A Lark Ascending

Both of these sounded wonderful this morning. You usually hear "Estancia" as a short suite but in its 30 minute + state it is marvellous - the whole album has echoes of Ravel, Falla, very early Stravinsky and, of course, South American music. It's 'Uirapuru' on the VL that really grabs me - a really haunting chain of harmonies at the start that linger in your brain. No 6 off the Rubbra.

Near St. Martins-in-the-Fields, London - Edith Cavell Monument and the Coliseum - I especially planned for the pigeon shadow over Edith's head! April weather over the Thames Spring comes to Hatfield (before the North) House - where Elizabeth I spent her youth and learnt of her succession (though the big house in the first picture wasn't built until 1611).

That does sound good, even if you cherry pick. No. 5 is up there on my targets for live performance that I'll travel to see. My favourite Bruckner symphony but I've never seen it live. I don't know if anyone has used this: https://bachtrack.com/ Allows you to search by place, work etc so you can find if something or someone you'd like to hear is happening in the near future (I discovered that I could fly to Prague to hear Bruckner 5 next month....think I'll listen to the CD!). The search engine takes a bit of getting used to and it's hardly exhaustive but I tracked down the Bruckner 9 through it [I appreciate the distances between US cities are often far greater than in Britain reducing realistic options]. Proms programme is now published: http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/r938q9/by/date/2016/08/08#2016-08-08 At first glance there's not a clutch of around three nights of things I'd like to see (familiar and new) for me to make a nice London jaunt of it. But I'm tempted by a day trip for Mahler's 'Das Lied von der Erde' - never heard that in real life.

Target hit but subscriptions still being taken. This release will happen.

Retirement with all debts paid off...and one of the last of the fair middle class pensions! That concert of yours looks great - don't know the Haydn but the Wagners are marvellous.

Only know the Tudors in outline so I've been working my way through them over the last few years. Edward VI's reign is normally passed over quickly, getting a mention for the swing to stronger Protestantism at best. Actually proved a period of considerable interest - the inevitable jockeying for power and influence with the expected falls from grace; fascinating social background of rural unrest tied in with enclosure; also interesting to see the stirrings of social conscience amongst some leaders, things I'd always associated with the mid-17thC. And, I now know where Lady Jane Grey fits in!

Playing the Proms at the end of August with his band and members of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (watch out Rick Wakeman!). I imagine Lady Catherine de Bourgh will choke on his kippers.

Mahler: Symphony No.2 (Resurrection) (Royal Festival Hall, London) Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Vladimir Jurowski conductor; Adriana Kucerová soprano; Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano; Philharmonia Chorus A chance watch/listen to a performance of 2 on TV around Easter '74 (think it was Bernstein at Ely Cathedral) opened my ears to Mahler (though I had also been seduced in by the adverts on TV for Ken Russell's film which was current at that time). Started buying the records the following summer - they sat nicely alongside 'Tales of Topographic Oceans', Soft Machine 'Third' and other behemoths. This one was a period instrument performance (that's HIP to the hip). Hugely enjoyable. The odd squawk in the brass (must be devils to control) and the strings sounded a bit quieter than in a modern orchestra which had the odd effect of making other parts sound out much louder rather than appearing like subsidiary phrases or lines. The only bit that troubled me was in the third movement when Jurowski played the main dance theme quite slow but then suddenly sped up for the fanfare section - you could feel the gears changing awkwardly. Two effects were remarkably successful. The off-stage brass, hidden away in rooms or corridors at the side really did sound otherworldly in the last movement producing some wonderful antiphonal effects (he also had a group of wind/brass players file out to a stage at the side to play their chorale during the song of movement three). He also followed Mahler's original instruction (according to the pre-concert lecture) of getting the choir to stay seated when singing. This had an electrifying effect when they finally did stand up at the climactic 'Auferstehen, Ja Auferstehen' moment just before the end...major spine tingling! Proper review here: OAE Jurowski review – gentle fascination of period-instrument Mahler Then a diversion home the following day to... Mozart Clarinet Concerto; Bruckner Symphony No. 9 (Symphony Hall, Birmingham) CBSO, James Feddeck – Conductor, Michael Collins – Clarinet None of the grand theatre of the previous night but equally as enthralling. Went for the Bruckner - don't think I've been to a live Bruckner for 20 odd years - but I'm very fond of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and that was lovely. Bruckner 9 is, along with 5, 7 & 8, one of his pieces I return too again and again (the others get occasional outings but I've yet to fully warm to them). I think I last heard this in the flesh at a Prom in 1977. Wonderful piece, the two slow movements inching forward like glaciers. Particularly taken by the the galloping little melody at the centre of the scherzo last night (could be a theme tune for a TV programme about gymkhanas); makes a nice contrast to the hobnailed boots of the main tune. I'm also always affected by the great climax at the start of the last movement (repeated later on) with the horns ringing out, suddenly to modulate mysteriously and with a degree of greater distance. Again, seeing as opposed to just hearing, you became aware of certain details, in particular how important the solo flute is in the piece. That's it with high culture for a month...then it goes really mad!

Yes the horizontal lettering against the diagonal lines on the building and shadow work well (sorry...that's not meant to sound as faux-arty-farty as it does!). Good shot!

Disc 1 (of a 6 CD download a few years back). Originally aimed at the dead maestro market, I suspect, but otherwise serves a very useful function. There are bucket loads of full opera recording and plenty of one or two disc greatest hits sets but this one nicely falls in the middle, allowing you to hear extensive chunks from each of the operas when you are not in the moody for taking on the full beasts. Chirps only. There's a companion set of orchestral music.

That one is now well institutionalised - regularly used by history teachers covering the impact of the home front on US withdrawal from the Vietnam War. I've seen the lyrics used as a primary source on an exam paper.

Disc 2: 'A Child of Our Time'; and the stand alone arrangement of the five spirituals for choir tucked on the end. Disc 3 K593, K614 No. 1...and then on to 2, 3, 4. Don't know this music except in passing but very much enjoyed it this morning. Everything from allusions to Scottish folk songs to a wonderful section from the middle of the 4th built round the arresting harmonic sequence that opens the 4th Symphony (or maybe the symphony reflects the sonata). Tippett's music doesn't seem to get out much at present...quite common I suppose in the immediate years after a composers death. I'm keen to hear some of this live. Hopefully the Proms will come good.

Disc 3 this morning - Songs for Achilles, Songs for Ariel, Songs for Dov, Byzantium. Late afternoon - The Knot Garden. Utterly bonkers libretto (though no more bonkers than The Magic Flute....well, a bit more bonkers) but contains some extremely colourful and engaging orchestration. Helps to have heard 'Song for Dov' a few times prior to have some islands of familiarity. Midday - Disc 1: Sleigh Ride; Marche Caprice; Over the hills and far away; Dance Rhapsody No. 2; Dance Rhapsody No. 1; On the mountains

Lebus, Germany - Fog clears from the river Oder and one of its tributaries at sunrise Photograph: Patrick Pleul/AFP/Getty Images http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/apr/08/photo-highlights-of-the-day-a-mumbai-festival-and-the-hof-in-honkers

Really enjoyed this (encouraged to watch it after reading some praise on this board). I thought they handled the tale with great sensitivity and without over-sensationalising Wilson's troubles. The music, of course, was glorious. Very odd watching Pierre from 'War and Peace' in a 20thC recording studio.

Three of his most glorious pieces - the shimmering 'Summer', utterly mysterious 'There is a Willow Grows aslant a Brook' and more contemporary (in a broader European sense for its time) 'Phantasm'. Also a jolly take on the an old folk dance tune ('Sir Roger') plus some enjoyable earlier pieces.

Merci. 'Twas indeed...you come out of these things bursting with excitement. Your thread here provides a nice release valve to rabbit.

"In 1914 the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire signed up as a soldier in the French army, and was seriously wounded in 1916. He recovered, only to die in the Spanish influenza outbreak just days before the armistice of 1918. Apollinaire’s Bird takes 'Un oiseau chante' ('A bird sings'), one of the poems he wrote while fighting in the trenches, as its basis. This remarkable poem contrasts the realities of war with hearing a single bird singing ‘somewhere among these two-a-penny troops. … Sing on and on your sweet song to the sound of deadly guns.’ Apollinaire’s Bird was written for the Hallé and its Principal Oboist Stéphane Rancourt." From: http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/recording/apollinaires-bird

Butterworth - A Shropshire Lad Casken - Apollinaire's Bird Elgar - Sospiri Vaughan Williams - Symphony No. 4 The Halle Orchestra, Mark Elder; Stephane Rancourt oboe at Nottingham Royal Concert Hall Music for an English spring....though the programme was not as obvious as it might have been. The utterly beguiling 'A Shropshire Lad', the most cowpatty of the cowpats and the ever so short but completely heart-breaking Sospiri. 'Appollinaire's Bird' is a wonderful recent oboe concerto - the title refers to a poem about a bird heard amidst the chaos of the Western Front in World War I. Worth seeking out in the NMC recording. I don't think I've every been so enthralled by Vaughan Williams' 4th before. One that doesn't get out much (and I don't play it a great deal) but this evening it had my attention at every step. A bleak, often sardonic piece written in the Thirties - commentators usually relate to it to the political instabilities and gathering clouds of the time but RVW refused to pin down its 'meaning'. Particularly struck by the slow movement - a returning slow march marked out by the lower strings with the violins/violas embroidering on top, interrupted by bleak, otherworldly woodwind sections. There was a lovely moment at the start of the last movement where the galumphing first subject is succeeded by a rather jaunty second...the faces of the front line of the first violins all erupted in broad grins. You can hear a Stravinsky influence in this piece in the unstable rhythmic accenting...except where Stravinsky and most of his followers tend to be graceful RVW wears hobnail boots. A bit like English folk dance music, I suppose. As when I saw the Halle in Manchester a couple of months back, Elder again addressed the audience. First to give some background to the new piece and to shower it with praise; and then in between the Elgar and RVW to make a few comments about the Elgar and give us a few things to listen out for in the Fourth. All sorts of things have been tried to make going to 'classical' concerts less like going to church - lighting, amplification, playing it in nightclubs. Bit for me, a few words from the conductor (or anyone else on stage for that matter) makes all the difference. It helps if you are as articulate, impassioned and positive as Elder. (Get out clause: I'm not musically trained (though I have read more album notes over the years than is sensible) so if, in attempting to articulate what absorbed me last night, I've used the wrong terms, sorry).

Disc 1 - pieces for voice and piano and then choir. A second hand copy of this arrived in the post yesterday - I was primarily after a recording of The Knot Garden. I paid £15 for it. Just noticed the only available copy on Amazon now is going for £245 - bonkers! "Scenes and Arias" was only the second 'contemporary' 'classical' piece that I heard live (an inscrutable concert by Roger Smalley being the first). Went to a Prom in '76 with some friends from uni and we were all mystified by the Maw. It's actually not that difficult (though I prefer his later 'Odyssey'). Had to look up what else we saw that night - Vaughan Williams 6 which I remember (I was in the first flowering of RVW-mania) and Brahms 4 which I can't recall for the life of me.

No. 19 sounds like Holst! No 27 of the first.

Gongliu county, China - A herdsman in Alae village grazes sheep in a meadow abloom with almond flowers. Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft Media Whitley Bay, England - Storm clouds loom over a ship in the North Sea Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/apr/07/photo-highlights-of-the-day-table-manners-and-swiss-guards