Without any jaw discomfort or aching teeth so yesterday's dentist's visit gets five stars; I have to admit that after Tuesday's visit and Wednesday's morning I was anticipating awarding only one or two. Deo gratias!
First Saturday Masses at Paris usually happen at 0200 here but I believe I saw 1000 advertised (as has been the case with the week's daily Masses) so that was an oversight there or bad reading here since this morning's Mass was in fact at 0200.
Frustration with the Internet and/or the machina altera this morning because I can't reach Klassikaraadio: the most frustration arises from the fact that I myself cannot know whether there are issues there, here, or at some point in between. This laptop is having none, no issues, accessing other sites, and indeed it loaded the Klassikaraadio page without any delay or other problem. I have suspected for a while that the wireless Internet thingies (whatever that might mean) in the other laptop (the one I use for playing and streaming music, nothing else) are decaying-- this is perhaps that, or the VPN interfering, or who knows what. Tsk. So I've turned the VPN off, restarted the laptop, and will hope for the best. Hmm; issues, issues. Will fuss with it again after my morning spatiamentum.
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Post Tertiam. A lovely walk; the skies appear to be clearing, even. The machina altera seems to be loading Klassikaraadio and the other Euro stations without issue. I come to this conclusion each time this happens: it is the VPN screwing the wireless connexion up, somehow. I do this because a) it may indeed be the truth of the matter and then b) it relieves me of having to decide whether to take the laptop to the repairman.
I put Shostakovich's Symphony no 8 supra because I thought that the Berlin Philharmonic's performance of it was today, due to the imperfect page loading earlier. It is Friday next... when I may be enduring another session at the dentist's, eh.
At 0900, there is a concert from Tallinn of Handel, Purcell, and Monteverdi duets; the ensemble Floridante and the singers are the soprano Maria Valdmaa and the mezzosoprano Tuuri Dede.
In a couple of hours, there is a recording from last month's performance at the Berliner Staatsoper of the opera Quartett by Luca Francesconi. Live instrumentalists, recorded music, and electronica, if I've read the website correctly. I may give that a listen for a while. I thought the name entirely unfamiliar but, looking at the index of works, I had somewhere seen someone writing something about Francesconi's Gesualdo Considered as a Murderer.
There are also streamings today of rebroadcasts of Hunyadi László by Ferenc Erkel, Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss, Der Traumgörge by Alexander Zemlinsky, Mozart's Così fan tutte, and Lakmé by Delibes; six operas in one day (plus whatever the Met is giving us; Verdi's La forza del destino) is too much for me, I'm afraid.
Will see if I can't catch the Zemlinsky at France Musique.
That fellow has been 'declared president' in very large font on the front page of the New York Times. I hope the Trump people demand hand recounts in the half of the country that voted for him. While I'm over the moments of passion when it became evident that Mr Trump had probably lost I needn't run out shouting into the streets and singing hosanna for the advent of a Biden administration. Loathsome and disgusting, both Mr Biden and Sen Harris. Disgusting.
The German presenters are chatting either pre-Quartett or post-Quartett; I cannot tell. It is evidently just over 42 minutes in length. Deustchlandfunk Kultur is one of the stations or channels where it is impossible, for me anyway, to figure out the day's schedule: I can see what has been played but not what is next to be played, tsk. Leave it to the Germans to spend (hypothetically, I mean, perhaps this is what is going on) two hours of 'air time' on a 42 minute piece! They are still chatting at half past so I've switched to Hunyadi László on Bartók Radio; should've done that at the top of the hour but I was seduced by the promise of listenable contemporary music.
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The dog was trying to climb the tree in order to capture the squirrel, who is now taunting him mercilessly. I wonder if chewing on the branchlet was an element of trying to get into the tree or a distraction knowingly indulged? The dog ignores the taunting. Am no longer leaving my glass of juice on the windowside table lest the squirrel, settling itself on the sill, manage to kick a nut into the juice or, perhaps, manage to knock the glass over because the dog has startled it.
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Post Vesperas. Am watching the first episode of a Finnish serial called (in English, anyway) Secret Enemies. The plot, such as it is, eh, isn't worth going into but I have noticed the prime minister's solid middle class house at the waterside: no high security perimeters, no security at all that is visible. No household servants. He opens and closes the executive office's doors himself. In another scene, he's having a day off! May be a crook or spy; the Finnish version of the FBI simply enters his house, searches his papers, and places a few bugs. Finland isn't a 'superpower' of course but I wish the US would emulate Finland in these sorts of things, although I do approve of elite regiments, stirring military bands, corps of trumpeters et cetera, certainly, so am not quite sure how far my approval goes.
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