All entries for Friday 29 October 2004

Music for the Weekend 2

BBC Radio 3 is making recordings of all its nightly concerts available online for a week or so afterwards. There are currently six concerts with works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, R Strauss, Wagner, Vorisek, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov (the wonderful "Sheherezade" with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Downes, a concert given here at the Arts Centre last week). Details for all concerts are here. If you want twentieth century works, Schnittke/Part Voices of Nature is a contemporary work reviewed on the Radio 3 website, again with online music availability.

Meanwhile, this weekend's music on Radio 3 includes Verdi's Falstaff [5.55 pm Saturday], his last and most deeply human work, sung in English from English National Opera [review]; on Sunday at 2.00 pm the organ recital by virtuoso Simon Preston includes Messiaen's L'Ascension as well as works by Elgar and Ives, while in the evening (6.30 p.m.) Ralph Kirschbaum is the soloist in Walton's sumptuous Cello Concerto.

Charles Bourne : 29 Oct 2004 15:51 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Music for the Weekend 1

Obscure Seattle bands are two a penny, but Visqueen are different to most - hot and happy. A recent review said of their single Blue

its lightness is shocking -- until the depth of the lyrics and the intricacy of the arrangement manage to fight their way through the insanely catchy chorus. The result evokes The Pretenders, The Breeders, hell. even Heart.

You can hear an mp3 of Blue on their website (link from here) and watch a video if you have the bandwidth (link from same page).

Charles Bourne : 29 Oct 2004 13:07 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

O.C. – the Blog

Writing about Being a Woman for a Week from Sam Hates...

Following all the hyper-ventilation on various blogs and their comments boxes, I checked out O.C. – and what a cornucopia of delights. The superannuated fans of Brookside were never so well catered for. In addition to the O.C. official site (with lots of photos and stuff about the programmes, characters and actors) there is an O.C. weblog for the series, kept by an ardent fan from L.A. called Buzz Rodell, with archives stretching right back into 2003.

Charles Bourne : 29 Oct 2004 09:44 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

La Dolce Vita revisited: 1

Following my holiday in Rome I have decided to provide a tour of the more memorable statues and fountains of the city - memorable because I photographed them. We start with the coolest hang-out in the city, the Spanish Steps (the Scalla di Spagna, also known as the Scalinata della Trinita dei Monti): perfect place for chilling out, people-watching, day-dreaming, flirting, messing with your mobile phone, and contemplating the Bernini fountain (Fontana della Barcaccia, 1627-8) at the bottom, shaped like a boat, and visible in the middle distance of my photo. Straight ahead leading into the distance is the Via Condotti which has some of the most fashionable and expensive clothes shops in the city.

More information about the architecture and history of the Spanish Steps can be found here and here (also more on the fountain). Among the most famous one-time residents of the Via Condotti are: Stendhal, Byron, Shelley, Goethe, D'Annunzio, Goldoni, Marconi, and Leopardi; among the most famous contemporary occupants are Gucci, Prada, Ferragamo, Bulgari, Cartier, and Valentino. For lots on Bernini follow the links from here.

Charles Bourne : 29 Oct 2004 01:57 |  Tags: Art And Image |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem