Paul Serotsky is a "professional listener''. What he listens to, by the hour, the day, the week, are the wondrous sounds which originated in the creative brains of the great classical composers.
"I am no musician,'' says Paul "although - I hasten to add - not by choice. My performance career is limited to a bit of choral singing, a spell swinging on a bell as a campanologist, and realising the nightingale in a performance of The Pines of Rome. The only musical instrument I can play is the 'gramophone'.''
Over the years Paul has built up a huge fund of knoweldge concerning those composers and their masterworks. He distils that knowledge into words: enthusiastic words, provocative words, hugely enjoyable words.
He reviews CDs and books for MusicWeb http://www.musicweb.uk.net/ The site attracts 14,000 readers a day. He writes programme notes for classical concerts in Britain and North America.
And once a week, starting today, Paul's reviews and notes will also be appearing in Open Writing.
Now, please allow Paul to introduce himself.
Following the introduction there's an article (programme note) on Frederick Delius's The Walk to the Paradise Garden, from “A Village Romeo and Juliet”. This was commissioned and written for a concert given by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in May last year and has appeared in MusicWeb.
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