Cellist of (and sometimes out of) sorts, Author, Father, Lover of Indian and other food and of the Marx Brothers and other people who make me laugh.
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It's Easter! So I thought that a moment of joy from Bach - the Courante of the 1st suite - might be appropriate. Sorry - the sound isn't great (and I look most odd!); but I hope that the message from Mr Bach is clear: hope for renewed life and better times - and...HAPPY EASTER!
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It always frustrates me to hear people say that they don't go to concerts because they don't know enough about classical music. I think my friend Olli Mustonen had the answer to that: 'It's like saying that you won't walk in the forest because you don't know enough about botany.'
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Jacqueline du Pré would have been (only) 78 today! Still such an aching loss - the warmth of her personality was integral to her astonishing ability to communicate her deepest feelings through music. Unforgettable.
"Playing lifts you out of yourself into a delirious place."
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Like everyone else in the music world, I am so sad to hear about the departure of Alfred Brendel. He was a beacon of civilisation, a deeply cultured man who loved music passionately, shared that love widely and never compromised artistically or personally. He will be much missed.
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A very happy birthday to much-beloved Martha Argerich - a living musical icon! Her volcanic temperament, allied with her delicacy, her ageless strength and brilliance, her unique charisma - no wonder she's adored. And a deeply warm, loyal person, too...a phenomenon.
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Life advice from Goethe (b otd 1749):
“Everyone should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of their life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
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Devastated to hear that Radu Lupu has left us. Not only one of the greatest, warmest, most profound musicians I've ever heard, but also a deeply kind, compassionate, modest and humorous man - and a wonderful friend. He was ready to go, true; but he'll still be desperately missed.
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Hmmm....I looked at the BBC's list of notable people who have died this year. It included tributes to many sorts of musicians - but not one 'classical'. I was hoping to see at least Radu Lupu's and Lars Vogt's names - but no; classical music is really sidelined. Why?
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Steve Martin is 75 today!
"I've got to keep breathing. It'll be my worst business mistake if I don't."
"Boy, those French: they have a different word for everything!"
“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.”
"Talking about music is like dancing about architecture."
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Not sure if this is appropriate to post - not exactly cheerful Christmas music! But thinking both of Ivry Gitlis and of all the people having to spend Christmas alone this year,I thought I'd play this Sarabande; because no matter how sad, Bach's music always makes one feel better
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Gosh, Germany... I approached check-in desk here in Berlin. The agent saw my cello, and started singing the opening of the Dvorak concerto. ‘The best,‘ she said. I argued that Schumann’s is equally great; but a tad different from the usual ‘have you got a seat for your guitar?’ !
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My cello just received a Happy Birthday email from an airline with which he holds an account. He's a bit embarrassed - says that actually the last touches to his scroll were put in place on 2nd, not 1st, January 1726. He wants me to send an email explaining, but it's a bit tricky
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Jacqueline du Pre would have been 75 today. Blessed with such talent for music, for loving, for life - and then taken away. But she left us so much; her classic recordings, of course, but also a legacy of inspiration for all musicians that still bears fruit every day. Thank you.
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Question for Twitter parents: I really don't want to start broadcasting from my music room, because there are no acoustics, and it would just be depressing, I think. BUT, with so many children at home, would a live, short children's concert next week be of interest, do you think?
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Wow - I really didn't think this would happen in my lifetime: it seems that a manuscript of the Bach cello suites in Bach's own hand has finally been discovered in Duben Castle, in Blazen in northern Bohemia! Still to be fully authenticated - but let's hope. Amazing...
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Happy birthday, Arvo Pärt! Creator of pure beauty.
"I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener."
"Silence is the pause in me when I am near to God."
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Beyond sad that we have lost our beloved Lars Vogt. It is impossible to imagine a more warm-hearted, life-loving being - he will leave a vast hole in the lives of all his friends and colleagues, not to mention his family. Thank you for all the happiness you brought us, dear Lars.
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The extraordinary Hildegard of Bingen - mystic, writer, composer, doctor, scientist - d otd 1179.
"Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness."
"There is the music of Heaven in all things."
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Feels so poignant to wish the great Michael Palin a happy 80th, when he has just lost his beloved wife, after 57 years of marriage. But we can at least express our gratitude for all the joy, the laughter, the education, etc that he has brought us. A truly good, warm, kind man.
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A charming story from Toscanini, who d otd 1957:
"After conducting a concert in a small town, I received the following note: "Dear Sir, I wish to inform you that the man who played the long thing you pull in and out only did so during the brief periods you were looking at him."
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Jacqueline du Pré would have been 80 today! How we'd have celebrated her - so tragic that it's over 50 years since she played, 40 since she died. I'm sure she'd still have been playing with that same warmth, passion, instinctive understanding, joy, and genius for communication...
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I - or rather my cello - just received a Happy Birthday greeting from an airline which has kindly granted him a frequent flyer number. I'd forgotten that I'd put down his birthday as January 1st - hmmm...one wonders what the airline's computer thought about the birth year, 1726?
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Jacqueline du Pré should have been a mere 77 today - our huge loss. An irresistibly warm artist/communicator/person - glorious.
"I have the same feeling when I walk in a very beautiful place that I have when I play and it goes right."
I hope she's in just such a place now...
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Strange experience just now with @BBCRadio3. I heard Faure's Elegy. My honest reaction was: it's okay, and I don't really disagree with the interpretation; but the vibrato is too fast, and some of the phrasing too heavy. And then - it was me! (Oh well - I plan to re-record it...)
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Anne Frank b otd 1929:
I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness... I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change... that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return.
(1944)
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Anne Frank should have been 92 today:
"I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness... I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better... that peace and tranquility will return."
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35 years today since beloved Jacqueline du Pré left us. What a communicator: the warmth of her heart, her passionate personality, shone through every note she played. What a tragic end - but let us remember her now at her happiest, touching our hearts so deeply with her music.
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Wow - a new experience: a check-in I actually enjoyed! I told the @lufthansa agent I was travelling with a cello. ‘Where is he?’she asked. I showed her, & thanked her for not saying ‘it’. ‘You told me last time!’ Then: ‘You’re in 19E, my friend is in 19F’ Her FRIEND? Wonderful!
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Glenn Gould would have been 89 today - he's been gone far too long. Brilliant, genuinely different, occasionally infuriating (musically), always fascinating, surprising - a major figure in 20th century music-making. And (reportedly) as a man truly charming and warm. Much missed!
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A little Christmas message. Sorry - I know: unglamorous sound (and look, of course!); too much vibrato; image wrong way around; etc. But - it's Christmas! So - all is (hopefully) forgiven. HAPPY CHRISTMAS !!!
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Someone drew this at the concert tonight in Barcelona, and presented it to me afterwards. What a manic-looking cellist - haha. But I like it!
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First the good news, then the bad: I explained to a really helpful security man at Heathrow how fragile the cello is. 'Stradivarius, is it?' he asked. 'Yes,' I replied. He looked impressed; but then his face took on a look of awe. 'You're not Andre Rieu, are you?' he gasped. Hmm.
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A very happy 99th to Dick Van Dyke!!Wise man.
“We should never judge a day by its weather.”
“Moses probably danced a little, right? You don't part the Red Sea without having some moves.”
“Somebody asked what I wanted on my gravestone. I'm just going to put: 'Glad I Could Help.’”
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JS Bach d 270 years ago today. It seems as if for a lot of people, during this time of crisis, his music has been more important than any other. It comforts through its calm wisdom, its serene radiance - perhaps through its essential goodness? Thank you, Cantor of Leipzig!
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Bach's St Matthew Passion premiered otd 1729 - surely one of the summits of Western art. Every shade of sadness, allied with the deepest compassion; never depressing, but heart-breakingly beautiful. And is there a more moving moment in music than Erbarme Dich? A true miracle.
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Deeply important facts about composers: Brahms owned a telephone, but rarely used it; Balakirev resolutely refused to have one; and Tchaikovsky was persuaded to try a long-distance call once, but was so overwhelmed that he felt faint and had to hang up. So there you have it.
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Jacqueline du Pre would have been 74 today. Hard to think of her as anything but young - the golden girl with unlimited talent and irresistible joy in music. What a communicator - and what an inspiration for all of us lucky enough to be young musicians during her playing years.
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Sometimes name-dropping is worth it. Security official at airport this morning: 'I have to look at your instrument." Me: "Please be careful." Him: "Is it a Stradivarius, haha?" Me: "Yes." Silence while his eyebrows take a trip to the north - then delicate care. Thank you, Mr S!
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What a day for music! Two geniuses b otd: JS Bach (1685), Joseph Haydn (1732). The one sublime, godlike, every note he wrote radiating a heavenly perfection; the other constantly experimenting, shocking us, making us laugh and weep. We are so lucky that they visited this planet!
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Strange… I was carrying my cello through Cremona today, when suddenly I heard him shouting inside his case: ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ And then he insisted on having a family photo…
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A very happy 70th to Yo-Yo Ma!! A brilliant cellist and musician with an endlessly enquiring mind - for matters musical and non-musical - full of astonishingly positive energy and a burning desire to make the world a better place. And every bit as lovely in private as in public.
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A very happy birthday to glorious Martha Argerich! What a phenomenon: as a person - charismatic, certainly, but also quiet, and rather shy; at the piano - a musical volcano, whose explosive passion and seemingly inexhaustible tonal palette thrills us all. Thank you for the joy!
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Gratitude for the life of Ludwig van Beethoven b otd (probably) 1770. The strength of his spirit, expressed through his music, enriches our lives immeasurably. The joy, the tenderness, the passion, the fathomless beauty, the humour, the profundity - it makes us proud to be human!
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Shostakovich d otd 1975. Such a powerful composer - I can't understand why some people reject him. Quite aside from the impossible circumstances of his life, he was such a master musician! His music is so vividly imaginative, so irresistibly passionate - and so brilliantly witty.
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B otd (OS) 1685 - JS Bach! His art reaches the pinnacle of sublimity. Through his music we feel God; but a God who weeps with us, laughs with us, dances with us - who understands us. No surprise that during these days, people have needed Bach's music more than any other.
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A very happy 90th to Arvo Pärt, creator of unearthly beauty which has brought us such joy and comfort...
"I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener."
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Wow - rather gratifying email from British Airways this morning! "Dear Mr Isserlis, In view of your unfortunate experiences with us over in recent times, we have decided to offer you and your cello free travel for a year (economy class only, excluding 15/12/23 to 6/1/24).' Nice!
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Jacqueline du Pré would have been 76 today - probably still playing. What a communicator she was - such warmth, such generosity of spirit, such fire; and it all came from deep within her. Still so much missed.
"Playing lifts you out of yourself into a delirious place."
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Jacqueline du Pré b otd 1945 - so poignant to think that she could/should still be playing today. But thankfully her warmth, her love of music, her generosity, her amazing talent for communicating her emotions through music, live on through her recordings. A beautiful spirit.
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Beethoven buried otd 1827 (Schubert one of the pallbearers). One thinks of him as isolated by then, his futuristic late music ignored; but the fact that some 20,000 people - the equivalent of well over 600,000 in today's London or NY - lined the streets on that day belies this.
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I find it hard to understand why so many countries - not just the UK - ignore children’s music education. There are so many benefits, academic as well as social/creative - it can help so much with numeracy and literacy. And the emotional aspect! A singing child is a happy child.
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And a very happy birthday to beloved Martha Argerich! Gloriously warm, musically and personally. I was lucky enough to play several concerts with her late last year; when asked how it was, I'd say that it was like playing with a volcano - a volcano was that was enjoying itself!
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Freddie Mercury would have been 75 today! What a creative spirit and imagination - and what a voice...
"I won't be a rock star. I will be a legend."
"When I'm dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worth and substance."
You are, Freddie! And will always be...
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Happy birthday to @YoYo_Ma - master-cellist, passionate supporter of good causes, and wonderfully friendly person; a great combination! And so right here:
"With every year of playing, you want to relax one more muscle. Why? Because the more tense you are, the less you can hear."
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And today we have the birthday of JS Bach (1685). How could such a miracle have occurred on our planet? The sublimity, the glorious perfection of ALL his music - as well as the joy, the charm, the humour, the absolute profundity; one can't explain it - one can only be grateful.
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Happy birthday to ageless musical miracle Martha Argerich! Uniquely beloved - perhaps in part because she is such a 'people' person: a fiercely loyal friend, who loves to party, to laugh (and gossip!). And perennially modest: 'forgive my sins', she says, as she walks onstage...
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A very happy special birthday to the miraculous Martha Argerich, whose astonishing mastery, volcanic temperament and sweeping emotional generosity keep her forever young! Thank you for giving so many people so much, dear Martha...
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Alas, Brahms d otd 1897. A complicated man who spent most of his mature years trying to conceal the deep warmth of his heart; but - despite the classicism of many of his works - it poured out through his music. Such glorious warmth, profundity, sheer irresistible beauty. Genius!
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Franz Schubert b otd 1797. Was there ever a composer of more natural talent, from whom beauty and charm flowed in such an endless stream? But way beyond charm: the profundity, the drama, the tragedy of his music - particularly that of his last five years - is unique. True genius
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And a very happy 90th to Alfred Brendel, a model of musical integrity and passionately searching music-making:
"If I belong to a tradition, it is a tradition that makes the masterpiece tell the performer what to do, and not the performer telling the piece what it should be like."
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Vladimir Horowitz b otd 1903 - what a unique, charismatic musical voice! And wise:
“Always there should be a little mistake here and there - I am for it. The people who don't do mistakes are cold like ice. It takes risk to make a mistake. If you don't take risk, you are boring.”
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Such wise words from Gustav Mahler (d otd 1911):
“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”
“In Bach, the vital cells of music are united as the world is in God.”
“A symphony must contain everything.”
“I don't choose what I compose. It chooses me.”
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Our beloved Franz Schubert b otd 1797 - has there ever been a composer from whom breathtaking beauty flowed with such (seeming) ease? With just a few notes, he can take us to heaven, charm us, traumatise us, melt our hearts. As a man, modest, humble; as a composer, life-changing.
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By no means an original thought, I know - but true: it is a good idea to start days by listening to Bach (usually in my case the Well-Tempered Clavier). Its divine order and precise beauty help one face the depressing chaos in our world, about which we have to read each morning.
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Stravinsky d 50 years ago today! An irresistible, transformative musical force.
"Music must be listened to; it is not enough to hear it. A duck hears also."
"Art is the opposite of chaos. Art is organised chaos."
"Hurry? I have no time to hurry."
"Music expresses itself."
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Antonín Dvořák b otd 1841! What a composer - so utterly natural and loveable, but also a profound master. And humbly devout:
"Do not wonder that I am so religious. An artist who is not could not produce anything like this...I study with the birds, flowers, God and myself."
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Beethoven b otd 1770! A gift to humanity. And to those who say that he represents a 'macho' culture, may I (gently) point out that you're missing the point? NOTHING macho about his music; it's full of tenderness, joy, love. But there IS a strength of spirit that helps us to live.
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Dmitri Shostakovich d otd 1975. A tragic life in many ways; but that was not all there was in his life - or in his music. His son Maxim describes him as a 'joyous' person; and there is so much more than bitterness and suffering in his works. It has everything! A wondrous musician
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A happy 80th (amazing!) to John Eliot Gardiner, who has done so much to bring the music of Monteverdi and other baroque composers back to life; to present fresh interpretations of so many great choral masterpieces; to present pure, truly musical operatic productions; and so on!
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Sergie Rachmaninov b otd (os) 150 years ago! What a genius - as both composer and performer, he combined emotional depth, freedom, fathomless beauty and architectural mastery. Those who dismiss his music are - misguided...! A powerful musical voice, who moves us in a unique way.
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I don't understand the current fashion for playing Bach's music so fast! True, we're told that Bach favoured 'lively tempi'; and it's good to have a sense of dance. But what is authentic about obliterating the ever-varying harmonic characters, the natural breaths between phrases?
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Mozart b otd 1756! What a genius; for him, creating great music seems to have been as natural as conversing in speech. His music has everything: tragedy, comedy, profundity, charm, brilliance, intense drama - but always clothed in beauty. His music makes our world a better place!
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Gabriel Fauré b otd 1845! I'm often asked what my main ambition is at this point; my answer is that I want to help make Fauré's chamber-music better known. It is just GLORIOUS - ecstatic, breathtakingly beautiful, profound, sublime; for me some of the greatest music ever written.
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Mozart d otd 1791 - not, it seems, prepared for death (as Schubert may have been), but desperately fighting for life. What would he have given us! But then - the treasures he DID leave: music not just of perfect beauty, but also of revolutionary, life-changing strength and depth.
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Thoughts from Mikhail Gorbachev (91 today):
"The world will not accept dictatorship or domination."
"What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars."
"I think we need to elect young people to government. We need to give them a chance, in the media, in politics, in democracy."
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Alas, otd 1791 we lost Mozart, aged just 35 - miracle of nature, to whom music really came as naturally as singing to a bird. There's a story (apocryphal?) that someone asked him how he managed to write such perfect music. 'I know no other way to compose,' was the reply.
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Mozart b otd 1756! A flawed comparison, because Mozart worked hard to master his art; but his music reminds me of a wild animal of breathtaking grace, who has no idea how beautiful he/she is. Mozart's music just IS, in all its perfection and profundity and charm. A gift from God!
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Happy birthday Itzhak Perlman!
My goal is to not be bored by what I do. The only way that I cannot be bored is if I play something and it's all new to me.
Teaching is really very, very important...When you teach others, you teach yourself.
The most important thing is to listen.
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A very happy birthday to force-for-good Yo-Yo Ma (b otd 1955). Such a welcoming, inclusive, creative musician, whose concern is not just for the music itself but for the power of music to do good.
"One of the great things about being a musician is that you never stop learning."
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Musicians are in a truly paradoxical situation at the moment: on the one hand, we feel deeply appreciated, because people so need great music now; on the other hand, we are practically paralysed, mostly unable to perform, many leaving the profession in desperation. Strange times.
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Leonard Cohen would have been 90 today!
There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.
The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show.
If I knew where the good songs came from, I'd go there more often.
Music is the emotional life of most people.
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Why is it that Beethoven is so often portrayed as above all the creator of dark, fist-shaking music? There is some of that, it's true; but it is - proportionally, at any rate - completely outweighed by music of profound tenderness, introspection, wonderful humour - and joy!
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What a day: JS Bach b otd 1685; Joseph Haydn otd 1732! The one sublime, godlike - but his music still full of tenderness, compassion, humour, energy; the other so fresh, loveable, gloriously original, often laugh-out-loud funny. Both continue to make the world a better place...
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What a day - Brahms b otd 1833, Tchaikovsky 1840! Neither understood the other's music, it seems; but actually they had a lot in common - passionate romantics both accused of relying too strongly on classical models. Such rubbish! Both wrote straight from their hearts to ours...
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Chopin d otd 1849 - a tragic exile. What an extraordinary composer; like Scarlatti, he created a world of his own, where nobody else could really follow - a world of breathtaking beauty, strength, tenderness, pride, and infinite magic.
"Simplicity is the final achievement."
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At this horrible time, it's nice to dream of time travel. I've chosen 5 events to attend: 1) Bach conducting the St Matthew Passion; 2) Beethoven improvising; 3) A Paganini concert; 4) Dickens reading; 5) One of the Marx Brothers' Broadway shows. Should be a nice trip...
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Alas, Franz Schubert d otd 1828, at 31 - so much too young. But had he not known he was going to die, could he have written works of such profundity, which take us, irresistibly, to both heaven and hell? But also: was there ever a composer to whom divine beauty came so naturally?
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Beethoven born otd 1770! A composer who has truly changed the world, bequeathing us his strength through all adversity, his joy in the world, his love of humanity. And all through music of infinite profundity, originality, beauty, drama, tenderness and humour. We're so grateful!
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Ah, Germany and music... Last night's taxi driver immediately asked what I thought of Schumann's cello concerto; the lively discussion took up the whole ride. And this morning's frugal hotel breakfast was transformed by Schumann's Rhenish symphony filling the room. Civilisation!
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A London black cab driver just told me that cabbies now refer to £10 notes as 'Pavarotti'. 'Why?' I asked (not at my brightest). 'Because it's a tenner...'
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JS Bach b otd (NS) 1685! How can this man, for whom art and faith were surely intertwined,have produced music of such unmatched sublimity? His music expresses every human emotion; but it is as if a father were watching - and empathising with - the joys and sorrows of his children
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French cellist Paul Tortelier b otd 1914. Charismatic, eccentric, quixotic (in looks and character) - and a great cellist and musician. He was such a major presence in our lives during my youth - his masterclasses were televised on BBC2 at primetime! Ah - those were the days...
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Interesting. At the bus stop just now, somebody said: ‘You’re a cellist, obviously. I’d say you were Steven Isserlis, but you’re younger than he is.’ Hmm... I THINK I’m pleased by that...
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Wonderful thoughts on music from WA Mozart - d otd 1791:
"If only the whole world could feel the power of harmony."
"Music, in even the most terrible situations, must never offend the ear but always remain a source of pleasure."
"I choose such notes that love one another."
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And a very happy birthday to Yo-Yo Ma, wonderful cellist and human being. Tireless in his efforts to improve the world through music; and (not always the case with famous people) as lovely in private as in public! May he have MANY more years of bringing joy.
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And a happy 70th to Sir Andras Schiff - an extraordinary musician whose knowledge and mastery of a vast range of music is nothing short of breathtaking. A phenomenon…
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