Theremin album back from grateful dead

'Starting out on another concert tour in the fall, (Paul) Robeson took along with him as "associate artist" (and more! - Pliable) Clara Rockmore, the pert, feisty, attractive second wife of Bob Rockmore, and the world's leading theremin player (an instrument whose tone and dynamics are created by the juxtaposition of the hands in an elctromagnetic field). Clara Rockmore had begun her musical life as a prodigy (as had her pianist sister, Nadia Reisenberg), winning admittance at the unprecendented age of five (Heifetz had been eight) to the conservatory in Petrograd to study violin with the famed Leopold Auer, teacher of Heifetz, Zimablist, and Elman. An injury to her arm forced her, at age nineteen, to give up the violin and turn to a career with the theremin.'

From Paul Robeson by Martin Bauml Duberman (Pan ISBN 0330313851). And right on cue Bridge Records have just released Clara Rockmore's Lost Theremin Album. With the duo of Rockmore and Nadia Reisenberg playing treatments of works by Bach, Ravel, Gershwin, Ponce, Chopin and many more, can you resist this back from the dead album? And as a bonus you get interviews with Rockmore and Robert Moog.

For the full story of the theremin take this path, for new music for the theremin take this one, read about Paul Robeson here, and the Grateful Dead here.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Nobody’s perfect …

From Media Monkey’s Diary in today’s Guardian : - Poor Norman Lebrecht, and we never thought we’d say that. First the Sunday Times’s Michael White, in a review of Lebrecht’s book, Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness, called him “the Jilly Cooper of music journalism”. Ouch. Then outgoing BBC Proms boss Nicholas Kenyon had a pop, saying of his successor, Radio 3 controller Roger Wright: “he did give Norman Lebrecht a radio programme, but then again nobody’s perfect.” Double ouch! Lebrecht, the Evening Standard’s arts supreme and assistant editor was on holiday last week. Monkey wonders if he had time to dip into Jilly’s latest b0nkbuster.

Nicholas Kenyon’s comment is a first-class case of musical dog eating dog, and here’s another great example.
Typo above is deliberate to allow the many readers who arrive on the Path, through corporate firewalls to read this post. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Rostropovich – reaching out for the music

There are three ways of knowing a thing. Take for instance a flame. One can be told of the flame, one can see the flame with his own eyes, and finally one can reach out and be burned by it – Sufi scholar.

Some of us are told of music, some of us can see music, but Mstislav Rostropovich, who died today age 80, reached out and was burnt by it. I first met him after he conducted a wildly exuberant performance of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony with the Snape Maltings Training Orchestra in 1977. Rostropovich had a long-standing relationship with the Aldeburgh Festival, and with its founder Benjamin Britten, who had died the previous year. This relationship had produced the Cello Symphony, the Cello Suites, and a Cello Sonata, all of which Britten wrote for the Russian cellist.

Back in the 1970s I was working for EMI, and Slava’s relationship with the company went back to 1956 when he recorded the Miaskovsky Cello Concerto. In 1974 Rostropovich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, left the Soviet Union, and the following year he recorded the two Haydn Cello Concertos, with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, in the Henry Wood Hall in London for EMI.

At that time EMI’s famous International Classical Division, which had been founded by Walter Legge, was housed in modest offices in Hanover Square, just off London's Oxford Street, I was EMI’s international marketing manager working for the division’s director, Peter Andry, who had masterminded several legendary ‘east meets west’ recordings, including Karajan’s Dresden Meistersinger and the Berlin Beethoven Triple Concerto with Richter, Oistrak and Rostropovich.

For me, an incident away from the recording studio showed the difference between Rostropovich and other superstar musicians. We decided to celebrate the release of the Haydn record by inviting Slava to the EMI offices in 1977 to present him with the lavish EMI-Pathé gatefold edition of the concertos. The visit summed up Slava’s approach to life - energy, enthusiasm, passion, but above all a love for music and a love for the human race. He made sure he spent time talking to all the background staff who rarely came into contact with the artists, yet alone superstars. We were working with many other great musicians at the time, but the prospect of Herbert von Karajan visiting our offices, yet alone hugging a secretary was unthinkable.

Others will document Rostropovich’s career and achievements in more detail, and in particular his work defending human and artistic freedoms. We are fortunate that he leaves such a fine recorded legacy as a cellist. He went on to achieve much as a conductor, but the electricity he radiated from the podium was difficult to transfer to recordings. I can remember discussions at EMI as to whether his 1970s Tchaikovsky Symphony cycle should be remastered, as the pressings somehow lacked the frisson of the actual performances.

In the later years his energy was occasionally misplaced, and his fee as a conductor became an obstacles with some promoters, restricting his appearances at important series such as the BBC Promenade Concerts. The last time I saw him was in London several years ago with the Lithuanian Ballet, when he conducted a staged performance of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet that ended with a bizarre mis en scene with Rostropovich joining the dead lovers on stage in the final bars.

Mstislav Rostropovich will be remembered as a genius with the cello and baton, as a champion of human rights, as a consummate ambassador for music, and above all for his love for humanity. He truly reached out and was burnt by the music, let us celebrate that today.

Slava's Russian roots informed everything he did, now read about Western takes on Russian music.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Joy of Music - a celebration of diversity

Joy of Music is a book by Leonard Bernstein based on the scripts he wrote for an educational TV series in the late 1950s. The book is a celebration of diversity, ranging from American music theatre, through Mahler and the importance of contemporary music, to Bach’s use of counterpoint in his chorale preludes.


My photographs are a visual celebration of the vibrant musical life beyond busking superstars, child prodigies and MySpace. The photos were all taken at Oxfam Books and Music, Norwich on 26th April 2007. Just left click on the images to enlarge, you'll see real diversity - everything from Monteverdi to Stockhausen, and there is even a record deck to audition them on. I’m now away for a few days, so do explore the joy of music through the wonderfully diverse mix of music blogs listed in my side-bar.


The sleeve above is Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations, so why not read about the best damn record he ever made?
All photos copyright On An Overgrown Path, 2007. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Pity the poor BBC presenter

A novelty at this years' BBC Last Night of the Proms, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek, is Fučík's Entrance of the Gladiators.

Mahler’s message for German parliament

Early in the morning of 26th April 1986 two explosions destroyed reactor no. 4 at the Soviet nuclear power station at Chernobyl in Ukraine. This started the chain of events that led to the world's worst nuclear power accident, and left victims like the children seen above in an oncology unit in the area. 26th April 2007 is Chernobyl Day, and On An Overgrown Path can exclusively reveal that Germany’s Environment Minister, Sigmar Gabriel, is using Mahler’s music to send a powerful message to the country’s parliament.

Last year I told the story of the 20th anniversary Chernobyl concert held in Berlin which featured Thomas Quasthoff singing Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder. Sigmar Gabriel is Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in German chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet. This week, in a dramatic gesture that underlines the terrible risks associated with nuclear power, he has sent all 614 elected members of the Bundestag a CD of the Chernobyl anniversary concert. Herr Gabriel is no stranger to controversy, and he recently made headlines when he accused the United States of blocking progress on two key areas of global environment protection.

The Mahler CD was recorded in the famous Philharmonie Hall in Berlin, and the performers include Grammy winning baritone Thomas Quasthoff, and the orchestra of the Hanns Eisler Academy conducted by Christian Ehwald. As well as music by Mahler, Schubert and Mozart the CD includes readings from the best-selling book by Belarus author Swetlana Alexijewitsch titled Tschernobyl - Eine Chronik der Zukunft (Chernobyl - a chronicle of the future), and from the writings of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the philosopher Günther Anders.

The benefit concert and CD is just one of many remarkable projects in the twenty-three year history of IPPNW Concerts. They are part of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a non-partisan international grouping of medical organisations dedicated to the abolition of the nuclear threat, who work with the long-term victims of nuclear incidents ranging from Hiroshima to Chernobyl. Their work was recognised with the 1984 UNESCO Peace Prize, and 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

* Buy the Chernobyl anniversary CD online via this link.

Read the full story of the Chernobyl anniversary concert here, about IPPNW Concerts here, and read this story which says it all. Image credit Belarusguide.com. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Having a ball at the 2007 BBC Proms

West End star Michael Ball has also been signed up to perform an evening of show tunes at the Royal Albert Hall on 27 August as part of the 2007 BBC Promenade Concerts season announced today . Ball, who has starred in The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects Of Love, Les Miserables and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, will perform hits from West End and Broadway musicals.

Outgoing Proms ditector Nicholas Kenyon said: "I think he is one of the great, intelligent singing artists alive today. "He deserves a place at the Proms just as much as performers in the great classical tradition. Our job is to cover the whole waterfront."

The Proms programme also includes a concert featuring scores from celebrated British films including The Dam Busters, Shakespeare In Love, Bridge Over The River Kwai and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone . Report from BBC News.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but at least there is an end to the drought of women composers.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Music blogging from Palestine

Read about music making on the West Bank in Simon Hewitt Jones' blog, and see the video of the Queen of the Night aria sung in Arabic, with traditional Arab instruments. The picture above is from the blog, and shows audience members taking their seats at Ramallah’s Cultural Palace for a concert violinist Simon played in. Ramallah has featured in the news in the past week in connection with the dreadful kidnapping of BBC journalist Alan Johnston.

Now read about Lebanon - a war of our time
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Berlin Philharmonic's first Black conductor

“At a concert this week in Berlin, Berlin's famed 65-year-old Philharmonic Orchestra was led by a U.S. war correspondent in battledress. Besides being a war correspondent, the guest conductor was a Negro, born in British Guiana. The 2,000 Berliners and the 500 Allied soldiers in the audience found it quite an experience. They applauded warmly when the conductor led the orchestra through Weber's familiar Oberon and Tchaikovsky's Pathétique. They broke into cheers, and called him back five times, when he gave them Berlin's first hearing of fellow-Negro William Grant Still's boisterous, bluesy Afro-American Symphony.

Slender, serious Rudolph Dunbar is no musical freshman. He studied at Manhattan's Julliard School, has several times conducted the London Philharmonic. He was in Berlin as correspondent for the Associated Negro Press of Chicago. Shortly before the Berlin Philharmonic's Conductor Leo Borchard was accidentally killed by U.S. sentries, he had invited Dunbar to guest-conduct. U.S. occupation authorities were all for it, though their interest was more in teaching the Germans a lesson in racial tolerance than in Dunbar's musicianship.”

The news story above was published in Time on September 10, 1945 when the career of Rudolph Dunbar was at its peak. Dunbar lived for another forty-three years, but what happened in those years to the first Black musician to conduct the Berlin and London Philharmonic Orchestras is a mystery. The story starts at the turn of the last century in British Guiana (now Guyana). The date of Dunbar’s birth is variously given as 1902 or 1907, and classical music was an unlikely career for a Black Guyanese boy at that time. But the young Dunbar’s interest was sparked by hearing transcriptions of Wagner and Elgar played in Georgetown by the British Guiana Militia Band. He joined the Militia Band as an apprentice clarinettist at the age of 14, and stayed with them for five years.


His talent was such that he left the band when he was 19 to study at the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard) in New York, and lived in the city until he graduated in 1925. His subjects at the Juilliard were composition, clarinet and piano, but he was also active in the Harlem jazz scene, and was clarinet soloist on recordings by The Plantation Orchestra (photo above). While in New York he became a friend and champion of the African-American composer William Grant Still, and their correspondence is held today at the University of Arkansas.

In 1925 Dunbar moved to Paris as a post-graduate, studying conducting with Philippe Gaubert (below), and composition with Paul Vidal and clarinet with Louis Cahuzac. He also spent time with Felix Weingartner in Vienna. Dunbar’s reputation as a clarinettist grew, and reached the widow of Claude Debussy who invited him to give a private recital in her apartment in 1930 for members of the Paris Conservatoire.

Dunbar moved to London in 1931 to work as a music critic, and he also started the first ever clarinet school, which attracted students from around the world. His reputation was such that in 1939 he was commissioned to write a textbook on the clarinet, and his Treatise on the Clarinet (Boehm System) became the standard reference work for the instrument. It remained in print though ten editions, and today commands high prices as a collectors item.

Dunbar remained active as a jazz musician, and in the 1930s in Britain he led two jazz groups, the All British Coloured Band (also known as the Rumba Coloured Orchestra), and Rudolph Dunbar and his African Polyphony, and made pioneering recordings of West Indian music with both these groups. He also composed, and his 1938 ballet score Dance of the Twenty-First Century (described by Dunbar as ‘ultra modern’), which was written for the famous Cambridge University Footlights Club, was broadcast nationally by NBC with the composer conducting.

The outbreak of war in Europe opened up conducting opportunities for Dunbar, and in 1942 he led the London Philharmonic in the Royal Albert Hall in a concert that was described at the time as a fund-raiser for “Britain’s coloured allies”. He wrote for the Associated Negro Press of Chicago, and this gave him credentials as a war correspondent in Europe. He took part in the Normandy Landings with a Black regiment, and was the first foreigner to conduct a symphony orchestra in Paris after it was liberated, and then went on to conduct in Berlin.

In 1945 Dunbar presented a Festival of American Music in the Théatre des Champs Elysees, Paris with the Conservatoire Orchestra and pianist Jeanne-Marie Darré. The programme included the premiere of In Memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy by William Grant Still (right), as well as Still's Afro-American Symphony. The following year Dunbar made his US conducting debut with the Hollywood Bowl Symphony in a programme that again included Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony. In other concerts he programmed the music of the Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor (photo below).

Dunbar was a pioneering activist against racism. When asked at his US debut if he would settle in the country he replied: “I think I will make my home in Paris where, if you are good, they will applaud you whether you are pink, white or black, and if you are bad they will whistle at you.” But he was also supportive of the US, and objected to the British Government promoting his career for political ends, saying “It is not the British who have done it for me, it is the Americans.”

At the end of the war the promise was immense. Dunbar was established as a leading performer and authority on the clarinet, his conducting career was in the ascendant as concert life restarted, and he was seen as a role-model for West Indians. But the promise wasn’t fulfilled. Dunbar is documented as being the first black conductor of a symphony orchestra in Poland (1959), and Russia (1964), both concerts were in Soviet bloc countries at the peak of the Cold War. He promoted concerts for the Jamaican Hurricane Relief Fund in 1951, and toured British Guiana in the 1950s conducting the country’s Militia Band, Philharmonic Orchestra and a youth choir. Rudolph Dunbar died in London in June 1988.

Were Dunbar's conducting talents simply eclipsed by de-Nazified conductors returning to the podium after the war, or were there other reasons why the promise wasn't fulfilled? Exactly what happened remains a mystery, but there are some tantalising clues. Dunbar's brief obituary in the Musical Times says: 'He gradually withdrew from public life, and devoted himself to fighting racism and trying to increase black involvement in Western art music.

But there seems to be more to it than a gradual withdrawal from public life. It is known that Dunbar conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra. One of the leading authorities on music in Guyana is Dr Vibert C. Cambridge at Ohio University, and in an article for the Stabroek News in Guyana in August 2004 Dr Cambridge quotes from an interview Rudolph Dunbar gave six months before his death in 1988:

“Dunbar spoke about the particular vindictiveness of a producer/director of music at the BBC who derailed his musical career in Europe. Dunbar described that director of music as “despicable and vile” and the BBC “as stubborn as mules and ruthless as rattlesnakes”.

Today Rudolph Dunbar (left) is remembered as a one of a pioneering group of West Indians who fought racism in the UK. The musician who was the first Black conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, and who wrote a standard reference work on the clarinet, does not warrant a single mention in the current or earlier editions of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, or other major music reference books. Why remains a mystery.

Sources:
* Rudolph Dunbar by Dr Vibert C. Cambridge, Stabroek News August 22, 2004
* W. Rudolph Dunbar: Pioneering Orchestra Conductor, The Black Perspective in Music, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 193-225
* Rudolph Dunbar, The Musical Times, Vol. 129, No. 1749 (Nov., 1988), p. 619
* Debut in the Bowl, Time Sept 02 1946
* Rhythm in Berlin, Time Sept 10 1945
* The Pantheon of West Indian Heroes Framed, Black Britain, July 8 2006.
* Settling Scores: German Music, Denazification, and the Americans, 1945-1953, by David Monod, NewMusicBox Oct 24 2006.
* Listeners to the BBC Radio 4 programme on Rudolph Dunbar broadcast on August 7 2007 should read Echoes of Rudolph Dunbar on the BBC.
(c) Bob Shingleton 2007

Now read about Multicultural, multimedia, and banned.
I have contacted Dr Cambridge for more information on the later years of Rudolph Dunbar's career. Other information from readers is very welcome, updates will be published. With thanks to John McLaughlin Williams who read a draft of this article. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Nice one BBC Radio 3

Nice that my article Classical music - revolutionary, elitist, popular supplied the closing moments for this morning's BBC Radio 3 programme on the French presidential elections. Even nicer that presenter Iain Burnside name checked On An Overgrown Path twice, and credited, my translation of Nicolas Sarkozy's comment. You can hear the programme here until 29th April; you need to listen at 1 hour 54 minutes, and there is a fast-forward facility.

As I've written here before Iain Burnside's Sunday morning programme is a shining example of intelligent radio, together with Michael Berkeley's Private Passions. It is surrounded by a rising tide of mediocrity, and is one of the few Radio 3 time-slots not yet infiltrated by 'classical joc' of the moment, the dreadful Petroc Trelawny. But for Iain's sake I hope BBC Radio 3 Controller Roger Wright didn't catch the mentions of On An Overgrown Path.

Not only is Iain Burnside an uncommonly intelligent radio presenter. He is also a very fine pianist who plays on one of my all time favourite CDs, Copland's The Gift to be Free, sung by the late-lamented Susan Chilcott - read the full story here.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Classical music - revolutionary, elitist, popular

Could it happen anywhere else? The four leading French presidential candidates answer questions on classical music. Here is a translation of leading rightwing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy's comment - The music we call 'classical' is the most popular since it has transcended time, fashion, and society to become contemporary. The music of Mozart and Beethoven was perhaps revolutionary, even elitist at the time, but how we can claim it's not popular?

For online translation tool click here. And that's the second appearance here by Sarkozy (photo above) in as many days, which shows untypical impartiality on my part.
With thanks to Clive Davis' blog for the heads-up. 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Youthful optimism will triumph

Today's Observer leader says it all - Julia Pryde is not a household name. She was a 23-year-old graduate biology student who wanted to encourage recycling at the cafeteria at Virginia Tech University. Her face is not as universally known as that of Cho Seung-hui, the man who shot her and 31 others on campus last week. Cho secured his status as an icon of infamy by taking time, amid the massacre, to send a video manifesto to a TV network. Cho wanted not only to terrorise his fellow students, but to stare the world in the face, or rather, to force the world to look him in the eye.

NBC has been criticised for showing the footage. Although there was a legitimate public interest in airing the material - it helped explain the dark motivation of the killer - the decision to run it on a constant loop within hours of the killings was clearly not taken with any consideration of sensitivity to survivors or victims' relatives. NBC apologised and toned down their coverage. But in the modern media age, Cho's broadcast would always have found a worldwide audience. He would still, one way or another, have forced everyone to hear his awful message: it is you who are responsible for this, not me.

That is not true, of course. Cho was a psychopath, determined to kill. It may be the case that his determination was expedited by easy access to guns. But that is a feature of American society and American politics with its own strange logic, immune to comment by outsiders.

The image of Cho striking murderous poses crosses all cultures. It is the face of modern, media-literate terror. That is not a fair emblem of modern American society. A truer symbol is found in the packed classrooms and lecture theatres of Virginia Tech, filled, just days after the massacre, with students who were determined to get on with their education - a triumph of youthful optimism over deadly nihilism.

Our thoughts have been with America this week. Last night we were at a performance in Norwich Cathedral of that life-affirming work, Haydn's Creation. And now playing, on a wonderful spring morning that the victims in Virginia will never see, is a hymn to the triumph of youthful optimism over nihilism. Bernstein's 1956 comic operetta Candide sums up the strange logic of American society and politics with its influences ranging from Offenbach to Gershwin, and use of Voltaire to denounce McCarthyism. The finale "Make our garden grow" also say it all.

* London is to get a new production of Candide. I just hope the music survives the staging. My header photo is of Bernstein's pupil Marin Alsop conducting the New York Philharmonic's semi-staged production - watch a video excerpt here.

Now read more on that strange logic here.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

When Sarkozy comes marching in

Nicolas Sarkozy (left), front-running rightwing candidate in tomorrow's French presidential election, spent the last day of his campaign yesterday electioneering around Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. There are some saints there as well.

On Quoting Shakespeare

If you cannot understand my argument, and declare it's Greek to me, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is father to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are,as good luck would have it, quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

Written by the irreplaceable Bernard Levin in the days when music critics were great wordsmiths, and not mere scavengers of classical music. And if you think that paragraph (it is actually a single sentence) needs sub-editing remember that Bernard Levin (right) was in the Guinness Book of Records at one time for the longest sentence ever to appear in a newspaper. It ran for one thousand six hundred and sixty-seven words. Which is pretty amazing as the sentence above is a mere 369 words. Those were the days before the bullet point became the world currency of communication.

Now read about Arianna Huffington's classical music connection
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

When will they ever learn?

So building a 12ft high concrete wall is the new US strategy in Baghdad. When will they ever learn. When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?

Busking in the limelight

Tired of contrived stories of highly paid musicians 'busking'? Then follow this link for a real busking story.

CD sales can only go up

Back in February I wrote a piece about BBC Proms supremo Nicholas Kenyon's move to the top job at the Barbican. It was titled 'Towards a one-party musical state', and ended with these words: 'As if all this is not enough, today's rumour in London is that Radio 3 Controller Roger Wright will take over Kenyon's vacated Proms seat, leaving the door open for another BBC apparatchik to take over Radio 3. Can this really be healthy?'

Today no one was surprised to hear we now have a one-party musical state. Roger Wright has been appointed the new Director of the BBC Proms in addition to his duties as Radio 3 Controller. Here is the BBC press release.

CD sales can only go up.

Now read about classical music broadcasting Harvard style
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

New music for an ancient liturgy

The liturgical music of the Orthodox Church contains many riches, and discs already featured here such as Brilliant Classic’s Sacred Russian Choral Music and Liturgy of St John Christendom, and Ivan Moody’s Akáthistos Hymn are in constant rotation in my CD player. They have been joined recently by another disc from the enterprising Gagliano Recordings label, this time of music by a contemporary Greek-American composer new to me. Tikey Zes was born in Southern California in 1927, and studied with Ingolf Dahl. His career has included recording the music of Ockeghem, and holding the posts of Professor of Composition at San José State University and choir director of the Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas in San José, and my photo above was taken in that church.

The new Gagliano CD Tikey Zes Choral Works includes sacred pieces from the Orthodox liturgy starting with the Great Doxology. As well as liturgical music Tikey Zes has composed a song cycle for high voice and piano on poems by Cavafy, and a number of arrangements of Greek folk songs, two of which conclude the CD. The choir is the excellent Cappella Romana directed by Alexander Lingas, the same forces as those on the Akáthistos Hymn and Fall of Constantinople CDs that have featured here.

The recording venue is St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, Portland, Oregon, and credit should go to producer Bryan Johanson and engineer David Johnson for a startlingly life-like recording. Although the Orthodox tradition is for instruments not to be used in worship, Tikey Zes follows the contemporary Greek-American practice of supporting the choir with an organ or piano, and this gives some very impressive pedal notes from organist John Vergin.

In recent years a school of composers working on the West Coast of the US has developed a new liturgical style which combines the traditions of the Greek Orthodox liturgy with the more familiar sounds of Renaissance polyphony, and this has been championed by ensembles such as Cappella Romana. The compositions and performances captured on Tikey Zes Choral Works stay true to their sacred roots, but speak in a fresh and accessible voice that should win a lot of new listeners – highly recommended.

Now take An Overgrown Path to visit the Orthodox Church of Saint Seraphim, Walsingham
Photo of Metropolitan Gerasimos from Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, San José. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

How long is long enough?

Three wonderful concerts in just over a week left me wondering how long is long enough? At Norwich Cathedral last Friday Stephen Layton with Polyphony, Trinity College Choir and the Britten Sinfonia offered a concert of glorious Poulenc and Messiaen lasting 64 minutes excluding the interval. The second half comprised just the Poulenc Gloria, which lasted 27 minutes. The duration of 64 minutes is, of course, the length of a CD, which is no coincidence as the programme will be recorded by Hyperion in the next few days for future CD release.

But 27 minutes doesn't take my prize for the shortest programme half. Just eight days before at Snape, the up and coming Russian Alexander Polianichko conducted the Britten Pears Orchestra in a stunning second half of just the 1919 version of Stravinsky's Firebird. Now at little over 20 minutes that takes my prize for the shortest ever programme half. Can any readers beat it?

Just hours after the fleeting Firebird we experienced programme planning going too far the other way at nearby Blythburgh Church. Now this is a very famous venue, not the least for Benjamin Britten's performances which I wrote about here. Blythburgh is a glorious church with glorious acoustics, but it does have its problems as a concert venue. There are no, what they call at Disney Hall, amenities. The car park is a grass field which becomes a bog in wet weather. And the rest rooms, as they call them over on Sequenza21, are two agricutural sheds down a grass slope at the rear of the church. But the fact that that Ben and Peter used these very urinals gives a whole new meaning to the word resonance.


To historic Blythburgh and its agricultural amenities came the brilliant young vocal group Exaudi (who featured in my Elisabeth Lutyens article) and viol consort Fretwork with a suitably sombre programme of sacred music for the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Day. Now Good Friday is a fine time to do penance. But twelve o'clock on a Saturday is not so good for 90 minutes of Christian Geist, Heinrich Schütz and Arvo Pärt (his exquisite Stabat Mater in the arrangement by Macolm Bruno for viols) without an interval.

As the excellent performance progressed it was clear that the great and good among the Aldeburgh Easter Festival goers had booked lunch in nearby Southwold's trendy restaurants. In order not to lose their tables the audience was slowly slipping away, just like the North Sea tide that you see in my accompanying photos. Exaudi's young director, James Weeks, rose to the occasion like a true professional, and announced that the eight verses of Christian Geist's Es war aber would be truncated to two in the interests of gastronomy, and we were released into the glorious Easter sunshine with Schütz's mercifully short motet Die mit Tränen säen ringing in our ears.

But this Overgrown Path has a happy ending. We would never leave a concert early for something as mundane as a restaurant booking. After relishing the superb Blythburgh concert to its proper conclusion we enjoyed our tasty picnic (and just a little wine) at nearby Aldeburgh. The photos of Iken Church (the village of Iken is the setting for Britten's The Little Sweep) and the Alde estuary which accompany this article were taken near our picnic site. With views like this long can never be long enough.


Now talking of sacred music, read about L'Orgue Mystique
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Just the facts …

Message received today - That e-mail exchange with Norman is amusing, seeing as there was never a point when funding for the cycle was in question. Like many American orchestras, we are paid for recordings by our own organization, and under our contract, we receive a certain amount of guaranteed media pay regardless of whether CDs and broadcasts occur or not, so it's always in our management's best interest to record and broadcast. BIS picks up the cost of production and engineering, and everybody's happy.

Sorry to disappoint Norman, but as usual, he's talking nonsense with no real knowledge of the situation. As far as I know, I'm the only member of the Minnesota Orchestra (above) that he's met, and I suspect that his animosity came from an old grudge against our CEO at the time, who once penned a highly unfavorable review of a Lebrecht book...

Sam Bergman, viola Minnesota Orchestra

Now it would be nice to hear the facts about those BBC choral evensong tapes which Norman reported were “erased”.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

I don’t care what they say about Stokowski

“I know there are other things in music that are more important,” he said in his eighties, “but after all, sound is what we’re selling. I hate nasty tone. Even the timpani should sing. I remember the cymbals in the Bruckner Seventh when Furtwängler did it with the Berlin Philharmonic – a shower of stars. Not a bang or a clap, which is what you seem to get these days. I don’t care what they say about Stokowski. He was good. He could achieve a lovely sound. I learned something from that.”

Another great conductor, Reginald Goodall, talks about Leopold Stokowski who was born on April 18th 1882. Quote from Reggie, the Life of Reginald Goodall by John Lucas, John Murray ISBN 1856810518

For Stokowski downloads take this path, to read about Fantasia click here.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Bach chorale's secret French connection

As the French presidential election approaches On An Overgrown Path travels to the Languedoc region of that fine country, and, totally unexpectedly, uncovers a Bach chorale's French connection. Nîmes has some of the best preserve Roman public buildings in Europe. The jewel in the crown is the 1st-century temple known as the Maison Carrée, shown in my photo above, which has survived virtually intact because it was fortunate enough to stay in use for a remarkable range of activities including a meeting hall, stable, Catholic church and archive.

The miraculous Maison Carrée is mirrored across the central piazza by Sir Norman Foster's remarkable 1993 Musée d'Art Contemporain and Médiathèque (photo below and background of header photo). This inspired building is, as the Lonely Planet guide says, 'everything modern architecture should be: innovative, complementary and beautiful.' The Maison Carrée itself dates from 19 BC and was originally dedicated to Caïus Caesar and Lucius Caesar before being rededicated as a Christian church in the fourth century. The tides of religion have ebbed and flowed over Languedoc across the centuries, including the Manichaean doctrine espoused by the Cathars in the 11th and 12th centuries which resulted in the Albigensian Crusade.


In the 16th century the tide turned once more bringing the new Protestant heresy down the Rhône from Calvin's Geneva. Tolerance was again out of fashion among Catholics, and the rallying call for the persecuted Protestants in their prison cells and wilderness assemblies was the Huguenot Psalter. This remarkable work, which is also known as the Genevan Psalter, appeared in its definitive form in 1562, and became the most successful hymnbook of all time.

The Huguenot Psalter set out to reintegrate laymen back into the liturgy by translating the Psalms into the vernacular, and setting them to simple melodies. Calvin wrote in the preface that the Psalter contained 'songs not merely honest but holy', and that it avoided what was 'in part vain and frivolous, in part stupid and dull, in part foul and vile and consequently evil and harmful'.

As the Calvinists had no musical legacy they created their own drawing on a wide range of sources including French folk-songs. And in a remarkable piece of reverse osmosis some of the resulting chorales were incorporated back into the Lutheran mainstream, one notable example being "Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sind" (Bach VII, No. 58). Among the composers who transcribed melodies from the Huguenot Psalter were Samuel Mareschal, Pascal de l'Estocart, Philibert Jambe de Fer and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck.

The exciting news is that children's voices of the Maîtrise de Nimes have recently recorded a selection from the Huguenot Psalter titled Resveillez-vous chacun fidèle. (The title is taken from Psalm 33 - Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous). This very beautiful, and desirable, new release (left) is sung in French, and was recorded at the historic Protestant Temple of Le Vigan in the Gard under the direction of Vincent Recolin, and uses the two manual organ in the Temple.

This CD is typical of the cultural melting-pot that is Europe today. It is released by the enterprising K617 label which is run by Le Couvent Centre for baroque music in the north-eastern Moselle region of France close to the German border, and in truly global fashion Le Couvent specialises in baroque music from Latin America.

Resveillez-vous chacun fidèle is much more than a useful exploration of little known early music. The Huguenot Psalter contributed to the development of the chorale form which reached its peak with Bach. This lovingly sung and recorded CD is an important addition to the catalogue, and can be bought online from the FNAC website where short audio samples are also available, or online from K617. As Martin Luther said: 'God preaches the Gospel through music too.'

* Founded in 1990, the Maîtrise de Nîmes brings together young people who are trained in choral singing between the ages of eight and seventeen within the framework of a general school education at the Institut Emmanuel d'Alzon in Nîmes. The Maîtrise provides an artistic education which enables the children to practise a wide range of musical activities. There is an emphasis on baroque music, but the schools activities have also included performing Jacques Loussier's Mass Lumières in 1966 at the inauguration of the inspirational new cathedral at Evry that I wrote about here recently. The photo below shows the choir in front of the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, which features in my header photo. The age of the choristers ranges from 9 to 17.


* The Huguenot Psalter was a product of the Calvinists, and Brother Roger, who founded the Taizé Community which has featured here several times, was also a Calvinist and was born in Switzerland. Music is a central feature of the Taizé liturgy as well.

Top two photographs taken by Pliable and copyright On An Overgrown Path. 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Now read how France said no - with help from Father Joe

Built on rock hard evidence

'I can say no more to protect sources, but those of you who read my weekly column should know I never speculate. What you read is built on rock-hard evidence' ~ Norman Lebrecht in Slipped Disc April 10 2007.

'... while the BBC is mending fences with the music industry which howled blue murder over Beethoven and acted as if Radio 3 was destroying its business when, in fact, no label had issued a (Beethoven) symphonic cycle in three years, and none was likely to do so again' ~ Lebrecht Weekly April 5 2006.

'The third disc in Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Beethoven symphonies cycle features one of the greatest of all symphonies: Beethoven’s Ninth ... the new album is part of a five-year, five-disc plan designed to record the complete Beethoven symphonies. In January 2007 Vänskä and the Orchestra recorded the First and Sixth Symphonies for a fourth album' ~ Minnesota Orchestra website

'The Complete Orchestral Works of Ludwig van Beethoven - This series follows the recently published Bärenreiter Urtext Edition of Beethoven's Symphonies, supervised by Jonathan del Mar, the first new edition of this music for more than 130 years ... This CD-series (by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra) also include the complete stage music, overtures and concertos' ~ Simax website

Now read how a lot of other music critics also looked foolish
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Spring Symphony

Now playing ~ Benjamin Britten's Spring Symphony on a Decca Jubilee LP, with Britten himself conducting, and with stunning 1961 pre-digital Kingsway Hall sound. Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but premiered by the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Eduard van Beinum in Amsterdam in 1949, the Spring Symphony is about the reawakening of the earth and the new life which that brings. It is a hybrid work, part symphony, part oratorio and part song-cycle, and sets texts by several poets for the large forces of soprano, contralto and tenor solos, chorus, boys' choir and orchestra. The texts are boisterous, and include John Clare's inimicable The Driving Boy. Britten's setting of the last lines of the poem are always sung with particular relish:

Cracking his whip in starts of joy
A happy, dirty, driving boy.

My photos were taken yesterday around our house here in Britten's East Anglia, where we are currently basking in temperatures hotter than the Mediterranean. The photos reflect the Spring Symphony's last chorus - Sumer is icumen in. Here is the politically correct modern English version of the opening lines of that bawdy 13th century English round:

Summer has arrived,
Loudly sing, Cuckoo!
Seeds grow and meadows bloom
And the forest springs anew,
Sing, Cuckoo!


Now read about Britten's champagne moment
Britten's recording of the Spring Symphony is, of course, also available on a Decca CD. The lower picture is of St Nicholas' Church, Bracon Ash. the header was taken across the road from the church. This part of rural Norfolk has many links with America, see this article. 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Imagine there's no piano ...

Today’s Guardian reports: Welcome to the Imagine piano tour, the brainchild of singer-songwriter George Michael and his partner Kenny Goss, who runs a Dallas art gallery, and featuring the piano bought in 1970 by John Lennon and put in his studio in Tittenhurst Park, Berkshire (photo above).

On Saturday it was placed outside the Ford's Theatre in Washington where 142 years earlier Abraham Lincoln was shot as he watched a performance of Our American Cousin. Last week it was outside the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville during the execution of a death row prisoner, and before that it was in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, and at the Lorraine motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on the anniversaries of the assassinations of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King respectively.

Michael bought the piano six years ago for £1.5m - a record price at the time for pop memorabilia. Having bought in, as it were, to the history of the song, the couple felt it would be wrong to leave the piano languishing in their front room and the idea of taking it to places where extreme acts of violence had taken place or were taking place was born. "By taking the piano to all these sites, we are reminded that violence has long been a part of our history," Michael said.

It was on this nondescript-looking instrument John Lennon wrote the song that would become the anthem of peaceniks everywhere, Imagine. Now it is being carted across the US - carefully, by specialist removal people - in a symbolic road trip for peace.

Pliable says - quite so …

Photo credit Goss Gallery Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

When record shopping was fun

Telemann.live journal has a nice piece about my recent L'Oiseau Lyre article. I couldn't resist reblogging this comment posted there by a reader:

I can remember when record shopping was fun, and I think I could make the point that most of the advances in recorded music engineering and production were made for classical music up to the advent of the Beatles and their own production company.

I still have at least two of the first three classical LP's I bought in Boston at the Jordan, Marsh dept. store record dept. in the summer of 1969. My idea of an afterlife would be the Harvard Coop record dept. under the helm of manager Helga Newcomb, circa 1974. She knew everyone's tastes.

I'll partipate in the choral music scene here in Boston as long as it's still viable and buy their recordings. As for the rest, it's a lost world. . .

Now read about my first classical record.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

What a bum note, Norman

It's Critics 2 Creatives 0 in today's Observer. First English National Opera's production of Philip Glass's Satyagraha concedes an early goal to Anthony Holden:

"Oh, do get on with it ~ As music, extremely well performed, it is interesting for 10 minutes, pleasant for another 10, then insufferably monotonous for the ensuing three hours-plus. Some will emerge believing they have seen an inspirational affirmation of the human spirit, others a non-violent attempt to bore the oppressor into submission."

But that's nothing to Norman Lebrecht's defeat by Adams Mars-Jones:

"What a bum note, Norman ~ The strange fascination of reading the book lies in seeing how an unstable emulsion of attitudes breaks down into its components. The style is desperately uncomfortable, full of high-impact, low-logic phrasemaking: 'He was on a vertical curve'; 'Prolific? He invented the word'; 'Vladimir Horowitz had more comebacks than Lucifer.' If this is a serious book on an important subject, it should look to its own standards."

Which is precisely what many of us have been saying for some time. Just glad the critics didn't review Peter Maxwell Davies' speech to the Incorporated Society of Musicians. Its style suggests that Max has been reading too much Norman Lebrecht.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Encore - new music for prepared keyboards

Piano stories are the Da Vinci code of music blogs. After huge readers for that notorious story, the saga of the dropped Bösendorfer broke reader records here last week. So now, if you are prepared, why not read about a burning harpsichord and a grand piano up a mountain?

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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

So it goes ~ Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-1977

With many thanks to reader Storey Clayton who helped put this wonderful tribute together. More related links here On An Overgrown Path, and a nice appreciation, with the same title, in today's Observer.

Now read why we aren't marching in the streets anymore.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Here comes iPod diplomacy

'I've somehow got more faith in the essential decency of the British people that they want to talk about big and important issues in a way that does justice to them' - prime minister designate Gordon Brown plugs his new book in today's Guardian

'The Iranians pinched my iPod - The gifts the Iranians gave the crew were a load of junk - and nothing in comparison to what they stole, including Arthur Batchelor's iPod, he said yesterday. Before their release the Brits were given shabby grey three-piece suits made by a local designer and a fake Hugo Boss shirt. They also got a "granny bag" (sic) full of tat including toffees with a label saying "containing pistachio", a CD and DVD that don't (sic) work and 11 books. These were in English and mostly aimed at trying to convert the reader to Islam with titles like Youth and Morals by Sayid Lari.

Arthur said of the gifts: "They're a bit pathetic. I don't know what they're trying to prove by giving us books on morality and their religion. My morals are fine, thank you very much. And those suits were an insult. Not only did mine not fit, but it was cheap and tacky and the Hugo Boss shirt was a fake. I could pick up a better outfit at a jumble sale."

When they were first captured by the Revolutionary Guards the crew were searched and all their belongings were seized. Among the kit stolen was Arthur's iPod, a going away gift from girlfriend Steph Nethercott. Arthur said: "The iPod was really special to me as it was a gift. It had our song on, Hold Me Tonight by Angel One, which was one of the tunes playing when we first met. It was in a pocket in my overalls. The guards took everything off us - including cigarettes and watches. All we were left with were the clothes on our back. We were told we'd get them back - but I'm still waiting." '

British gunboat crew member Arthur Batchelor talks above to the Daily Mirror about big and important issues following his release by the Iranians last week. The Mirror's sub-editor clearly had more big and important things to do than sub that piece. Which does rather confirm both the point I made earlier this week about the quality of contemporary journalism, and Polly Toynbee's view that the British press is "the worst in the west." And the Iranians haven't much to fear, the Ministry of Defence gives Arthur Batchelor's rank as 'Operator Mechanic', but he hasn't passed his driving test.

Now read Peter Maxwell Davies raging at another British politician's musical garbage
No, the header photo is not a British navy inflatable, it actually belongs to the US navy, but they are one and the same thing these days anyway. 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Music matters more than Lebrecht

I caught a few minutes of Norman Lebrecht talking about his new book on BBC Radio 3's Music Matters today. I think Norman urgently needs to review his medication.

Now read the words of a great music writer.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Kurt Vonnegut's Dresden

The death of Kurt Vonnegut (left) has brought many new readers here. Vonnegut's novels include Slaughterhouse-Five based on his experience of the 1945 bombing of Dresden. Here is a summary of Dresden resources on the Path:

* Vonnegut gets his Dresden facts wrong ~ self-explanatory
* I am a camera - Dresden ~ inspirational pictures
* Dead, dead, dead everywhere ~ accounts of the bombing
* Dresden Requiem ~ contemporary music tribute
* The act of killing from 20,000 feet ~ a new book
* Intoxicating Heinichen from Dresden ~ happier times

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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

This is what you are missing

Brief posts today for the very good reason that we are at a concert this evening. If you can't make it to Norwich Cathedral this what you will be missing:

Poulenc Quatre motets pour un temps de penitence
Poulenc Exultate deo
Poulenc Salve regina
Messiaen Les offrandes oubliées
Poulenc Gloria

Susan Gritton soprano (left), Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge ,
Polyphony and Britten Sinfonia
Stephen Layton conductor

Now, that is what I call a concert! But if you can't make it to Norwich, fear not. The concert is being repeated in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge (where Stephen Layton has recently been appointed Director of Music), tomorrow (April 14). If you can't make that don't sweat, the programme is then being recorded by Hyperion for future release.

I wonder how many of the London-centric critics who bang on endlessly about the death of the classical recording industry will be at either of the concerts, or for that matter how many are even aware they are taking place?

Now read how Polyphony and Hyperion rejuvenated CD sales with the music of a contemporary American composer.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

A question of balance

'According to data on US orchestras compiled by the International Association of Women Conductors (IAWC), 22 out of 270 music directors of C level orchestras - below a $1m (£505,000) annual budget - are women. At the top end of the spectrum, Marin Alsop and JoAnn Falletta are the only female music directors of the 38 orchestras that have a budget of more than $10m per annum. '

From Baton of the sexes in today’s Guardian, now read how the BBC Proms lack the eternal feminine
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

In the footsteps of Scott Ross

My article about Scott Ross, written in December 2005, continues to attract large numbers of readers, and An Overgrown Path made another connection with the keyboard legend when we attended a recital last year in the 19th century church of Saint Martin in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. My photo above shows the magnificent three manual organ which was lovingly reconstructed by Pascal Quoirin over a period of six years.

The superb instrument, which was completed in 1983, is used for an annual Festival d’Orgue. As part of this we attended a recital by the young Frenchman Jean-Michel Rosse who is currently organist at the Premonsterian l’Abbaye de Frigolet in Provence. The wide ranging programme spanned the 17th to 20th centuries, and was particularly valuable for the opportunity to hear two important, and little heard, composers for the organ who predate Bach, Nicolas de Grigny and Nicolaus Bruhns.

The recital showcased the remarkable tone and flexibility of the restored organ. This is a truly outstanding instrument and it is puzzling that, to my knowledge, there are only three commercial recordings of it. But we should be thankful that one of these is by Scott Ross (left) who recorded Couperin’s two organ masses in Saint Martin in 1985. But, sadly, the two CD set is difficult to get hold of as it has recently been deleted. The recording contrasts the organ with plainchant, and the same juxtaposition, using a solo singer in the organ loft, was used in Jean-Michel Robbe’s performance of the Kyrie from de Grigny’s Mass. Here is the programme for Robbe’s recital:

Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703) – Kyrie from Mass (five verses)
Nicolaus Bruhns (1665-1697) – Fantasy on ‘Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland’
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Prelude and Fugue in B minor BWV 544
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) – Sonata in C minor Op 65 No 2
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) – Offrande au Sacrament
André Fleury (1903-1995) – Fantasie (1968)

* To explore the music of de Grigny and Bruhns I recommend recordings of their complete works for organ, by André Issoir on Callope for Nicolas de Grigny, and Helmut Winter on Harmonia Mundi for Nicolaus Bruhns - beautiful, beautiful music which should be much better known. André Fleury's compositions can be found on an Integral Classic CD played by Thierry Escaich.

* Scott Ross resources On An Overgrown Path include * If you only buy thirty-four CDs this year - buy these ..... * The perfect ethical, and musical, Christmas present * Harpsichord magic from Don Angle * The rumour about Aids was swelling *

* Read more about Mendelssohn's organ music here, for another remarkable organ in France read Mortal defeat for the mob in Paris, and find out about Vincent van Gogh in Saint-Remy via this link.

* Now that is a first. The website for L'Abbaye St Michel de Frigolet which I linked to above is available in French, Italian and Latin!
Photograph by Pliable, copyright On An Overgrown Path. 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

For I propose to tell you of Buchenwald …

Much coverage elsewhere of Tim O'Reilly's proposed blogging code of conduct, although thankfully it is not needed here as the readers On An Overgrown Path are a very civilised bunch. But the dire quality of much of today's 'user generated' content was brought home to me recently when I read Norman Finkelstein’s life of the pioneer of broadcaster journalism, Edward Murrow. Where today can you find the equivalent of this economic but powerful prose describing London in 1939 weeks before the outbreak of war, when the city’s children had been evacuated to the safety of the country?

‘It’s dull in London now that the children are gone. For six days I’ve not heard a child’s voice. And that’s a strange feeling. No youngsters shouting their way home from school. And that’s the way it is in most of Europe’s big cities now. One needs the eloquence of the ancients to convey the full meaning of it. There just aren’t any more children.’

Everyone in the media, from newscasters to bloggers, should study Edward R. Murrow’s style. His mentor was Ida Lou Anderson, at Washington State University, and she taught him to use pauses and intonations to best advantage, and to use as few words as possible to make a point. “She demanded not excellence so much as integrity,” Murrow later said, and he told his staff, “You are supposed to describe things in terms that make sense to the truck driver without insulting the intelligence of the professor.” Broadcast historian Erik Barnouw described Murrow’s prose as having “a quiet dignity. It avoided stuffiness and also the condescension of folkiness. It abhorred the frenzied – it favored short, concise statements.”

On April 15 1945 Ed Murrow described the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald outside Weimar for CBS listeners. When the dedication ceremony of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC took place in April 1993 it included a reading from Murrow’s account. I wonder how many blog posts, newscasts and YouTube videos will receive similar treatment in fifty years from now? Here is what they will be measured against:

Permit me to tell you what you would have seen, and heard, had you been with me on Thursday. It will not be pleasant listening. If you are at lunch, or if you have no appetite to hear what Germans have done, now is a good time to switch off the radio, for I propose to tell you of Buchenwald …. There surged around me an evil-smelling horde. Men and boys reached out to touch me; they were in rags and the remnants of uniform. Death had already marked many of them, but they were smiling with their eyes … When I entered, men crowded around, tried to lift me to their shoulders. They were too weak. Many of them could not get out of bed. I was told that this building once stabled eighty horses. There were twelve hundred men in it, five to a bunk. The stink was beyond all description …

In another part they showed me the children, hundreds of them. Some were only six. One rolled up his sleeve. D-6030, it was. The others showed me their numbers; they will carry them till they die … There were two rows of bodies stacked up like cordwood. They were thin and very white. Some of the bodies were terribly bruised, though there seems to be little flesh to bruise … Murder had been done at Buchenwald … I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no words … If I’ve offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I’m not in the least sorry.

With Heroic Truth, the Life of Edward R. Murrow by Norman H. Finkelstein is printed on demand by Authors Guild Backinprint.com ISBN0595348068. Now read how few words can tell a huge story in Childhood Luggage.

With thanks to the US 2nd Air Division Memorial Library in Norwich for their invaluable collection of American titles, which includes With Heroic Truth. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

New music for prepared piano

Words from G&R Removals, pictures from BBC News:

"We are G&R Removals - The Piano Movers, a family run business with a wealth of experience spanning over 30 years - the longest established piano carriers in the UK.


Since 1968 we have gained respect for our handling of all musical instruments throughout the UK and Europe.


We operate from a customs-approved, temperature controlled warehouse in west London with over 1100m² of floor space. Handling hundreds of pianos every week, with our ever modernising fleet of instrument vehicles, manned by experienced professional staff."


Now here is the full story from BBC News, who also supplied the pictures:

'A concert grand piano valued at £45,000 is thought to have been wrecked after falling off a removal lorry in Devon. The piano was being brought to the home of John and Penny Adie, the organisers of the Two Moors Festival, an annual music event on Dartmoor and Exmoor.

But disaster struck when it toppled over and fell 2.5m (8.2ft) before landing on a bank, causing extensive damage to the instrument. The moments before and after the fall were captured on camera by Mrs Adie, 54, who was hoping to record a highpoint for the festival. But joy turned to horror as she recorded how the piano toppled onto a bank.

Her husband John, 61, said: "It is unlikely ever to come back to us. The piano weighs half a tonne, has 10,000 moving parts and has fallen 2.5m onto the ground. How the hell do you guarantee that it will work again?" The festival had been raising funds for two years to buy the piano at auction in London earlier this year. It was to go into a concert hall at the Adies' home at Barkham, near South Molton, as a centrepiece for the upcoming spring festival.

The piano is now back in London where it is waiting for an independent assessment of the damage. The piano was insured, but only for the £26,000 they paid for it at auction in London rather than its likely replacement value of £45,000. Mr Adie said: "Bosendorfers are like the Stradivarius of the piano world. It's more than money that is the issue here. They are simply irreplaceable." Bosendorfers are made in Austria and are the piano of choice for many of the world's leading pianists.

Mr and Mrs Adie set up the Two Moors Festival in 2001 to help the area recover from the foot and mouth crisis. The two-year long campaign to raise the cash for the piano was spearheaded by Sophie, Duchess of Wessex, who is the event's patron. A spokesman for removals firm G&R said: "The matter is in the hands of the insurers. We have no further comment to make.'


Now take this path for the complete music for prepared piano.
News story and pictures from BBC News, website copy and truck photo from G&R Removals . 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Does anyone still care about the major labels?

Does anyone really still care about the "majors" anyway? Their astounding lack of imagination has hastened their own entropy. Example: the Cleveland Orchestra hasn't made a recording in nearly a decade, and when they finally get the wherewithall to do so, on DG no less, what do they announce? Beethoven's 9th. The yawns are deafening. I can't remember the last time I bought a major label recording." comments a reader on my recent post Classical music under different stewardship.

A good point, but some people do still care about the major record labels, not least the major orchestras. If you are the Los Angeles Philharmonic and you need a new music director, when the unquestionably talented Gustavo Dudamel comes knocking with a Deutsche Grammophon contract in his pocket you suddenly care. But it didn’t use to be that way, as this story tells.

Mrs Louise Hanson Dyer (photo below) was an enterprising and charismatic Australian millionairess who trained in Australia as a singer under Dame Nellie Melba before settling in France in 1927. Mrs Dyer’s lifestyle was definitely ‘A list’, and included haute couture, a house in Monaco, a flat on the Right Bank in Paris, and a Blue Period Picasso bought from the artist himself. She was passionate about baroque music, and committed to its promotion and preservation. To achieve this she founded Éditions de L'Oiseau-Lyre (Lyre-Bird Press) in Paris in 1932, and commissioned leading musicologists to produce accessible editions of then little-known repertoire, including Couperin, Lully and Rameau. The next logical step was to supplement the editions with authentic recordings. These were originally on 78 rpm discs, and L'Oiseau-Lyre went on to became one of the first companies to release long-playing records in France.

As the major record labels muscled in on the growing baroque market Mrs Dyer turned her energies to discovering new talent. Her extraordinary ability to identify the potential of musicians early in their careers resulted in some of the first recordings of Sir Colin Davis, Joan Sutherland, Janet Baker, the Melos Ensemble and Thurston Dart.

Louise Dyer had immense flair and style, but she was also a hard task-master. The first ever record made by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields was recorded for L'Oiseau -Lyre in the Conway Hall in London in 1961. No royalties were paid, fees were low and session time was limited. For 'A Recital by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields' the players each received £5 ($9) from Mrs Dyer in used banknotes notes from her handbag. The 40 minute programme of rarely heard works by Corelli, Torelli, Locatelli, Albicastro and Handel was recorded in just two three hour sessions, and the performing editions of the Albicastro and Handel works were prepared by the session's producer, Jimmy Burnett. Despite the pressures (or perhaps because of) this first release was rapturously received by the critics, and went on to become a best seller. It also launched the Academy of St Martin of the Fields on a career as one of the top classical recording ensembles.

When Louise Dyer died in 1962 control of L'Oiseau-Lyre passed to her second husband. The catalogue of recordings was sold to Decca in 1970, the label went on to make many fine recordings with Christopher Hogwood and others, but eventually became a baroque music sub-label in the faceless world of corporate recording. But the Éditions de L'Oiseau-Lyre publishing house continues to thrive today as a joint venture with the University of Melbourne.

The remarkable success in the 1950s and 60s of L'Oiseau-Lyre was down to Louise Dyer’s entrepreneurial flair, astute talent spotting, tight financial control, and above all passion for music. It was all snuffed out after Decca was bought by Universal Music, who also own Deutsche Grammophon, whose artists also include Gustavo Dudamel (left) and the Cleveland Orchestra, which is also where this overgrown path started. The thought of Gustavo Dudamel being paid in used dollar bills from a Gucci handbag round the back of Disney Hall is appealing - we can but dream.

Now read how a surprise appointment of a conductor by another top American orchestra went pear shaped.
* With acknowledgements to 'The Academy of St Martin in the Fields' by Meirion and Susie Harries, (Michael Joseph ISBN 0718120493), to Scott Belyea whose comment on my Howell's and Lambert's Clavichord originally sparked this article, and to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for giving me a reason to upload it. Image credits: Record label from Revolutions 33, do visit this site if you are interested in LP labels, Louise Dyer from Éditions de L'Oiseau-Lyre. Any copyrighted material on these pages is used in "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Another bad day in the office

"Some say it was the later of Mahler's nine symphonies that pushed the form to its very limits, but his Third, a six-movement evocation of nature and Nietzsche, had already done that. It begins with a solo horn melody which, seemingly picking up from Brahms, is an evil twin of the joyous theme from the finale of that composer's First Symphony; it ends, 95 minutes later, in a haze of rapt spiritual arrival. Or, as played by the BBCSO under Jiri Belohlavek, it ends a good 105 minutes later. That may conjure ideas of a conductor wallowing Karajan-like in glorious swathes of sound, but here it had more to do with sluggish orchestral playing.

It began and ended well. The huge first movement came over best: Belohlavek brought out Mahler's vivid tricks of orchestration and, with resonant trombone solos from Helen Vollam, wound up the springy, major-key march into euphoric climaxes.So far, so good. But the second and third movements did not provide the buoyant counterbalance required, Belohlavek taking Mahler's "unhurried" instructions a little too much to heart. It felt as if half the players wouldn't believe that the second beat of the bar would follow the first until they saw it with their own eyes. And in the song that forms the fourth movement, Jane Irwin's lightweight mezzo made Nietzsche's poetry sound pretty rather than portentous.

This made the vibrant entry of the BBC Symphony Chorus and the boy choristers of Westminster Cathedral in the fifth movement all the more welcome. But after an evening of willing the orchestra forward, it felt as if we had all worked unusually hard to reach it."

Erica Jeal gives two stars out of a possible five in today's Guardian. It all started so positively, but then .....
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Just your typical rebellious teenager ...

I have written several articles recently praising contemporary Turkey. Today's Guardian reports on the flipside:

"Five Turkish punk rockers and their agent face up to 18 months in jail for insult after a bureaucrat took offence at their song criticising the country's unpopular university entrance exam. The head of Turkey's central examination board, OSYM, Unal Yarimagan reportedly smiled when he first saw a clip of OSYM, Kiss My Arse by Deli (mad), a group from the western city of Bursa. "I'm a tolerant person, but that didn't stop me doing my duty and checking it wasn't breaking any laws," he said. Last month, an Ankara prosecutor said it was, and a court case is due to begin on May 2.

"It's ridiculous," says the lead singer and lyricist, Cengiz Sari, 24. "I was 17 when I wrote that song. I was just your typical rebellious teenager." Sensitivity to criticism is a common trait of Turkey's great and good. Since March 2005, when the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sued a cartoonist who portrayed him as a cat tangled in wool, he is believed to have earned at least £100,000 in damages. The cartoon is below.


Turkey's understanding of freedom of expression surfaced again last month when a judge ordered the website YouTube to be blocked. YouTube has a central role to play in Deli's story. Until last June, few had heard of the band. It was then that a fan uploaded a clip of himself lip-synching his way through OSYM. "Let me tell you something:/ screw your exam system," Hako mouthed over a sound track reminiscent of the Sex Pistols. Posted days before 1.5 million Turkish teenagers took the much-criticised university entrance exam, Hako was an overnight sensation."

For more on this story from Istanbul follow this link, and here is the video five young Turks may face jail sentences over:


Now, for a different view of Turkey take this overgrown path.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Opera is such a powerful way to say something

The Southern Voice reports: Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution Iran, an estimated 4,000 people have been executed for the crime of lavaat, or sex between two men. One particular execution captured the attention of R. Timothy Brady, a 21-year old music composition major at Emory University, while he was studying abroad in Italy during the summer of 2005. It was the case of Mahmoud Asgari, 17, and Ayaz Marhoni, 16, who were publicly hanged in Edalat Square on July 19, 2005, after they were accused of being lovers. “I’m gay — that could happen to me,” Brady says. “It doesn’t matter that they’re Iranian or they’re half way across the world, it still really hit home.”

A year later, when choosing a topic for his senior honors project, the boys’ story still haunted Brady, and became his inspiration for the project, “Edalat Square: Opera in One Act.” Brady, a Gwinnett County native, based his opera on Asgari and Marhoni’s executions, setting the story inside the head of Asgari’s brother, Hassan, who is “imprisoned in pain and memory.” The setting of the opera is abstract and barren, reflecting Hassan’s torment, Brady explains. The horrifying photo below shows the actual execution, and is from the Iranian Student News Agency via Wikipedia.


Rather than a traditional set for “Edalat Square,” Brady instead chose to project images of Persian artwork on stage. Brady juxtaposes post-revolution, modern Persian art with the inherent homoeroticism present in some classical Persian art. He explains that there is “this love for other men in their culture that is really denied today. Look,” he continues, “you have this in your culture, you should embrace it.”

Brady incorporates other non-traditional elements in his 40-minute opera, a form he chose for the piece because, he says, “Opera is such a powerful way to say something.” He utilizes a Persian classical vocalist and an R&B soul vocalist, as well as two more traditional opera vocalists. The ensemble also includes a traditional string quartet, conductor, an actor with a speaking role, and a tape controller, who incorporates noise elements into the performance.

To prepare for the composition of the opera, Brady immersed himself in Persian culture. He listened to Persian music, read Sufi poetry, and spoke to many local Iranians. However, Brady was cautious not to simply appropriate what he learned. “I didn’t want to take their music and put it in the opera and say, ‘Okay, this is mine,’” he explains. “What I wanted to do was incorporate their aesthetics.”

In January, Brady attended the Iranian Human Rights Symposium in Toronto, organized by IRQO, the Iranian Queer Organization, a grassroots effort to “defend the rights of Iranian LGBT people against social and civil injustice.” It was there that Brady made contacts that will help him further the reach of his opera. The University of Toronto will host a screening of “Edalat Square” in May, and the opera will air on Sirius Satellite’s OUTQ radio station as well as a local station in Vancouver.


While Brady has found some support in the Persian community, he has also received e-mails from some who feel the opera is anti-Islamic. He is quick to note that his work has no anti-Islamic sentiments, but is instead a political piece commenting more on the strict Iranian government who, according to Brady, has hijacked Islam. “We keep talking about, ‘Oh, the nuclear bomb!’” Brady states. “That’s not really the problem right now. The problem is human rights issues.”

Brady, who used to be more traditionally involved in GLBT activism, sees his opera as a form of activism. “In 2004, 2005, after the election, I became disenchanted ... I wanted to think of other avenues to express myself socio-politically,” he says. “I thought this would be a good way to continue my activism in an artistic manner. It’s a better way that I can express myself.”

As for what’s next for Brady, he plans to attend graduate school for composition, and to pursue a career as a composer and producer. For now, though, he wants people to be moved by “Edalat Square.” “I hope people will walk away being spiritually affected, not just emotionally, but I want something deeper,” he explains. Brady hopes that Asgari and Marhoni’s story will continue to live within the audience “long after the lights go down, long after the music is forgotten.”

* Visit Timothy's Myspace page here.

Now read about another topical contemporary opera that reached primetime TV.
Header photograph by Bo Shell and text reproduced with full acknowledgments from The Southern Voice, execution photo added from Wikipedia . 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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The nature of silence

"I'm beginning to appreciate John Cage and all he used to say about the proximity of music to noise. His posturing silences were windows onto the world we're forced to listen to and, if we can, to harmonise. Every performance of silence is unlike any other. We participate by sharing it with other people and comparing, afterwards, what it sounded like.

One of the strange things about silence is that, having listened to it every Sunday morning for years, you begin to glimpse variations in its intensity, begin to notice differences within what should, by all rational analyses, be uniform. I first noticed it sitting in the British Library one day when an announcement was made calling for a minute's silence after the Madrid train bombs. It was a strange request, because - it being a library - everyone was silent anyway. But the nature of the silence changed and charged, as if you could hear the concentration and intercession."

From Utopian Dreams by Tobias Jones (Faber ISBN 9780571223800) - recommended. Now travel into great silence.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Celebrating Easter in music and pictures

Easter Sunday is the date of the annual celebration of Christ’s resurrection. The date of Easter is determined by the lunar cycle, with each Easter Sunday maintaining the same relationship to the preceding astronomical full moon as occurred at the resurrection in 30 AD. Because the Western Christian (Catholic, Anglican and Protestant) and Eastern Christian (Orthodox) churches use different calendars (Gregorian and Julian respectively) Easter is often celebrated on different dates by the two churches. 2007 is one of the exceptional years when the dates coincide, the previous one was 2004 and the next is 2010.

Orthodoxy was made the official religion of Russia in 988, and the photographs with this article were taken by me in the mother church of all Eastern Christians, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The Russian Orthodox Church followed the Byzantine musical tradition which excluded women’s voices and any instruments except bells. But while the Greek and Middle Eastern Orthodox Churches restrict their liturgical music to unison chant, the Russian and Balkan churches use polyphony. Large numbers of hymns are included in the Russian liturgy, and, except for several celebrated examples from 20th century composers, the church discouraged musical settings of the text. This means there is no Orthodox equivalent to the masses of Palestrina, Haydn and Mozart.


Easter is the most important festival in the Orthodox calendar, and the liturgical music for the festival combines ancient melodies with harmonisations, or original themes, from 19th and 20th century composers. An excellent overview is available on Apex’s super-budget CD, Russian Chants – Russian Easter Liturgy. The CD is sung by the Liturgical Choir of Moscow under Father Amvrosy, and was recorded in Moscow in 1992 by a Russian production team. The Liturgical Choir was an early product of glasnost, and was founded in 1987 to revive and carry on the great traditions of Russian Orthodox liturgical music. Their programme ranges from ancient monodies to harmonisations by Balakirev (1836-1910) and Kalinnikov (1870-1927), and includes the centrepiece of the Easter celebration, Christ is risen from the dead, sung in Greek, Latin and Slavonic.


The best known concert settings of the Orthodox liturgy are by Rachmaninov (Vespers and Liturgy of St John Chrysostom), Tchaikovsky (Liturgy of St John Chrysostom), and Alexander Grechaninov (Vespers). But there is another little-known gem from Grechaninov, who was a contemporary of Rachmaninov. The choral Passion Week cycle was composed in 1911/2, and was premiered in Moscow in 1912. It was only performed once more before Grechaninov fled to France and then the US following the 1917 revolution. Under glasnost the work was revived in Russia in the 1990s, but has remained virtually unknown in the West.

That is about to change as Chandos has just released a superb new recording with the Phoenix Bach Choir and Kansas City Chorale directed by Charles Bruffy. Grechaninov’s 74 minute setting of hymns and biblical texts may be monumental, but it is also meditative and mystical. The recording made in the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, Kansas City is demonstration quality, and the choirs more than counterbalance any linguistic shortcomings with their superb technique. The recording was made in just two consecutive days, a remarkable achievement for the choirs and soloists as this is a very big a cappella sing with no instruments to hide behind. Well done everyone, and well done Chandos for making their second recording of Grechaninov’s Passion Week. The first was made in Moscow in the 1990s with Valeri Polyansky conducting the Russian State Symphonic Cappella, the new one is already on my shortlist for best CD of 2007.

* Listen to samples and buy MP3 downloads of Grechaninov's Passion Week here.

Now read the good news from Kiev.
All the photos were taken by me in Hagia Sophia during our recent visit to Istanbul. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Variations on an original theme

"Elgar is not a major figure in music history and we make a mockery of ourselves as a nation if we pretend that he is," said Mr Lebrecht - in today's Telegraph.

"Lebrecht is not a major figure in music journalism and we make a mockery of ourselves as a nation if we pretend that he is," said Mr Pliable - in today's On An Overgrown Path.

Now read, quite appropriately, about the excruciating boredom of pure fact.
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

Classical music under different stewardship

"I read with interest Martin Kettle's review of Norman Lebrecht's new book, Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness, (Vanishing acts, G2, April 3). The impression given by the piece is that the classical-record industry is in its death throes, which is far from the reality. While it's true the major record companies have markedly reduced their classical output, shifting significantly into "crossover" projects, it is the vibrant independent sector (comprising Naxos and many other labels) which is as active and creative as ever in the production of new classical recordings.

Kettle's statement that "production is down to just 100 new discs a year - many in the crossover repertoire ..." is belied by the profusion of new classical releases which come into the market each month. In 2006 Naxos released 238 new classical recordings and new issues from other independent labels easily numbered in excess of 1,000. All these recordings - and the large number of back-catalogue titles - are now available to the public not only through high street stores, but also through retailers and, in many cases, digital downloads or online streaming: consumer accessibility and choice is broader then ever before.

It is undeniable that the past business models of the major record companies have been shown to be unsustainable and have been abandoned, but the inference that the industry is dead is as illogical as it is untrue. Other record companies run successfully on a quite different basis - without the excesses depicted in Lebrecht's book. Far from being "on the verge of disappearing", the classical recording industry is alive and well, but just under different stewardship."

Anthony Anderson managing director Naxos UK writes in today's Guardian:

But now read a view on how Naxos dumbs-down technical standards, how we have to pay the piper, and how we are moving towards music like water.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Into Great Silence

“In these letters I have often taken you on my holiday journeys: India, California and Venice. This time it is more of an inner journey which I would like to share. I write under the powerful impression of the film Into Great Silence, which depicts life in the Carthusian monastery of the Grande Chartreuse, in the French Alps, where the monks live mostly in solitude and silence. Some of you may well have seen it, so I will not describe the film, rather convey the feelings and reflections which arose out of it for me. Let me only say that I think it is a masterpiece of photography and film making, quite apart from being a profound experience which has transformed my life in many subtle ways.


In a world where strident noise, frenzied activity and constant stimulation are the daily diet, a film in which hardly anything happens for nearly three hours, with no dialogue, no commentary and no music (except Gregorian chant), is a considerable challenge. However, the queue snaking down the road in front of the Playhouse in Norwich on that winter Sunday afternoon was a striking manifestation of the thirst for something different. Everyone was surprised by this unexpected turn-out, not least the Cinema City staff who struggled to cope. And from start to finish you could have heard a pin drop.


A slow pace, images remaining on the screen for what seemed like minutes, a very strong sense of rhythm – the passing seasons made a counterpoint with the regularity of monastic life, its alternation of solitary prayer, study and community, punctuated by bells – created a spell. In the silence, the natural sounds of everyday living: echoing footsteps in stone passages, large wooden doors opening and closing, chopping wood, cutting cloth, drawing water, and plainchant singing, took on a particular poignancy.


I was struck by how unnatural our lives have become; in this monastery, daily activities are still closely connected with nature and all materials are natural: stone, wood and cloth; vessels are made of clay, tin or wood, not a sign of plastic! Walls are bare, objects are starkly simple and few, but there is not a trace of ugliness. I felt that these men, who live enclosed with no possessions of their own and very few choices, were maybe more free than us, who battle daily with a multiplicity of external possibilities (how many brands of biscuits on the supermarket shelves?) and believe that freedom is to have exactly what we want.


And I reflected on the power of silence, emptiness and the space between things. I have often noticed that what makes a great musician is the ability to breathe, to pause, to hold a note suspended. The inexperienced player tends to rush through, to get the notes right. But without the silence, there is no real music, just a dead sequence of sounds. Silence creates rhythm, and cycles, without which there is no life: as the old wise man in the Bible puts it: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; there is a time to be born and a time to die; a time to break down and a time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”


Without the pauses, the breathing space, the in-between times, there is no harmony, no creation, no unfolding of life. It is not by chance that language has the expression “a pregnant pause”. All creative change needs this space for reflection, this empty time when the old way of being is no more, and the new is not yet. We ignore this at our peril, and our culture, which constantly rushes into action, does not seem to be able to produce any viable, durable change, only vacillation between extremes.”

Aude Gotto writes in the Spring newsletter of the King of Hearts Centre for people and the Arts in Norwich. Into Great Silence is released on DVD in the UK on May 23, and on October 23 in the US. Now read Aude writing about India.

All the stunning images are stills from the film by director Philip Gröning. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Towards a new record label

As the media resonates with spurious stories about the death of the classical recording indutry here is an interesting opportunity on the website of the Contemporary Music Centre Ireland:

"The Contemporary Music Centre is commissioning a report on the feasibility of setting up an Irish recording label and/or download platform for specialist/non-commercial musics.

In an important initiative to examine the reasons behind the lack of commercially available recordings of new music by Irish composers, the report will look at establishing an Irish recording label to draw together a range of specialist/non-commercial musics (contemporary, early Irish classical, jazz, electronic etc) on one identifiable label or download platform.

With the assistance of funding from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon, the study will provide recommendations for the strategic development of such a label, and will also examine effective ways in which existing recordings of Irish music can be best distributed. The study will be carried out during 2007 and a report containing the main findings and recommendations will be published and submitted to the Arts Council for consideration with a view to funding.

An advisory group with representation from the Arts Council, RTÉ and CMC will oversee the research and it is hoped that the input of these organisations will help to identify workable solutions to the issues raised.

CMC now invites tenders from interested parties to carry out the study and full details of the brief are available in the Opportunities section of this site."


Now read about contemporary Irish music.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The Art of Byzantium

This photo essay portrays a double miracle. Not only are the Byzantine mosaics and frescoes in the Chora Church in Istanbul truly miraculous, but their survival through the city’s tempestuous history is a second miracle. The Church of St Saviour in Chora is today known as the Kariye Camii (Mosque) Museum. Originally part of a monastery dating from the early 5th century, the church takes its name from the Greek word ‘chora’, meaning land outside a city, although the church has long since been swallowed up by the sprawl of urban Istanbul. The church was rebuilt three times between the 6th and 12th centuries, with two of these reconstructions following earthquake damage. It was then ransacked, but not destroyed, during the Fourth Crusade in the 13th century, when forces from the western Christian churches pillaged Orthodox Constantinople.


The miraculous transformation of the Chora Church came in the years following the defeat of the Crusaders and the return of Constantinople to Byzantine rule. Between 1315 and 1321 the interior was decorated in the mosaic-work which can be seen in my photos, and which represents the finest example of the Byzantine renaissance. The work was endowed by the wealthy statesman Theodore Metochites, who was prime minister, treasurer and personal adviser to Andronikos II Palaiologos. Guide books refer to St Saviour of Chora as ‘Metochites’ Church’, but this is something of a misnomer. Metochites was sponsor of the work, but it was actually executed by unknown hands. It is probable that the sublime mosaics and frescoes are the work of a single artist who left a mysterious graphic signature on several of them.


The mosaics are ambitious narrative cycles depicting the life and ministry of Christ, and the life of the Virgin Mary, while the frescoes are confined to the side chapel which acted as a mortuary chapel, and depict the Last Judgement and the Harrowing of Hell. Metochites himself appears in the mosaics, and, as befits a prime minister, he is shown modestly presenting his church to Christ. But in a 14th century version of the cash for honours saga Metochites lost his fortune and was forced into exile when his boss Emperor Andronicus was thrown out of office. Metochites was allowed to return to Constantinople in 1330, and lived as a monk in the Church at Chora until his death two year’s later.


But the turbulent history of Chora did not finish with Metochites endowment. In 1453 Christian Constantinople was conquered by the Muslim Turks, and in 1511 Chora Church was converted into a mosque, and a minaret was added. At this point the Wikipedia entry is in error in saying that: “due to the prohibition against images in Islam, the mosaics and frescoes were covered behind a layer of plaster”. In his book Museum of Chora, Mosaics and Frescoes (ISBN 9757039438) the archaeologist İlhan Akşit explains: “After the conquest, the mosaics of the church which had been converted to a mosque were not touched. During the restoration in 1765, although there were small architectural additions, the mosaics were protected as they were. However, these mosaics were covered by wooden curtains during the daily prayers, as it is forbidden to pray in Islam in the presence of any form of picture.” It was this use of wooden curtains, rather than plaster, that allows us to appreciate the true miracle of Chora Church today.


In 1948 the church ceased to be used as a mosque, and the American Byzantine Institute started a ten year restoration programme. In 1958 Chora Church reopened as Kariye Camii Museum, and we were able to witness its miracles when we visited it in March 2007 when all the photographs here were taken. Flash photography is forbidden to protect the frescoes and mosaics, and the photos were taken by me, hand-held, using available light on a Casio EX-Z120 digital camera.


Now playing – Yasemin, 20th century music for the oud played by Necati Çelik. The Arabic word al’ud meaning ‘the wood’ is the root for both the words ‘oud’ and ‘lute’. The oud originated in ancient Egypt, and migrated to the West via the Crusades, to become the lute. Played with a plectrum, the oud has eleven strings and does not use frets. The absence of frets allows the microtones of the traditional Arabic Maqam modal system to be played. The concept of microtones, which originated in the 14th century, has re-emerged as a tool for contemporary composers – see my article on James Woods’ Hildegard.

Necati Çelik (below) was born in the Turkish province of Konya. This is home to the Sufi Mevlevi Order that I wrote about recently, and Çelik has performed in the Mevlevi rituals as an oud player. Five Turkish composers are featured on the CD. They range from one of the leading figures of Turkish music, Tanburi Cemil Bey, who died in 1916, to Reşat Aysu who was active until the end of the 20th century.

This Overgrown Path has travelled from the 5th to the 21st century. So here to finish on a suitably topical note is a link to a YouTube video of oud player Mehmet Polat. And here is a link to another website dedicated to the oud.

Now see the art of the mosque in Istanbul
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Peter Paul Fuchs - a compelling voice

When I published a short tribute to the conductor and composer Peter Paul Fuchs, who died last week, I was very aware that there was practically no information available about his music. To try to rectify that I presumptuously asked John McLaughlin Williams (above) to write a short appreciation of Fuchs’ music for An Overgrown Path. John responded within a few days with this wonderful piece:

“I pulled out two of the three scores by Peter Paul Fuchs that he gave me years ago. I think that I never collected back from an orchestra in Boston the score to Fuch's Concertino for Violin & Chamber Orchestra that I had submitted for consideration. Hope springs eternal.

I have two violin works from opposite ends of his career: a Violin Sonata from 1937 and a Fantasy for Violin from 1978. Looking at them again brings back my initial impressions. Here was a fine, even inspired craftsman, exquisitely trained in the traditional methods of composition as it was taught in German and Austrian conservatories. That is to say, Fuchs compositional style is concerned with expression through clarity and rigor. He is rhythmically clear, precise and athletic; he is rigorous in his employment of traditional counterpoint and voice leading. This is wedded to a melodic contour and harmonic vocabulary whose points of departure are Alban Berg and Paul Hindemith. Utilizing that, Fuchs was able to create many passages of bittersweet, even painful beauty.

In examining this pair of violin pieces, it's interesting to note that there is no great variance of style or conscious change of direction between 1937 and 1978, though in the later work his harmony shows greater astringency due to his frequent employment of chordal combinations derived from fourths and augmented sixths. (It was Harold Truscott who wrote that a composer shows his true individuality in how he uses augmented chords. I'm paraphrasing here.)

The Sonata from 1937 shows no sign of the brewing troubles of those years. If not exactly genial, it does exude a bumptious neo-classicism in its outer movements and a lightly worn expressionism in the central slow movement. There is greater intensity in his later Fantasy for Violin, and one senses here that his technique is more relaxed and pliable, and that he is able to explore similar areas with much greater depth.

Fuchs had exemplary teachers (the composer Karl Weigl and the conductor-composer Felix Weingartner), ones with definite ideas about what was good and desirable in music. In 1937, when Fuchs wrote his Violin Sonata, I can easily imagine the reaction of those great but conservative artists to Fuchs more "contemporary" creation. It's to their credit that they allowed Fuchs to find his way, and I can imagine their taking pride in seeing the wonderful artist and composer that Fuchs became.

Clearly, Fuchs knew who he was as a composer and creative musician, and examination of these two scores shows that he was able to remain true to himself throughout his artistic life. Peter Paul Fuchs is gone now, but much as there has been for his emigré contemporaries Hans Gál and Berthold Goldschmidt, I sincerely hope there will be renewed interest in this deserving and compelling voice speaking to us from a golden age of composition.”

We are all indebted to John McLaughlin Williams for sharing the music of Peter Paul Fuchs with us. In his article John mentions Berthold Goldschmidt. Now take this Overgrown Path to find out how Simon Rattle literally helped to revive this important 20th century composer.

We now have information on Fuchs’ music, but don’t have any photographs of him. Any photos for publication would be very gratefully received. Copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Simon Rattle revives contemporary composer

"There was also the Proms reappearance of very old man: Berthold Goldschmidt (left), ninety that year. Simon Rattle, who had championed Goldschmidt’s music in Birmingham, was keen to conduct something of his in the Proms. Goldschmidt’s life was being much written about: how he had shown brilliant promise in pre-Hitler Germany but had much later been forced to leave, and how after successful years in Britain, including conducting the first performance of Deryck Cooke’s version of Mahler’s Tenth in 1964, he and his music had faded from view. I found it very hard to evaluate Goldschmidt’s music: it had obviously seemed remarkable in the 1920s and ‘30s, but struck me as less so after sixty years.

The work Rattle chose, the Ciaconna Sinfonia, had a triumphant reception, as if the audience wanted to compensate for years of neglect by refusing to let the composer leave the platform, and Goldschmidt really revelled in the applause. We gave him dinner afterwards in a nearby restaurant, during which he became seriously unwell and eventually slumped forward apparently dead. It was a dreadful moment. Simon Rattle stood behind him and felt for a pulse. I rushed about phoning ambulances and looking for a doctor. By the time the ambulance arrived Goldschmidt was sitting up chatting, quite unaware of the panic he had caused. ‘It’s rather hot isn’t it?’ he said.

He went home in a taxi, accompanied by a charming young woman, as if nothing had happened. At his ninetieth birthday party his publisher, Anthony Fell of Boosey & Hawkes, said it was marvellous that Goldschmidt was not bitter at his roller coaster of a life. In reply, Goldschmidt said, ’Bitterness is a question of taste.’ I am glad he lived long enough to hear his music performed again and to return to Germany and be feted everywhere, but I am still not sure how good the music is."

John Drummond recalls the revival in 1993 of a 20th century composer in his autobiography Tainted By Experience.

Now playing – Berthold Goldschmidt’s Ciaconna Sinfonia, with Simon Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. You can judge yourself how good Goldschmidt’s music is by listening to The Goldschmidt Album. This 1996 Decca CD features the composer’s music conducted by Simon Rattle, Yakov Kreizberg, and Goldschmidt himself. Rattle was so keen to champion Goldschmidt’s music that he persuaded EMI to release him from his exclusive contract to record his 20 minute contribution to the album.

The CD was an early release in a Decca series Entartete Musik (Degenerate music) featuring works suppressed by the Third Reich. The first release in the much hyped series was the opera Jonny spielt auf which I wrote about recently. Its composer Ernst Krenek studied with Franz Schreker, as did Berthold Goldschmidt. But more than ten years later the Decca website only lists four titles in the series, and neither The Goldschmidt Album nor Jonny spielt auf are among them, although the Goldschmidt CD is available from Amazon resellers. Once again Entartete Musik has been suppressed, but this time by the corporate planners within Decca’s parent Universal Music.

Now read about another forgotten victim of fascism
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Intoxicating Heinichen from Dresden

If you like Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, and who doesn’t? Musica Antiqua Köln’s reissue of Heinichen’s contemporaneous Dresden Concerti should be in your collection.

The legendary Johann Sebastian Bach and the little known Johann David Heinichen provide an interesting contrast. The Brandenburg Concertos were dedicated to Christian Ludwig, the Margrave of Brandenburg, in whose household Bach was probably hoping to find work. The court at Brandenburg was a pretty cheerless place at that time under the rule of Ludwig’s uncle, the strictly Calvinist and despotic Friedrich Wilhelm 1, who was known as the Soldier King.

By contrast Saxony was ruled by the enlightened Catholic Augustus II, although the state and the people remained Lutheran in a move that renounced the established principle of ‘cuius regio, rius religio’. The electors of Saxony were great patrons of the arts, and their visionary patronage and policy of public access to artworks created the legendary Florence on the Elbe, and established Dresden as a creative centre ahead of Brandenburg’s Berlin.

As well as collecting works by Raphael, Titian and contemporary artists the electors maintained a court orchestra of fine musicians who had chamber works written for them by Albinoni, Vivaldi, Fasch and Telemann, and in 1773 Bach presented his settings of the Kyrie and Gloria from the Latin mass to Augustus in Dresden. and these eventually became the first part of the B minor Mass. To this flourishing musical centre came Johann David Heinichen. Son of an Evangelical pastor, he studied at the famous Thomas-Schule in Leipzig under Bach’s predecessor Johann Kuhnau, who I wrote about some time back, and in 1717 the Protestant Heinichen was appointed Kapellmeister in the Catholic court of Dresden.

In the twelve years before his death Heinichen composed works ranging from serenades to Catholic liturgical works for performance in Dresden. In 1992 Reinhard Goebel recorded Heinichen’s Dresden Concerti with Musica Antiqua Köln, and their evangelising performances won a number of awards, and were acclaimed for showcasing a neglected composer. Archiv has now reissued the Dresden Concerti as a mid-priced double CD. The music is inventive and intoxicating, the performances are energetic, the sound from the early instrument band captured in the studio of Deutschlandfunk in Cologne is exemplary, and the booklet includes an excellent explanatory essay by Reinhard Goebel. What an absolute tragedy that Musica Antiqua Köln was forced to disband at the end of 2006 due to a neurological disorder impeding Goebel's playing.

Although Dresden was at its zenith in the early 18th century, the city remained an important centre of Western art until the 20th century. Sadly Reinhard Goebel’s wonderfully informative essay ends with these words: ‘The recording is also dedicated to the remembrance of the much-loved Dresden of the past, 'Florence on the Elbe', the Baroque city extinguished, at least physically, on 13 February 1945.’

Now see Florence on the Elbe reborn.
Header image, Dresden 1748 by Bernardo Bellotto, and the three smaller images are slices, and in one case mirrors, of Bellotto. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The Hill of Crosses

The Hill of Crosses, Kryzių Kalnas, located seven miles north of the small industrial city of Siauliai is the Lithuanian national pilgrimage center. The small hill has thousands of crosses, and they represent both Christian devotion and a memorial to Lithuanian national identity.

Siauliai was occupied by Teutonic forces during the 14th century, and the tradition of placing crosses dates from this period, probably starting as a symbol of Lithuanian defiance of foreign invaders. Since the medieval period, the Hill of Crosses has represented the peaceful resistance of Lithuanian Catholicism to oppression. In 1795 Siauliai became part of Russia but was returned to Lithuania in 1918.


The city was captured by Germany in World War II, and suffered heavy damage when it was retaken by Soviet forces. From 1944 until Lithuania's independence in 1991, Siauliai was a part of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR, and during this time the Hill of Crosses became an expression of Lithuanian nationalism, despite the Soviets repeatedly removing Christian crosses placed on the hill.

Three times between 1961 and 1975 the hill was levelled and the crosses destroyed. But each time local residents and pilgrims from all over Lithuania replaced them. The arrival of glasnost meant that after 1985 the Hill of Crosses was no longer desecrated, and it has now become both a celebration of Lithuanian nationalism and international pilgrimage.

For more information and photos visit Sacredsites.com (on which the text above is based) and Englishrussia.com (whose photos are used above with thanks), and watch this YouTube video of the Hill of Crosses while ignoring the cheesey opening music.


Now visit another green hill far away.
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 other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk