The Work Before The Work

Carlos Chávez is one of Mexico’s most important and prolific 20th-century composers. He championed the symphony form at a time when it was generally neglected by other Latin American composers, and the results are magnificent: when his first symphony Sinfonía de Antígona was premiered in 1933, invoking the best of Mexican tradition in a revived symphonic form, it received a rapturous reception, and led to a burst of inspiration for Chávez, who went on to compose five more symphonies before his death in 1978.

Jacqui left her provincial life to run off to Paris two years before with her guitar-playing boyfriend. Now twenty, dumped by her boyfriend, she returns home to Palavas, close to Montpellier. She's now a "dolled up" "Parisian girl", the gossip of whole Palavas. She couldn't care less of what people say about her and she dreams of "doing something with her life" though she has no qualifications and doesn't like work. She accuses her local ex-boyfriend, who still fancies her and who's content with his fisherman life, of lack of ambition. "Bought" by men in the age before the pill, she seems to be drifting, enjoying the things that she doesn't possess. Maybe the choice that she makes at the end of the film shines some light on her inner desires.

How do today's leaders move from playing it safe to playing for great?

Erland Cooper’s new album Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence. The album is a recording of Cooper’s brand new three-movement composition for solo violin and string ensemble. The work marks the centenary of celebrated Orkney poet George Mackay Brown, as 2021 marks 100 years since his birth. Inspired by natural landscapes and ruminating on time, hope, community and patience, the sole recording of the work – on ¼ inch magnetic tape, with the digital files permanently deleted – has been planted to grow and be nurtured or “recomposed” by the earth, before being exhumed and released in three years’ time. Whilst Cooper will not be unearthing the tape until 2024, he has left a trail for anyone to search and find it if they wish. A map with clues to the location of the planting site will be released via his digital platforms. If the planted tape is found, Erland will invite the discoverer to his studio to embark on a journey together for the treasured first listen. It will then be released exactly as it sounds from the earth.