Category Archives: Music

Haebler and Gilberto

Posted on June 8, 2023 by Persiflage

Two obituaries in the NYT within one week for musicians in my music collection. I can’t quite say that Mozart is my composer of choice, especially when it comes to the piano, although I could listen to Mitsuko Uchida play … Continue reading →

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Google and Franck

Posted on May 15, 2023 by Persiflage

I have a google play (which plays streaming music) and it’s really terrible for classical music. If you choose virtually any piece of classical music and then flip forward three songs you invariably end up with Claire de Lune or … Continue reading →

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En Passant IX (I’m a Gnu)

Posted on October 28, 2020 by Persiflage

One feature of having an electric piano is the ability to record the accompaniment to songs which (for reasons of timing or otherwise) are quite hard to play and sing at the same time. A possible downside, however, is that … Continue reading →

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The last seven words of Kedlaya-Medvedovsky

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Persiflage

New paper by my student Noah Taylor! It addresses some conjectures raised by Kedlaya and Medvedovsky in this paper. Let \(\mathbf{T}\) denote the Hecke algebra acting on modular forms of weight two and prime level \(N\) generated by Hecke operators … Continue reading →

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The classics

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Persiflage

I now have the complete collection from of light satirical music of the ’50s and ’60s from the two masters of the form from either side of the pond: They are both similar and very different at the same time … Continue reading →

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Guess That Tune!

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Persiflage

I have recent upgraded my wheels from “classic” (20th century corolla, slightly used) to “contemporary” (21st century corolla, also slightly used). Possibly the last straw was when I found the article Toyota Recalls 1993 Camry Due To Fact That Owners … Continue reading →

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Hear my prayer

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Persiflage

Music post! Current obsession: This plaintive choral work, possibly an incomplete fragment of an unfinished anthem, is essentially one long phrase building to a final resolution with just the right amount of dissonance. There are a number of fine recordings … Continue reading →

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J’accuse!

Posted on October 21, 2017 by Persiflage

I found the following documentary remarkable and quite interesting. Without offering here any opinion on its merits, I certainly give it credit for taking an unpopular position and sticking with it. This blog is no stranger to challenging perceived wisdom, … Continue reading →

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Commuting

Posted on October 8, 2017 by Persiflage

I found out a good way to describe how long my commute is: about three minutes more than the length of the second movement of Beethoven’s 9th (the greatest movement!) On the other hand, that measure proved inaccurate the very … Continue reading →

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Best seat in the house

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Persiflage

I recently attended an András Schiff recital at Chicago Symphony Center (not the first such Schiff performance I have been to). The conceit of this concert was the “last sonatas,” a performance of the last sonatas of Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, … Continue reading →

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