...but I wanted to solve a problem. To put it very simply, it was the problem of suffering, and it still is. This seems to me the most important problem, in fact the only problem which one should be engaged with: in art as in life, what is suffering and what is the key to alleviating it? It leads back to Buddhism. Buddha is famous of course for proposing just such a solution and it seems his whole life was engaged in the Bodhisattva mission of alleviating suffering, bringing enlightenment and releasing all beings, all living beings from samsara, the world of suffering. Be that as it may, I certainly felt that this more objective music was in the direction of moving away from this fascinating world of samsara, of suffering, in which we are interminably caught and upon which art endlessly meditates. That was Jonathan Harvey speaking to Arnold Whittall in 1999. Jonathan’s path towards the Buddhist pure land , which he expressed so eloquently in his Fourth Quartet , has progressed further...
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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