We left at the interval...

In a blind test earlier this year, France Musique's panel of record critics decided that Marek Janowski's 1992 recording of Messiaen's Turangalila,  with Roger Murano, Valérie Hartmann-Claverie and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, was the best overall. They also liked Chung's, which I already had, but dismissed it on account of what they agreed unanimously was inadequate sound quality. With my tin ears, I hadn't noticed. Janowski's recording isn't easy to get hold of: I first ordered it in February, but it never arrived and in the end my money was refunded - without any notice: I only found out by chance when looking at my account. (That reminds me of a great cartoon from Modern Toss , which I'll post at the end, below.) I ordered the CDs again, from a different source, and at last, this week, they showed up, and I now have the set on my iPad so I can listen in the cemetery next door on sunny days like today. (Messiaen is not buried in Père ...

  Photo: Stofleth 'C'est un Rubens, un fameux Rubens... Elle est robuste, elle est naïve, sa grâce est quelque peu massive...' Two or three years ago, the Opéra de Lyon staged Offenbach's Barbe-Bleue in a production by Laurent Pelly, whose La Belle Hélène and La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein , many years ago now, were unforgettable. Perhaps this is the work that should rightly be paired with Bartok's, so we can make learned comparisons. I decided to watch it tonight, on France.TV's website. The site requires you to register, but it's easy to do and free of charge, and once it's done it's done. Here's the cast: Conductor: Michele Spotti. Production and costumes: Laurent Pelly. Sets: Chantal Thomas: Lighting: Joël Adam. Barbe-Bleue: Yann Beuron. Prince Saphir: Carl Ghazarossian. Fleurette: Jennifer Courcier. Boulotte: Héloïse Mas. Popolani: Christophe Gay. King Bobeche: Christophe Mortagne. Count Oscar: Thibault de Damas. Queen Clémentine: Aline ...

I was recently bemused to see Shostakovich's The Nose described as 'rather tedious' in a blog thread that initially recommended a production of Cavalleria Rusticana , one of the most tedious operas I can think of, as 'interesting'. As I haven't seen the Shostakovich for ages (unlike Cav , I'm sorry to say), I decided to run a search on YT and was delighted to find Barrie Kosky's Covent Garden production available there in full. The cast is led by the amazing Martin Winkler: Conductor: Ingo Metzmacher. Platon Kuzmitch Kovalov: Martin Winkler. Ivan Iakovlevitch, Clerk, Doctor: John Tomlinson. Ossipovna, Vendor: Rosie Aldridge. District Inspector: Alexander Kravets. Angry man in the cathedral: Alexander Lewis. Ivan: Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke. Iaryshkin: Peter Bronder. Old Countess: Susan Bickley. Pelageya Podtotshina: Helene Schneiderman. Podtotshina's daughter: Ailish Tynan. Ensemble: Daniel Auchincloss, Paul Carey Jones, Alasdair Elliott, Alan Ew...

I had tickets to see Ann Hallenberg in Mahler's Song of the Earth in Berlin on April 5 2014, but had to cancel the whole trip for work. On April 8, this clip of Ann singing the Abschied was published on YouTube. On April 9, David, at just 27, took his own life and we lost an artist who could, I sincerely believe, even now have brought something quite new to the art of painting. For me, this Abschied has always been, since then, a farewell to David. As Peter Doig said , he will not be forgotten. The following Saturday, on a beautiful sunny day up in the snow-capped mountains: deep blue sky, white blossoms on the trees... I was at his funeral, where the crowd of those who loved him was such that many had to stay outside the church among the mountains of flowers, and inside, this was played:  ' Now I've heard there was a secret chord /  That David played, and it pleased the Lord..'

I continue to find online things I never knew existed or thought I'd never see again. Today it's Britten's Gloriana starring Anna Caterina Antonacci, which I flew to Madrid to see in 2018. Photo: Javier del Real 'As an unusually gripping tragic actress and an unusually subtle singer, Anna Caterina Antonacci has “form” - and a devoted, if discreet, following. As Elizabeth I, she surpassed herself in her personification of the ageing queen, in gait and posture, gestures and facial expressions, and myriad vocal inflections… 'In terms of volume, she was at her limit in a house the size of the Real. But the point here was not to blast and bludgeon her way through the part, but, through vocal subtlety, as usual, to deliver a convincing portrait of a complex, changing character. This was, physically and vocally, an operatic performance of a kind we rarely get to see. It was a privilege to witness.' My account is here in full . This is the link to the video .

I had no idea this was out there!  

Every month, France's Opéra Magazine rates new recordings (CD and video) on a scale from 1 to 5 and dishes out the occasional ' Diamant ' ('Diamond') to what it considers exceptional ones, for whatever reason. This month, its ' coup de coeur ' is Lise Davidsen's new recital of Beethoven, Wagner and Verdi. Here's a clip from YouTube :