Lawrence Durrell, who was born on February 27th 1912, is celebrated as the author of two of the great achievements of twentieth century literature, the Alexandria Quartet and the Avignon Quintet, and also as a peerless travel writer; but the story of how he embraced Buddhism towards the end of his life is less well known. The accompanying photos shows the great hall of Dashang Kagyu Ling monastery in La Boulaye, France and I took them when I visited the monastery, which is also known as Temple of a Thousand Buddhas, a couple of years ago. The Temple, which follows the Vajrayana tradition of Tantric Buddhism , was consecrated in 1987 and Lawrence Durrell played an important role in raising funds for its construction.
Gnosticism and the Christian heresies of Europe and the Near East provide the spiritual thread from which Lawrence Durrell's novels are woven, but he also had a deep interest in the mysticism of the Far East. In 1982 Durrell and his friend Jacques Lacarrière were exploring the Morvan Forest in central France by car and during their journey were discussing the Tibetan poet and yogi Milarepa, whose writings had long fascinated Durrell. As they drove they met by chance two Tibetan lamas walking on the road. The lamas were on their way to the Kagyu Ling Buddhist study centre at La Boulaye, so Durrell and Lacarrière gave them a lift. At which point the Buddhists doctrine of dependent origination came into play: when Durrell arrived at Kagyu Ling, which he had never visited, he was amazed to discover that the Buddhist tradition practised there was inspired by Milarepa.
Durrell returned to Kagyu Ling many times and his support was instrumental in its expansion from a study centre to a Temple. The Buddhist ambiance appealed to him because, as the novelist's biographer Gordon Bowker explains "the ghost of Original Sin, it seemed, had been thoroughly exorcised by these gentle people". In his last years Durrell said "I think I'm more a Buddhist than I would have believed. It's the only religion that's demonstrable... It's as honest as ice-cream". In 1986 the four times married Durrell and his final companion Françoise Kestman celebrated a Buddhist wedding at the Temple helped by a consecrated bottle of local wine. Soon after Durrell died in 1990 a Buddhist lama reported that he was already reincarnated and living as the proprietor of a vineyard in Burgundy.
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Oscar van Dillen(left) is a contemporary Dutch musician and composer. His studies included North-Indian classical music (sitar, tabla, vocal) with Jamaluddin Bharatiya in Amsterdam, bansuri with Gurbachan Singh at Berkeley, California, classical and jazz flute at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, and medieval and Renaissance music with Paul van Nevel in Leuven (Belgium). He now teaches world music composition and jazz, pop and world music department at the Conservatory of Rotterdam. In 2003 van Dillen's first CD, de Stad (the City), was released on Cybele Records. Do follow that last link for a treasure house of contemporary music. Biography via this link.
Oscar Straus (1870-1954) was a Viennese composer of operettas, film scores and songs. He also wrote about 500 cabaret songs, chamber music, and orchestral and choral works. He studied music in Berlin under Max Bruch, and became an orchestral conductor, working at the Überbrettl cabaret. In 1939, following the Nazi Anschluss, he fled to Paris and then to Hollywood, but returned to Europe after the war. His surname is spelt with a single 's'. An unconfirmed story says that he dropped the second 's' to distance himself from the Strauss musical dynasty. Biography via this link.
Oscar Herrero is a leading Spanish flamenco soloist, composer, and teacher . Personal website via this link.
Oscar Peterson was one of the all-time great jazz pianists. Born in 1925 he established his reputation through the 1950s, 60s and 70s with a varying trio line-up. He won seven Grammys, and his album Night Train is a gramophone classic. Personal website via this link.
Oscar Perez is a New York based jazz pianist and composer. He has a longstanding involvement with gospel music, and is music director of St Edward's Church in Harlem. Personal website via this link.
Oscar Hernandez is the New York based founder, music director and pianist for the "Spanish Harlem Orchestra" who received a Grammy Award nomination in 2002 for best salsa album. Biography via this link.
Oscar Shumsky(left) was an American violinist born in Philadelphia. He taught at Curtis Insitute and Yale University, after serving in the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Toscanini. His classic recordings include Ysaye's Solo Sonatas . He was first violin of the Primrose string quartet. Biography via this link.
Oskar Kokoschka (yes I know, but the Oscars are noted for their self-indulgence) was the expressionist painter who provided a libretto for an opera by Ernst Krenek, whose story is told in Multicultural, multimedia and banned.
This post originally appeared in 2007 but I thought it worth repeating. I have checked and updated the main links but apologise if any others are broken - if so let me know. Also please add missing Oscar, or Oskar, winners using the 'Comments' facility.
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Not that he's in sympathy with anything that might be described as crossover. Perish the thought. A few years ago, one of Kuusisto's UK visits coincided with the Classical Brit awards, and he found himself watching them on TV, agog for all the wrong reasons. "Andrea Bocelli got some kind of lifetime achievement award, and then the Opera Babes performed, and the Planets - and so the whole country is being taught to believe that this is what classical music is! It's really grim, you know? I was shocked".
Less grim is the news that the first four New York performances of Missy Mazzoli's new multi-media opera 'Song from the 'Uproar: the Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt', which presumably will not feature in the Classical Brits, have sold out - more on Isabelle Eberhardt here.
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Music journalist Stephen Davis emails "I'VE BEEN DIGGING "JANACEK CHORAL WORKS" ON HARMONIA MUNDI... I DROVE TO MANHATTAN LAST WEEKEND AND LISTENED TO THE "SIX MORAVIAN CHORUSES" ON MY JAG'S ALPINE SPEAKERS AT HIGH VOLUME. INCREDIBLE!" At first it may seem strange that the biographer of Led Zeppelin and ghost writer for Michael Jackson digs Janáček. But in fact Janáček's choral works, with their use of Bohemian and Moravian folk themes, provide a bridge between art music and popular culture. Stephen collaborated with me on my posts about art music colliding with popular culture in Jajouka, Morocco. Read them here and here.
Janáček's Choral Works was bought online. Impecunious UK readers should note HMV.com offer lower prices and a faster service than Amazon. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Also on Facebook and Twitter.
Also on Facebook and Twitter. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Ask anyone in the business what is the biggest challenge facing classical music, and it is odds on their reply will revolve around funding cuts, inadequate music education and ageing audiences. It is also a dead certainty that retrogressive attitudes within classical music itself will not feature among the challenges. Which is puzzling when you look at what classical music gets excited about. The New Year started with a global concert by one of the most reactionary institutions in the arts world. This was followed by the Mahler ringtone in a teacup and then came the world premiere of two minutes of music by a long dead composer vigorously spun by a social media agency retained by the audience hungry BBC with a little help from their Guardian angel.
All of which was enough to convince the general public that classical music had somehow manouvered its cerebral cortex into the proximity of its nether regions, even before it turned out that the Brahms "discovery" was the product of spin and not substance. It would be difficult to accept all this nonsense even if there was no substance left to get excited about. But that is most certainly not the case, as is proved by this notable new CD release.
As part of the Festival celebrations the organisers commissioned the String Quartet No.4 "Charles Darwin" from composer John Ramsay. The Quartet is written as a single twenty-one minute movement divided into three sections. The first portrays the evolution of the earth from chaos to order, the second describes the development of life and the arrival of Homo sapiens, and the third is a speculation on the future of our planet and mankind. In Ivesian style the quartet quotes from liturgical music of the three monotheistic religions and the 5/4 rhythmic pulse from Holst's Mars makes an appearance representing human discord.
John Ramsay, seen below, was born in London in 1931. He studied music privately with several distinguished teachers and has combined music with an illustrious academic career in the field of geology culminating in professorships at Imperial College London, the University of Leeds and University of Zurich. Since retiring he has lived in Isirac, France where he teaches the cello and continues with some academic work. John Ramsay's music explores the outer reaches of tonality and shows the influence of Bartók and Martinů and Ives. It is notable for its use of non-twelve tone serialism; as an example the Fibonacci Series, the Golden Section, determines the harmonic series in the fifth movement of his String Quartet No.4.
At a time when decoding is mandatory to separate spin from substance, it is refreshing to discover a CD release that does exactly what it says on the can. John Ramsay's Four String Quartets have been recorded by the Fitzwilliam Quartet - acclaimed for their Shostakovich recordings - on 2 CDs for independent label Métier. Totally committed performances are captured in excellent sound in St. Martin's Church, East Woodhay, Berkshire by Philip Hobbs, who is best known for his work for Linn Records. But above all we are not dealing with promise: John Ramsay comes to us as a fully formed composer with something important to say and the technique to say it. It would be nice if classical music gets as excited about eighty-seven minutes of never previously heard John Ramsay as it did about two minutes of previously heard Brahms. But I am not holding my breath.
* The distinctive cover art and CD label seen here use micro-photographs of rock crystals in polarised light by John Ramsay. Writing string quartets is most definitely not among my talents or ambitions, but I did read geology as a subsidiary subject at university. Which leads to Meditations on a Byzantine hymn.
Also on Facebook and Twitter. CDs of John Ramsay's Four Quartets were supplied as a requested sample. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
A Catalan proverb tells how Qui canta, els seus mals espanta - 'He who sings, frightens away his troubles'. After the Spanish Civil War the traditional Catalan lullaby El Cant Dels Aucells - 'The Song of the Birds' was adopted by Republican refugees in French internment camps and went on to become a global anthem for the Catalan cause in Pablo Casals' cello arrangement. A young Jordi Savall heard Casals play at the Prades Festival and in 1988 the Catalan viol player recorded 'The Song of the Birds' with his wife the soprano Montserrat Figueras and their children Arianna and Ferran. The Astrée album featuring 'The Song of the Birds' launched Montserrat Figueras on a richly productive musical and humanitarian career that ended with her tragically early death in November last year. Her final album Mare Nostrum was recorded under the shadow of the cancer that was to take her from us. It includes 'The Song of the Birds', but the lullaby becomes the most poignant of laments in a version without voice. In a bold piece of programming the 2012 Aldeburgh Festival is presenting Mare Nostrum in a typically bracing Festival that ranges from Gesualdo to Cage. Montserrat Figueras is of course irreplaceable, and in recognition of this Mare Nostrum is being given at Aldeburgh without voices. There is a deeply moving video of the memorial concert for Montserrat Figueras below.
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* Speakings with Jonathan Harvey. In an exclusive interview composer Jonathan Harvey, seen above, talks about musicians he has known gives an introduction to his new composition for large orchestra and electronics, Speakings - DOWNLOAD.
* Jordi Savall in conversation talking about the relationship between early and contemporary music, about why he set up his own record label and about music as a force for good - DOWNLOAD.
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* The Lawrence Durrell centenary website is here. French contemporary composer Eliane Radique has made settings of Milarepa's poems for voice and electronics. My photo of Dashang - Temple of a Thousand Buddhas originally appeared in a post about Jonathan Harvey's String Quartets. Buddhist chants meet El Sistema in the Mantra Mountain project.
