Tony Fitzpatrick, UK. blog@tonyfitz.uk

I have read Chris Stewart's various books about his experience in moving to a Spanish farm, El Valero, with his wife Ana, and their adventures in becoming part of the community and making a living. This is a book about what he did before those adventures. With little sheep shearing work to be had in England, he took on a job as skipper on a Cornish crabber sail boat for a rich English lady one summer, ferrying her and her friends amongst the Greek islands. Despite having no sailing experience he became sufficiently competent to be invited to help crew a sailing trip from England via Norway, Iceland and Greenland, to the New World. Unlike the lazy summer in Greece, this trip involved cold and ice, storms and poor weather, and very difficult sailing conditions. He describes in a lovely gentle prose style the challenges of the voyage, his relationships with his colleagues, and the life and death peril that such trips can involve.

Read on Kindle. Published August 2011.

Somewhat overlong manifesto to encourage us all to spend less time reading the various mass circulation products of journalism and social media, and more time focusing on our personal areas of interest and competence in greater depth. Part of this involves recognising the increasingly trivial way that the newspapers and other media treat major complex events, but also the importance of taking a longer term view of how society and knowledge develops. The best bit of the book was Dobelli's challenge for us all to recall major news events of the last decade - the key being that if you can't easily remember them, they can't have been that important. I found it interesting, albeit somewhat unconvincing. The key is surely to be more select in your sources of information, not to ignore them completely. Rather excessive repetition of some simple messages to fill the books 125 pages, which meant it could have been rather shorter. His point about not worrying about the things you cannot influence was however well made; my favourite quote was ... "There are things you can influence and things that you cannot. There is no point getting worked up about things you cannot change. For example, there is nothing I can do about my past or about a Trump tweet. So why let it make me anxious?"

Read on Kindle. Published January 2020.

Autobiographical book by pianist/polymath Stephen Hough, with short chapters each describing some aspect of his childhood and upbringing from early years through to the start of his career in his early 20s after attending the RNCM and then the Julliard School in New York. Brutally honest about his (and his parents!) failings, it is amazing that his talent managed to be nurtured and fulfilled in the way that it has, and for that I think that his parents were possibly rather more understanding and admirable than he occasionally suggests in this book. The heroes are (as he describes) the various music teachers who recognised and developed his abilities. For me the biggest revelation was just how awful the specialist music school Chethams in Manchester was in the 1970s, with abuse, bullying, poor buildings, and frequently inadequate teaching. A lot of the book concerns very personal stuff around relationships, people's morals, and the sort of day to day arguments and differences that occur in all families. I am not sure who is served by describing a lot of this in such detail, although it is of course very well written. I found some of it a little uncomfortable to be honest.

Read on Kindle. Published January 2023.

A time management/self help book with a difference. Like me, Oliver Burkeman is a productivity nerd, a little over-obsessed with the mechanics of time management and productivity tools. This is his "seen the light" book, the title driven by the realisation that we all have maybe 80 years of life, and we need to ensure we are using it well. Using it well clearly does not involve fretting about to do lists, tracker apps, or even goal and task management. All that does in Burkeman's view is make you neurotic and unfulfilled. He encourages us all to embrace a more relaxed approach to "getting things done", and focus instead on having a more fulfilled life. We all need to realise that we all have far too much to do, and we need to focus on "enlargement" over a nebulous idea of the pursuit of happiness. He also suggests we tolerate discomfort, take uncomfortable advice willingly, remember everyone has imposter syndrome, and accept that no one knows what the future will bring. Along the way adopt better tolerance including patience, and even be a little more "selfish" in your personal life management. I enjoyed the book, as I enjoyed his regular Guardian column and his "imperfectionist" emails. A refreshing book compared to much of the self help porn I often read.

Read on Kindle. Published August 2021.

Noriko Koide (b. 1982) is a Japanese composer and "is currently a member of an avant-garde pop duo, Kishibojin Fumin Girls, and a multi-dimensional art group project that focuses on eroticism". Wow. Her eleven minute piece "Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain" was originally commissioned for the BBC SO in 2022 and premiered in Japan. It reminds me in concept like a Japanese formal garden, carefully structured and laid out, but possibly a little underwhelming. It wasn't helped by the audience in the Hall having a surfeit of coughs and sneezes, which accompanying a very subtle quiet piece were very distracting. As a curtain raiser it was ok, but it was a relief to be launched into the Beethoven C Minor piano concerto played well by up and coming Canadian soloist Jan Lisecki. Maybe me being fussy, but it seemed to lack a little of the paced emotion I associate with this work. Elgar's Enigma was as lovely as ever, and bread and butter for the BBC SO. Elim Chan ( 陳以琳; b. 1986) (picture) is a Hong Kong-born conductor, and currently chief conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.

The Bells (Колокола), Op. 35, is a choral symphony by Rachmaninoff, written in 1913. The words are from the poem The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe, very freely translated into Russian by the symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont. It is a wonderful work, one of the composers favourite pieces, and a choral masterpiece.

In 2018 poet and author Michael Pedersen's friend, Scott Hutchison, committed suicide. Hutchinson was a Scottish singer, songwriter, guitarist and artist, and prone to depression. They had known each other for only a few years, but had a close platonic male friendship centred on music, literature, wine, and various shared vacation experiences. This book consists of a series of letters Michael wrote to Scott after he died, celebrating everything that was good in their relationship, expressing unbearable grief, and looking back to previous male friendships that Michael had after school, during work and travel. It was well written, amusing in parts, desperately sad in others. Whilst at times Michael came across as self indulgent and not very nice to know (especially when discussing his drug habits), I was moved by the evident depth of his love for his friend. I have buried several of my close friends (I do a good line in eulogies), and the core message that you shouldn't take any of these relationships for granted is well made.

Published July 2022. Read on Kindle.

Coleridge-Taylor's 11 minute Ballade was written for the 1898 Three Choirs Festival after Elgar told the committee he didn't have time to produce a new work, and suggested Samuel instead. It is fun and lively, but very Elgar inspired and late Victorian. South Korean violinist Kim Bomsori (b. 1989) was the soloist in Bruch's ever popular 1st Violin Concerto, and we had the three Brahms Hungarian Dances he personally scored for orchestra in 1869. The major piece was Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, a gorgeous five movement orchestral work described as a concerto on the basis that "each section of the orchestra is treated in a soloistic and virtuostic way". It was written in 1943 and premiered by the Boston Symphony in 1944. German female conductor Anja Bihlmaier (b. 1978) is the Principal conductor of the Dutch Residente Orchest of The Hague, where she has been since 2021.

Concert held partially the commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Royal Northern College of Music, featuring a new work by Grace-Evangeline Mason (b. 1994) who studied at the RNCM. Many of the players of the BBC Philharmonic are alumni, and they were joined on stage by current students. Mason's new five minute piece "Ablaze the Moon" was fun - quite lively and interesting. To quote one 5* review of the concert, the new work was "....based on a poem by the American writer Sara Teasdale, the unheard words of which dictate the contours of the woodwind melody that forms its kernel. Impressionist string phrases hovering over penumbral dissonances suggest moonlight in darkness. It’s quietly effective, and was beautifully done." Stephen Hough made light work of the 1st Rachmaninov Piano Concerto with a fantastic performance and the BBC Phil played Mahler's 1st Symphony brilliantly. I am not a big Mahler fan, but this work is so full of good tunes and wonderful orchestration that I always enjoy it.

Second piece by Coleridge-Taylor, his rather lyrical Violin Concerto from 1912, composed just before his death for American violinst Maud Powell. Soloist was US born former BBC New Generation Artist, Elena Urioste. The "Five Études-tableaux" (or "Table Pictures") were composed by Rachmaninov for the piano, and orchestrated by Respighi. The actual themes were disclosed to Respighi, and are "The Fair", "The Sea and Seagulls", "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf", "Funeral March", and "March". They are good fun as you'd expect. The Beethoven 5 was of course superbly played. Otaka (b. 1947) is the Life Conductor of the BBC NOW, and was it's principal conductor in 1987-1995. I have always wondered what it would have been like to have been at that four hour concert on 22nd December 1808, when the 5th and 6th symphonies, the 4th piano concerto, the Choral Fantasy, and extracts of the C Major Mass were all premiered!

Wonderful programme of spirituals and associated music by 40 year old American counter-tenor Reginald Mobley and Jazz pianist Baptiste Trotignon. Concert also included pieces by American composers Florence Price and Henry Thacker Burleigh.

Fado is a style of "folk" singing in Portugal, described as the musical soul of that country. It can be traced back to the 1820s, with likely earlier origins. It is a form of mournful singing, often about the sea or life of the poor, with emotions of resignation, loss, or grief. Sounds a barrel of laughs, and indeed it was deemed incompatible with the 1924-1975 Portuguese military revolution. Lately it has undergone a resurgence, with noted singers and international appeal. This prom concert was excellent, with Mariza (Marisa does Reis Nunes (b. 1973)) and traditional players, backed by the London Contemporary Orchestra giving a wonderful performance. Although I understand few of the words, I enjoyed the sheer force of emotion that these songs convey.

Ten BBC radio documentaries examining big turning points in the life of Walt Disney and the Walt Disney Company. The programmes covered Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins and the Jungle Book. We also had an episode focused on the construction of Disneyland in California in the 1950s, and EPCOT at Walt Disney World in Florida in the 1970s. Throughout we had snippets of Walt's life story, his marital problems, his health, the perilous financial state of the Disney Company until theme park revenue rescued it from the challenges of being forever millions in debt to the Bank of America, and the often dysfunctional relationships with his staff and family. It was really well done, and although as a Disney nut I already knew much of the story, hearing it presented in this way was very compelling. I wasn't aware however how relatively poor the box office and critical acclaim were for the films made in the years after Snow White, almost until the smash hit that was Mary Poppins. Fantasia particularly bombed at the box office initially and Alice in Wonderland was seen as a "difficult film". Disney was without a doubt a genius, and his legacy has been immense, but he spent most of his life with the worry that he would leave little in legacy to justify his life's work. He need not have been worried, but his death in 1966 at 65 was still all too early. Narrated by Mel Giedroyc, and incorporating archive footage from the Disney company, TV and radio specials of the time, and the films themselves.

Broadcast July/August 2023. Listened on BBC Sounds. A Novel production for BBC Radio 4.

Opening concert of the 2023 season. Slightly odd programme with performances of two works by Sibelius, both incorporating words sung by the reprieved BBC Singers, who were granted a stay of cost slashing execution by BBC management earlier this year. The lesser known Snöfrid, Op. 29, is a melodrama or "improvisation for narrator, mixed choir and orchestra", completed in 1900 on a text by Viktor Rydberg. The evening also included a new work by modern Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak (b.1968), "Let There Be Light". This was politically a nice touch, but a not terribly memorable premiere, being rather slow and mournful, reflecting maybe the struggles of the Ukrainian people. Paul Lewis played the Grieg Piano Concerto, and the concert ended with a spirited performance of the Britten variations, the concert marred by a second half protest by some "Just Stop Oil" nutters. Listened via Radio 3.

Andrea Tarrodi: Birds of Paradise; Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C major; Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, interspersed with folk music improvisations. Deutsche Kammerphilharmionie Bremen conducted and led by Pekka Kuusisto (violin), Ale Carr (cittern).

Swedish Composer Andrea Tarrodi (b. 1981) composed her 8 minute string piece "Birds of Paradise" in 2008 inspired by a BBC David Attenborough documentary. It is fun, and I enjoyed it. Pekka Kuusisto led the orchestra in the Vivaldi Four Seasons, but played a series of folk tunes with cittern specialist Ale Carr between the movements. It didn't actually do a lot for me - the connections weren't obvious (other than they all related to bucolic countryside customs and images). Beethoven's 1st Symphony was as ever good fun, although getting the Proms audience to hum along with the start of the final movement was weird. He finished the concert with a community sing song of a Finnish folk tune "Piupali Paupali" (arranged by his long term collaborator Nico Muhly).

Opera Up Close is an Arts Council wet dream - boutique opera company, small community based performance spaces, chamber orchestra, multi-media, performing exciting and challenging new repertoire. And they did this re-imaging of Wagner's tale of redemption through love very well. The political optics were topical and horrible - the story was recast as a tale of a group of English coastguards trying to deter illegal immigrants to the UK through the installation and operation of a "wave machine" designed to make ships capsize, drowning all aboard. "Captain Dee" is the commander of the cable laying vessel patrolling the waters around the UK. Into this happy world sails a mysterious vessel commanded by a Mariner, who by bribing "Captain Dee" lands in England. He is however a smuggler of immigrants, who are eventually discovered and drown. The sympathetic coastguard "Starlight" has been helping the Mariner and is arrested for her treason, eventually deciding to sacrifice herself with the smuggled immigrants. This is clearly nothing like the conception of Wagner's opera, and a limited amount of original music was used in the presentation of the new story, however it was very well sung and performed. The members of the Manchester Camerata also doubled up as the chorus, and were dressed in appropriate style. Grand Junction is a re-purposed large Victorian Gothic Church and we were arranged in the nave looking on a basic set with few props and the musicians incorporated into the staging. I sat next to the mother of the Artistic Director of the company, who was delighted I enjoyed the production, and behind a contributor to the Wagner Journal, who was possibly less impressed!