Andrew Mitchell
@chaconato.bsky.social
🇺🇳 🏳️🌈 classical music audience member since 1976, insufficiently gay, greenish-socialist, CPTSD survivor #InsertTibetanFlag
Punch&Judy Frankfurt Opera: dramatic experience, photos here don’t show the excitement of staging’s transverse split truck with four mini-sets raised above arena. Hugely complex action which singers carried out tirelessly. Minor reservation was the reverb, Birtwistle’s dry wit became a lyrical mush.
December 16, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Punch&Judy Frankfurt Opera: dramatic experience, photos here don’t show the excitement of staging’s transverse split truck with four mini-sets raised above arena. Hugely complex action which singers carried out tirelessly. Minor reservation was the reverb, Birtwistle’s dry wit became a lyrical mush.
“After you”, “No, after you”…. Böcklin’s The Honeymoon (c. 1876). Hope my own honeymoon in Svalbard will be less ambiguous.
December 14, 2025 at 2:21 PM
“After you”, “No, after you”…. Böcklin’s The Honeymoon (c. 1876). Hope my own honeymoon in Svalbard will be less ambiguous.
Beckmann at the Städel: useful chronological overview. Opinion - his skills in drawing were far superior to his painting technique.
December 14, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Beckmann at the Städel: useful chronological overview. Opinion - his skills in drawing were far superior to his painting technique.
Route plan and replica of Hindemith’s model railway set; the pianist Artur Schnabel often joined him on the floor of the Hindemiths’ flat to play with the trains.
December 14, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Route plan and replica of Hindemith’s model railway set; the pianist Artur Schnabel often joined him on the floor of the Hindemiths’ flat to play with the trains.
Hindemith’s A2 drawing book, illustrating his travels in 1924 and showing the Kuhhirtenturm in Frankfurt where he lived from 1923-1927.
December 14, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Hindemith’s A2 drawing book, illustrating his travels in 1924 and showing the Kuhhirtenturm in Frankfurt where he lived from 1923-1927.
Sunday in Frankfurt am Main means one thing* - the Tower of the Cow Herders is open!
(* for those interested in major-but-forgotten twentieth century composers)
(* for those interested in major-but-forgotten twentieth century composers)
December 14, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Sunday in Frankfurt am Main means one thing* - the Tower of the Cow Herders is open!
(* for those interested in major-but-forgotten twentieth century composers)
(* for those interested in major-but-forgotten twentieth century composers)
The petrogenic Clyfford Still cheers up your Sunday morning with ‘Untitled’ (1948-1949).
December 14, 2025 at 9:37 AM
The petrogenic Clyfford Still cheers up your Sunday morning with ‘Untitled’ (1948-1949).
Thrilling to see Twombly’s 1968 Treatise on the Veil, a massive metres-wide oil and chalk on canvas, with its references to Orpheus/Euridice, Muybridge, and Pierre Henry. But his early work is dwarfed by the power of the two sets of Four Seasons, and the 12-painting series of The Battle of Lepanto.
December 13, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Thrilling to see Twombly’s 1968 Treatise on the Veil, a massive metres-wide oil and chalk on canvas, with its references to Orpheus/Euridice, Muybridge, and Pierre Henry. But his early work is dwarfed by the power of the two sets of Four Seasons, and the 12-painting series of The Battle of Lepanto.
Another day, another audio-visual art/music/dance exhibition. The huge (and sprawled out) Five Friends at Museum Ludwig documenting the intertwined aesthetic revolutions and sex lives of Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, Twombly during the 1950s and 1960s.
December 13, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Another day, another audio-visual art/music/dance exhibition. The huge (and sprawled out) Five Friends at Museum Ludwig documenting the intertwined aesthetic revolutions and sex lives of Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg, Twombly during the 1950s and 1960s.
Connecting with my (historic) people.
December 13, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Connecting with my (historic) people.
Loud, long ovations at Frankfurt Opera’s last night of Die ersten Menschen, the erotic mystery by Borngräber/Stephan. Deliciously sick and sensual, as the best operas can be.
December 13, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Loud, long ovations at Frankfurt Opera’s last night of Die ersten Menschen, the erotic mystery by Borngräber/Stephan. Deliciously sick and sensual, as the best operas can be.
Hope tonight answers the question, “When Adam delved and Eve span, who then procreated their grandchildren?”
December 12, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Hope tonight answers the question, “When Adam delved and Eve span, who then procreated their grandchildren?”
Let’s hope the strong team of Abigail Pogson and Helen Wallace have plans to demolish the existing concert hall interior and somehow shoehorn a shoebox hall into its place, with one of those acoustic things rather than the soggy cardboard sound we suffer currently.
December 12, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Let’s hope the strong team of Abigail Pogson and Helen Wallace have plans to demolish the existing concert hall interior and somehow shoehorn a shoebox hall into its place, with one of those acoustic things rather than the soggy cardboard sound we suffer currently.
Have spent more days and nights in Paris than I can possibly remember (not having inherited the maternal family’s concern for record-keeping), but dewy-eyed realising it’s been half a lifetime since I was last at the Orsay.
December 11, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Have spent more days and nights in Paris than I can possibly remember (not having inherited the maternal family’s concern for record-keeping), but dewy-eyed realising it’s been half a lifetime since I was last at the Orsay.
Location-sensitive soundtrack includes works by Mussorgsky, Eisler, Schoenberg and more. Puzzled though by the choice of Berg’s violin concerto for a room focused on Kandinsky’s Kompositionen VIII, IX, and X, where the aesthetics seemed uncomfortably squashed together.
December 11, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Location-sensitive soundtrack includes works by Mussorgsky, Eisler, Schoenberg and more. Puzzled though by the choice of Berg’s violin concerto for a room focused on Kandinsky’s Kompositionen VIII, IX, and X, where the aesthetics seemed uncomfortably squashed together.
Kandinsky - la musique des couleurs is an ambitious audio-visual exhibition at the Philharmonie. Much to see and listen to, though it doesn’t entirely make the connection between the two arts.
December 11, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Kandinsky - la musique des couleurs is an ambitious audio-visual exhibition at the Philharmonie. Much to see and listen to, though it doesn’t entirely make the connection between the two arts.
At the Orsay for gay Italo-nomadic painter John Sargent.
December 11, 2025 at 10:38 AM
At the Orsay for gay Italo-nomadic painter John Sargent.
Brief, but meaningful. If/when I get round to writing things, I’d like to consider content-length ratios and people’s perceptions.
November 29, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Brief, but meaningful. If/when I get round to writing things, I’d like to consider content-length ratios and people’s perceptions.
Text explaining the purpose of the mosaic copies.
November 27, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Text explaining the purpose of the mosaic copies.
Including the Madonna of the Fazioli
November 27, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Including the Madonna of the Fazioli
The authorised 1950s copies were on tour to Belgravia this summer, as a simple reminder of the beauty of the originals:
November 27, 2025 at 8:02 PM
The authorised 1950s copies were on tour to Belgravia this summer, as a simple reminder of the beauty of the originals:
My poor Mitsumata doesn’t know what’s happening with climate breakdown: first winter followed by second autumn, so it’s trying to flower now rather than late February. The second photo shows the trichotomous branching, which no other known plant does.
November 27, 2025 at 10:05 AM
My poor Mitsumata doesn’t know what’s happening with climate breakdown: first winter followed by second autumn, so it’s trying to flower now rather than late February. The second photo shows the trichotomous branching, which no other known plant does.
Some views of the exhibition, with the Arundel Choirbook, and a 12th Century copy of Boethius’ De instituione musica.
November 27, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Some views of the exhibition, with the Arundel Choirbook, and a 12th Century copy of Boethius’ De instituione musica.
But Apple Classical messes up once more - who knew that Pergolesi, JSBach and Charpentier were alive and writing music in the early 16th century???
November 27, 2025 at 7:27 AM
But Apple Classical messes up once more - who knew that Pergolesi, JSBach and Charpentier were alive and writing music in the early 16th century???