One More Time

…and why not?  Here’s Khatia Buniatishvili playing Schumann, impeccably conducted by the always-brilliant Zubin Mehta.

I love the way Khatia always becomes part of the orchestra — she’s listening and participating, rather than just waiting for her turn to feature.  (Other “virtuoso” pianists should take note.)

I need to get some of her performances on CD / DVD.

Weekend Easy Listening

A few clunkers, to be sure, but there ya go.  Several hours’ worth of memories from my last two years at high school, and the first two at university.  Background music of the finest kind.

1970

1971

1972

1973

Have fun, courtesy of Dany Fisher.  Earlier years will pop up in the right-hand column, no doubt.  Enjoy those too (except for 1974… JHC, what the hell happened there?  Three, maybe four decent songs, and the rest are all shit).

Difficult Comparison

Here’s an interesting one:

A new survey of 6,000 respondents from the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the US has found which European language is considered the most attractive.

The previous poll, which was released in 2017, named French the sexiest language — but that was displaced by this new research.

This year’s survey showed that Italian is now rated as the world’s most attractive language.

Hmmm.  Of course this is subjective, but it’s quite fascinating as a thought exercise.  It’s also difficult to stage the question, because in many cases the respondents may not have actually had experience with hearing the languages spoken in sexy tones or in a sexy context.

One could try to imagine who would sound sexier over a romantic dinner, say Marion Cotillard vs. Monica Bellucci:

…but really, it’s almost impossible.  Now, which one of the above two has the sexier accent when speaking English?  Ooooh, even more difficult.  French is softer, but Italian is more passionate.

Try Françoise Hardy vs. Ornella Vanoni, then.  Even more difficult, and more so when you understand the lyrics — wistful vs. heartbroken.

Maybe a few more choices would help.  Catherine Deneuve vs. Sophia Loren?

How about Melanie Laurent vs. Francesca Dellara?

Okay. I don’t think any of this is helping.  I myself cannot decide between gentle and passionate, so I’m declaring a tie.