set was a blast. Witty scripts, grubby London locations and three very likeable protagonists www.theartsdesk.com/tv/blu-ray-s... #thesweeney #london

'#TheSweeney was one of the great TV dramas. Get this set, its newly-remastered images & sound pin-sharp, and find out why' ★★★★★ THE SWEENEY Series One - Influential and entertaining 1970s police drama, handsomely restored - review @grahamrickson.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/tv/blu-ray-s...

#ClassicalCDs - Sleigh rides, pancakes & cigars with two big boxes #JoanSutherland #SirThomasBeecham, plus new music for brass and a pair of clarinet concertos @grahamrickson.bsky.social @bernardhughes.bsky.social @seb-scotney.bsky.social @davidnice.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

This week's CD column is a whopper, full of cool stuff: theartsdesk.com/classical-mu... @bernardhughes.bsky.social @davidnice.bsky.social @seb-scotney.bsky.social @ailisniriain.bsky.social #joansutherland #thomasbeecham #moomintroll #lauriporra #verdi @operanorth.co.uk

I was teaching a Y3 class this morning, and one boy excitedly told me that he'd passed his Grade 1 clarinet. I asked him what mark he was awarded, and he told me that he'd been given an 'Extinction'. #primaryteaching #clarinet #distinction #extinction

Listening to tonight's Prom (www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...) and marvelling at how good (and underrated) the BBC Concert Orchestra are. @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social #proms2025 #bernardherrmann #quincyjones #hitchcock

Sibelius fridge magnet. My life is now complete. #jeansibelius #ainola #finland #classicalmusic

★★★★ #BBCProms #KatarinaBarruk #NorwegianChamberOrchestra, #PekkaKuusisto - Vague incantations, precise laments, as a first-half mix of #Sámi songs and string things falters, but #Shostakovich scours the soul - review @davidnice.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

★★★★★ The flame-headed chanteuse with the comic touch hits pop perfection: Queen of the earworm CMAT's album EURO-COUNTRY is pop perfection says @kathrynreilly.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/new-music/al...

I love small civic museums and Cliffe Castle in Keighley is a stunner. You leave the building feeling smarter. Fossils, ceramics, the Big Bang, continental drift, crystal formation, stained glass, bees - all wonderful, and free admission too. #bradford2025 #museums #cliffecastle

More exciting sights in Leeds: this is a little memorial to polar explorer Captain Lawrence Oates, tucked away near the entrance to Meanwood Park. #meanwoodpark #southpole #leedsparks #captainscott #lawrenceoates

This was one of the last French silent films, and a poetic bona fide classic: theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray... #silentcinema #breton #jeanepstein

★★★★★ FINIS TERRAE - Bleak but compelling semi-documentary, filmed on location in #Brittany - @grahamrickson.bsky.social on #JeanEpstein's 1929 neglected gem, one of the last French silent films - now on #EurekaFilms Blu-ray theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray...

The sun is shining and it’s a perfect day to be doing something exciting outside. Meanwhile, I’m about to watch a 1930 French film about seaweed harvesting in Brittany. #livingthedream #silentfilm #finisterrae

Classical CDs: Dungeons, microtones and psychic distress: Shostakovich symphonies, clarinets, pianos and sacred music feature in @grahamrickson.bsky.social's latest picks with Sebastian Scotney, @bernardhughes.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

Some fascinating stuff in this week's action-packed Classical CD column: theartsdesk.com/classical-mu... @bernardhughes.bsky.social @seb-scotney.bsky.social @bostonsymphony.bsky.social @classicalcritic.bsky.social #shostakovich #meredithmonk #benfolds #vicentelusitano #classicalcds

There are so many quirky landmarks hidden away in the suburbs of Leeds, like this beautiful 1842 aqueduct built to carry drinking water from Eccup Reservoir. Taken with an Olympus Pen EE3 and Ilford XP2. #leeds @leedscivictrust.bsky.social #35mmfilm #realphotography @ilfordphoto.com

A good read here, with Denmark offering an example that the BBC could follow when it comes to broadcasting music

"A visually inventive and fast-moving delight [...] This HD transfer looks splendid" @grahamrickson.bsky.social at The Arts Desk is first past the post with his 4-star review of Václav Vorlíček’s delirious WHO WANTS TO KILL JESSIE? theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray...

This is a super little film, with comic strip characters stranded in the real world and only able to talk using speech bubbles. The actor playing the villainous Superman character was a Slovak architect and part-time bodybuilder. theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray... @secondrun.bsky.social #czechnewwave

★★★★ WHO WANTS TO KILL JESSIE? With comic-strip characters released into the real world of 1960s #Prague, this is a fast-paced and visually inventive #Czech comedy, says @grahamrickson.bsky.social - now on @secondrun.bsky.social Blu-ray www.theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray...

This is quite the read! 😱 Not so Totally Rad: the UK music tuition firm leaving pupils in the lurch and teachers in despair www.theguardian.com/education/20...

She's here!! Václav Vorlíček’s demented sci-fi comic-book comedy WHO WANTS TO KILL JESSIE? has landed! OUT AUG 25. Order at our webstore tinyurl.com/y584j937 Amazon UK tinyurl.com/mrxz2dus @diabolikdvd.bsky.social tinyurl.com/y4uxpyze @hmvcardiff.bsky.social @zavvi @rarewaves.bsky.social

Classical CDs! Lots of them! All good! Read more here: www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu... @bernardhughes.bsky.social #berlioz #bruckner #classicalmusic #georgesmiley #multiverse

No better musical writing than this: the latest #ClassicalCDs from @grahamrickson.bsky.social @bernardhughes.bsky.social - Hamlet, harps and haiku in epic romantic symphonies, unaccompanied choral music and a bold string quartet's response to rising sea levels www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

This new Hyperion album contains a piece by someone new to me, a man with the BEST FRENCH COMPOSER NAME EVER. Does anyone know anything about Didier-Gaston de l'Aubergine? #classicalmusic #cello #frenchcomposers

Wahey! This superb Leeds bollard has been repainted. Love it. #leeds #chapelallerton #bollard #octopus #furthernorth

Britain's greatest comic actor? Probably, for a decade or so: theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray... @studiocanal.com @vicpratt.bsky.social #petersellers #britishcinema #bfi

Alan Bennett went often as a boy in the 1950s, sitting behind the double basses. He was in a minority who appreciated the focus on contemporary British music. Early concerts in #LeedsTownHall were pervaded by the smell of fish & chip from the cellar café that still operated after WWII. 2/3

Just dropped my horn off here for a long overdue clean and service. As work environments go, this one is heavenly, tucked away at the bottom of leafy garden in a Peak District village. #frenchhorn #brassinstruments #repairs #peakdistrict #hathersage

French nursery rhymes in a classical CD column? Read more here: www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu... @seb-scotney.bsky.social @pentatonemusic.bsky.social @warnerclassics.bsky.social #ginastera #purcell #hamburg

You should give this a try next.

Tony Hancock was the lead in two early 60s films. They're very different. Read more here: theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray... @studiocanal.com @tonyhancock.bsky.social #eastcheam #lucienfreud

'Knowing that Hancock was sipping vodka between takes makes the scene hard to watch' THE REBEL / THE PUNCH AND JUDY - @tonyhancock.bsky.social's two film outings, remastered on @studiocanal.co.uk Blu-ray, are a revealing pairing, says @grahamrickson.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray...

I’m on a train from Leeds heading to London. An elderly couple got on at Newark and have marked their territory by placing a model of Rupert Bear on by the window. Do they take him everywhere? #lner #rupertthebear

Recently unearthed photos of me as a young and dynamic primary teacher in the mid 1990s.

My timetable changes from September so I left a school this morning where I’ve taught ukulele for ten years. Lovely send off from the whole of KS2 and one child has remembered that fiddling with the tuning pegs is a definite no-no. #primaryeducation #musicteaching #ukulele

If you like 'The Singing Ringing Tree', you'll love 'Heart of Stone', a macabre, magical DDR fairy tale. theartsdesk.com/film/blu-ray... #DDR #folkhorror #blackforest #DEFA

The side entrance to Hull Paragon Station. #hull #yorkshire #travel #architecture #photography #railwaystation #railways #photographersunited #photographersofbluesky #summer #light #archway

The mighty @sinfoniaofleeds.bsky.social horn section hard at work. Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra and Tchaikovsky 4 in the same programme is a BIG BLOW. #tchaikovsky #lutoslawski #leeds #orchestra #frenchhorn

Classical CDs: Bells, birdsong and braggadocio - British contemporary music, percussive piano concertos and a talented baritone sings Mozart - top CD picks from @grahamrickson.bsky.social @bernardhughes.bsky.social‬ + Sebastian Scotney theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...

It's Saturday. It's time for Classical CD reviews! All good, as usual: www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu... @bernardhughes.bsky.social @seb-scotney.bsky.social‬ #bartok #ades #mozart #stravinsky

Poor Alfie dog has a painful inflammation that means he can’t wag his tail. For such a happy dog, this must be torture. Hoping that the painkillers will help. Bert the cat is being supportive. #tailwagging #bordercollie

PETITION TO REINTRODUCE PIKE TO KIRKSTALL LEISURE CENTRE