When Beethoven Is Enough

Martha Argerich – Mischa Maisky

Beethoven Cello Sonata in G minor, Op 5 No 2

With thanks to Bert and Curt for spotting this wonderful performance and sending it on.

Best Wishes for the Season

Listening List

Best wishes for the holiday season, and here’s to better times ahead.

Read more: Best Wishes for the Season

Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131 (1826)

Good Riddance, 2020

With sheep, a cat, and Beethoven . . .

Visiting Mr. Darcy’s Mansion

Chatsworth House

Well, not exactly, though it’s said that Jane Austen may have “based her idea of Pemberley on Chatsworth House”:

The eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of the valley into which the road into some abruptness wound.

Just Skating Around Eliot’s Four Quartets

It is this madness to explain. . . .
—John Ashbery, The Skaters (I)

The thermometer reads 5 degrees; goldfinches hang from the feeder, juncos peck at seeds on the ground. I wonder at their ability to stay warm in this weather. I know there’s a scientific explanation, but I don’t need one: it’s enough to witness it.