Your view chimes with mine. Although I gave the 7th a listen yesterday and I thought that was excellent.

Curtain call at Royal Opera Siegfried

Curtain call at Royal Opera Siegfried

A mixed bag of a Siegfried at ROH tonight.

It was fine on the musical side, but the production seemed to misfire. In the second half of Act 3, I thought I was I was watching Otto Schenk's Parsifal...

Pretty good. The Oloroso cask isn't overtaking the spirit. You definitely know it's Benrinnes.

Agreed.

Strauss: Don Juan
Saint-Saēns PC5 and Brahms 2 with Oramo and the BBCSO.

A very enjoyable evening with piano concerto being the highlight with Bertrand Chamayou.

Ralfy recently reviewed it on YT and gave it a good review. I've not tried it myself.

Benrinnes whisky

I'm home after a great concert at the Barbican.

I thought I would open this 15yo Benrinnes bottled by North Star #whisky

Bertrand Chamayou

Sakari Oramo

Sakari Oramo at the end of Brahms 2.

Wonderful concert from the BBCSO with Sakari Oramo. A wonderfully sumptuous, but not stodgy Brahms 2.

However, the highlight was a staggering Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.5 with Bertrand Chamayou.

It was a highly entertaining evening.

An absolutely terrific Shostakovich 10 from Vasily Petrenko and the RPO tonight.

I took the plunge and bought a Thompson Bros Mystery Malt. I was delighted to receive a 16 year old Balmenach, which is a nice muscular malt.

It's only my second Balmenach, but I am becoming a fan of the distillery. #whisky

LIVE: Silvesterkonzert: 200 Jahre Johann Strauss | Honeck | Konradi | NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester YouTube video by ARD Klassik

youtube.com/live/v4Pfzvn...

This is very enjoyable and I suspect it may be better than the fare served up in Vienna this morning.

Oops, a bit of a mistake to wake up early for the cricket.

When you look around, there's a paucity of decent official Frosch recordings, both audio and most certainly visual.

I attended the ROH production, and it was possibly the finest show I have seen there.

I've been listening tonight to the recording of the ROH 2014 production of Die Frau ohne Schatten, which I taped off the radio...

It's still my favourite recording of one of my favourite operas.

A really enjoyable Tannhäuser at the Deutsche Oper tonight. Camilla Nylund was superb as both Elisabeth and Venus.

What a superb Tristan und Isolde at the Deutsche Oper tonight.

Kirill Petrenko with the Berlin Philharmonic after conducting Petruskha.

Great concert from Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic. Janacek's Lachian Dances were beautiful but also fun.

Petrenko and the orchestra let rip in Bartok's Miraculous Manderin.

There were also fireworks during the Petruskha suite.

Ed Gardner and Jennifer France with the LPO after an enchanting Mahler 4

I like it. I really enjoyed the stewed apple notes. I am going to have to grab a CS Loch Lomond at some point.

Is War of the Worlds really one of the worst films ever? The new version of War of the Worlds has received a 0% critic score on review site Rotten Tomatoes.

I watched this film last night and thought it was absolutely dreadful.

I understand that the producers sat on the film for a long time before releasing. They should have just canned it.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Sally Hawkins was absolutely sensational in Bring Her Back. I thought it was a grim but powerful film.

I'm off to the flicks tonight to see Bring Her Back. Let's hope it lives up to the hype.

a white dog with a red bow around its neck is looking at the camera with its mouth open ALT: a white dog with a red bow around its neck is looking at the camera with its mouth open

Just back from the cinema after seeing Superman. There is no doubting who the star of the film is.

I'm trying my first Loch Lomond 18 tonight. I really like the standard 12 year old, so I've got high hopes.
#whisky

It's Kubelik for me. I don't think that there is a weakness in that set.

I never used to be the biggest KFV fan, but the last couple of times I have seen him, I have been impressed. It was nice to hear Siegfried being sung rather than barked.

Musically splendid Siegfried at La Scala. I wasn't blown away by the production, but it wasn't terrible.

My first visit to La Scala for Siegfried.

I should add that panzerotti is the devil's food, but it's so good.

Have arrived in Milan today. Tomorrow night is my first visit to La Scala for Siegfried.