That photo was taken by me today on the seafront at Lowestoft . Here is the opening section of Young Britten in Alex Ross' acclaimed book The Rest Is Nois e. Homosexual men, who make up approximately 3 to 5 per cent of the general population, have played a disproportionately large role in composition of the last hundred years. Somewhat around half of the major American composers of the twentieth century seem to have been homosexual or bisexual: Copland, Bernstein, Barber, Blitzstein, Cage, Harry Partsch, Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, Gian Carlo Menotti, David Diamond, and Ned Rorem. In Britain, too, the art of composition skewed gay. The two young composers who seized the spotlight in the early postwar era were Britten and Michael Tippett, neither of whom made an effort to hide their homosexuality. Alex's book provides a salutary reminder of what we have lost in the era of lowest common denominator music writing . As does his long-running The Rest Is Noise website ;...
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I am not sure where you stay when you are in Paris, but have you ever tried Les Pipos (2 Rue de l'Ecole Polytechnic)? A slight caveat in that we have not been for about 3 years, but it had not changed in the 10 or 12 years we had been visiting on a fairly regular basis.
Affordable hotel and restaurant recommendations make a change from suggested CDs. Does anyone have any ideas for Lille where I will be in a couple of weeks?
http://www.opera-lille.fr/en/saison-09-10/bdd/cat/music/sid/99185_mohamed-rouicha