“The Lark Ascending” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, performed by the excellent Hilary Hahn, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis:
Some beautiful, calming music before the approaching storm of Prime Minister’s Questions and George Osborne’s 2013 budget.
O Magnum Mysterium, by Morten Lauridsen, sung by the choir of Westminster Cathedral at midnight mass, 2009.
O sinners let’s go down,
Let’s go down, come on down.
O sinners let’s go down,
Down in the river to pray.
The “Cheers” chorus from Act 1, Scene 3 of the excellent opera “Nixon in China” by John Adams:
I’ll be heading to see this at the BBC Proms festival in London in a week or so. Excellent stuff.
“Midnight” from the Cinderella Suite by Sergei Prokofiev:
An excellent and dramatic depiction of the clock striking midnight at the ball.
I had the pleasure of seeing the London Symphony Orchestra perform the entire ballet score at their recent BBC Proms concert the other night – as usual, they were on top form, particularly the woodwind section and the excellent and surprising offstage brass ensemble that played from the balcony during one particularly exciting section.
A review of the performance can be found here.
Semi-Partisan Politics 