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.
VIDEO PODCAST: Slava Ukraini! - recorded on 24 February 2022, the day the world woke up to the news that Vladimir Putin's Russian forces had invaded Ukraine. A fifty minute video which also features Caitríona O'Leary and Eric Fraad discussing their new film Island of Saints, and pays tribute to Joseph Horovitz, Malcolm Troup and Maria Nockin.
French musicologist François-René Tranchefort was born circa 1933. He was the author of a famous series of classical music guides published by éditions Fayard, including Guide de la Musique Symphonique, a listening guide for unsuspecting audience members. music lovers and professionals which contains about 1,500 commentaries on works by some two hundred composers.
The book, on which Tranchefort collaborated with André Lischke, Michel Parouty and Marc Vignal, won the 1986 Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros.
Tranchefort went on to produce Guide de la musique de piano et de clavecin (1987), Guide de la musique de chambre (1989) and Guide de la musique sacrée et chorale, de 1750 à nos jours (1993).
François-René Tranchefort died on 22 May 2019, aged eighty-six.