Friedrich Gernsheim (1839-1916) Symphony no. 3 in C minor (Miriam) Op. 54 (1887) During his lifetime, and for about twenty years...

Théodore Dubois (1837-1924) - Symphony No. 1 (Symphonie Française) (1908) Clément François Théodore Dubois was one of the great...

Mily Balakirev (1837-1910) Symphony no. 2 in D minor (1908) In his personally guarded but often shrewdly observant memoir, My Musical...

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) Symphony in A major (c.1850) & Symphony no. 1 in Eb major (1853) I do know those who profess to find...

Felix Draeseke (1835-1913) Symphony no. 4 in G major ("Sinfonia Comica") (1912) If Robert Radecke, the composer of last week's symphony,...

Robert Radecke (1839-1911) Symphony in F Major, Op.50 (1877) What little I have been able to glean about the life of the German/Silesian...

Karoly (Karl) Goldmark (1830 - 1915) Symphony no.1 ("Rustic Wedding") Op. 26 (1875) This week, something wonderful. Of all the...

First, some news, Typee Valley has been listed by https://blog.feedspot.com/classical_music_blogs as one of the top blogs for writing on...

I have work to do. As anyone following this blog - and, amazingly, there do still appear to be people following it - will realise, I have...

PART I PARADOS In 2013, the 79 year-old Harrison Birtwistle gave a brief introductory interview before the British premiere of The Moth...

This is the first of what is aiming to be an occasional series of shortish posts appearing on both this blog and on the site of the Ely...

According to my guide book, the onward route from The Barge Inn towards Marden begins by breaking into what appears to be a private yard...

Sunday, October 3rd. 9am. For the 22 year old John Aubrey, stumbling across them on a mid-winter rabbit hunt in 1649, they "[did] as much...

On Saturday, October 2nd, I wake up to a sky that looks almost impossibly grey after the warm autumnal hues of the previous evening....

Swindon, I suppose, is a town not entirely without its small reserves of cultural capital. Aside from its importance as a railway...

"There's more important things in life than't band." "Not in my life there ain't." Brassed Off (1996) In my last post I promised to...

Now that the big fat loser of a president, that tremendously sick, terrible, nasty, lowly, truly pathetic, reckless, sad, weak, lazy,...

For most of my lifetime there was near unanimity; Citizen Kane was the greatest film ever made. In 1962 it leapt to the top of the Sight...

On Friday, April 9th at 7.30pm, I will be giving an online talk with the above title for the Ely Astronomy Club. It will be literary and...

On one occasion, over a quarter of a century ago, at a party of highly intelligent, liberal, literary young people - largely, like me,...