2000 CHOICE

BASIL RAMSEY looking both ways, but not at once

Looking at our new diary at the beginning of a new year, the vast expanse of time represented by uncluttered pages suggests that it will last for ever. Despite this yearly delusion, I, for one, foolishly fall for it without fail.

Keith Bramich suggested this piece for Jan 4 when I was about to enjoy a family Christmas, so the inevitable happened and I 'left it to nearer the time', which in reality has brought me so close as to scorch my eyebrows. I solemnly swear it will never happen again.

One of my pleasures over the last two years has been flicking back the pages of Music & Vision to remind myself of the variety of subjects within music we have touched upon. Here, then, is my selection of year 2000 pieces well worth re-reading for both subject matter and treatment. With everything published in Music & Vision straightforwardly accessible to readers, you can easily call up any of the following:

David Wilkins	Maria Callas -- mysterious chemistry
Roderic Dunnett	The Rightness of Gurney (in four parts)
John Bell Young	In defence of Scriabin
Peter Dickinson	Reconstructing the Image -- Constant Lambert
Shirley Ratcliffe	Bach at the Opera
Bill Newman	The Emerson Quartet in conversation
Basil Ramsey	The Outlook
Peter Lundin	Pavel Haas
Bill Newman	Libor Pesek
Roderic Dunnett	James Macmillan
Gordon Rumson	A true renaissance man -- Murray Schafer
Peter Dickinson	Michael Finnissy
Basil Ramsey	Fruits of the best
Malcolm Miller	Stephen Storace
Ates Orga	Martha Argerich
Peter Dale	American voices
Keith Bramich	Site Seeing
David Wilkins	Lenny -- 10 years on
Wilfrid Mellers	George Crumb
Robert Anderson	Ernest Bloch
Patric Standford	Zemlinsky

If this list seems lengthy, try the complete index from January 1 1999!