National Open Youth Orchestra at the Proms in August.....

143) Stanley Herbert Wilson made a living as a music teacher for most of his life, teaching Anthony Payne, Alan Hacker and Christopher Field among others. He also composed a series of full scale concertos, choral works and two symphonies in the 20s and 30s. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley... #jawiki

I have mixed feelings about the TLS as a fortnightly, but on the whole I think it was probably necessary and am generally positive. This article by Norma Clarke on a curious biography of Ballard by Christopher Priest, with Nina Allan adding a dissenting perspective on both writers, is excellent

Remembering: A Concert of Music by Eric Wetherell YouTube video by homechoir

142) Eric Wetherell, most likely remembered today as a music author, but he was also a composer throughout his life. A memorial concert was held for him at St Mary Redcliffe Church on 19 November 2022, and it was recorded. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_We... www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Of... #jawiki

I'm both fascinated and horrified by Burt Bacharach's biography. Love the stories behind the songs & revisiting the music, but his personal life, especially his relationship to his daughter Nikki, hard to take. Sophie Elmhirst's 2013 Guardian review is devastating www.theguardian.com/books/2013/j...

Best Smooth Jazz (11th April 2026) - Host Rod Lucas | Live from London, England YouTube video by BestSmoothJazz

Smooth jazz is often disparaged, but I find it good background for writing - and as I remember Rod Lucas from his innovative Radio Kent days in the 1980s I have a soft spot for his home broadcasts. But this time drama: tape machine blows up, neighbour mowing the lawn! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwn9...

Mike Westbrook obituary Acclaimed musician, composer and bandleader who was one of the most significant figures in the history of British jazz

So very, very saddened by this. A great age, an amazing legacy, but never really given his due, especially in the UK. RIP #MikeWestbrook www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...

Thanks for this. Joad lived a few doors away from Arthur Bliss, on posh East Heath Road - Bliss at No. 1, Joad at No. 4 and 6. Bliss has a blue plaque. I see that Joad's journalism seemed to dry up after 1948, but he kept churning out books until his death in 1953.

The Piper of Windy Ha’, James Ross and the Maxwell Quartet - buy the CD (as I have) direct from the composer. I love this. www.musicglue.com/james-ross/p...
www.thestrad.com/video/the-pi...

Two forthcoming releases (15 May) from the excellent SOMM Recordings: Charles Wood string quartets Nos. 2 and 4, and two 1940s clarinet concertos by Freda Swain and Denis ApIvor - can't wait musicwebinternational.com/new-upcoming...

141) Among those who established the Westminster Music Library: critics Edwin Evans and Harold Rutland (both donated their own libraries), pianist composer Winifred Christie and her composer husband Emánuel Moór, librarians Lionel McColvin and Dorothy Lawton en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westmin... #jawiki

140) Rosabel Watson founded the Aeolian Ladies’ Orchestra in 1886, perhaps the UK's first all-female orchestra. She advised and directed music at RSC Stratford from 1916 to 1944, and directed music at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre from 1933 to 1953 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosabel... #jawiki

Splendid performances by the Clarion Trio at the CoMA Festival in Whitechapel, London yesterday with the composers introducing their new pieces

Looking forward to getting to know these songs by Madeleine Dring musicwebinternational.com/2026/03/drin...

Constance Warren (1905-84) : Heather Hill, for string orchestra (1929-32) YouTube video by Rodders

139) Composer pianist Constance Warren studied piano with Maria Levinskaya (also a fascinating character) & Clifford Curzon. Her pupils at Birmingham Conservatoire included Brian Ferneyhough. Heather Hill (1930) is for strings www.youtube.com/watch?v=SduC... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constan... #jawiki

138) Ivor Walsworth, now forgotten BBC producer, composer of jazz-tinged neoclassical works in the 1930s, four symphonies, uncompromising Piano Sonata in 1949, and (in the 1960s) electronic pieces with his Radiophonic Workshop friend Daphne Oram en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Wa... #jawiki

Sad to hear of the death of Tracy Kidder. The Soul of a New Machine is by far the best technology history book I've read. I once interviewed Tom West, who hated how he'd been portrayed, but it's human and powerful, while clearly explaining the inner workings of a 1970s Data General Eclipse computer

Anthony Lane in the New Yorker on AI "humanizers", such as StealthWriter, HIX AI and QuillBot - tools that turn AI slop into something a human might have written. The piece turns into a list of better alternatives to the recently published book "Strikingly Similar" www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Burt Bacharach THE WORLD IS A CIRCLE from LOST HORIZON "who has the baba da"? YouTube video by CS Carson

And I love this clip of Bacharach rehearsing "The World is a Circle" www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJVO...

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Lost Horizon by James Hilton, 1. The Kidnapping The 1931 mystery of a plane hijack, and Hugh Conway arrives at the lamasery of Shangri-La.

Not only that, but a splendid three part BBC "Classic Serial" radio dramatization with Derek Jacobi is currently available, but only for the next four days www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

Not only that, but a splendid three part BBC "Classic Serial" radio dramatization with Derek Jacobi is currently available, but only for the next four days www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b... Jacobi

James Ross - Landscape to Light CD

Landscape to Light by James Ross and the Maxwell Quartet. Thanks to Mark Forrest for playing it on
@BBCRadio3 yesterday. Bought the album directly from the composer www.musicglue.com/james-ross/p... www.youtube.com/watch?v=j53d...

58. JAMES HILTON - Lost Horizon — Backlisted Music producer, gallery owner and now novelist Tot Taylor joins John and Andy on the Backlisted podcast to discuss James Hilton 's 1933 novel about an earthly paradise in the far Himalayas. And the...

I finally read Lost Horizon this month. It was a pleasure to find a 2018 Backlisted episode discussing it afterwards. I was aware of some of the Bacharach songs from the maligned 1973 musical film version, but now exploring the rest. Also reading other Hilton books www.backlisted.fm/episodes/58-...

Harry Waldo Warner - Wikipedia

137) Harry Waldo Warner, viola player & composer, one of the founding members of the London String Quartet. His A minor piano Trio won first prize at Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's 1921 chamber music competition in Massachusetts #jawiki en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_W... www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvTb...

I've always been a sucker for book lists, and now find I missed a whole series of "Introduction to Fifty" volumes published by Pan in the early 1980s. There are at least eight in the series, including three on poets - American, British and European. Very cheap to acquire second hand

The Clarion Trio will be premiering two new pieces - The Preservation of Fire by Richard Peat and TRIANGLING by Louis Palfrey, at the London CoMA Festival's Finishing Line concert on 29 March, at the Brady Arts & Community Centre www.coma.org/whats-on/eve... clariontrio.co.uk

Rands : Canti d'amor : "This heart that flutters near my heart" YouTube video by Chanticleer - Topic

Born in Sheffield, Bernard Rands (who died an Wednesday, aged 92) studied in Europe with no less than Pierre Boulez, Bruno Maderna, Luigi Dallapiccola and (especially to my ears) Luciano Berio. He taught at the University of York before departing for the US in 1975. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O-b...

Good old Grok says Darnton's contributions to journal articles are "less centralized than his book-length effort". What a profound observation. I assume Grok means they appear in different journals at different dates, while everything in the book is...er....in the book. Grokipedia needs editors.

Driving Force YouTube video by Release - Topic

Here's the full piece. Herbert Chappell studied with the formidable Egon Wellesz, was at Oxford with Dudley Moore, composed a highly regarded Guitar Concerto, the pre-Joseph & the Dreamcoat children's cantata The Daniel Jazz (1963), and lots of music for television www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL_B...

Dick Francis - Breaking Point - 1. Death of a Jockey - BBC Sounds When tragedy strikes horse racing, a steeplechase jockey unearths a world of fear.

Currently listening to the 1974 radio serial Breaking Point by Dick Francis (from his second novel, Nerve). The signature tune is Herbert Chappell's Driving Force from 1967. Can it be a coincidence that Francis much later (1992) also wrote a novel called Driving Force? www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...