PROVOCATIVE THOUGHTS:
The late Patric Standford may have written these short pieces deliberately to provoke our feedback. If so, his success is reflected in the rich range of readers' comments appearing at the foot of most of the pages.
SPONSORED: Ensemble. A Great Start - Freddie Meyers' new opera A Sketch of Slow Time impresses Alice McVeigh.
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Pierre Monteux the conductor was born in Paris on 4 April 1875. He conducted Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in the infamous Paris première in 1913 when associated with Diaghelev's Ballet Russe. He was eminent as a conductor of modern music, and had periods of residency in America with both the Boston Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. He died in Hancock, Maine, USA, on 1 July 1964.
Malcolm Smith (1932-2011) - A celebration, not an obituary, by Bill Newman
Ensemble. Young Eroticism in the Third French Republic - Massenet's 'Manon' returns to Rome, reviewed by Giuseppe Pennisi