The Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda invited me to take part in a symposium in Cremona during the annual festival in which luthiers and piano manufacturers from all over the world congregate for their annual exhibition. I had never been to Cremona before. The hotel was a stone’s throw away from the imposing duomo – the medieval…
THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES The Tenth Satire of Juvenal was adapted by Dr Johnson (1749). It’s a poem of 368 lines, the first ten of which are: Let Observation with extensive View, Survey Mankind from China to Peru; Remark each anxious Toil, each eager Strife, And watch the busy scenes of crowded Life; Then say…
FUNICULÌ, FUNICULÁ Peppino Turco (Italian words), Luigi Denza (music). The song was written in 1880 to celebrate the first funicular railway up Mount Vesuvius. The English lyrics by Edward Oxenford were published under the title A Merry Life. Some think the world is made for fun and frolic, And so do I! And so do…