I look up at the sky, always overcast, fasten my jacket tightly (it’s chilly!) and think that in a few days I'll be back in Barcelona, with much warmer temperatures and a much bluer sky. But there is still time to send you a second musical postcard from my travels: Stehe still [stand still], the second of Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, composed in February 1858.

Dear all, I’m on holiday. As ever, I've paid a visit to the music-postcard display where I’m staying, and there are so many and so beautiful... I’ve selected two, which you’ll receive on the last Wednesday in September and the first in October.

After leaving home (Das Wandern) and following the path shown to him by a brook (Wohin?), the young miller arrives at a mill where he will ask for work (Halt) and fall in love with the miller’s daughter (Danksagung an der Bach). This is how we find him in the fifth song of Die schöne Müllerin, Am Feierabend [On the restful evening].

Sometimes, being in the right place at the right time is a matter of luck. Other times, it’s the result of careful planning. When it comes to songs, they obviously can’t choose for themselves, and they depend on the judgement of performers, composers, or editors. And sometimes, poor things, they suffer the consequences of an unfortunate choice. Because, let’s be clear: it’s [...]

I've prepared the four posts dedicated to the Schubertíada programme well in advance, otherwise it would be impossible (it’s hard enough even doing it this way. But the moment comes when we’ve savoured the final concert and I must have something ready to publish forty-eight hours later, and the thing is, nothing’s ready yet. On the one hand, my head is [...]