Caroline Potter
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carolinefrmus.bsky.social
Caroline Potter
@carolinefrmus.bsky.social

Award-winning author of books on Boulez, Satie, Boulanger and Dutilleux/ Visiting Reader in French Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire/
Contributing writer at I Care If You Listen/ https://linktr.ee/carolinepotter

Art 61%
History 8%

Finished reading Ismail Kadare, The Concert, following suggestion of 2 completely different people. Great read - Albania/China relations, compelling personal stories, excellent female characters. Recommended!

I didn’t want Oliver Leith’s Last Days to end: utterly haunting conclusion that is still swirling round my head. So perfectly poised at the bitter/sweet edge. My theatrical experience of the year

Royal Ballet & Opera looking festive, and I’m here for Not the Nutcracker - Oliver Leith’s Last Days
“Pray tell, the Baron, what sort of gentleman is he?”

“Well…”

In this song, Ravel sets his own text about charmingly naff festive ornaments. Plus ça change... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEx3...
Maurice Ravel - "Noël des jouets" (audio + sheet music)
YouTube video by thenameisgsarci
www.youtube.com

#Ravel at Christmas: Noël des jouets (1904). Fascinating new article by Manuel Cornejo, including detail on the first orchestration going missing because of Pierre Monteux's divorce dezede.hypotheses.org/8002
Quelques nouveautés autour du Noël des jouets de Maurice Ravel (1904-2025)
Pour clore l’année de la commémoration du cent-cinquantenaire de la naissance de Maurice Ravel, nous proposons un dossier Dezède regroupant les premières auditions de la mélodie de Maurice Ravel Noël ...
dezede.hypotheses.org

Reposted by Caroline Potter

Licht de Karlheinz Stockhausen... par Le Balcon / Maxime Pascal/Benjamin Lazar avec la @philharmonie.bsky.social et le Festival d'Automne à Paris.
DONNERSTAG (Gruss & Acte 3)
A découvrir en intégralité sur Philharmonie de Paris Live - > philharmoniedeparis.fr/fr/live/conc...

Enjoyed film Off the Beaten Track on @artefr.bsky.social - the doctor and poet Victor Segalen (who knew Debussy) travels to Polynesia in 1903 in search of Gauguin's legacy @victorsegalen87.bsky.social www.arte.tv/en/videos/12...
Off the Beaten Track | ARTE in English
In 1903 Tahiti, doctor, poet and artist Victor Segalen sails from France to Hiva-Oa, eager to meet Paul Gauguin. But upon reaching the island, he learns that the painter has just died. Inspired by Seg...
www.arte.tv

John Rutter: festive air freshener

There’s a liqueur organ in Huysmans’ A rebours (as well as a black dinner scene)

Reposted by Holger Nehring

So Max Richter eau de toilette is an actual thing (source: Private Eye Pseuds Corner)

Email from the pianist Gloria Cheng on my #Boulez book has made my day: ‘Your book, like none other, illuminates him as a human being with wide-ranging interests, influence, inner conflicts and hormones.’ 🥰

Sort-of café gourmand (at Petit Pois, Brighton) @boulezian.bsky.social

Me with Ralph van Raat before his performance of early unpublished #Boulez pieces on Monday (photo: Tal Walker) @rcmlondon.bsky.social

Reposted by Caroline Potter

It’s that time of year again, and we’re excited to share a list of our contributors’ top albums of 2025. All of them highlight the dynamism, uniqueness, and diversity of contemporary music — and what we gain when we give new music a chance to stretch our ears.

icareifyoulisten.com/2025/12/our-...

Gloria Cheng plays #Boulez Courtes dérives à partir d'Eclat, a short piano piece written for her. Currently unpublished but this may, I understand, change: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVQY...
Gloria Cheng plays Pierre Boulez's Courtes dérives à partir d'Éclat
YouTube video by Piano Spheres
www.youtube.com

je crois que non! Beaucoup de musique populaire et folklorique par contre...

Annexe G d'Arbie Orenstein, A Ravel Reader est une liste de sa collection personnelle de disques. Il y a du Lully dirigé par Désormière...

Ravel connaissait bien la Princesse de Polignac et sans doute il a entendu ces oeuvres avec clavecin chez elle. Il est inconcevable qu'il n'était pas très familier avec ce timbre

More exciting #Tailleferre news: on 8 February, I am hosting a book launch/short concert at Clapham Omnibus theatre with the fab @aoyarzabal.bsky.social on piano. We will be opening booking and giving further details in the New Year

(Yes, they refer to it as an 'Element' and not a 'short book' but as far as I'm concerned, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a (short) duck)

My CUP Element on #Tailleferre is free to read online until 30 December! Enjoy this short book here: www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Germaine Tailleferre
Cambridge Core - Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Music - Germaine Tailleferre
www.cambridge.org

Fascinating performance & presentation by Ralph van Raat of early #Boulez piano pieces - listen to his recording! Really stressed the emotional world of the music @rcmlondon.bsky.social

Update: really excited to be travelling there by train (London - Brussels - Cologne - Munich - Budapest), flying home

Paris-Brest (my favourite) in Belle Epoque Islington 🥰

I can't be at tonight's Paris performance of #Boulez Poésie pour pouvoir, but happy to learn it's being broadcast on France Musique on 7 January www.ensembleintercontemporain.com/en/concert/p...
Poésie pour pouvoir - 12/12/2025 20H00 - Paris - Ensemble intercontemporain
www.ensembleintercontemporain.com

Fantastic programme from BBCSSO @ilanvolkov.bsky.social tonight on BBC Radio 3 including #Ohana Piano Concerto and #Barraine Symphony no. 2. I'll be looking forward to catching up with the broadcast www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 3 - Radio 3 in Concert, French visionaries
The BBC SSO performs music by Debussy, Ravel, Elsa Barraine and Maurice Ohana.
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Caroline Potter

Francis Poulenc smoking a cigarette while cooking with his dog.

Isn't it? I'm looking forward to seeing it again later this month

I like doing non-festive things at this time of year: on 24 December I'm going to the Linbury Studio Theatre (ROH) for Oliver Leith's Last Days. Loved it first time around, looking forward to seeing it again www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-...
Last Days
Find out about Last Days at the Royal Opera House. A critically acclaimed opera returns. Adapted from Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film loosely based on the final days of grunge icon Kurt Cobain, Last Days is ...
www.rbo.org.uk