Perryman Plays the Field

A preview of tonight's Play the Field Festival in Somerset, where the astonishing kinetic artist Norman Perryman will join conductor Charles Hazlewood and violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky for a live-kinetic-art interpretation of The Four Seasons. Youtube video of Perryman in action included in post. http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2108

Saturday sequels

A few follow-ups to recent stories, from the cellist who caught the falling star at Glyndebourne to battling Goldbergs, knitting and Ben & Jerry's... http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2107

Donizetti rocks...

Just to prove I didn't get eaten alive by a Monshta in Berlin... I went along to L'elisir d'amore at Glyndebourne yesterday and have now found a nice Caruso recording for our Friday Historical. http://standpointmag.co.uk/blog/38

Eastward Ho

Just off to Berlin for a nice little assignment... http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2034 Back very soon!

Rusalka falls off stage...

Major drama tonight at Glyndebourne: Rusalka took a tumble and landed in the cello section... http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2032

The voice of Friedman

The great Ignaz Friedman talks about, and plays, Chopin: a radio broadcast from 1940, ideal for my more-or-less weekly historical slot for Friday afternoon. Enjoy! http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2031

RIP Hildegard Behrens

Farewell to the great soprano who has died aged 72. I've posted a link to a good obituary and some footage of her singing the Immolation Scene from Gotterdammerung. http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2029

JDCMB wins a badge!

We're in another list of the 100 best blogs, this time courtesy of The Daily Reviewer. They kindly sent me a badge - see left! :-)

Divas drop out of NY, but...

...they should just see their replacements, and so should the audiences... http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2025

Brave New Worlds?

Responding to Alex Ross in The New Yorker on digital remastering and the overavailability of music. Plus a few adventures closer to home with a 78s-playing gramophone...http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2022

Smugmeter!

I've been having some fun with the Independent on Sunday's list & poll of the "50 Smuggest Britons"... http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2021

Choose your weapon...

Bach to the blogspats: is it inverted mordents at dawn? http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2019

Bravo Budapest

Some great YouTube footage with extracts of the first-ever concert by the Budapest Festival Orchestra in 1983... They will be at the Proms on Tuesday. http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2017

Heartwarming musical tale of the month

Wedding pianist stuck in traffic? Call the conductor! Bram Tovey runs to the rescue...http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2015

Piano Competitions: Return to the Dark Side

Priceless and explosive material in the New York Times today...

Wanted: Comic Opera. Must be Funny,

Response on the blog today to a piece in The Times suggesting that there isn't enough fun in opera and that an opera about Abi Titmuss [who?] is the answer... Please leave your thoughts in the comments box at STANDPOINT, rather than here.

Plisetskaya, Shchedrin, Carmen

I have an interview with Rodion Shchedrin on the 'Music that changed me' page of the new BBC Music Magazine and have homed in on the Carmen Suite he created for his wife, Maya Plisetskaya, a little more fully on the blog today. Complete with footage of her dancing some of it. http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2003

The sound of Joachim

Dead Violinists Society: found lurking on YouTube, Brahms's best friend plays Brahms. Listen here: http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/1995

The Mariinsky Ring

Here is the truth about the Mariinsky Ring Cycle.... Read all about it at Standpoint.

JD on TV

I will be on BBC1's Breakfast news tomorrow morning (Monday) live between 8.30 and 9am, along with BBC Music Magazine's editor Oliver Condy, to discuss the Mozart juvenilia that pitched up in Salzburg the other day. Please excuse me while I hurry off to do my hair...

The Magic Mountain, or a long post about the Verbier Festival

Read all about my trip to the Verbier Festival over at Standpoint, here.