macmankev: Archive

“Oscar Wilde quite rightly said, ‘All art is useless’. And that may sound as if that means it’s something not worth supporting. But if you actually think about it, the things that matter in life are useless. Love is useless. Wine is useless. Art is the love and wine of life. It is the extra, without which life is not worth living.” —Stephen Fry (via starsmending) (via musicophilia)

Jun 22, 201063 notes

#Stephen Fry #Stephen Fry In America

Jun 22, 2010397 notes

#space #astronomy #science

Jun 22, 20102 notes

Jun 22, 2010

Pohadka (A tale): I. Con moto Leoš Janáček

musicophilia:

Pohádka (Fairy Tale), for cello & piano (“The Story of Tsar Berendyey”), JW 7/5; I. Con moto

Leoš Janáček

Andrew Shulman, cello; Ian Brown, piano

This is the earliest surviving instrumental duet by Janáček. It is in a free sonata form and might well have been named “Sonata” or “Sonata-fantasy,” but Janácek’s penchant for drama emerges here. The piece is inspired by Vasily Zhukovsky’s poem The Tale of Tsar Bendvei, which itself is a modern poetic adaptation of old heroic tales. The plot involves a young warrior-prince who finds himself taken by the king of the underworld. He has to triumph in tests of valor and magic, and is aided in this by the king’s daughter, who has fallen in love with Bendvei. Janáček was a late bloomer, musically, and although he was approaching 60 when he wrote the piece, he was still developing his most familiar late style. Nevertheless, the work abounds with the very short melodies which are Janáček’s thumbprint, allowing for brisk, effective musical story-telling. —Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide

I like this. It’s beautiful. I’ve got a thing for cello and piano solos, put the two together in a duet, and it’s just magic.

Jun 21, 2010155 notes

#saturn #space #astronomy

Jun 21, 201012 notes

#science #engineering #nuclear power

Jun 21, 2010

#Doctor Who