Anatole…I have read the Lewis Lockwood…..fantastic and revealing about the old codger.Maybe I should give biographies a rest for a bit….they do have a tendency to end badly for their subjects!

I too love the Second Symphony….it can never replace the Piano Concerto but that is also a personal thing. I used to have a copy of the First conducted by the young James Levine that was electrifying it seems to have disappeared from the catalogues though and mine is busted. The Fourth is so bleak but romantic too but it is something I am avoiding listening to at the moment – maybe it is just too morbid for me right now.And also,of course, it was written after 1856.

Claudio….believe me man, I have plenty more secrets!

Ottavio is a wimp for sure….but what music! The women would have been much better off going with him….after-all we don’t really get to see his secret side.

The second act of Tosca is fantastic..it is so tense and painful, that is why the Vissi d’arte aria practically always gets me…..we are totally primed for it.

Thanks gentlemen for reading my ramblings….it is good to know you are out there.

Personally, though, I would always prefer to play Figaro or Leperello than the more obviously sexy characters – I like their wheeler-dealing.

It’s funny how music does bring a raft-load of memories – “Vissi d’arte” has baggage for me, but it only comes to the fore sometimes. Maybe that is the sign of the great performances – that they overpower everything else.

I must get a recording of the 2nd Piano Concerto. My first Brahms was the 2nd Symphony, which I played in a youth orchestra when I was about 16. I still think it is one of the most beautiful things I know. That perfect balance of order and passion that no one after him really understood.