She did her duty

The first performance was presented at the Royal Opera House, London, in 1953. The Queen attended.

A Feast of Chamber Music

Thanks to David Nice’s Russian Music class, I’ve been introduced not only to a wealth of chamber music I didn’t know, but also to a cornucopia of brilliant musicians. In a past class, this included Boris Giltburg, and in the most recent class Alina Ibragimova and Benjamin Baker—and through Baker, Daniel Lebhardt.

Goodbye to Tolerance

Denise Levertov’s poem, “Goodbye to Tolerance,” begins:

Latin Lessons from Musorgsky and Britten

“The text” of Modest Musorgsky’s The Seminarist (1866), writes Stephen Walsh,

Sound the flute!

Central Park Conservatory Garden, April 23

Spring

Sound the flute!
Now it’s mute.
Birds delight
Day and night;
Nightingale
In the dale,
Lark in sky,
Merrily,
Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year.