England, My England

Nige watches Tony Palmer's curious 1995 film about Henry Purcell and finds that the music triumphs over the clunking polemics... On Christmas Day in 1995, Channel 4's TV treat was a two and a half hour film about Henry Purcell (how times change!). I didn't watch England, My England at the ... Read More...

The Birds of My Youth!

From his base in Andalucia (aka Eastenders-on-Sea), Mahlerman's thoughts turn to birdsong and its influence on great music... Close to where I live in London, the gentrification of the old East End continues apace, and if Doug and Dinsdale Piranha were spreading their reign of terror today, they would discover that ... Read More...

Oui, je l’aime Brahms….

From the brothels of Hamburg to a place amongst the musical Gods, Mahlerman tells the story of Johannes Brahms... In 1854 the now-obscure composer Peter Cornelius coined the phrase The Three B's by way of describing, for him, the so-called 'Holy Trinity' of composers comprising J S Bach, Beethoven and Hector ... Read More...

Picturing Music

  Today Mahlerman looks at composers who also painted, or painters who also composed... The overlap and admixture of musical composition and painting was not something I had even considered until, quite recently, I heard a piece of music (thank you Radio 3) by the Lithuanian composer and painter Mikalojus Ciurlionis - ... Read More...

Lord Berners – The man who left Lesbos

Steerforth remembers one of the more flamboyant dabblers of the 20th century... One of the most colourful and unjustly forgotten characters of the last century is Lord Berners. Born Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson in 1883, Berners went to Eton and worked as a diplomat until he inherited his title. For the remainder of ... Read More...

Academic Ears

  This week Mahlerman considers musicology, and the difference between knowledge of music, and mere knowledge about music... Most Dabblers will know that when a sociologist goes to a strip-club, he watches the audience. Similarly, as the great Lancastrian Sir Thomas Beecham reminded us, a musicologist can write music but he can't ... Read More...