Best of the Web This Week

I have certainly been enjoying my little mini vacation of the last few days.  While I have not done much that could be said to be  exciting, I have caught up on my rest and gotten a lot done around the homestead.  That all changes tonight when I return to the retail war that is my job.  For as many things as there are to enjoy about my job, there is an equal number of unpleasant episodes that makes me wonder why I try to make the best of the situation.  I must admit that it does give me a lot of stories to tell, some of them quite funny and others not so much.  Anyone who has worked a retail establishment would probably agree with me that it is a love/hate relationship than can both lift you up and/or wear you out.  As much as I consider myself a gentleman merchant, sometimes it makes me just a grumpy old man by the end of a shift.  However, then I get to come home and commune with my favorite fellows, my readers here at Nichevo with whom I can share my love of great music and beautiful men.  So let's get to it, shall we?  For today's featured composer we turn to the Far East island nation of Japan.  Admittedly not the first place one thinks of when you mention great composers, there are a great many fantastic artists and compositions from which to choose when it comes to Western Classical Music.  Symphony Number 1 in D Major by Qunihico Hashimoto is but one example, albeit a masterpiece in its own right.  Today's performance is by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Ryusuke Numajiri.  "Hashimoto's Symphony No.1 in D (1940) was written to celebrate the 2600th year of the Emperor. When the United States asked Japan to open diplomatic relations and trade in 1853, the Samurai régime, which had kept the country closed for some two hundred years, rapidly began to collapse, and a new government by the Emperor, who had before been a mere titular head, was established in 1868."  "Qunihico Hashimoto was one of the leading Japanese composers in the first half of the twentieth century. He showed a chameleon-like talent, commanding a variety of styles including romanticism, impressionism, nationalism, jazz and atonality. He was also active as a violinist, an accompanist, conductor and educator, but his career was marked by tragedy, through the vagaries of politics and war.  Japan underwent a complete change of values after the war. Living through these years, Hashimoto was never free from continuing stress, which undermined him both physically and mentally. In 1948 he was diagnosed with cancer. While struggling against the illness in bed, he converted to Christianity, and on 6th May the following year he died in Kamakura. His pupils include some leading figures in the post-war Japanese music scene, including Yasushi Akutagawa, Toshiro Mayuzumi and Akio Yashiro." 

Folowing the video is this week's review of the photographic Best of the Web This Week with over 100 photographs out of the over 700 that I collected this week.  I am sure there is someone there to please all palates no matter what kind of man you most like.  Thanks for spending part of your weekend with me here at Nichevo, see you again on Monday.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!