How's It Look Out There

Several weeks ago "The Well-Tempered Blog" transitioned over to the new (read: "beta") platform for Blogspot users. Mostly this has gone well, and I didn't encounter the difficulties others had in attempting the transition, but there are few bugs yet to work out. Blogger's beta doesn't always play nice with browsers other than IE and Firefox. I'm told a "fix" is coming along before long.

Pod People

An update on the kerfuffle surrounding trademark and use of the term "pod". Endgadget has the dl on it all. Read it here.

Malcolm Arnold

Two excellent blogs have put up terrific posts on composer Malcolm Amold who passed away this past weekend.

On An Overgrown Path (English) and Retroklang (Spanish). Give 'em a visit.

Free Classical Music

The Philadelphia Orchestra has opened the cyber-doors to their online music shop. To celebrate, music lovers can download (for a lmited time) a free mp3 recording of the Orchestra performing Beethoven's famous 5th Symphony.

After you've downloaded that check out the rest of their online shop. There are some really great recordings available. Hope this proves a successful venture!!

Check it out here.

Nick Drake Covers?

So is Christopher O'Riley going to do a cover album of Nick Drake' s music? Inquiring minds want to know. I for one hope so.

Details.

"Robo Pianist"

A little more on the software that is re-animating, so to speak, the pianist Glenn Gould. Very curious stuff. Link.

Iturbi Competition Update

The finalists are:

Yosu de Solaun, (Spain), Patrick Hemmerle (France), Valentina Igoshina (Russia), Natalia Kuchaeva (Russia), Sofya Melikyan (Armenia) y Andrey Yaroshinskiy(Russia). Link. Good luck to all !

If you're in Europe the finals are being broadcast live. Details here.

The Art of Jose Iturbi - DVD

With attention nowadays on the Jose Iturbi International Piano Competition underway in Valencia, Spain it is worth mentioning a DVD that looks at the pianist himself: The Art of Jose Iturbi . Most interesting to me is it features his own "Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra". More information about it is found here.

You might want to also check out the "little concerto" composed by Morton Gould for Iturbi. Info here.

And one last bit of Iturbi-ana: two of the pianos owned by Iturbi may be taking a trip from Hollywood to Spain. Details here.

Bad Apple

This is the most idiotic thing I've heard in a good long while:

"...Apple has decided to issue cease and desist notices to all those who use the word podcast on their web sites. According to Steve Jobs, Podcast is an Apple trademark and users will have to either pay up or face the music." link

"Now that Apple believes that it has successfully sequestered the name "pod" from the English language, it is going hell for leather to try and shut anyone anything that uses pod in a name related to the music player business." link

Good grief!

Sir Malcolm Arnold 1921-2006

With much sadness came news of the passing of composer Sir Malcolm Arnold this past weekend. His was a remarkable life and achievement all around. Among my favorite works of his are two of the symphonies (5 and 9), the various dance pieces, and the Concerto for Piano Duet and Strings.

A fine essay-obituary on Sir Malcolm can be found here.

The "Official" Malcolm Arnold website can be found here.