On An Overgrown Path

Unsurprisingly, I listened to more Bach than anything else in 2008. Raphaël Imbert's Bach/Coltrane CD for the Zig-Zag Territoires label captivated me, and judging by the emails it generated, it captivated many readers as well. Linn Records' one-to-a-part eight voice recording of the 1742 final performing edition of Bach's Matthew Passion was a new release, and it was, for me, one of the best new recordings of the year. An article about it waits in the upload queue, delayed by the sheer volume of wonderful music I have heard in the year. Also missing from my posts was the extraordinary Alpha Productions CD of parodies and transcriptions of music by Bach for organ and violin, played by Raphaël Oleg and Vincent Dubois. An endlessly fascinating disc that is also a wonderful example of the art of the balance engineer. A very welcome female interloper in a predominantly male profession, engineer Aline Blondiau achieves the impossible and produces a demonstration quality bal...

I'm not keen on the music industry's current obsession with anniversaries . But one anniversary needs to be marked before the year ends, because it gives me an excuse to display the stunning sleeve art above, which is by Henrik Drescher . The classic Kronos Quartet recording of Terry Riley's Salome Dances For Peace was made twenty years ago, in August 1988. Terry Riley's In C here, Requiem for Adam here, piano music here , The Cusp of Magic here , and Kronos' Bollywood tribute 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The 1977 Transcriptions for Guitar by Toru Takemitsu include four Lennon & McCartney songs, Here, There and Everywhere, Michelle, Hey Jude and Yesterday . John William's 1992 CD of Takemitsu's guitar music includes one of the transcriptions. Takemitsu features in Zen and the art of Aldeburgh . More art of typography here . The header image is the box from one of my childhood games. Beetle Drive dates from the mid-1950s. We played it a few days ago and it is far more fun than Wii. But a quick internet search suggests that the Beetle Drive party game is exclusively British, so it probably won't mean anything to a lot of readers. Sony Takemitsu CD was purchased in 1992 for £12.75, which shows how the real price of CDs has dropped. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

· Salzburg will go the Bayreuth way, stale, inward-looking and unable to survive administrative red tape. · Several opera houses will go down next year or will reduce dramatically their activities, European as well as American. · European institutions will fare better than the US because of the funding system - am I glad I now live in Geneva . · More classical music will be heard in Asia than elsewhere. · The Berlin Philharmonic will not even be on the best 10 orchestras in the next stupid and unnecessary poll of the Gramophone - which I have stopped reading. · Boston will become the US's best orchestra. · I could add that CDs are really dead , but I just bought two EMI Testament Karajan CDs of concerts from London's Royal Festival Hall . These include a 1984 concert which I attended which remains a lifetime souvenir. Highly recommended if you do not own these. · The age of jet-hopping artists going from one continent to the other like crazy is gone, save for Gergiev ....

For me the existence of Pablo Casals is a source of joy. He is one of those artists who come to the rescue of humanity's honour ~ Thomas Mann Pablo Casals was born on December 29, 1876 in El Vendrell, Spain. The film above of him playing J.S. Bach's Suite No. 1 for Cello Solo was made at the Abbaye Saint-Michel-de Cuxa , France, in 1954. My recent homage to Casals was inspired by hearing his sacred choral music live in France last summer. There is a video of his O vos omnes here . Read In Search of Pablo Casals here . More Casals resources 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 errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The ballet's composer included Stockhausen among his pupils . Remembering Richard Hickox , Vernon Handley , Esbjörn Svensson and the other musicians who left us in 2008. More Lux Christi here . Photo of Le Barroux, France taken December 2008. All original photos on the path are taken with a Casio EX-Z120 digital pocket camera. Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Arvo Pärt set the biblical text 'I am the true vine'. Remembering Richard Hickox , Vernon Handley , Esbjörn Svensson and the other musicians who left us in 2008. More Lux Christi here . Photo taken at Le Barroux, France , December 2008. All original photos on the path are taken with a Casio EX-Z120 digital pocket camera. Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The iTunes 'Get album artwork' function does not always locate the required graphics. The missing artwork during a recent update of my iPod included Jordi Savall's Francisco Xavier and Jerusalem , Valentin Silvestrov's Stille Lieder and the Niles/Merton Songs . Which started me thinking. If someone could write a routine to identify all the missing iTunes artwork, that would be a list of music very well worth exploring. It just confirms, a picture is worth a thousand words. Yes, I know the artwork can be manually imported into iTunes. That's how it appeared on to the screendump above. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Slightly more respect for the master of Bayreuth here . The King Charles Cavalier dozing in front of my CD collection is Alice (after Alice Elgar ), and belongs to legendary recording EMI recording producer Christopher Bishop . Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience ~ Thomas Merton Happy Christmas, and a peaceful New Year to all my readers. With thanks for all your support in 2008. Remembering Richard Hickox , Vernon Handley , Esbjörn Svensson and the other musicians who left us in 2008. More Lux Christi here . Photo taken at Le Barroux, France , December 2008. All original photos on the path are taken with a Casio EX-Z120 digital pocket camera. Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The icon of the Virgin Mary in the Church of Reconciliation, Taizé. This icon was blessed by Metropolitan Nicodim of Leningrad , during his visit to Taizé in 1962. Read about, and hear, the music of Taizé here , and see a photo-essay here . Find Western takes on Russian music here. More Lux Christi here. Image credit Taizé Community. 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

'The Composer must not shut himself up and think about art, he must live with his fellows and make his art an expression of the whole community - if we seek art we shall not find it' ~ Ralph Vaughan Williams, Royal College Music Magazine 1912 'It is better to be vitally parochial than to be an emasculate cosmopolitan. The great names in music were at first local and the greatest of all, Johann Sebastian Bach , remained a local musician all his life' ~ Ralph Vaughan Williams, Abinger Chronicle, 1939. As his anniversary year draws to a close my photos show Ralph Vaughan Williams in his local community of Dorking , Surrey. The lower photo shows him outside St. Martin's Church, Dorking with Isadore Schwiller and Gerald Finzi . Schwiller led the Leith Hill Orchestra for many years, and his eponymous quartet gave the first performance of RVW's String Quartet No. 1 in 1908, and played in the 1949 private performance in Dorking of the Fantasia on the 'Old 104th...

View from my room at the Benedictine L'Abbaye Sainte-Madeleine in Provence during my recent visit . In the foreground is the monastic cloister which is only open to men on retreat. Behind it is the west wall of the great Abbey Church. Above that can be seen the 1,912 metre (6,273 feet) high summit of Mont Ventoux. The Italian poet Petrarch climbed Mont Ventoux in 1336 and wrote about his ascent in one of his Epistolae familiares . Pierre Boulez has a holiday home in the area, presumably not as grand as Lorin Maazel's . Franz Liszt joined the Franciscan Order in 1857, and six years later settled in a monastery outside Rome. Boulez is not normally associated with either Franz Liszt or religion. But he has a connection with a monastery in nearby Villeneuve les Avignon. And his first season directing the New York Philharmonic focussed on the music of Liszt and Alban Berg . The Petrarch Sonnets were originally written by Liszt as settings for tenor voice. They are known today a...

Joe has left a new comment on your post 'Standing on tradition' :- When the New York Philharmonic played Messiah last week under the direction of Ton Koopman, there was a program note similar to the Boston Baroque one noted above, discussing the origins of the standing tradition and inviting audience members to do as they wished. On the night I attended, nearly everyone stood - some shot up right away, while others followed a half-minute or so later, some with bemused or sheepish looks on their faces that suggested that they weren't really sure what was going on and felt they should follow the crowd. Thanks for that Joe. I assume that Ton Koopman used Handel's original scoring and the trombone shall not sound . Another Ton Koopman Christmas path 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, miss...

The über moderators at the BBC have decreed that Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Purcell are 'composers of the year' for 2009, and official Radio 3 bloggers have been appointed to moderate what we read about them. While elsewhere trombonists are busy moderating which conductors we can hear. Moderation will be the big thing in classical music for 2009. As Tariq Ali said recently - 'The 'elite' control not by choosing the topics of discussion, but by controlling those topics not discussed.' The moderation madness will multiply in 2010 and 2011. Gustav Mahler was born in 1860 and died in 1911. Double anniversary cycles of his symphonies will tick all the boxes for the modish mass of music moderators. Besides, what an opportunity for Gilbert Kaplan to expand his repertoire . The BBC moderators have decided that classical music died together with Mendelssohn in 1847. So Bohuslav Martinů has been written out of history, despite 2009 being the fiftieth anniversary ...

I've removed the New kids on the blog listing from the right side-bar. The listing was adding a download overhead to the path . But, more seriously, I was concerned and disappointed at the number of these blogs that were offering no more than CDs for file sharing in breach of copyright law in both the US and UK. I simply do not have time to check each blog for copyright breaching content, and I'm not prepared to promote theft from musicians . Some of the new blogs were worth finding. But, in general, the answer to my question - 'Where are the new blogs? Where are the musical options? Where is the risk-taking?' is 'I'm still looking.' But then, the BBC does give permission for file sharing . Photo taken at Marseilles Provence 2 airport and (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Valentin Berlinsky (above), cellist of the renowned Borodin Quartet, has died aged 83. He played at Stalin's funeral in 1953. Obituary here , paths here and here , candles here . Photo credit Borodin Quartet. 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

Winter view of the Catholic Abbaye Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation , Le Barroux, France, which featured in a New York Times article a while back. Over the Christmas holiday I will be featuring photos taken on my recent visit to France and inspired by the late Richard Hickox's recording of Elgar's oratorio The Light of Life . Paths converge here. Richard Hickox's father was an Anglican vicar, while Sir Edward Elgar was a practicing Catholic. The Light of Life was originally called Lux Christi , but the title The Light of Life was deemed more suitable for a work commissioned for the Anglican cathedral in Worcester. Today the oratorio is known for the opening Meditation which is sometimes performed as a concert piece. The Light of Life predates Elgar's three choral masterpieces The Dream of Gerontius , The Apostles and The Kingdom , and themes from it appear in the latter two works, most notably the deeply moving Light of Life motif in The Kingdom . Today, The Apo...

Here we go again . New York Philharmonic trombonist David Finlayson plays Mahler under Gilbert Kaplan, a Wall Street billionaire and orchestra donor. Mr Finlayson does not like Mr Kaplan's technique , so savages him in his blog . The knees jerk in agreement. We are not told whether Mr Finlayson returned his fee. 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

' Els Segadors is not just an anthem, it is above all a song that talks about and condemns injustice. I sing these little-known verses because they speak directly of people's suffering, and the helplessness of the victims of all conflicts. It is therefore a lament, a song of grief that cries out and demands that such suffering is never repeated.' These are the words of Ferran Savall writing in the sleeve notes for his first solo album. Mireu el nostre mar is part of the new wave of music making that transcends all established categories and ditches marketing hype in favour of letting the music speak for itself. Ferran's roots are in early music as a théorbe player with his father Jordi Savall's ensembles. But he is equally as home jamming in the jazz and folk clubs of Barcelona and other European cities, and the accompanying photos from the CD sleeve show him well and truly unplugged from early music. Mireu el nostre mar has its roots in folk music, and Ferr...

In 1963 an English teacher, who considered passion more important than protocol, smuggled me and a few of his other 14 year old students into a cinema to see a '16' rated film. The newly-released Lord of the Flies was directed by Peter Brook and filmed on a very low budget. It brilliantly transferred William Golding's novel, which we were studying for 'O' Level English, to the screen, and went on to become a classic of the cinema. The DVD of Lord of the Flies , which restores Tom Hollyman's stunning black and white photography to its original glory (images above and below) , is essential viewing. A bonus on the DVD is the optional commentary by Peter Brook and his production team, which was recorded in 2000. But in the 90 minute commentary there is not one single mention of the music score which, with its repetition of the Kyrie Eleison motif, is an integral part of the film. The music for Lord of the Flies was written by Raymond Leppard. It is his best kn...

Congratulations to my friend Jessica Duchen who has been appointed BBC Radio 3's official Mendelssohn blogger for his bicentenary year in 2009. Readers will be disappointed to hear I did not apply for the post. Anyway, Jessica will do a much better job of 'moderating comments and discussions' about Radio 3's output. I hardly listen to Radio 3 these days. But this morning I heard a presenter, who would not have got past the first interview for a call centre job, imploring listeners to send in emails dissing Brahms' music, presumably so the 'listener participation' box could be ticked. The arrival of BBC 'official bloggers' is relevant to the discussion about double-dipping . Having got critics including Norman Lebrecht , James Jolly and Tom Service on-side the lower orders in the classical music food chain are now being targeted by the BBC. I can just see what is going to happen. An official Radio 3 blogger decides, as I did today, that a programm...

My post about Handel's Messiah attracted record numbers of readers from around the world. It just goes to show you can't keep a good old'un down . Which reminds me that Jimi Hendrix lived in an apartment next door to Handel's famous London residence at 25, Brook Street. That conjunction has even inspired a contemporary music project . And not only is 2009 the 250th anniversary of Handel's death. It is also the 40th anniversary of Hendrix's feedback-tormented Star Spangled Banner at the legendary Woodstock concert . And talking of Hallelujahs , cover versions of Leonard Cohen's 1984 song Hallelujah by Alexandra Burke and Jeff Buckley are currently taking the UK rock charts by storm. Which just goes to show you can't keep a good old'un down . Now playing - Handel's Trio Sonatas op. 5 played, appropriately, by the all-girl Brook Street Band , who also featured in a post which asked when does a recording become a forgery ? Moving from old to...

Geoff Hurst scores his third goal to seal victory for England over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final . Football has a history of adopting classical music themes. So the just-republished and much-praised Directory of Classical Themes should be a best-seller on the terraces. I listened to the 1966 World Cup final on a transistor radio on a train returning from a school trip to Austria. That trip introduced me to the art and music of Vienna. How sad that educational travel has become a victim of our Health and Safety culture . My school was Glyn County Grammar in Epsom. One of the school's more celebrated pupils was David Hemmings who, in those heady pre-Health and Safety days, shared some champagne moments with Benjamin Britten . 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 - ov...

'Later that year Zuckermann abandoned his harpsichord business and America in disgust at the country's involvement in the Vietnam War.' It's a good story about how a search to find Olivier Messiaen's birthplace in Avignon leads to a conversation with the man who used to provide harpsichords for John Cage, but that sentence belongs in an old Woody Allen story. Writes Boring Like A Drill . So what's wrong with old Woody Allen stories? Header image is from Woody Allen's 1972 film Play It Again, Sam . 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

'Why do you care about the US? It's the old UK behaviour. Pretending to be the Bridge . Ahum. The better way is to overlook those US guys & concentrate on all things European' - chides a regular reader who is also a friend, Fred Frith fan, and sometime Belgian Kyle Gann . Also in the inbox was the email below, which I had to feature. Not because it says nice things about the path, although that never goes amiss. But because it introduces a blog described as 'A quiet place for music and arts'. I may not always succeed; but the path does try to be multi-faceted, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and, with the help of my readers, molto bene . Dear Pliable, I'm a regular reader of the Overgrown Path , that I consider as a model for all of us. I've read your post about the shortage of new music blogs,but I was not sure that you were interested also in other languages. Now that I've seen a French blog, and I decided to write. My name is Sergio Bestente. I...

Much coverage elsewhere of Donald Rosenberg's lawsuit against the The Plain Dealer newspaper in Ohio. Rosenberg is a music critic on the paper, and he was reassigned to other duties after posting critical reviews of performances by the Cleveland Orchestra under its music director Franz Welser-Möst. This has prompted the critic to sue his paper for $50,000. Now, I too have written critically about Franz Welser-Möst and his orchestra. I also staunchly defend free speech , and I wish Donald Rosenberg every success in his battle against big media. But I do think the Plain Dealer case is about much more than one journalist's right to pen a critical review. I have only read the media reports of the Rosenberg case. So the following comments apply generally, rather than in any specific way to the Cleveland action. Anyone with experience of the music industry will know the relationship between critics and commerce is not an entirely platonic one. I have written here about how, when ...

Do audiences outside Britain stand for the "Hallelujah” chorus in Handel's Messiah ? I assume not, as the tradition is said to originate from our King George II once standing for this number, possibly to alleviate his gout. The Britten Sinfonia and Polyphony are very models of modern performing ensembles . At last night's Norwich Messiah there was not a tuxedo in sight . But still conductor Stephen Layton gestured expansively for the audience to stand for the words 'Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth' . Isn't classical music strange? Stephen Layton's used his own edition of the Messiah for the performance. So he missed an opportunity to end the royalist tradition with a pithy annotation in the score. It was a cracking performance from the Britten Sinfonia, Polyphony and four outstanding young soloists. Hearing the Messiah played by a top-of-their-game chamber orchestra on modern instruments in the acoustics of a concert hall underlined j...