It's boxing day today and the first one of this new blog of mine so I thought I'd mention something I had this year for Christmas.
When I was twelve I remember listening to a radio program that played short pieces of classical music in the early evening which tied in well with when we had a family evening meal when I was home or just after early evening when at boarding school and they played quiet a bit of Boccherini's music.
It wasn't just such staples as the G275 Minuet but also his cello works and this Christmas I got the complete set of all twelve of his Cello Concertos that the budget cd label Naxos had put out from 1999 include the third volume that came out just two years ago.
Having played them today on my stereo, I have to say I really love these performances which just feel right, lively but not to 'wirey' and are very well recorded.
This disc of four of his Quartets including the infamous Minuet from Op 13/5 G275 is one disc I bought in the early days of compact disc when this labels pioneering use of PCM digital recording was more appreciated and their discs were more widely stocked at places like the local branch of Richer Sounds as well as mainstream record shops with decent classical stocks.
Wishing everyone a happy Christmas.
Memories, eh?
Lots of of us have them form the time we were born to our current time not forgetting those memories from the past that are passed down through the generations but this whole subject has often intrigued me
For instance you may know of friends may be friends from your school days who when asked what they thought about those time might give you an account of how good they were or others who seem to have scarcely a good word to say about them but in each instance you feel a little uneasy.
Maybe that's because you remember stuff that happened that both of these two don't and when you add it to their accounts you might feel it alters the narrative you get from both regarding how they feel it shaped them.
Perhaps that's one function of memories. A Justification for who we are today?
But there's this other function we touched on, the passing down of factual knowledge about our pasts, that of our families, the communities and sometimes the countries they have lived in.
These maybe the order of family members -the "Family Tree", what they did and why as well as what happened where we lived and why it mattered. For instance a Saxon Cross near me was destroyed by people who thought it represented a form of Idol Worship and it's significance having been restored is to act as a reminder of the dangers of extreme ideology. Some counties such as the one I'm presently living in Great Britain have a lot of history -some of it bloody - and it doesn't take a lot of studying to see how that shaped their society.
So you see memories are important for us as people personally as well as societies but need to ensure they're as complete as possible to draw the best knowledge and wisdom from them.
It's cold and snowing outside so I've been raiding the thick sweaters and sweatshirts here in a do or die attempt to stay warm with the temperatures outside being minus 3 degrees C and below together with the thick tights and over the knee socks.
You all know I just love the cute and sexy but really this isn't the best time of year for exposing your skin so I'm afraid the thick track pants have had to come out together with boots with decent soles on for improved grip.
I even found myself doing exercises whilst waiting for the bus to stay warm!!!
