More tinkling of ivories

Thankfully the titular ivory tinkling is not that of more teeth falling out........

One's disgust at certain election results can only go so far, you know.....

(And may I suggest that the more immediately bewildered scroll back a couple of posts...it may begin to make sense.....sort of.....)

No, the ivories being tinkled tonight were those of a Concert Grand piano, live from The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

I was driving home from work at The Hole Making Shop (late shift:10:00 a.m. - 20:00) and on the radio I heard the most magnificent rendition of Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat major, courtesy of BBC Radio Three, The Halle Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze, and Martin Helmchen at the piano.

It was bloody marvelous!

Of course, this seemingly sudden foray into the highbrow may come as a surprise to some of you.

It is all Chris Evans's fault.

Unable to stand him and his Radio Two breakfast show any longer, I re-tuned to Radio Three.

I took my time settling in, but after a while couldn't understand why I'd ever listened to anything else. (Actually, that can be readily answered in two words: Terry Wogan......late, great and much lamented, which I suppose is five more words.....)

So now, instead of a media multi-millionaire exhorting me to 'give what I can' to BBC Children In Need, I have acquired unlimited access to sublime music.

That sounds like a win/win.......

See if you can catch this evening's performance on Listen Again on the BBC website.

You've got 29 days from today left to listen......

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
The Hallé is conducted by Andrew Manze in a programme which begins on the storm-tossed oceans of Wagner's Flying Dutchman and ends in a work which became an emblem for the Finnish people.
Presented by Stuart Flinders

If not, google it and find a version of it on You Tube, or buy a C.D. or even a record (remember them?)

And as you listen, and are transported beyond the tiresome drudgery of these uncertain, dangerous and above all, thoroughly interesting times, remember that Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot, and even Imelda Marcos didn't succeed in killing this music.

Bashir Assad hasn't.

Putin hasn't.

Isis haven't.

And Boris Johnson can't spell it.

And most importantly, whatever The Donald's presidency does inflict upon this poor benighted world, he won't kill this music either.

Take heart.

X