Edward Elgar – Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84 – The Eloquent Emptiness of Fulfillment

Lady Alice Elgar

I have a small, special place in my heart for the music of Edward Elgar, and his sentiments of the place and the people surrounding and inspiring him.  The Quintet, especially in its middle slow movement, contains that beauty of understanding made remarkable and moving because it resides beneath the surface of things, through which […]

Kenneth Clark – Leonardo da Vinci

This is art historian Clark’s excellent study of Leonardo. Among his many books also is Civilization, which was subsequently turned into an excellent television series. A few points of especial consequence. In discussing the painting of the Virgin and St Anne, Clark writes Finally, [Leonardo] arrives at the solution which we know in the Paris […]