Saturday at the Symphony Evening Concert

Welcome to the weekend and your Saturday at the Symphony Evening Concert.  Before we get to the Music and the Men, I must apologize for being MIA on the blog yesterday.  I was MIA from a lot of things yesterday as a multiple physical health crisis conjoined to attack me early in the morning.  My sugar crashed and a particularly nasty if short lived virus hit me at the same time around 5 AM.  I normally eat some of my emergency sugar or something that will bring my sugar back up quickly.  However the virus was having none of that as everything I put in my stomach came right back up.  I could not hold my head up, could not eat and felt miserable.  So much so that I pulled a rarity for me and called in sick to stay home in bed.  I worked today as I felt better, not 100 %, but good enough to work.  It wore me out though and I am a tired puppy tonight.  To ease the body and the soul though, I have some excellent selections in both Music and Men for the edification of us all.  

Our featured work for the Evening Concert comes from the pen of English Composer Sir Edward Elgar (yes, he of Pomp and Circumstances fame).  Elgar wrote two complete symphonies with his first in A Flat Major, Opus 55 being premiered in 1908 by the Halle Orchestra under Hans Richter, who declared it to be "the greatest symphony of modern times." It went on to receive just over a hundred performances worldwide during the following year.  Elgar was regarded as a typically English composer and it took some years after his death for a lot of his music to gain in popularity other than the first Symphony , the Violin Concerto and the Enigma Variations which were immediately popular in Britain with the Variations garnering International Praise.  Elgar has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his works. The introduction of the microphone in 1925 made far more accurate sound reproduction possible, and Elgar made new recordings of most of his major orchestral works.  

The appointment of Sakari Oramo to the post of Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, effective with the 2013 Proms season, provides an opportunity to hear him conduct Elgar's epic Symphony Number 1 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, of which he became Principal Conductor in 2003. It comes from the radio broadcast of 6 February 2009. Instead of the video pics showing English scenes that might be associated with the Elgarian countryside, the videographer opted instead for aspects of Finnish landscapes which they hope are not too inappropriate!  You may hear Elgar's elegiac Symphony Number 2 in E Flat Major, Opus 63 over on my tumblr with a performance by Daniel Harding conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at the London Proms 2013 in Royal Albert Hall. 

Then to go along with the Marvelous Music, there are some Gorgeous Guys on display below the video.  All of the svelte models are Naked or Nearly So, and they most assuredly qualify as Fantasy Fuel as well.  So we kill two birds with one collection of sultry sexiness au naturel.  You may also find some more Naked Fantasy Fuel over on my tumblr with Tony who is your Hottie of the Day!  Thanks for sharing part of your weekend with me.  See you again on Monday for another week of Music, Men & More!  Until next time as always, enjoy!