Gilles, I’ll try to get a post up this weekend for you and other people who are trapped in office this summer. Hang in there for now. :-)

That rendition of Gorecki’s 3rd by Ingrid Peruche is very good, much better than the one I bought by Dawn Upshaw.

i ran into this the other day and have been constantly listening to it. your description of music reminds me of it

All of my personal CD’s are geared to sleep (when it comes right down to it). This does not mean they are soporific or artificial aids to slumber but that they induce a peacefulness of mood and, invariably, a tear in the heart.

‘On wings of song’…. I float away and enter the realms of Morpheus.

It’s a preference for adagio above rondo; lento above furioso. And it explains why the slow movement is invariably the heart of the symphony. For its there that we are allowed space and time to reflect, assent (to the music), and lament the tears of things undone or impossible to undo.

Keats understood the seductive power of melancholy…

She dwells with Beauty — Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips;
Ay, in the very temple of delight
Veiled Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous
tongue
Can burst Joy’s grape against his palate fine;
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.

Congratulations on another fine post and a redolent playlist.