Those of you have been reading this blog some time, oh, you know, maybe a couple of weeks, and especially those related to me, be you commenters or lurkers, know that I am not exactly the world's most organised person. This can be summarised by the 'Magazine Pile'. I subscribe to four magazines - two weekly and two monthly. I tend to read the New Statesman when I'm travelling around or, for example, like today, in the hairdresers. Public Finance is boring, and it's not even worth my while looking at the job ads for the next few months. But I ought to read it for updates in my profession, so sometimes I do, even though it generally focuses on the petty shenanigans of Local Government and forgets that many of its members work in Central Governemnt (or indeed the Health Service, Practice, or Industry).
I actually get BBC Music and Gramophone mainly for the CDs that are attached, so the magazines just get tossed on the pile to be read. Sometimes, I am organised enough to toss them to the bottom of the pile. Until Saturday evening, the pile was residing on the dining table, but we decided to eat dinner sitting up at table, so Jimmy shifted the two piles (please note, I cooked...) - Things-to-Read and Things-to-Deal-With - onto the sofa, to join the third pile Things-Not-Yet-Classified/Things-Miscellaneous (mailshots, sunglasses, empty cassette boxes, camera battery etc). In moving the Things-To-Read he unearthed My-Secret-Stash-of-Porn™*, which was slightly embarrassing but not very.
This morning's post had been flung on top of the mixed up Things-to-Read and Things-to-Deal-With piles, which in themselves were sitting higgledy-piggledy with the Things-Not-Yet-Classified/Things-Miscellaneous pile. So this evening, I decided I really ought to re-sort all Things. That involved opening this morning's post - Sky Magazine (remove plastic cover place remainder straight in recycling bin) and Gramophone Magazine. Oh god, I thought, yet another magazine to not get round to reading, and tossed it onto the table to form the bottom of the new Things-to-Read pile. As I was busy sorting through empty envelopes, out of date mailshots, staff-pass-holder-cords, make-up purse (that's where it got to) etc I glanced at the Gramophone magazine and thought "That's a very nice picture of Simon Rattle and his Dvorak Tone Poems" - ooh, Sir Simon's gone all Czech, wonder why..."but that's an advert. I wonder what's on the front..." This is the August Gramophone Magazine, so hot off the Presses it's not even on the Website yet, which as I write is still showing its July cover (DFD at 80).
Actually, you know what I'm going to say don't you..."Domingo Records Tristan: Plácido on opera's toughest assignment and when he'll stop singing. Plus Star Tenors, the Next Generation" And inside, six pages, which I think I shall settle down to read with a nice gin-and-bitter-lemon, but only after I've packed my bag for work tomorrow.
And the Gramophone CD 'Cover Story' is Act I scene 5 (excerpt) from Tristan und Isolde. Obviously, it's dificult to judge a four hour opera from a 6½ minute excerpt, but I think I might stick my neck out, take a risk and buy the whole thing.
There are some other nice tracks on this CD, always good to hear a sampler of what's being released. There's a lovely excerpt from Gluck's Paride ed Elena (no, I've not heard of it either) and I was thinking, ooh, this sounds lovely, I might get this, ooh this is a gorgeous soprano voice. I wonder who it is. And I look, and I know I'm going to get it. The Guardian only gives it three stars and says
Cult mezzo Magdalena Kozena and silvery soprano Carolyn Sampson sound gorgeous, but are on the cool side as Paris and Cupid respectively. The best performance is Susan Gritton's Helen
So, the moral of this story is - it's really not good to be organised, because I have just spent £60 in the course of writing this post....
* It's not really Porn, it's Opera News, M Lifestyle, and Classic FM Magazine that have not yet been added to My-Even-More-Secret-Stash-Of-Porn™ in the spare room
