Month: July 2020
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John Mullan-The Mystery of Charles Dickens by A.N Wilson review – a great writer’s dark side
Was Dickens’s fiction shaped by the nastiness he never consciously acknowledged? A sprightly retelling of a well-known narrative Near the end of The Mystery of Charles Dickens, AN Wilson quotes at length from a letter written by Philip Larkin to his lover Monica Jones. The poet has just reread Great Expectations, and is reflecting on the novelist’s attention-seeking tricks: “Say what you like about Dickens as an entertainer, he cannot be considered a real writer at all; … John Mullan-The Mystery of Charles Dickens by A.N Wilson review – a great writer’s dark sideRead more
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Norman Lebrecht -The sadder side of summer
Tragedy struck Gustav Mahler, the archetypal summer composer, in 1907 Standing on the balcony at the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, where Claude Debussy finished off La Mer, it struck me that composers come in two seasons — winter and summer. The winter sloggers chip away come sleet, come shine, delivering a crisp new score in March for premiere in September. Tchaikovsky was a winter symphonist. In summer, he lounged around his dacha or took a cultural tour … Norman Lebrecht -The sadder side of summerRead more
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Gustav Mahler – Adagietto from Symphony no. 5
As a composer, Mahler acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; … Gustav Mahler – Adagietto from Symphony no. 5Read more