On An Overgrown Path

Audience engagement depends on the electricity generated by the music taking the shortest possible route from performers to listener . Just as E. M. Forster explained how "Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted", so, only connect the music and the passion, and both will be exalted. As in the new CD from the Orchestra of St Paul's conducted by its artistic director Ben Palmer seen above. The headline work on the disc is the relatively familiar String Quartet of Edward Elgar in an unfamiliar but engaging arrangement for strings by David Matthews. Coupled with it is the masterly but predictably neglected Second String Quartet of Malcolm Arnold arranged as a Sonata for Strings by David Matthews , and Robert Simpson 's own arrangement of the searing Allegro Deciso from his Third String Quartet. This is fiendishly difficult music for a quartet, yet alone a sixteen-strong string ensemble. But the Orchestra of St Paul's advocate it with ...

That photo was taken in Sidi Ifni during my recent travels in southern Morocco. Prominent on my playlist during those travels were recordings by Ensemble Al Kindi and its founder Julien Weiss . After a period on the fringes of the counterculture, French born Julien Weiss converted to Islam in 1983 and took the name Jâlal. In 1995 he made his home in a 14th century Mamelouk residence in Aleppo, which is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and was, until the recent terrible civil war , an important cultural center. Latterly Julien Weiss was based in France, appearing with Ensemble Al Kindi at many prestigious festivals and making acclaimed recordings for Le Chant du Monde. Despite this the Syrian musicians of Ensemble Al Kindi - but not their French founder - were refused entry visas for the UK to perform at a festival in 2013. A priceless 2005 interview with Jâlal Weiss quotes him as saying his conversion to Islam was "partly social - I wanted to be more than a...

Do not be satisfied with hearsay or with tradition or with legendary lore or with what has come down in scriptures or with conjecture or with logical inference or with weighing evidence or with liking for a view after pondering over it or with some else’s ability or with the thought 'The monk is our teacher'. When you know in yourselves: 'These things are wholesome, blameless, commended by the wise, and being adopted and put into effect they lead to welfare and happiness', then you should practice and abide in them. With those words of the Buddha from the Kalama Sutta and a photo from my travels on the the Manali to Leh highway in Jammu and Kashmir I leave you to spin again on the wheel of life . Take care but also take risks. Translation of Kalama Sutta is taken from Stephen Batchelor's Buddhism Without Beliefs . 'Think on these things' is both a Biblical quote and the title of a book by Krishnamurti . Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2015. Any oth...