Steven Isserlis

Intriguing advice from the wondrous Audrey Hepburn (b otd 1929) - was this her secret? "For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone."

@BruvverEccles A very old recording...!

@StevenIsserlis I don't know the piece, but this looks promising. At least the cellist is well known. youtube.com/watch?v=Uza1KM…

Bloch's magnificent work for cello and orchestra, Schelomo, premiered otd 1917. It's been described as being like film music - but it's surely the other way round? Film music was influenced by Bloch's wonderful array of orchestral colours - and by its vivid emotional narrative.

@MichaelBerkele2 @johnshea63 Great - well deserved!

Producer Clare Walker and Members of the excellent Private Passions production team (Matthew Dodd L and Graham Rogers R) at the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Awards where PP was named Best Radio Music and Arts Programme.

@sloweyres Along with Haydn? I have the feeling that they share an apartment in heaven.

Warmest and most lovable of composers.

Wit/wisdom from Jerome K Jerome (b otd 1859): "It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar." “If there is one person I despise more than another, it is the man who does not think exactly the same on all topics as I do.”

@MatthewJFranck @YouTube It’s on YouTube!

@StevenIsserlis @YouTube I don’t think I have ever heard that. It’s said on Wikipedia to be an only-vinyl rarity, but someone must have digitized it by now.

Fantastic but little known cello work played by @StevenIsserlis youtube.com/playlist?list=… via @YouTube

Antonín Dvořák, d otd 1904: “To have a wonderful idea is nothing special. The idea comes of its own accord and, if it’s fine and great, man cannot take the credit for it. But to take a fine idea and make something great of it, that is the hardest thing; that is what real art is!”

@MatthewJFranck @YouTube So glad you like it! He was the most wonderful, adorable man.

Manet (d otd 1883) on nature: "There's no symmetry in nature. One eye is never exactly the same as the other. There's always a difference. We all have a more or less crooked nose and an irregular mouth.” "There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.”

Thomas Beecham b otd 1879: what a wit (even though I hate the cello quip); but also: what a musician! "The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes." "At a rehearsal I let the orchestra play as they like. At the concert I make them play as I like."

@RichardGerraty How nice - many thanks!

When I first bought a disc of yours, I don’t think we had the World Wide Web yet. To me the CD was and remains a miracle of recorded music. But who could have imagined that forty years later we would have daily inspiration and education by you with wonderful pictures and anecdotes on our phones out of our pockets, and your Bach suites to play through the car speakers on the way home.

Sergei Prokofiev b (in Ukraine!) otd 1891. Complicated character; but what a composer! Such extreme variety in his output, from the manic energy of his youth to the wonderful lyricism of his late style. And always such wit, verve, boundless imagination - and glorious melodies.

Terry Pratchett b otd 1948: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but not half so bad as a lot of ignorance." “Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.” “In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.” “This book was written using 100% recycled words.”

@m_galvagno @deborah_feder @WQXR Three times - or even four. Old style, new style…

@deborah_feder @StevenIsserlis @WQXR I suggest to celebrate him twice! Twice the birthday, twice the cake!

@m_galvagno Shakespeare was, anyway…

@StevenIsserlis Wasn’t he born on April 23rd?

@redarmyof1 @spectator I don’t think that’s fair. The blame, surely, lies with the Arts Council. The government (as I understand it) is actually trying to force the Arts Council to change tack.

@spectator Welsh people finding out that Labour’s not interested in bourgeois culture & arts like Opera as the people that enjoy them tend not to vote Labour….

On the first night of Welsh National Opera’s new Flying Dutchman, the company’s co-directors walked on stage to salute their departing music director Tomas Hanus. There were cheers, of course; Hanus has been a courageous MD and his Wagner was thrilling. But no one has been appointed to succeed him, and that morning WNO had announced a 2026-27 season that amounts to a near-total artistic collapse, with just two full-scale operas. A major international company has been reduced to a community arts provider, and a Pollyanna press release announcing ‘a powerful statement of renewal’ did nothing to quell the feeling that the lights are going out on Cardiff Bay. ✍️ Richard Bratby Article | spectator.com/article/the-ar…

@madmj1m Many thanks!

@StevenIsserlis HBD to three very different but all creative in their own ways, pushing boundaries. On a personal note I'd like to thank you and Connie for extraordinary concert at Jane Mallet theater plus your very insightful, thoughtful and humorous masterclass at Mazzolini Hall.

3 rather different people b otd! Delacroix (1798): "The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing." Ludwig Wittgenstein ((1889): "The human body is the best picture of the human soul." Carol Burnett (1933): "Adolescence is just one big walking pimple."