A Lark Ascending

He sold out his latest book and the copies of the Atzmon/Barnes CD he had in the interval. He seems to have a very loyal following. And I won the raffle (a Pete Hurt CD)! Bet they don't have raffles in New York clubs.

No snow in Notts yet but the rest of the country is getting a visit: A lorry makes its way through a snow-covered landscape near Brough - Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA A robin perches on a fence as snow falls below the Pen y Fan mountain in Brecon, south Wales Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2017/jan/12/snowy-weather-hits-the-uk-in-pictures

Gilad Atzmon Plays Coltrane (Bonington Theatre Nottingham) GILAD ATZMON (SAXES); FRANK HARRISON (PIANO); YARON STAVI (BASS); ASAF SIRKIS (DRUMS) Very enjoyable gig of famous Coltrane tunes. Mainly ballads but the band occasionally sped things up - took the roof off with 'Impressions'. Four superb musicians - particularly taken by Harrison. Atzmon was anxious that we knew that this particular theme was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Coltrane, not the 50th of the Six Day War or the centenary of The Balfour Declaration. Theatre packed to the gills.

Dis 3: 153/58/65/123 - Sunday after New Year and Epiphany (a week late). Disc 3 of the first - not as engaging as the first two. One of those 'funny voices' pieces to start. No 3....and then 4.

What a fabulous shot. Berlin, Germany - Snow falls in front of the Reichstag building Photograph: Felipe Trueba/EPA https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2017/jan/11/best-photos-of-the-day-czech-swans-and-a-thai-drill#img-20

The first classical piece that clicked with me. I was initially captured by the tune in the last movement heard on the radio. A friend had a copy that I borrowed and played to death - then it was the brooding first movement that grabbed me. Up to that point my attempts at classical music - Mozart, Beethoven - had failed as it all seemed so dainty and appeared to come in kit form (obviously a complete misapprehension); there seemed to be something so organic in that opening Sibelius movement (equally misguided as it has a classical structure beneath the surface). Last Night Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor - Nicholas Collon & Presenter - Stephen Johnson Not one of the Shosty pieces that you see round these parts regularly. Actually the piece that first connected me to him in the early CD era after six or seven years of completely failing to engage with the 5th and 10th on LP (the 8th opened me to them). Unusual format for a concert. You frequently get pre-talks in concerts here. But on this occasion the talk was built into the concert itself. Stephen Johnson spent 45 minutes explaining and examining the symphony with the orchestra illustrating his points. This is something he has done for years on Radio 3 but I've never come across it in a concert situation. Absolutely fascinating - especially good at tracing how the phrases of the first few seconds are used and transformed to build the whole edifice. All done in plain English without getting over-technical or degenerating into 'connoisseur' mysticism. Which made the full performance after the break even more engaging with plenty of sign posts to listen out for. Not how I'd like most concerts to be but something I'd certainly attend every now and then.

Disc 2: Pleiades, Komboi. Especially enjoyed the first - I don't have any notes to go on but I assume this was heavily influenced by gamelan. Stockhausen: Gesang der Jünglinge & Kontakte - from Spotify. I think it's the original from the 1950s but is on one of those dubious labels that put out things like 'Xmas with Stockhausen' from older recordings. Clearly sounded mind-boggling at the time but I can't say either of the pieces really grabbed me. 'Electronic' music has come a long way since. In a similar vein: No 1...and the 2. I've never been a huge fan of the Bax symphonies but really enjoying these this morning.

Ah. Dadaesque landscape! My Romanticism completely trumped. I saw that picture back in the autumn and can't remember for the life of me the context.

Finished this superb four parter. Each episode focused on four or five lesser known figures to try to tell a story of the black experience in Britain (though Leslie 'Hutch' Hutchinson was one in the last episode known to followers of early British jazz and light music). About a year ago David Cameron was using the abolition of the slave trade as an example of British exceptionalism to wave about, desperately trying to out-chauvinise UKIP - episode three here really brought home the role of the British cotton industry in sustaining slavery in the States after abolition. The series did use some of the annoying 'popularising' habits that can really jar - David Olusoga (the presenter) weeping over the place he'd been driven out of by racist intimidation in his teens (he had every reason to weep but we've seen too many celebrities weeping over their great, great half-uncle twice removed to remain uncynical about such scenes), a little bit too much of the plaque celebrations (nice idea but gets repetitive) and those godawful recaps (now you may have forgotten what we told you five minutes ago...). But this was powerful TV. Hopefully we'll see more of Olusoga (and rather less of Lucy Worsley telling us about Tudor handbags). A timely series. A couple of other series have returned - 'The Unforgotten' (interesting but the first episode hasn't yet got things airborne) and 'Endeavour' (the latter as creaky and mushy as ever but makes for undemanding Sunday night watching). Finally into the last series of 'The Good Wife' which I wasn't too excited by to start with but it's starting to grip; and Series 3 of 'Cheers' which is priceless.

The daily tree: The stump could be a heavy metal axe hero. Morning sun shines through the fog behind a dead tree in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany.Photograph: Frank Rumpenhorst/AFP/Getty Images And further murmurations: A black kite flies under a murmuration of migrating starlings near the city of Beer Sheva, southern Israel. Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2017/jan/06/the-week-in-wildlife-in-pictures

Disc 1 of the Xenakis - Persephassa, Psappha, Dmaathen. I was a bit ginger about a set of percussion music but this was remarkably entertaining. Some absolutely beautiful textures at work. I suspect the percussion piece on Pink Floyd's 'Umma Gumma' and the various King Crimson percussion passages had Xenaxis as an inspiration. Pli Selon Pli off second which still largely escapes me.

Beautiful photo essay documenting a year in the life of an oak tree (November and Feb/March above): https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jan/09/the-old-oak-a-year-in-the-life-of-a-tree-in-pictures

Some nice Kurtag on the first disc too. Disc 1 of the Handel.

The North Sea at the first weekend in January. A bit of a post-truth photo....loads of people on the beach in reality (and Whitby town was full of people). A chance photo out of the train window...or maybe one of Whitby's more famous inhabitants was making his presence felt.