La forza del destino

'Abbado's land cascades down a steep slope into the Mediterranean, and you have to negotiate a series of crazily angled wooden walkways, designed by him, to get to his beach and the pier for his yacht' - Tom Service in today's Guardian.

'He was actively interested in politics, particularly in Italy. He organized a concert at La Scala to oppose the Italian Fascist Party prior to an election. Eventually he became aligned—in the minds of journalists in particular—with the Italian Communist Party, even though he was never a party member'- biography of Claudio Abbado (seen above) on eNotes.com
Stockhausen, chaotic music and communism here.
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That which colors the mind

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This recording by Owsley Stanley of sarod master Ali Akbar Khan featured in a recent post here . My further reading came across the following unpublished epitaph to Owsley Stanley - popularly known as 'Bear' - by his daughter Rhoney Gissin Stanley . It provides a refreshing contrast to today's social media influenzas : Bear was a man who walked his talk, who challenged the cult of personality and wanted the attention of others to focus on his work with sound, his art, and his philosophy, not on him.
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The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

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Wilhelm Furtwängler was born on 25th January 1886. He was Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1923 to his death in 1954, and held this position for the twelve years that Hitler was in power. In January 1945 he was conducting in Vienna, and fled from there to Switzerland where he remained until the Battle of Berlin ended in the defeat of the Nazis. The musicians of his orchestra remained in Berlin during its darkest hour. Here is their story: On 28th March 1945 the Russian forces commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov were just twenty miles to the east of Berlin. A month previously Albert Speer had been replaced as Nazi armaments minister after trying to persuade Hitler that defeat was inevitable. Speer now turned his energies to preventing the musicians of his adored Berlin Philharmonic from perishing in the inevitable final battle. Reich Commisioner Dr Joseph Goebells, who was in charge of the defence of Berlin, had ordered the entire orchestra to be drafted into the Vol
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