brisbane hate

Steven Isserlis is 60 today! I have flipping' well missed his big birthday concert on Monday at the Wigmore Hall - which included appearances by Simon Keenlyside, András Schiff, Radu Lupu, Ferenc Rados, Josh Bell and Connie Shih - because for some reason we'd thought it would be a good idea to go to Iceland in the middle of December to try and see the Northern Lights... As my Dad used to say, one lives and learns. Steven Isserlis Photo: PA Anyway, it was a wonderful excuse to pop up to north London the other week and interview Steven himself. We talked about music, books, cellos, Rabbi Moses Isserles, Schumann, Fauré, Bloch, the perils of curly hair and the Marx Brothers, among much else. You can read the whole thing in the JC, here.  And here's one select story. His Twitter account makes lively reading, full of hair-raising stories about his travels with his cello. “I was on a Japanese airline, business class — very nice — and I asked the stewardess if she could help make ...

Portrait of Gabriel Fauré by John Singer Sargent I had an extraordinary day a few weeks ago, heading for Paris and the Bibliothèque National with the composer and conductor Bob Chilcott, the presenter Frances Fyfield and the producer Tom Alban to meet the manuscript of the Fauré Requiem. BBC Radio 4's 'Tales from the Stave' is a fascinating series which explores the hidden stories within the composer's handwritten scores, and ours will be on today at 11.30am, and repeated on Sunday. We found, among other things: ...some coffee stains; some intriguing corrections; some elaborate crossings-out; some later changes and slightly wobbly phrase marks; a few bits where he'd started writing on the wrong line, probably because he was scribbling too fast or was completely knackered; in general, a very practical, down-to-earth working score for this other-worldly work of genius. I was mildly disappointed that he hadn't doodled caricatures of Saint-Saëns in the margins, but ...