I announced a very special post for today but we'll have to wait a few days... In the meantime, why don't we listen to a happy song by Schubert? Bei dir allein, performed by Simon Keenlyside and Malcolm Martineau.
Next Sunday we catalan people are celebrating "la nit de Sant Joan" (Saint John's Eve), the shortest night of the year, with bonfires, firework, eating coca (a pastry) and, of course, drinking cava. Would you like to toast with us? Chanson à boire, by Ravel, with Gerald Finley and Julius Drake.
This week we have a guest post, written by the soprano Estefanía Perdomo; she explains to us how she chooses the songs in a recital. She also performs, with Rixt van der Kooij, Besa el aura que gime blandamente, by Joaquín Turina.
After having listened to Silent noon last week, it seems unavoidable to listen to Brahms's Feldeinsamkeit, performed by Christa Ludwig and Geoffrey Parsons.
A Sonnet is a moment's monument,
Memorial from the Soul's eternity
To one dead deathless hour.
One of my ten happiest songs is Silent noon, by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Absolute, fleeting happyness, with Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake.
