David Ayers

Happy birthday, Hans - wherever you are!

Re. the sentence, in the UK tariffs are often lower anyway than the US, but in the case of these so-called 'historic' offences sentencing has to reflect the sentencing guidelines which applied when the offences were committed. Still seems low to me, but anyway. Re. King's defenders - who knows? I do remember when the whole Jimmy Savile thing started in this country that the famous UK publicist Max Clifford appeared on TV trying to talk down these 'historic offences'. I found that very suspicious, and sure enough before very long this guy Clifford was charged and found guilty of similar offences. I'd say anyone defending these guys is taking the risk of attracting suspicion. The facts on Savile were known to the press for decades, btw: I asked a journalist for the leading UK tabloid, The Sun, in about 1988 what they knew about Savile - which means I knew enough from rumour to ask - and he told me they had all the 'dirt' on Savile but their editors would not let them run the story - he was too popular. Incidentally, folks outside the UK maybe won't know this but there is a stack of figures from the already tawdry British TV showbiz of the 1970s and 1980s who have ended up on charges for sex offences. We are all waiting to see who will come next. It is all older guys at the moment, but I also suspect that some younger guys from more recent decades will go the same way.

It's...ok...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-31550251

Iridium is on Spotify. Might take out some of the guesswork.

Fourth declension. Hiatus is the nominative plural.

Both of those look pretty good. Sadly too far out for me too. I do aim to get to one of the Nielsen concerts at the end of the season, although with the Oramo and Järvi cycles in progress in London everyone is getting a bit Nielsen-ed out, I should think.

Audience research shows that people come based on composer name. That is what I have been told by someone in the business. If people come for 'tunes' they are going to get a whole lot more passage-work than they bargained for! I think familiarity with the most famous pieces from recordings among a certain demographic is a factor - familiarity with the piece, though, not just the tune - and I also suspect people go to the name composers because they think they will feel comfortable with the idiom. I have to admit there are few of the basic pieces even where I can remember the tunes until I hear them (then it all comes flooding back). I am trying not to be over-familiar with core repertoire via recordings so that when I go to hear them there is more sense of occasion. In any case, orchestral music for large audiences is only one aspect of music making. Anyway, I keep telling you - go to the Bridgewater Hall!

All I really mean is that there are other hooks in music and that it doesn't depend on the big tune. In any case, Higdon uses several types of hook to give the music a platform, and is certainly not short of tunes. Doesn't some provincial orchestra programming really depend on the expected familiarity of a certain demographic with a certain recorded repertoire? And isn't the reason for doing a lot if Beethoven etc. that it is cheaper? Late romantic works are costly. In any case, there are plenty of regional orchestras with the resources to do adventurous programming - BBCPO, RLPO, for example.

Beethoven is based on motivic development, not melody. Classical sonata form is all about that sort of logic. It is rational and clear and that is what the auditor is drawn in to. Think Beethoven 5. The big tune is a later romantic thing.

No big tunes in Beethoven!

What is your opinion of the work which won that prize? Not my usual thing, but it's great. Not difficult listening...I'm listening to it for the first time now. Down in that final movement now. I'll have to yewTube more by JH when I get a chance. Cool. Prompted by Mr Sangrey I listened again to the CD. The violin part is pretty deft by any standard! I don't quite get the shape, very sectional. The Americana is not written as large as I remember. The final movement is a bit hoedown-y - interesting decision though. If you go for the traditional three movement concerto you are always going to have the finale problem. Revised conclusion: pleasures al the way through, not yet convinced by the shape or overall feeling. Other big works of Higdon on the list, and which do seem to have been performed outside the US, the Concerto for Orchestra and the Percussion Concerto. Re. Lark's comment on tonality: I don't think the VC is as tonal as it seems. That may be part of her bag.

What is your opinion of the work which won that prize?

PS - we like HH

I only know her Violin Concerto, and that from the recording by the formidable Hilary Hahn. If I have heard anything else of hers, I can't remember. The concerto did not really win me over, the ideas seemed a little too easy. I am pretty sure it would seem like a bigger deal in performance.

Obituary here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11411551/John-McCabe-composer-obituary.html

Add to that the Berlin Philharmonic with Rattle in Sibelius. Keeping busy.

I'm trying to work out what is the relationship between nostalgia and reminiscence, and music history, and music-as-such.

Nice one!

Not for me, probably, but - a Charles Groves British Music collection... http://www.mdt.co.uk/groves-sir-charles-british-music-warner-classics-24cds.html No track listing yet.

Only an oblique comment on this thread, but I had been thinking about the symmetry between HIP and folk in terms of practice and politics, a topic dropped into this article on the politics of conductors: http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts/music/9437552/was-simon-rattle-too-new-labour-for-the-berlin-philharmonic/ PS - because Rattle and the BPO are here now in London!!

Has anybody actually been to the opera recently? I used to go frequently, then occasionally, but the last couple of seasons I haven't been at all. Wozzeck last season is the last one I went to...

It is interesting to think about this question of the actuality of music and the role which recording plays.

I wanted to say Cecil Taylor, who I have heard vocalise while playing, but who I don't think is on record at least playing and reciting at the same time.

On the question of later British Jazz, as opposed to improv, I do know that I for one don't much like it. The jazz and jazz-rock tunes mostly just full flat for me. That's just me, mind you.