So Soft and So Masterful

The first of two ghazals accepted by qarrtsiluni is now up on their website. The theme for the issue is New Classics. You can download the podcast of me reading the poem.

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Heard with LW last night Kurt Masur conducting the New York Philharmonic. The performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 was crisp and unified. It gave off the impression of great mastery, on the part of both composer and conductor. It was the first time I heard Number 1 live. I was too tired to pay close attention to Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, which followed after the intermission. Lots of swirling passages but I could not make sense of it in my sleepy state. The program notes tell me that Bruckner was a late bloomer. He composed the first of his nine symphonies in 1865-66, when he was 41.

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