For those of you who waded through all that muck, and have now got the likes of Morlocks in your head, here’s a musical palatte cleanser for you: Anne Sofie von Otter singing a brief Berlioz song .
For a more thorough cleansing, here’s the first movement of my favorite Sibelius piece, the King Christian II Suite .
I write primarily about rock, but listening-wise, my equipment’s usually on about a 55% jazz/blues/gospel/country/R+B, 30% classical, 15% rock diet. And as far as live music goes, particularly when I’m at a university with a good music department, my diet is around 90% classical.
Notes on Anosmia
One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…
Empire of Unreality
Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…