Two old men shouted at each other last night...

Or so I read this morning. I didn't watch 'the debate' but I've seen plenty of comments on it. The Times certainly used very large font last night to tell us that Mr Trump was bad; it is rather smaller now but the message remains, "Trump hectoring upends debate". This will be 'true' for those who rely on the Times for their worldview, certainly. It remains to be seen how the nationwide audience will parse what they witnessed. "Bitter and chaotic first clash" is how the Guardian is headlining their story now, which seems true enough to me, based on what I've read. Eh. The Sun is shining, it is the glorious feast of the famously irascible St Jerome, I think I am not getting a cold as I had feared the other day. 

Am listening to the Austrian Hans Rott (1858-1884) this morning, his Symphony in A flat major, performed by the Mainz Phiilharmonic State Orchestra, at the moment. The poor man succumbed to mental illness of some sort or another (e.g. "on a train journey, he reportedly threatened another passenger with a revolver, claiming that Brahms had filled the train with dynamite") but Bruckner and Mahler esteemed his work in their different ways, evidently; Brahms was not a fan. The Symphony in E major appears to be the greatest relic of Rott's career.

 



Post Sextam. Am listening to a recording of a live performance of the Rott Symphony in E major performed by the Mozarteum Orchestra, conducted by Constantin Trinks, in 2016. Understandable, certainly, why Rott's work would have made sense to Bruckner and Mahler.

 

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