Feeling like all of your color has drained this morning? Grab your cup of coffee - or cuppa - and go with Ms. Uchida to Cleveland for her marvelous Mozart. Then see what happens ...
Timothy Weir
@tgweir.bsky.social
Retired. Writer and community contributor in Evansville Ind. Music, art, travel, positivity.
Choice – Pianist Sir Stephen Hough's new @hyperionrecords.bsky.social release, Piano Postcards, has been named an Editor's Choice in the August 2026 issue of Gramophone. From Hough’s Mary Poppins Suite arrangement to Sinding’s Rustle of Spring, its short pieces dazzle and delight.
Celebrating yesterday’s 85th birthday of Spanish viol player and conductor Jordi Savall. My introduction to him (and the viol) was his music for the 1991 French film, “Tous les Matins du Monde” about the reclusive 17th century French viola de gamba player and composer Sainte Colombe (1640-1700).
Truer words were never spoken. Thank you, @betheena.bsky.social, for reminding me of this timeless quote.
Goldilocks Goldbergs – I have owned this recording for 20 years, and a recent review reminded me to play it. For his Goldberg Variations, pianist Wilhelm Kempff traded ornamentation for clarity and singing line. All inner voices are distinct. Startling, at first, yet, how it sings!
'Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.' George Eliot *** Édouard Manet (French, 1832 – 1883) Two Pears 1864
Happy 74th birthday to early music pioneer Reinhard Goebel. Once a self-professed musical “troublemaker,” he was born on this day in 1952. A baroque violinist and musicologist, he founded the Musica Antiqua Köln in 1973. Now he leads us to the unfamiliar with the Berlin Baroque Soloists.
Happy Friday! Have a sip of your coffee, take a deep breath, and remember to keep showing up for who and what matters to you.
Blues Legend at 90 – Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, and Luther Allison are gone, but Buddy Guy is still here playing. Today, this guitar genius and sharecroppers’ son from rural Louisiana celebrates his 90th birthday. Cherish him while he is still here. Guy is the last man standing. See tour.
Looking forward to this forthcoming release of additional Haitink recordings for Philips and Decca.
Celebrating the 85th birthday of Naples-born maestro Riccardo Muti by listening to his atmospheric Philadelphia Scriabin symphonies and orchestral works for EMI. The reference, and among his greatest achievements on record, these are works full of character and color. Muti mines it all.
Happy birthday to Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, one of the leading contemporary proponents of Bach on the piano. Born into a musical family in Ottawa, her many recordings of - and worldwide tours performing - Bach’s music on her Fazoli piano are legendary in the music world.
Realist - On his birthday, sharing The Cellist of 1895 by Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), one of the finest realist artists in American history. In addition to painting, he was an early adopter of emerging photographic technology.
Happy Provence Friday! Take a sip of coffee from Café and enjoy the fragrant air in this field of lavender. It's going to be a beautiful day. Art: Café and Valley of Lavender, oil on board from Postcard from Provence, Julian Merrow-Smith.
Happy birthday, too, to late pianist and teacher Leon Fleisher (1928-2020), one of America’s great concert pianists of the 1950s-1960s (his Brahms and Beethoven concertos with George Szell are legendary). A neurological disorder limited him to playing piano with his left hand alone for 30+ years.
Happy birthday to now-retired pianist Maria João Pires, born on this day in 1944 in Lisbon, Portugal. Such a sincere musician. "I love music, but I love it in the same way as an amateur does; it's part of my life, but I couldn't just think about that and nothing else all day."
Happy birthday to American artist Edward Hopper (1882–1967). Cape Ann, Mass., is the place his career got its boost. It is also where he met his wife, Jo (here’s his painting of her there at Good Harbor Beach). Go see the Cape Ann Museum next time you’re in Rockport and Gloucester.
“Everywhere in the world, music enhances a hall, with one exception: Carnegie Hall enhances the music.” — Isaac Stern What better day than his birthday to thank Stern for leading the campaign that saved Carnegie Hall from demolition in 1960? Generations of musicians and concertgoers are grateful.
Happy belated birthday (yesterday) to Hudson River School artist James Renwick Brevoort (1832-1918), a descendant of New York's early Dutch settlers. He was recognized for his landscape paintings with realistic detail and dramatic lighting in the Hudson River School style. Art: Sunset, c.1880.
Happy birthday to the great Austrian conductor Michael Gielen (1927-2019), who gave us one of the finest recorded Mahler symphony cycles of the past century. What a gift.
“I am a colorist with line.“ Happy birthday to French Impressionist Edgar Degas (1834-1917). He enabled us to see ballet like no other artist.
Celebrating the birthday of distinguished conductor Kurt Masur (1927-2015), who spent 16 years leading the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (1970–1996) and 11 the New York Philharmonic (1991-2002). He also appeared frequently as a guest conductor worldwide.
This set’s presentation of French musical history in live recordings is an immediate solution for boredom. A box of wonders.
Happy birthday to French Barbizon School founder and artist Camille Corot (1796-1875). He created over 3,000 works, painting in France, Italy, Switzerland, and Holland. His plein-air technique and focus on atmosphere inspired and anticipated the Impressionists. Art: The Evening Star, 1864
Mediterranean Two-Sip Take a sip of your Friday, friends. It is here, and not a moment too soon. Let the coffee, sun, birdsong and breeze soothe you, wherever you find them.
