Peter Quantrill

This is a lovely memoir.

The First Night of the BBC Proms: celebration and redemption The BBC's annual classical jamboree is launched in fine style with a premiere and a timely revival, conducted by Sakari Oramo.

Such a treat to hear and see the strange and wonderful Sancta Civitas again. My ★★★★ review @bachtrack.com of the First Night of the Proms.
bachtrack.com/22/296/view/...

Would anyone like to take issue with the idea of that Berger save as the new Gordon Banks 1970 moment?

Buxton has (or had) one of the UK's very best 2nd-hand bookshops. Strong music section.

I don't know what an ND queen is (was Marx gay?) but he looks like a pretty sound chap to me.

What a disappointment after spending all that money.

I do take your point. I still think the proof's in the entertainment. Fifteen days (15!) over 3 matches: how many spectators will feel they've had less than value for their money? The media guys fixate on it because they are disillusioned ex-pros and because it squeezes their post-play deadlines.

Speaking personally, not once have I shelled out £100 or whatever for a Test day and thought, well, play quicker, I want my money's worth. It just doesn't come into my calculations.

Do you think this will stop the TMS lot wanging on about over rates? (Clue: No). #propercricket #areyounotentertained

Bashir!

We're now in full stomach-churning, please-anything-make-it-stop territory.

I've watched that Pant dismissal 24 times so far. Reckon it warrants at least another 24.

Research reveals a paradox: the more people understand AI, the more hesitant they may become to embrace it.

paradox, you say

Cor, this is more like it. 3 runs an over. Lovely. #propercricket #ENGvIND #bbccricket #DigIn

I should be home at the end of summer so I'll give you a ring.

A 1960s photograph of a smartly dressed mother and child in a shoe shop. The child puts her socked foot on the measuring slide on the sloping footstool while an assistant, flanked by boxes and boxes of Clarks shoes, fits the measuring strap

From ‘Look and Learn’ magazine, 1963.
The ceremony of buying shoes

A radically trad Fidelio at Garsington Simple solutions prove the best in Beethoven's "problem" opera as John Cox's staging is revived at Garsington.

Bentham's panopticon installed at Garsington for a powerful Fidelio revival - goodness this was wonderful story-telling. My ★★★★ review for Bachtrack.
bachtrack.com/review-fidel...

A radically trad Fidelio at Garsington Simple solutions prove the best in Beethoven's "problem" opera as John Cox's staging is revived at Garsington.

A compelling harmony of stage and pit in a radically trad Fidelio at @garsingtonopera.bsky.social
✍️ Peter Quantrill
bachtrack.com/review-fidel...

I would want to add BRSO/Rattle to the mix now. And either ECYO/Haitink or BRSO/Haitink, neither of which were available when I did the survey.

The poster for the film Chicken Town

The film Chicken Town, with music by me, is released in UK cinemas on Friday.

It is going to be in four Vue cinemas - Leeds, Manchester, Norwich and Shepherds Bush in London: www.myvue.com/cinema/westf...

Please come and see this fun and silly comedy and support independent British cinema

Death by a thousand cuts for a compelling Lucia from Galați Lorena Mărginean is a hauntingly youthful heroine in a production of traditional values and vices.

Death by a thousand cuts - my Bachtrack review of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Bucharest Opera Festival. Another showcase for the vocal resources of the Galați Opera. If only there was more of it...
bachtrack.com/review-lucia...

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Gounod: Faust at the Bucharest Opera Festival | Live Review 'Thoughtful storytelling and first-class singing set the tone for a festival of operatic ambition'

Faust in Bucharest - my review for Opera Now. tl:dr - no, the devil doesn't have all the best tunes. Marguerite has most of them, at least when sung by Anita Hartig.
www.gramophone.co.uk/opera-now/re...

Ah, lovely Bucharest. Looking very fine this evening for the first night of the Bucharest Opera Festival. Gounod's Faust to come, done by the Bucharest Opera itself.

Du weisst
Wo du mich
Wiederfinden kannst.

Cautionary tale.

Is going hard a good or a bad thing? It sounds like it shd be good.

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE BEEN SOBER ENOUGH TO WRITE.

A headline from The Times, with Nick Clegg saying that requiring permission from copyright holders to train AI on their word would 'kill' the AI industry. Boo fecking hoo.

My plans for a major retail emporium are being threatend by wholesalers who won't let me steal the stock.

@yem1.bsky.social UK President Alfred Quantrill strongly hopes for a youth mobility agreement, ideally linked to Erasmus Plus, to restore lost opportunities for young Brits. 🇬🇧 🇪🇺