In view of the comments arriving re the closure of Andante.com, I should mention that the message I referred to in my last post was a personal communication from the editor, not something on the site itself, and that apparently I'm wrong in referring to Naive as "new" owners - seems they've been on board longer than I'd realised. Time flies as you get older.
As time goes faster, articles get shorter, classical music has to fight harder for its minute corner, and the more TV channels there are on which to find nothing you want to see. I have just been out to see a marvellous French film starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche, entitled HIDDEN (CACHE in French) and very refreshing it was. Sometimes it's good to escape. Or is it just the weather that's getting to me?
Top tips for surviving February in London:
Hot baths;
Camomile tea;
Rioja, the more expensive the better;
Home-made chocolate cake;
Concerts coming up including a recital by Piers Lane, Lucy Parham's Schumann Festival at Cadogan Hall and Frederica von Stade and friends singing Pauline Viardot at Wigmore Hall;
Piano practice: Beethoven Waldstein Sonata for energy, Mendelssohn Songs Without Words to get the fingers moving and Faure Nocturnes for transferral to magical, poetic universe far removed from the flight path.
