05.07.2017 - ‚The Noise of Time‘ (2016), Julian Barnes a ‚fictional biography‘ of Dmitri Shostakovich, Soviet composer In May 1937 a man in his early 30s waits by the lift of a Leningrad appartment block. He waits all through the night,...
04.07.2017 - New York Texts read & Music played: New York, Frank Sinatra Drop me off in Harlem, Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington Theme for English B, Langston Hughes City of Glass, Paul Auster Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote Moon River,...
26.06.2017 - Mauthausen: a tragic paradox? Texts read and Music played: Theodor Adorno: Kulturkritik und Gesellschaft (quote) Paul Celan: Fugue of Death (poem) Olivier Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps Mauthausen Exhibition Catalogue (extracts)...
13.06.2017 - 50 Years on: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Playlist: Texts read & Music played: Opening track Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ‚Tune in, turn on, drop out‘, Timothy Leary ‚Almost metaphysical urban poetry‘,...
07.06.2017 - A detailed portrait of a marriage, family ties and the community of Crosby, Maine. A penetrating, vibrant exploration of the human soul, with all the joys and grief of a painful journey of love. What sort of town is Crosby? Why is the book called...
07.06.2017 - Edith Wharton (1862 – 1937) Novelist, short story writer….and poet! Texts read and Music played: Chopin: Romanza (Larghetto), Piano Concerto no.1 (Arthur Rubinstein, LSO/ Barbirolli, 1937) Edith Wharton: The Parting Day Henry...
17.05.2017 - Texts read & Music played: 1. Robert Schumann: Humoresque 2. Emily Dickinson: I dwell in possibility 3. A curious Cloud surprised the Sky 4. Eduard Grieg: Morning Mood, from Peer Gynt, Suite no.1 5. The Day came slow – till Five...
11.05.2017 - We review how the Reading Circle started in Sept 2012 and its aims: to share personal reading experiences; to explore different readings, impressions and insights; to enjoy social company and interaction. How do sessions run? Which books, and how...
11.05.2017 - New England (1) Texts read and Music played: Pilgrims and Puritans, Stephen Vincent Benet The Housatonic at Stockbridge, from Three Places in New England, Charles Ives The ‚St. Gaudens‘ in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his...
19.04.2017 - Once upon … one day in a life: March 30, 1924. Jane Goodchild, 22, an orphan, a maid in a country mansion, has no mother to visit on ‚Mothering Sunday‘. Her relationship with Paul, of upper-middle class, changes dramatically that...