Had to get away to see what we could find

Evening in Jemaa El Fna in Marrakech, (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008, headline from Crosby, Stills & Nash. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

A door to the Arab world

For a valuable resource on the Arab world go to http://www.al-bab.com/. The sections on arts and culture and music in particular are very useful. Also good music resources for individual countries, for instance check out Berber music. Al-bab is a private project by Brian Whitaker who is the Guardian's Middle East editor.

Now read about the secret life of an Arab record label.
Photo is detail of Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, Morocco. The Koutoubia dates from the 13th century and its name derives from el-koutoubiyyin which is Arabic for booksellers, as a book market once filled the surrounding streets. More art of the mosque here. Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Sweeping cobwebs from the edges of my mind

Evening in the souk in Marrakech, (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008, headline from Crosby, Stills & Nash. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Honey I shrunk the pension fund

There has been quite a lot of interest in the fate of my (and a lot of other people's) EMI pension following my post in October last year. Another letter arrived from the EMI Group Pension Trustees today which says:

'In mid December we reached an agreement in principle with EMI and its ultimate investor, Terra Firma, that the Fund would be granted a meaningful amount of watertight security, which would rank equally with the security granted by EMI to Citi, the bank that loaned Terra Firma the money to take over EMI.

Since that agreement, however, detailed discussions have revealed that the form of security offered does not rank equally with the bank's in certain important respects and is not sufficiently robust in its terms for the Trustee to be able to rely on it in circumstances where it would be needed to support the Fund. In the absence of meaningful and watertight security, and as EMI is not prepared to put forward an alternative funding package, the Trustee has concluded, with regret, that it has no option other than to inform the Pensions Regulator that there is no reasonable prospect of reaching agreement with EMI and Terra Firma on funding.'

As EMI's new owner Guy Hands, whose personal wealth with his wife is estimated to be £200m, said in a recent interview - 'We will fight to come up with a solution to the problems that face the entire recorded music industry'. It's a pity that the solution doesn't seem to include staff pensions.
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Eat your heart out RIAA

Everywhere else it is doom and gloom in the record industry. But here is one retailer giving the thumbs up. He runs a market stall in the Jemaa el Fna in Marrakech and official figures show that more than 90% of CDs and DVDs sold in Morocco are pirated, with an industry spokesman saying "every artistic endeavour is affected". Based on my recent visit I would put the piracy rate higher; during nine days in the country I did not see a single legitimate CD on sale. But then, even the BBC gives permission for file sharing for personal use.


Now playing - music of the gnawa communities found in the southern areas of Morocco. The repetitive rhythms and looping riffs of gnawa that are the signature sound of evening in the Jemaa el Fna originated in black African religous rituals and trance and are provided by drums and the gimbri, the long-necked lute seen on the label above, supplemented by iron castanets called karakeb. Hypnotic stuff, but I'm afraid my CD (above) the from the Société Chamusic of Marrakesh label is a pirate copy, legitimate discs were simply unobtainable. What does one do? At least YouTube has some interesting material and Amazon France has a range of non-pirated CDs.

Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Tripping the Licht fantastic

'Our real journey in life is interior: it is a matter of growth, deepening and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts' - Thomas Merton


Karlheinz Stockhausen and Thomas Merton are also together here.
Photos of Marrakech-Menara Airport terminal roof (c) 2008 On An Overgrown Path. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Pierre Boulez - I'm not a shy man

He says little has changed in the music world since he started out, in that "20% are very interested in new things, 50% can be persuaded and 30% are in their coffins before their time. It is not a matter of good times or bad times. You always have to make an effort and you always need a strong personality to get things done. If you are timid and unadventurous, no matter how good your ideas, nothing happens. Me, I'm not a shy man. I am willing to have a go. Then it is for others to judge its worth" - unmissable, and original, Pierre Boulez in today's Guardian. Lots more on the bogeyman of twentieth century music here.

Photo credit Le regard de James. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

A contemporary composer's Passion

James MacMillan (left) charts progress on his new Passion in today's Guardian. I am playing his percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel on Future Radio on May 11.

Read about another contemporary Passion here.
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Google Earth for classical music?

Google Earth is the water cooler killer app. The image above is from RAMline which uses Topic Maps software to create a unique multi-dimensional index of music and musicians linked to local digitized archives and other online resources, such as manuscript sources and published editions, live performances and recordings, musical criticism and comment. Could this be classical music's killer app?

More here on musical mind maps and music history rewritten.
Image credit A. Pitts/Royal Academy 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Ysaye listening on Future Radio

There is a rare chance to hear one of Eugène Ysaÿe's sonatas for solo violin on Future Radio this Sunday. My Overgrown Path programme takes a journey from Bach to Belgium and frames Ysaÿe's Sonata No. 2 in A Minor with Bach's Sonata No. 1 in G minor and mighty Partita No 3 in E major. The Ysaÿe Sonatas are inspired by Bach, and the juxtaposition of Ysaÿe's Second Sonata with the E major Partita in the programme mirrors the Belgium composer's statement and restatement of themes from the Bach work. Thomas Zehetmair plays the Ysaÿe and the two Bach works are performed by Mark Lubotsky from Brilliant Classic's invaluable Bach Edition which offers all the composer's works on 155 CDs at a very affordable price. Listen at 5.00pm UK time on April 27 with a repeat at 12.50am on April 28.

Ysaÿe was born in Liège in Belgium in 1858, and after graduation became principal violin of the Benjamin Bilse beer-hall orchestra, which found a home in a disused roller-skating rink and became the Berlin Philharmonic - music was more fun back then. You can hear music from another composer from the Low Countries on Future Radio on May 11 when I play extracts from another rarely heard work, the Missa Pro Defunctis by the 16th century Flemish composer Jacobus de Kerle. The performers are the Belgium based Huelgas-Ensemble directed by Paul Van Nevel who featured here last year in the story of the work that inspired Tallis' Spem in alium. And there is new music from Belgium here.

Photo from the souk in Marrakech, Morocco (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Different tempo but the music continues

'The pause is as important as the note' ~ Truman Fisher

We start a summer of travelling tomorrow with a flight to Morocco, so the tempo of posting will slow markedly. While I'm away do read other great music blogs here, but why not escape the tyranny of league tables and explore the long tail of music blogs over here? But don't forget the music continues on my Future Radio programme at 5.00pm UK time every Sunday with a repeat at 12.50am on Monday morning. Here is the forward schedule which starts on April 20 with two modern composers who between them do not have a single note of their music in the 2008 BBC Proms season.

April 20 Unique British voices - Peter Maxwell Davies Missa Parvula sung by Choir of Westminster Cathedral; Edmund Rubbra Symphony No 6 played by Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Norman del Mar. (Nice Max connection as I took the photo of the Japanese garden at Dartington Hall where he was a fixture at the Summer School for many years).

April 27 Bach and beyond - J.S. Bach Sonata No. 1 in G minor played by Mark Lubotsky; Eugène Ysaÿe Sonata No 2 in A Minor for violin played by Thomas Zehetmair; J.S. Bach Partita No 3 in E major played by Mark Lubotsky.

May 4 Meditations on war - Richard Strauss Metamorphosen in realisation for string septet played by supplemented Brandis Quartet; Benjamin Frankel Violin Concerto, 'In Memory of the Six Million' played by Ulf Hoelscher with Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Werner Andreas Albert.

May 11 Elaborated plainsong - Jacobus de Kerle Missa Pro Defunctis (extracts) sung by Huelgas-Ensemble directed by Paul Van Nevel; James MacMillan – Veni, Veni, Emmanuel played by Colin Currie and the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Takuo Yuase.

May 18 Musicians in exile - Bohuslav Martinů Concertino for Piano Trio and String Orchestra played by the Dresden Trio and New Berlin Chamber Orchestra conducted by Martin Fischer-Dieskau; Peter Paul Fuchs Five Miniatures, artists unknown, private recording supplied by Mrs Elissa Fuch; Karl Weigl String Quartet No 5 played by Artis Quartet of Vienna. ITunes podcast of Fuch's Five Miniatures now available for download.

May 25 Vaughan Williams anniversary - Ralph Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs sung by Thomas Allen (baritone), Corydon Singers and English Chamber Orchestra directed by Matthew Best and Symphony No. 4 with Sir Adrian Boult conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra.

Enjoy!

Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

At last - music treated as music

In the week when the BBC, EMI and UK media decided that Nigel Kennedy is the future of classical music I greatly enjoyed a new CD from an independent Belgian label that proves that there is still life beyond the celebrity circus.

Llibre Vermell from the Ricecar label is an imaginative realisation based on these anonymous words in the famous medieval manuscript in the Abbey of Monserrat: "Sometimes the pilgrims who are holding vigil in the church of the Holy Virgin of Montserrat wanted to sing and dance, but they were only allowed to sing respectable and pious songs". The CD brings together the Namur Chamber Choir as the pilgrims, the Psallentes as the monks and the excellent boys choir Les Pastoureaux as the choirboys of the Abbey together with period instrumentalists under the direction of Christophe Deslignes. The boy's choir are, for me, the real stand-outs on an exceptional disc, how refreshing to hear young voices in early music.

The recording, which derived from a 2007 Festival de Wallonie concert, is a total delight from start to finish. It combines musical scholarship (which is more than can be said for Kennedy's cadenza in the first movement of his new Mozart concerto recording) with more exuberance and sheer joy in music making than I have heard for years. A mixed programme, which moves between Gregorian Chant, music from the Le Llibre Vermell and dance, avoids the inherent monotony of so many early music discs, while producer Jérôme Lejeune and engineer Philippe de Magnée make the magnificent space of the Église Saint-Apollinaire in Bolland an integral part of the performance.

Research carried out some time back reported that the average classical CD is played 1.3 times after purchase, so the five playings that my copy of Llibre Vermell has received in three days must prove something. I can't offer higher praise than saying I am sure David Munrow would have been delighted with this new release.

EM Forster mused in Howards End - "I wonder if the day will ever return when music will be treated as music". This highly recommended recording is welcome proof that the only thing that needs to spin in classical music is the CD.

More young voices in early music here.
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The shock of the missing new

Email received - Dear Herbert (sic), The Los Angeles Philharmonic is hosting an online Enter-To-Win a pair of tickets to the Philharmonia Orchestra concert in May. Would you be able to mention this on your blog for your LA readers?

LA Phil Presents – Philharmonia Orchestra – May 6 & 7, 8:00 PM at Walt Disney Concert Hall Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor

For a chance to win tickets to the Philharmonia concert on May 7, click here or visit: http://www.laphil.com/tickets/special_events/philharmonia_contest.cfm

Thank you! All the best, Stacy
Allied Live/TMG - The Marketing Group
110 S. Fairfax, Suite 210
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Stacy, I'm delighted to give Walter Legge's old orchestra a plug. But couldn't the Philharmonia have offered your funky West Coast audiences something a little more challenging than the programmes below? Did classical music really end with Mahler? Couldn't they have included some of that gorgeous Xenakis I heard them play in London in March?

Regards from UK, Herbert

Tue May 6 8pm
Philharmonia Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4, "Italian"
Mahler Symphony No. 1

Wed May 7 8pm
Philharmonia Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Beethoven Egmont Overture
Schumann Symphony No. 1, "Spring"
Beethoven Symphony No. 5

Header photo shows Elizabeth Schwarzkopf viewing the commemorative display I created for the Philharmonia Orchestra's Walter Legge Memorial concerts in June 1979. I am standing alongside Madame Schwarzkopf. More on that story here.
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EMI - here are my thoughts

Email received - Hi, EMI Classics are running a competition on their site where you can win CDs of your choice from their catalogue if you submit a review of one of their albums. I thought this was something the readers of your blog might be interested in. Please have a look at the link below (deleted) and let me know your thoughts? If you would like to include some information I can send you some assets.

Thanks! Naomi Snuggs
http://www.headstreampr.com/

Naomi, here are my thoughts. You sort out my EMI pension and I'll plug EMI Classics' competition? A deal?
Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Handel's Suites are miracles

'Interesting to listen once again to this 'historic' recording. I know the general public didn't really take to it, so that the people who sell these things clearly didn't make any profit (will it suffer the same fate as Berg's Concerto?.) And why? Audiences (in every country) prefer to buy Bach - out of habit - and because, in doing so, they think they are showing 'greater musicality'. They undervalue Handel or else they ignore him completely. During their own lifetimes, it was exactly the opposite. Handel travelled everywhere in a carriage, while Bach humbly played the organ at the Thomas-Kirche.

Now for Gavrilov and Richter. As soon as I started to listen, Gavrilov struck me as infinitely more interesting (in spite of a certain irreproachability to Richter's playing). Everything about his playing is fresher, more alive, freer. There's nothing studied about it. Only occasionally does he allow himself to be carried away by the fortissimo passages, and here he has a tendency to bang.'

Oddly, the friends who were listening with me and to whom I didn't say who was playing what, often thought that Gavrilov was me and vice versa. If I'd not known, I two could have mixed the two of us up. Clearly there's a reciprocal influence here. Be that as it may, these Suites are veritable miracles, laminated in gold but with virtually no patina.

From Sviatoslav Richter's Notebooks and Conversations edited by Bruno Monsaingeon. Richter, who was the mystery source of my Xenakis quote, kept detailed notes on concerts and recordings he heard by a wide range of performers and composers. There is an almost Zen like avoidance of duality in his observations on music ranging Bach to Boulez and Stockhausen. His detachment and openmindedness is a lesson to us all. I wouldn't mind playing the piano like him either.

The recordings of the Handel Keyboard Suites that he made in 1982 with Gavrilov are indeed veritable miracles. Despite his lack of confidence in their longevity they are still in the catalogue here and here. But given the current shenanigans at EMI that may not last. If they are not in your collection buy them while you can.

Now read what happened to Andrei Gavrilov.
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The view from a major record label

'Polydor executives were not known for diplomacy: the man sent to open their American office startled the crowd at the New York press launch by telling them he had wanted to live in the city ever since he had seen its skyline from Long Island Sound through the periscope of his U-boat in 1943' - Joe Boyd writes about music in the 60's in White Bicycles, one of the most entertaining and best written books about rock. Now read Joe Boyd on Dylan and the blues, and, of course, he was Nick Drake's producer.

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

It is impossible to live without inner peace

On 11th March 2008 Madrid marked the fourth anniversary of the terrorist bombings (above) that claimed the lives of 191 people and wounded 1,856. It was the biggest terrorist attack in the history of Spain and, indeed, Europe, with 10 simultaneous explosions on four of Madrid’s district trains at the height of the morning rush hour. It happened a few minutes before 8 a.m. Later, the police exploded another two bombs that had failed to go off and a third was defused, leading to the identification of those responsible.

The ceremony of remembrance for those who were killed began at twelve noon in front of the monument inaugurated last year which stands in Plaza de Atocha. It was led by their majesties King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia, who laid a wreath at the foot of the monument. After a minute’s silence in memory of the victims, there was a rendition of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s “Da pacem, Domine”, a work commissioned by Jordi Savall for performance at the Barcelona Forum of Cultures in June 2004. Inspired in the Gregorian chant Danos la paz Señor, the piece was composed only two days after the tragic bombings as a tribute to the victims who were honoured at the ceremony of remembrance. Arvo Pärt’s “Da pacem, Domine” will be included in a forthcoming Alia Vox release.

In the words of Raimon Panikkar “It is difficult to live when there is no external peace in the world around us. It is impossible to live without inner peace, if there is no peace in our hearts”. Arvo Pärt’s Da Pacem Domine is a prayer for those whom we have lost, as well as an invocation to peace and hope, the music creating a space of peace, both in the world around us and in our hearts.

'For Inner and Outer Peace' is the title of an important book by another great musical humanitarian, Antal Dorati. It was published by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), but is out of print. All this ... and what for?

Story source Alia Vox. 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

Xenakis - the eyes have it

'This is the first time I've heard any music by Xenakis; it's completely bowled me over, even though I'm not sure I've really understood it (or not understood it). Intuition? But can one always trust it? ... It seems to me that this, in fact, is what I'd call real 'new' music.'

Which famous musician seen in the photo above said this? The image will gradually enlarge until the correct answer is posted. Hear Xenakis' Komboi on my Future Radio programme tomorrow,
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Beethoven keeps on cycling

In 2006 Norman Lebrecht got it wrong when he wrote "in fact, no label had issued a (Beethoven) symphonic cycle in three years, and none was likely to do so again".

In 2008 Lebrecht is proved wrong again by Paavo Järvi's acclaimed new cycle with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen on RCA. Hopefully the CEO of the Bremen orchestra hasn't reviewed any of Norm's books in the past.
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Messiaen and Xenakis - Oiseaux Exotiques

This photo shows Olivier Messiaen pinning the award of Chevalier de la légion d'honneur on Iannis Xenakis in his Paris apartment in 1977. Xenakis was a pupil of Messiaen and I will be playing music by both of them on my Future Radio programme on Sunday April 13 at 5.00pm UK time (repeated 12.50am April 14).

The programme opens with Xenakis' Komboi and closes with another award winner, Angelin Chang, John McLaughlin Williams and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony's Grammy winning recording of Messiaen's Oiseaux Exotiques. The two works are separated by music from a composer who shared Messiaen's deep Catholic faith. Hildegard of Bingen is the earliest composer with a detailed biography and her music drama Ordo Virtutum is considered to be the prototype of the art form that became opera and eight centuries later came full circle in Messiaen's massively underrated Saint François d'Assise which only had its U.S. premiere in 2002. I will be playing the instrumental lament and Scene 3 from Hildegard's Ordo Virtutum performed by Sequentia directed by Barbara Thornton and Benjamin Bagby on Sunday.

Now here's a little quiz. Which famous musician said this after hearing tapes of Xenakis' Mists and Synaphaï?

'This is the first time I've heard any music by Xenakis; it's completely bowled me over, even though I'm not sure I've really understood it (or not understood it). Intuition? But can one always trust it? ... It seems to me that this, in fact, is what I'd call real 'new' music.'

To finish some quick visual arts trivia. Olivier Messiaen died on April 27, 1992 and the figurative painter Francis Bacon, whose masterpiece is the disturbing Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, died the following day. Staying with the visual arts remember Iannis Xenakis also composed in glass.
Photo credit Iannis-Xenakis.com 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

We're riding on the Marrakesh Express

Marrakech in Morocco is one of the few cities that I haven't seen in this blog's reader stats. But if there are any readers there, or if anyone knows the music scene I'd love to hear from them via overgrownpath at hotmail.co.uk as we will be there next week.

While on the subject of Crosby, Stills & Nash can anyone explain why the lyrics of that classic track talk of

Travellin the train through clear Moroccan skies -
Ducks, and pigs, and chicken call, animal carpet wall to wall

when there are hardly any ducks in Morocco, and as it is a strictly Muslim country there are about as many pigs as polar bears? Presumably it was all to do with

blowing smoke rings from the corner of my mouth

C,S & N also appear in Notes of a College Revolutionary.
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Glenn Gould re-engineered

'Whatever I have written, whether published by me during my lifetime or as part of my literary papers still existing after my death, shall not be performed, printed or even recited for the duration of legal copyright within the borders of Austria, however this state identifies itself.'

This extraordinary clause in the will of the Austrian novelist Thomas Bernhard, who died in 1989, was the final event in an extraordinary life. He was born in Holland in 1931 and studied at the Akademie Mozarteum in Salzburg before becoming an author. I have been reading Bernhard's remarkable novel The Loser (Der Untergeher). It tells the story of a fictional relationship between Glenn Gould and two of his fellow students who abandon their own musical ambitions in the face of Gould's incomparable genius.

In The Loser Bernhard unashamedly re-engineers Gould's biography to suit his own ends, and there is no claim to historical authenticity. But as a meditation on success, failure, genius and fame the book is absolutely authentic, and it has the approval of Gould experts who have drawn parallels with Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus. Bernhard himself explained his re-engineering of fact in these words.

'What matters is whether we want to lie or to tell the truth and write the truth, even though it never can be the truth and never is the truth.'

The Loser is quite unmissable. But we haven't yet finished with the extraordinary. The novel is one hundred and seventy pages long and it is written as a single paragraph. Which even outdoes that 'king of the paragraph' Bernard Levin.

Follow this link for a fascinating article on Thomas Bernhard's house. Watch out for a review of another new Glenn Gould book, Katie Hafner's A Romance on Three Legs, here shortly. And more on copyright and the great pianist re-engineered here.
The Loser is published by Vintage Books, ISBN 1400077540. The beautiful cover design for the US edition is by Eva Brandstotter. 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

BBC Proms 2008 tries some time travel

1972 - Stockhausen's Carré for four orchestral groups is performed twice in a late-night Promenade concert, rehearsal shown in photo above. Other Proms include the first UK performance of Elliott Carter's Concerto for Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez and George Crumb's Echoes of Time and River.


2008 - Proms season includes Stockhausen's Klang (13th and 15th hour), Kontakte, Stimmung and two performances of Gruppen in one concert. There is also Xenakis coupled with Vaughan Williams, and four works by Elliott Carter including two UK premieres, plus lots of Messiaen and Vaughan Williams and a programme of twentieth-century music mixed with renaissance polyphony. (Wish I had thought of that).

Are things getting better under new Proms director Roger Wright? Well, there is also music from Doctor Who as shown in the ridiculous BBC photo opportunity above, dancing round a maypole in Kensington Gardens, and musicians "popping up" on street corners, as the Times reports. But overall it's goodbye Nicholas Kenyon and hello the most interesting Proms season for years.

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Proud to be a music anorak

Nice to see classical vinyl generating excitement in today's Guardian, but not sure about the headline - 'A music anorak's treasure trove' which suggests classical music is some kind of nasty habit. Also it appears from the piece that the Guardian (and BBC's) Tom Service doesn't have a record deck. I'll let you into a secret. I don't have an iPod, but I do have a Thorens TD125, which I guess also makes me a turntable anorak.

Elsewhere in the Guardian a late tribute to Herbert von Karajan adds little original but is good for a laugh with my old EMI colleague Peter Alward describing Karajan as 'very shy, a simple man with simple tastes'. Which is the best description of a very large yacht and Falcon 10 executive jet I've ever come across.
Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Straussian modernism and Viennese Schmaltz

'It is worth noting that the novel's last scene, with it's off-stage procession, tumultuous church-bells and climactic murder, itself resolves a very inward drama in the convention of grand opera. A fact not lost on the twenty-three-year-old Eri