So who is blogging about concert/notational/classical music in, say, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, and Wales? Or in the academic centers of Oxford and Cambridge? I know for a fact that there's plenty of musical life outside London.
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Wish I knew too. But there are about 600 concerts a month in London plus opera and max 60 even in a hip places like Birmingham and Manchester. In England people tend to travel lots as train connections are good. I've friends who commute from York and Manchester frequently. Also we have the BBC which broadcasts recordings of live performances at least twice a day. Most concerts outside London turn up in London as well, parts of tours. Similar situations in France and Germany, too. So nowhere really is the boonies, no one's really isolated. It's a good thing because even in small towns, they get access to top international stuff. And people travel out of London too esp for specialist festivals like Aldeburgh.
Oh, I totally know that smaller cities aren't the boonies! At least pre-war, touring opera companies and the big stars all went to Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Edinburgh, etc. to concertize, and of course there are top-notch orchestras in Liverpool and Birmingham. SOMEBODY must be music-blogging outside London...
Lisa, I have these bookmarked; I know they're not outside London, but maybe you've missed them:
Gavin Plumley (great name!) blogs at Ententarte Musik, focusing mainly on Mahler, my boy Schreker, Korngold, Zemlinsky, Berg etc., in other words, German/Austrian composers from ca. 1900-1920. He also focuses on fin de siècle Vienna and that wonderfully rich period there before the whole shit house went up in flames (tm Jim Morrison) in 1918. Sometimes reviews stuff outside of London
The wonderfully named Boulezian is run by cutie Mark Berry and is reviews of stuff from London mostly. Very detailed and informative, he's not a fan of Verdi, so that's a huge plus for me from the get go! :-)
I think of Intermezzo as the English version of Opera Chic, without the OMG! and LOL! inanities. Lots of great pictures from curtain calls, mainly deals with London stuff.
Tim Rutherford-John blogs at The Rambler. He's a musicologist who concentrates mainly on contemporary music, kind of an English Alex Ross but without the fanboy crush on John Adams.
Hope this helps though I know they are in "the provinces". :-)
That's what I get for typing at 1:00 am on a worknight: they're NOT from the "provinces".
Henry, I read those three. ;-) Don't know why Gavin is not in my blogroll, will add him now.
Okay, I'd missed Boulezian. Have now got a U.K. Bloggers section way down on the left. (If only I could figure out how to make this a three-column blog...)
Henry, I read those three. ;-)
Hahaha, I figured you did but I thought "Just in case...."
What can I say? I'm flattered... It doesn't take much!
Ha! and Hi, Mark!
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