RELAX! ENJOY! Not about pets, or the 102 f heat in Sarasota, nor about my silly adventures.

I remember the days when there were actors, poets, and authors.

A step below them there were actresses, poetesses, and authoresses. 

The norm was presumed to be male.  The unusual and inferior were deemed to be female, (remember George Elliot?)

Female composers had been relegated to the little league of music.  The compositions of Amy Beech, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Hildegard of Bingen &c  were almost never played or heard.

The great orchestras of the world were all male, as were their conductors.  The famed English Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham was crudely sexist when a woman cellist joined the ranks of his orchestra.  (And the male players tittered and giggled).

True enough there were celebrated female dancers and singers.  Of course - women can dance and sing! But is that all?

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Earlier this week my local public radio music station broadcasted a piano rondo as played by the fabulous Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009).

Oh my goodness that brought back memories of the first time I saw her playing a Concert (via that old fashioned medium called Television).

I was enchanted and transformed. I had never before seen a woman as the essential artist in an Orchestral concert. 

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Turn your phone off, take your shoes off, forget the heat,  then relax in one of her concerts  (from Adelaide, AU).


https://youtu.be/-nkZ1Vxd44w