After common sense has been removed


An artist is a person who lives in the triangle which remains after the angle which we may call common sense has been removed from this four-cornered world.
Natsume Sōseki explains, or perhaps doesn't explain, the title of his novel The Three Cornered World. Header image is a detail of Edo to Mejii, silkscreen on ceramic tile, by Tadanori Yokoo. I will be back soon.

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Brain Food 2

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Listening................ Bloch Quartets 1 to 4 played by Griller Quartet In an earlier post I aked why Domenico Gabrielli's cello works aren't better known. Now this re-issue of the Griller Quartet playing Bloch's four string quartets prompts me to ask the same question - why aren't these quartets programmed today? Ernest Bloch is one of those unfortunate composers branded by a single work, in his case Schelomo (which I have to confess I wouldn't shed a tear if I didn't ever hear again).. His string quartets, which inhabit a sound world somewhere between Shostakovich and Schoenberg, are very different, and something of a challenge, with the first lasting for almost an hour. But they are most certainly great works which reward exploration. The sound from these mono 1954 Decca studio recordings is staggeringly good. The producer is my old boss from my EMI days, Peter Andry, recorded when he was at Decca. I was talking to a violin playing friend about why early ...
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