A Lark Ascending

Brussels, Belgium - Halle’s woodlands, near Brussels, are known for hyacinths which are in bloom from mid-April to early May Photograph: Stephanie Lecocq/EPA Why don't my photos of the woods look like that? I'd either have the bottom half in shadow with no colour or the top half bleached. Beautiful shot. Whitley Bay, UK - A lobster catcher checks his pots as the sun rises over his small fishing boat in the North Sea Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA That one is very lovely but rather disturbing.

English pastoral serialism (do I hear a grave turning!). Not so much cows, gates and hills but the dark flickering points in the woods. A very beautiful disc of chamber and vocal music. Interesting blog post on Lutyens here: http://www.overgrownpath.com/2007/01/walking-with-stravinsky.html

These things don't tend to be on the main channels (despite the huge increase in choice from satellite, online etc, BBC1 and ITV1 still have a strong presence as the main TV channels). There have always been foreign language programmes and films on UK TV but generally tucked away late at night. BBC4 (a channel that carries 'arts', history etc programmes) started showing Scandinavian and Italian thriller series at prime time about five years back and it really caught on with part of the audience - Saturday night has virtually become subtitle night on that channel. 'Walter Presents' has recently emerged as a platform for such dramas. Watching subtitled drama gets mocked a bit as a middle class affectation (a bit like listening to jazz, classical or folk!). But I wonder if the success of things like 'The Killing', 'The Bridge' and 'Borgen' have made the BBC and ITV up their game in the drama department. There seems to have been a remarkable improvement in quality in the last few years and the BBC in particular are making a big thing about their commitment to drama (though that is also tied in with their fight with the Tory government who want to kneecap the BBC on behalf of their paymasters in the right wing media).

Yes. All subtitled. I don't think there's ever been much of a tradition of dubbing here.

It got very good reviews over here (and I loved it). Also fed into a wider debate about how public school* types are coming to dominate film, theatre, popular music and sport, given that three of the main players went to the same posh school. Provoked a wonderful comment from the comedian Alexi Sayle - "even the fourth generic Middle Eastern terrorist sounded like he'd been to Balliol." * Public school in Britain means a school that is anything but public - fee-paying.

Have four on the go at present... The Jens Malte Fischer bio of Mahler mentioned previously which is excellent. Just got him to Leipzig. My, he was a right prig as a young man. This is suberb. Much of my formal study of history and then early teaching was in the 17th and 18thC so the Reformation was integral as background and its ideas central to those times. This quite dense but very readable survey put lots of disconnected bits together for me. Especially good on the ideas that fuelled the change. Current novel - slowly working through this series. Should finish when I'm 80. The heroes back from their American adventures around the time of the 1812-14 war, about to set off for the Baltic. This has had quite a bit of press coverage as an argument that 1971 was the greatest year in rock. Daft marketing premise and hides the fact that this is more than just a fluffy bit of fandom. Covers the year month by month linking the music with the social context. 1970-73 were probably my formative years with music (and still the period of rock music I use as a comfort zone) so it has obvious personal appeal. He's very good on how unformed much of the business still was then and how central listening to records was to young people then with few other alternatives (he's spot on when he comments how most teenagers/early adults just assumed TV was not for them...I went through most of the 70s almost completely ignoring it). But he also reminds you of what was really prominent at the time rather than what subsequent revisionism has deemed significant. So early on he highlights the huge success of Carol King's 'Tapestry' (with suggestions as to why), a record that rarely figures highly in the standard histories of the time (most accounts would have you believe that everyone was listening to Iggy Pop). I remember it being hugely popular right through to my university years from 1970s. I hated the record (without having listened to it beyond the radio hits), probably for no other reason than its popularity. I very much like it now. An echo of a past I didn't actually experience. My, I was right prig as a young man.

Some hours later... Disc 1 of latter - 5, 4 and 3 part masses plus other bits and bobs.

4 + 5

Interesting to contrast this 'interpretation' with a two minute address I heard Mark Elder make to the audience in Manchester in February, prior to a performance of the 15th. Positive, optimistic, unpretentious, full of a passion to communicate why the music matters to him. Elder (who has also recorded the Leningrad) made me want to listen ten times harder. I find your post focusing on what is (according to your prejudices) wrong with Shostakovich utterly depressing. Fortunately Elder's enthusiasm rings much, much louder.

'Peaky Blinders' is back for series 3 in May. Brush up those Brummie accents.

Quintet off latter.

People are going to differ in their reactions to Shostakovich (I don't get much from 2, 3, 12 myself) and want to discuss the reasons why. I've no problem with anyone expressing their dislike of a piece of music, composer etc. 'What a horrible piece of music', however, is not a piece of reasoned argument. It's posturing. An exaggerated response designed to provoke and assert the accuser's perceived superiority of taste. I know we have fundamental differences over this issue - 'strong opinions' trump all amongst the loudest voices on this site. I, on the other hand, think you can express your lack of empathy with a piece of music without resorting to such grandstanding. Out of that comes genuine discussion rather than attention-seeking 'shock' pronouncements. The strength of this site is the sharing of enthusiasms. Look over the pages of this thread alone and you'll read mainly enthusiasm. I just found it sad to see that positivity spoiled by a bit of 'well look how unimpressed I am everyone' showing off.

1, 2 & 3 Disc 2 of latter - choice vocal bon bons from Tannhauser, Lohengrin and Tristan.

I have 'Follow the Money' recording - too much else to see at present. Stored up for thinner times. Still haven't got round to the Icelandic one from a few weeks back.

I'm not pitching Shostakovich against Bartok - I'm very fond of them both. Patrician? The Leningrad has its detractors (especially that march) but it's a much programmed and recorded piece. Are you suggesting that those of us who like the piece and fail to recognise it as 'a horrible piece of music' have got it all wrong? That you know better? There was a documentary on the BBC a few weeks back about the Leningrad. An oft-told story - I'm sure its relative popularity in the concert hall has a lot to do with the marvellous tale woven around it. But what was heart-wrenching about the programme were the interviews with people who had been in Leningrad at the time and attended the first performance. At the end they were shown listening to a performance. The contrast between their humility in the face of the music and your 'what a horrible piece of music' was stark. I don't get on with Verdi but I'd never denounce 'Aida' as 'a horrible piece of music'. Not (yet) to my taste but I'm sure that's down to the particular contexts of my listening rather than anything at fault in Verdi.

Corwen, Wales - A snake’s head fritillary is caught out by unseasonal snowfall Photograph: Richard Bowler/Rex/Shutterstock An element of a landscape rather than a landscape. But a pretty one. http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/apr/17/photo-highlights-of-the-day-music-in-california-and-a-baby-monkey

Sigh. Such patrician disdain.

Continuing to enjoy several currently running series - 'The A Word', 'Marcella', 'Line of Duty'. Started 'Scott & Bailey' last night which I really enjoyed - Suranne Jones makes the poacher turns gamekeeper mistake of many entering middle management. 'Blue Eyes' I nearly gave up on after two episodes but it grabbed me in episode 3 and I'm with it to episode 5 now (5 to go) - crime drama set in the murky world of right-wing extremism in Sweden. Also a couple of historical documentaries on Captain Cook and Anglo Saxon Art. There's also a light hearted series on BBC4 covering the pop music of Britain over the last 70 years or so using the memorabilia of enthusiasts...amazing what people collect. First one covered 1955-65 with Twiggy giving a down to earth wander through.

New release - inspired coupling. Main piece is a new Macmillan oboe concerto which, though very 21stC, has more than a little of the pastoral to it. The two couplings make marvellous contrasts - Vaughan Williams oboe concerto is English pastoralism to perfection; Britten's 'A Time There Was' is a late work taking five folk songs and turning them into dark, strange beasts. One of my favourite Britten pieces. More Arcadian English reveries...perfect for a sunny Sunday.

The most powerful thing of all...to my ears...in the Ring at least is the use of the leitmotifs. They get drip-fed in over the 16 hours; often one will vanish for several hours suddenly to emerge much later. The way he uses them to convey the psychological state of the characters (and much more) is extraordinary; and sometimes they are used ironically with a character like Mime (bad guy) saying one thing but the motifs suggesting his real thoughts. The last 30 minutes of 'Gotterdammerung' is overwhelming because most of the motifs from all four operas are brought back in an astounding rush of emotion. Sounds great as a 'bleeding chunk' but if you've taken the full journey it's utterly overwhelming. Another great example is the Rheinmaiden music at the start of 'Das Rheingold' which more or less vanishes until half way through 'Gotterdammerung'; there's an utterly gorgeous scene there where the music (and maidens) return but even more richly harmonised. Playing spot the motif sounds a bit academic but it increases your enjoyment of the music many times over (and they are not hard to spot). I have a paperback of the libretto littered with number references of the motifs from the course I did 25 years back. There's a very good analysis (on CD/mp3 now) by Deryck Cooke, produced when the Solti Ring first appeared. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Introduction-Der-Ring-Nibelungen/dp/B00000424H?ie=UTF8&keywords=Deryke%20Cooke%20and%20Sir%20Georg%20Solti%20and%20Wiener%20Philharmoniker&qid=1460911564&ref_=sr_1_1_twi_aud_2&s=music&sr=8-1

No 2 of Rubbra.

One of the most interesting lines of thought I've read on Wagner is the way he (and many who followed) manipulate the emotions of the listener. Which in turn made it ideal music for those who wanted to use music to manipulate for their own purposes. Which in turn gives at least one explanation why many composers in the 20thC century turned away from music that was emotionally stirring (well writing it...Boulez was happy enough to conduct it). The word I always come up with after listening to The Ring and Tristan in particular is 'narcotic'. I dream about the stuff. He knew exactly what he was doing. Agree about the quiet music in Wagner - most performances or recordings of sections tend to focus on the stirring music. But there are long sections of the most exquisite quieter music - the 'Forest Murmurs' in 'Siegfried', for example, and, my favourite, the desolate opening of Act III of 'Tristan'.

Yunnan, China: Farmers have started planting rice seedlings in the terraced fields of Honghe county Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft Media http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/apr/15/photo-highlights-of-the-day-tomato-wrestling-and-swimming-with-sharks

The latter was not my cup of cocoa. Sounded like the soundtrack to a Bruce Willis film.