700th Post!

This is the 700th post I have put up on the blog in a bit over a year and a half. I began the blog in June of 2011 and it has been a very fulfilling experience in several ways. One is that it gives me the occasion to think about music. Another is that it gives me the opportunity to share great music with others. A third is that it offers a podium to critique silly things other people say.

In future posts I am going to finish my series on Shostakovich symphonies and quartets. I will probably do some more posts on Beethoven, Bach and I have a lot to do on 19th century music.

Any readers have any suggestions for topics or posts? Please let me know.

I am delighted to note that six out of the top ten countries that read this blog are non-English speaking. I was talking to someone at the Canada Council the other day and she was astonished to hear this. But it's true. Here is the list in order of number of readers from high to low:

United States

United Kingdom

Russia

Mexico

Canada

Germany

France

Australia

Philippines

Sweden

I'm not sure why these countries in particular are drawn to the Music Salon, but notice that they are mostly ones with strong classical music traditions. And good internet access?

I'm not going to do a retrospective or put up links to a lot of posts today. I'm just going to thank you all for reading this blog and say that I hope to continue to post about music from a fresh perspective.

I was really delighted to reacquaint myself with the Rite of Spring the other day. What an amazing piece! So let's listen to a bit more Stravinsky: