Favourite things: the Soweto String Quartet

Nelson Mandela is 95 today. This video shows the Soweto String Quartet playing at the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens in Cape Town and a vision of all its audience - young, old, black, white and much in between - loving the music and the dancing and the beauty of the landscape together.

Perhaps the last happy day I spent with my father was in this exquisite spot, back in 1996. He was already suffering from terminal cancer, but we had two weeks of quality time in South Africa, with the most beautiful outing of all at Kirstenbosch. He'd refused to go back to his native country while apartheid was in place, but after Mandela became president he started spending his winters there. I realised, seeing him then, that he'd missed it all his life.

I haven't been back. But heading home from central London latish in the evening, in the underpass from the Imax to Waterloo Station I frequently see a Rastafarian busker. He has a guitar, dreadlocks, a ready smile and a warm and generous voice. He often sings this song. I cannot tell you the number of times he's cheered me up with it, nor how many times - after an uninspiring performance somewhere that should have been better - I've thought it the most heart-warming music I've heard all evening.

If instruments could speak...

I've been having a little fun for Sinfini, "interviewing" two Stradivarius violins, the 'Gibson' (Josh Bell's) and the 'Messiah'; a Strad cello (Steven Isserlis's Marquis de Corberon); and Fritz Kreisler/Nikolaj Znaider's Guarneri del Gesu. If they could speak, is this what they'd tell us? Enjoy...

http://sinfinimusic.com/uk/features/2013/07/if-instruments-could-speak/

Favourite things... Philippe plays Chausson

It's hot out there. Trying to cool my study down for a hard day's writing with some lovely limpid Chausson: the Concert in D for violin, piano and string quartet, as recorded by Philippe Graffin, Pascal Devoyon and the Chilingirian Quartet (on Hyperion). It's a favourite thing in itself - I am potty about Chausson, yet we hear him in concert only once in the proverbial odd-hued moon - but another favourite thing therein is Philippe's violin tone and his feel for colour. Listen to the way he varies the nuance of the little rising figure that's repeated three times towards the end (around 3:44). Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.

Favourite things: Kaufmann sings 'Die schöne Müllerin'

The other day I was out for a walk in Richmond Park and I spotted a pair of shoes abandoned next to a Bächlein. While I doubt that Schubert or the young miller protagonist in this heart-rending song-cycle would actually have worn blue suede loafers (they're more Elvis, perhaps), I've had this music on the brain ever since. Who better to listen to than Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch?

Favourite things: Osipova and Vasiliev for 14 July

I feel so lucky to be around to watch Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev dance. This is the pas de deux from Flames of Paris (the Bolshoi's production, choreographed by Ratmansky), which the incredible pair will be dancing as guest artists just once in London - 16 August - when the Bolshoi comes to town.

Not long ago, I had the chance to meet them and ask: "How do you do that?" But you'll have to wait for the answer.

Meanwhile, happy "cattorze" Juillet from me and Solti.