Memeage, gakked from debg

I think this goes behind cuts so that those disinclined can ignore it.
( Various Questions, frankly answered )

(no subject)

I don't seem to be doing the Observer Music Magazine anymore, so no more freebies as a general rule - I was hoping for the John Foulds this month and did not get it, which probably means that's that. Given how little CDs cost, the endless struggle to get review copies is infuriating; you'd think you were asking PR people for blood.

So anyway, as an exception to this, I went to a reception/recital today and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the music given that I had not heard of pianist, composer or label. The disc is called Vivid and comes from Red Kite, whose staff are utterly charming. Bruce Stark is not a great innovator - the musical material is somewhere between Copland, Britten and the sort of off-Broadway musical Audra McDonald records, but there is a gift for decoration and variation at work which means that the stuff always transcends itself. And Seann Alderking has the sort of barn-storming poetic attack whch is always interesting to experience from a concert grand in a small room.

I didn't meet Seann, but his conductor boyfriend is qutie charming...

There are moments, I realize, when my life is quietly glamourous.