This live performance of Geoffrey Hudson A Passion for the Planet was recorded in Northampton, at Smith College’s Sweeney hall, and performed by the Illuminati Vocal Arts Ensemble with the…by the Illuminati Vocal Arts Ensemble with the Hampshire Young People’s Chorus and a 12-piece orchestra. A Passion for the Planet is an oratorio on the subject of climate change with words drawn from a number of sources. The work is moving and important, and the performance is exceptional. We can’t hear live music right now, but I am grateful to be able to experience this now, in my own home. And I take comfort in the words of Geoffrey Hudson, the…
Search results from forbeslibrary.org
page 33 of 33
Hoopla is a service that partners with your local public library to bring you thousands of movies, television, ebooks, comics, and music titles for free. There are no costs or hassles. All you need is a library card and a web browser, phone, or tablet.
Provided by the Boston Public Library and available for free with a BPL eCard. Individuals who live in, own property in, or commute to work in Massachusetts may register for an eCard. Want help using this resource? Contact us.
NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts
I recently discovered this delightful corner of the internet and have treated myself to these eclectic short musical sets ever since. I’ve experienced some great new artists and some sets by beloved familiar ones. They are all recorded live at the desk of All Songs Considered by host Bob Boilen, except for the last few which are home editions. There is something for all musical tastes and will tide you over until you can get out to your next live…
For Those Who Are Lost
In the chaos of evacuating children from Guernsey to England in 1940, Lily Carre switches places with her sister Helen, undertaking the care of a pair of children–Henry and Catherine Simon–who are being reluctantly sent away by their mother Ava. Lily wants to escape an unhappy marriage, and Helen wants to remain on Guernsey with their aging parents. Once in England, Lily puts nine-year-old Henry on a train bound for Manchester, where he starts ou…
Histoire de Melody Nelson
The master melodist and provocateur, Serge Gainsbourg introduced a revolutionary recording with 1971’s Histoire de Melody Nelson. The French pop star abandoned an archetypal singing style in place of a…er way of putting it) electric bass lines, freak out fuzz guitar and busy drums supply the basic tracks that are augmented by a choral and haunting string score by Jean-Claude Vannier. Jane Birkin, Gainsbourg’s then wife, appears on the front cover and also provides the voice of Melody Nelson. You see, this is a concept record. It tells a Lolita-esque tale of a middle-aged man out driving who accidentally hits a bicycling British girl. The man fal…
Sarah’s Key
This emotionally laden story starts off with two alternating voices. Julia Jarmond is an American-born journalist, who has been living in Paris for 20 years, complete with a French family, and a marriage that is increasingly unstable. She is tasked with writing the story of the 1942 Vel d’Hiv Jewish roundup by the French police on the 60th anniversary of that difficult but little known episode in French history. We also see the roundup from the p…
A Woman of No Importance
This biography of a completely unsung WWII heroine reads like a spy thriller. In spite of what seems today incredible discrimination because of her gender, American Virginia Hall was instrumental…dible discrimination because of her gender, American Virginia Hall was instrumental to the creation of various undercover operations in Nazi occupied France, working for the British long before the US entered the war. The danger of those operations, descriptions of the conditions for the civilian population, and of the torture to which suspected members of the Resistance were subjected are not sensationalized. The narrator, Julie Stevenson, does a…
Airbow
What is Finnish button accordion music, anyway? If you like Sharon Shannon, you’ll love Maria Kalaniemi. She’s virtuosic, soulful and versatile. On this album she teams up with Swedish fiddler…äck for a selection of traditional Scandinavian tunes and original compositions. They are both technically brilliant and have a wonderful synergy together. Johan Hedin joins them on nyckelharpa (Swedish keyed fiddle) and Swedish singer Susanne Rosenberg is featured on a few tunes. The music is spare, gorgeous, with a haunting energy that’s both ancient and contemporary. This is great listening for fans of Nordic or Celtic folk, fiddle tunes, or th…
City of Thieves
“You have never been so hungry; you have never been so cold,” are the first words we hear from Lev Beniov in this novel set during the German siege of Lenningrad. It is the winter of 1941, and two prisoners, 17 year old Lev, arrested for looting, and ladies’ man Kolya, an accused deserter, are given a chance to earn their freedom. An NKVD colonel sends them on an impossible mission: return with a dozen eggs to make his daughter’s wedding cake. Af…
Hindugrass
What could you find in common between the classical and folk music of Northern India, and old time and bluegrass music of the Southeastern United States? Quite a lot actually,…in American style), bass, tabla, kanjira, bones, and other percussive instruments. The melodies comfortably shifts back and forth between a more eastern and a more western sound, but the rhythms show a primarily Indian influence, with the melodic and percussive instruments alike taking part in the polyrhythm, tihai, and other rhythmic devices that are responsible for much of the excitement of Indian music. This is an exciting recording for lovers…
page 33 of 33