On An Overgrown Path

France's government and state railways have been ordered to pay compensation for deporting Jews during World War II. The case was brought by people whose relatives were taken by train to a transit camp at Drancy near Paris during the Nazi occupation of France. More than 75,000 French Jews were transported from the camp to death camps in Germany. The court found that the French state and the rail company, SNCF, had been complicit in crimes against humanity. The government and SNCF have been ordered to pay compensation of 60,000 euros ($80,000, £43,000) to the family. Records show that the SNCF billed the French state for the journeys and carried on demanding money for the transfers even after France had been liberated - from BBC News * The photograph above is of the new Holocaust Memorial in Berlin by American Architect Peter Eisenmann . It was inspired by Prague's Jewish Cemetery with its closely packed gravestones, and comprises 2700 grey slabs. The photo was taken by me from...

1. When prime minister Tony Blair was received at the Vatican last Friday (right) his gift to Pope Benedict XVI was a boxed set of the Mozart Piano Concertos played by Daniel Barenboim who also directs the Berlin Philharmonic from the keyboard - I'm trying to think of the significance of this. 2. Rock star, and environmental guru to the rich and famous, Sting has recorded a CD of Downland lute songs, which will be released in October by Deutsche Grammophon , purveyor of classical music to the rich and famous - I'm trying not to think of the significance of this. Image credit - Reuters: Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Size does matter

Ksenia Sobchak (above) is a career celebrity, she is the darling of Russian tabloids, the most eligible bachelorette in Moscow, a city of petrodollar glamour, flush with 36 billionaires. The host of Dom 2 , Russia's hit reality TV programme, she plays cupid to the show's contestants, bolstering her sex-kitten image as the media darling of the country's implausibly rich elite. But now Sobchak is trying to use her image to political advantage: she has formed a youth movement aimed at encouraging young people to assert their rights. She announced the creation of "All Free" last Thursday, an attempt to turn her feisty image into people power. Why is she starting a youth movement, the sort of group used in Ukraine and Georgia to unseat the authoritarian governments allied to the Putin administration? Lilya Shevtsova, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment thinktank, suggests the idea may not have been her own. "Anything connected to the Sobchak family should be ...

From early in life, Britten had close relationships with handsome teenagers. On his side, there was often a sexual attraction. The boys themselves were sometimes unaware, sometimes complicit. Ronan Magill, the last such figure in Britten's life, wasn't conscious of the charge in their relationship at the time, but says now: 'If he did [feel attraction], then I'm glad that he did - if I could make him think that way for even five seconds. ' When it comes to the question of how far attraction was physically expressed, Bridcut sometimes leans on the evidence. In 1936, Britten invited Harry Morris, 13, on a family holiday in Cornwall (Britten's brother and sister and their families were also present). According to Morris, Britten came into his room one night and made what he understood to be a sexual approach. The boy screamed and hit his host with a chair, attracting the attention of Britten's sister, Beth. Harry returned to London in the morning. With Pea...

'Democracy is not possible without the written word. You cannot carry on an intellectual debate in the market-place of ideas via 30-second soundbites. For that you need books.' Al Gore speaking at this week's Hay Festival , an event described by Bill Clinton as 'the Woodstock of the mind' (what is it about American politicians?) * Follow this link for a report on Al Gore's Hay speech. Now playing - Keith Jarrett's Book of Ways, The Feeling of Strings : 2CDs of improvisations on the clavichord which simply confirm that great music, like great books, should make you question every thing you have previously accepted. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path ...

There is contemporary music, there is challenging music, and there is bad music. I hate to be negative about new music, but in my humble view the Brian Eno choral works in last night's Radio 3 broadcast from the Bath Festival fell into the latter category. I have considerable admiration for the innovative approach of the Festival's new director Joanna MacGregor (left). But her decision to segue Eno's new work August 1914 into Tallis' Spem in alium at the end of the concert made as much sense as mixing Glenfiddich single malt whisky with Pepsi-Cola. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included in "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to The latest avant-garde tricks ...

Walter Legge was born on 1st June 1906, and worked for EMI from 1927 to 1964. He was a legendary record producer, talent spotter, and entrepreneur. The great artists he worked with included Wilhelm Furtwängler , Arturo Toscanini , Herbert von Karajan , Maria Callas , Thomas Beecham , Otto Klemperer , and Dinu Lipatti . Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was both one of his artistes and his wife. The photograph above shows me discussing Legge's legacy with Schwarzkopf a month after his death in 1979, the occasion was an exhibition I created in his honour at the Royal Festival Hall in conjunction with the Philharmonia Orchestra . Legge founded the orchestra as a vehicle for his recordings, and later capriciously abandoned it. Today there are many record company executives that can rival him for ruthlessness, but none that come within a million miles of his artistic vision. Image credit and copyright - On An Overgrown Path . Any copyrighted material on these pages is includedin "fair use...