A Lark Ascending

A bit out on a limb but I really enjoyed this one this morning: From the bad boy years but not remotely scary.

The Bartok Violin Concerto is fabulous - as is the Beethoven, of course. Don't know the middle composer. Enjoy.

Line of Duty Series 3 Cracking start. The whole narrative changed complete direction in the last few minutes.

Beijing, China: A bullet train travels through blossoming trees near the Great Wall http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/mar/24/photo-highlights-of-the-day-penitents-and-gauchos

CD 2 off Spotify. A CD collection of things from the old L'Oiseau-Lyre label. I have the first pictured LP from the 70s but this compilation only takes The Hymn to St Magnus from there. Largely from his wild man years.

Yes, might get quiet a bit in references (especially how many common figures of speech come from Shakespeare) to plays in songs. This site lasts a few in wider popular music: http://music.cbc.ca/#!/blogs/2014/4/Popular-songs-inspired-by-Shakespeare 'Desolation Row' (Dylan) and 'Ophelia' (The Band) are ones I know. There's a song on the new album from young folky Maz O'Connor about Ophelia too - 'Greenwood Side'. ************************** This is a favourite. Carthy didn't write it but his performance is brilliant - the whole play in 4 minutes. Worth it just for the final line. ********************** This is the album currently being toured specifically based on Shakespeare: ************************************************* Mass of events in London listed here: https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-live-from-the-rsc/ And a big RSC jamboree on 23rd April that is getting BBC2 and cinema coverage (presumably worldwide): https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-live-from-the-rsc/

I use the subtitles!

Shetland - Series 3 (BBC2) Programmes 1 + 2. I really like this cop series - grim doings in a place where in reality haggis snatching is probably the major crime. The main character is, as one of his friends commented. 'a surly bugger'. The landscape and the dreadful weather deserve the TV equivalent to Oscars. Can't recall if they did this in series 1 or 2 but there were some great aerial shots, swooping in from the sea over Lerwick or along the cliffs. Helicopter or drone? Not sure.

Washington DC, US: Cherry blossom trees are seen before dawn at the Tidal Basin. The district’s cherry blossom festival, which began on 20 March, commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Yukio Ozaki, mayor of Tokyo, to the city of Washington http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2016/mar/23/photo-highlights Sunrise over Lyme Regis, Dorset by David Eberlin. Meryl Streep clearly still in bed. http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/35822274

SHAKESPEARE'S SONGS - Andy Sheppard - Saxophones; Guillaume de Chassy - Piano; Christophe Marguet - Drums (Lakeside Centre, Nottingham) Billed under Sheppard's name in the UK though all the writing came from de Chassy and Marguet. I blow hot and cold over Sheppard, generally enjoying him live whilst rarely getting excited by his records. This was a lovely concert - as the title suggests, all songs inspired by characters and scenes from The Big Will. Well written with a range of moods. Though the suspicion remains, as with most jazz suites, that the evening could have been called 'Scenes of the Dordogne' or 'The Hittite Suite' and we'd have been non the wiser - gets you into 'arts' centres though! Good playing - don't know either of the French musicians but Marguet in particular stood out. Sheppard was especially exciting on soprano. Seemed a bit short - one continuous set of just under 90 mins. They usually perform this with someone reciting bits of Shakespeare which would probably make for a fuller evening. Incredibly quiet and polite audience - no whooping, just the refined ripple of applause. So polite that when they took a second bow everyone assumed they wanted to go to bed and didn't demand an encore. Lakeside is on the University of Nottingham so maybe they were all academics who needed to get away to think about Barthes. At least no-one brayed 'Bravo!'.

Disc 4: Hamburger Concerto; Double Concerto; Ramifications; Requiem The 'Karelia Suite' and 'Overture' were some of the first classical pieces to attract me - here you get the whole score. Never previously realised the overt Wagnerisms in the music - the Overture has a pretty breezy passage for several minutes before shifting into the minor, reminiscent of the transition from "Siegfried's Rhine Journey" to the court of the Gibichungs in "Gotterdammerung". "Kuomela" has both "Valse Triste" and the incredibly haunting "Scene with Cranes" within their original setting. This is a record I return to frequently.

127 off latter again. On exercise bike (in dinner jacket and wearing pinz-nez, of course) Breakfast music:

Spring is sprunging: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/23/country-diary-norfolk-blincoe-hares-spring-boxing http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/35822274 Saw first blossom of the year yesterday.

They do a digital edition at £36 p.a. (presumably no postage). You can see what it looks like here: http://content.yudu.com/A25zpx/frootsjune13/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.frootsmag.com%2Fdigital%2F I assume you also get the code for the album download that comes with every other issue. They are amazing for opening your ears. Easily the best music magazine (in any genre) I've ever bought (Jazzwise, the UK jazz magazine pales by comparison seeming to be much more in lock-step with record company promotions) - I've been reading it since it started in the early 80s (and even a few copies of 'Southern Rag' as it was when it was only a regional mag for the south-east of England). It's my main source of information for the folk world. You don't just get folk - Ian Anderson, the editor from the off, is absolutely zealous about world music. He was there at the meeting that coined the marketing term and fought a long battle in the 80s to get the British folk community to widen its horizons. Also a constant supporter of up-and-coming new performers. He can be bolshie and wrong but on balance he's very much on the side of the angels. African, Asian, South American, European, Blues, Bluegrass/Americana - it all gets in there. If you want an article on 78s of 1920s Greek music, this is your mag! The best thing about it is that it is overwhelmingly positive - the reviewers will say if they dislike something but you rarely get that "look how wonderful I am because I'm not impressed by..." posturing the spoils so many magazines (though Anderson had a downer on American singer-songwriters in the 90s!). The highlight of the Sidmouth Folk Festival for me is the afternoon series they put on over the week, focussed on the up and coming or the marginalised. This is what I have to look forward to in August: fRoots-curated Cellar Full of Folkadelia The increasingly popular fRoots-curated Cellar Full of Folkadelia afternoon sessions move back to their original home in the atmospheric Cellar Bar at Kennaway House. The confirmed line-up for 2016 – some cult figures of old and some shining stars of the future – features: WIZZ JONES, the iconic acoustic blues guitarist and singer with an eclectic repertoire and "a right hand worthy of Broonzy"; one-off English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist TYMON DOGG whose eclectic 40-year solo career also took in a stint as a member of Joe Strummer’s last band, The Mescaleros; the "quite simply extraordinary" RHEINGANS SISTERS with their duelling fiddles and symbiotic voices, and rich tapestry of banjo, bansitar, viola, kantele, feet and percussion; LUCY FARRELL brings us her captivating interpretations of Kentish songs as well as her own material; TRIO DHOORE – an exciting young group of three brothers from Flanders, on hurdy-gurdy, diatonic accordion and guitar; THE DEAD RAT ORCHESTRA – Nathaniel Mann, Daniel Merrill and Robin Alderton – whose fascinating work has sprawled from electro-acoustic music to free improvisation without ever loosing a distinctive ratty character; a rare reunion date for folk blues duo HOT VULTURES featuring the voices, bass and slide guitars of Maggie Holland and Ian Anderson; young NE songwriter/banjo player and fiddler RHONA DALLING whose debut digital album, Walk Me Round, has captured hearts and minds with its resonant songwriting and tunesmithery; and cinematic multi-instrumentalists THREE CANE WHALE. http://www.sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk/index.php?page=intimate-concerts-sessions Good lord...I saw Hot Vultures around 1974!

Might have made a great sit-com in 1961 - bushy moustached colonels facing down Kerouac-sporting Ban The Bomb activists. Not sure it would be a goer today.

Have had this a few years and don't get on with the PC - very much in the 19thC 'come and watch me strive and suffer' tradition. The other pieces are much more attractive. Op. 127. Really like this one - a gorgeous slow movement and a tremendous whirlwind of a trio in the scherzo. Odd to be listening to liturgical music whilst painting the bathroom but I really enjoyed this. Maxwell Davies at his most approachable, clearly writing for accessibility and utility. Wonderfully dramatic and colourful contemporary music. A composer it's not too hard to get your head round.

A marvellous mix of British, Scandinavian, French and self-composed music - and Rowan Rheingans is showing enormous promise as a songwriter, songs that don't quite go where you expect them. There's a beauty on the 'Song of Separation' project CD. Nominated in a couple of categories for the up-and-coming folk awards: http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2016/02/bbc-radio-2-folk-awards-2016-the-nominees/ Like all these award things the Folk Awards greatly distort and simplify what is actually happening. But what's impressive here is that they largely reflect the newer performers to emerge onto the scene in the last 5-10 years rather than sanctify the older 'legends'...though RT gets a look in in the Musician of the Year section. Much as I love RT and enjoyed his album of last year, I'd vote for Andy Cutting (who is halfway between 'young' and 'established legend')....he should get the award just for being on every record recorded in the last year.

On their way to superstardom:

Harrison Birtwistle (another of NMC's no composer series). 'The Triumph of Time' is like listening to rocks form in real time. There's a famous phrase somewhere about feeling something long before you understand it. Fits this music perfectly - I can't follow the narrative (if it has a narrative) but it has a mighty impact. More Madchester:

On my list when it arrives in paperback. I like Barnes and I like Shosty.

Yes, that's more like a festival. A bit too heavy on the avant-noise-punk* for me. But I'd love to see the reconstruction of "No Roses" (but will the hipsters at a festival like this know how to join in the choruses?). Even this Festival has had difficulties though matters appear to be resolved: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/02/all-tomorrows-parties-festival-pontins-stewart-lee (* I made that up but I think you know what I mean)

I was really impressed by 'American Pastoral' earlier in the year, my first Roth. Have 'I Married a Communist' to read in a few novels time.

He really impressed me when I saw that band a couple of months back. Don't think I'd seen a mini-moog since the 70s!

Brendan O'Carroll: My Family at War I don't know O'Carroll as a comedian though his Mrs Brown series is very successful. Here he explores The Easter Rising with a particular focus on his three uncles who took part. Really excellent programme - a subject I had an obsession with many years back. Summarises the causes, some of the key actions and consequences clearly and in an involving manner. Shot mainly in and around Dublin (with a quick trip to Wales where one post-Rising internment camp was). Most Brits only see Irish history in terms of British lads being shot 'over there.' This programme conveyed the Irish perspective well whilst retaining great sympathy for the English soldiers who lost their lives that week.