Lover of Classical Music, Ballet & Literature. Passionate & Eternal Romantic & Explorer.. “How can I compose without melody?” Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).
I adore Earl Wild’s versions of my favourite composers works, especially the Piano Concerto No.4. I’ve known this quirky masterpiece since I was 14 and heard Raphael Orozco’s superb performance. It’s grown on me slowly over the last 48 years and is now the one I listen to most.❤️
#NowSpinning Earl Wild and Jascha Horenstein with Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Piano Concerto. Well this has started amazingly well. Wild was clearly an absolute keyboard dynamo.
This woman needs to go on Rogan’s show and speak for 3 hours explaining WHAT THE HELL IS REALLY GOING ON🫨! I guess when you study something for 50 years (like DJT has) you become an expert on it🇺🇸. This woman has really opened my mind up👊
W.H.G
@StevenIsserlis@BEliasson2 And some prominent academics have tried to say that he was a Modernist…twisted inverted ‘logic’ which to me at least feels wrong beside his beautiful & passionate music…🎶❤️
@AlmaDeutscher All the very best with this. What’s the programme? I’m guessing Mozart & Richard Strauss (although maybe only Capriccio and Ariadne auf Naxos for the latter with a chamber orchestra?)…good luck anyway…🌹(that should be silver)
Eurovision final in Vienna on May 16? Here’s your refuge…I'll conduct an Opera Gala with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and five outstanding young singers. Tickets (€20 for anyone under 30) → https://t.co/oxYD9x5mSa
I'm so much looking forward to two concerts in Tokyo on April 17 and 18, conducting the New Japan Philharmonic in a programme of Beethoven & Mozart. https://t.co/hPGiNNywyD
Rehearsals for the two amazing operas Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci are starting today. I’m conducting four performances in February in the California Theatre in San Jose. See you there!
The Berliner 6th has much to commend it, notably a delicious and beautifully paced Andante Moderato.
As for Jessye Norman singing Mahler, all I can say is it's Jessye Norman singing Mahler!
🚨🔥🇵🇱🇪🇺 HE SAID “STOP THE WAR” — BRUSSELS SAID “TIME’S UP”
MICROPHONE CUT, EUROPE EXPOSED
When Polish MEP @GrzegorzBraun_ Braun stood in the European Parliament and spoke about ending the war, de-escalation, and peace, the chamber did not answer him with arguments.
It answered him with silence.
His microphone was cut.
Officially, Brussels says this was nothing extraordinary. According to Parliament rules — echoed later by Euronews — Braun exceeded his speaking time or drifted from the assigned topic. Case closed. Procedure followed. Democracy intact.
But politics is not judged by manuals.
It is judged by moments.
And this moment looked bad — very bad.
To Braun’s supporters and a growing part of the European public, the message was unmistakable: you can talk freely in the EU, as long as you repeat the approved script. Talk about sanctions — applause. Talk about weapons — nods. Talk about “as long as it takes” — standing ovations.
Talk about stopping the war?
Click. Microphone off.
Yes, microphones are cut in Brussels every week. But here’s the problem: they are almost never cut when someone demands more escalation. They are cut when someone challenges the direction itself. That asymmetry is what fuels distrust — not conspiracy theories.
This is why the video exploded online.
Because in a Union that endlessly lectures others about free speech, pluralism, and democracy, the optics were devastating. A man calls for peace, and the institution that claims moral superiority shuts him down — procedurally or not.
The defenders of the system insist: rules are rules.
The critics respond: rules are applied selectively.
And history gives people a reason to be suspicious.
Europe has seen this before. In past empires, dissent was rarely banned outright. It was managed. Timed out. Framed as “inappropriate.” Declared “out of scope.” The microphone didn’t disappear — it was taken away politely.
That is what unsettles people today.
Because the real question is no longer about Grzegorz Braun.
It is about whether peace has become the only unacceptable opinion in European politics.
If calling for negotiations is “off-topic,”
if questioning war policy is “irresponsible,”
if asking who profits from endless conflict is “disruptive,”
then Europe is not debating its future — it is enforcing it.
Brussels says: no censorship took place.
Millions watching say: we saw it with our own eyes.
And once trust is gone, no fact-check can bring it back.
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