What superpower would you like to have? The ability to be invisible, to read minds or to fly? I wish I had the gift of tongues. To understand any language as if it were my native one. I would even be happy with a minor superpower: the ability to reach C1 level in any given language within a bunch of months.

For centuries in Europe, killing unfaithful wives and their lovers was morally and legally accepted; a man's duty was to protect one of his most valuable properties (his children, not his wife). The most famous case in the music world is that of Carlo Gesualdo, an Italian prince who wrote wonderful music. For us, his crime was murdering two people; for his contemporaries, his fault was not killing them, as he was absolutely entitled to, but humiliating wife and lover noble families by leaving their naked and mutilated bodies on public display.

On the afternoon of January 22nd, 1918, Amics de la Música association presented a concert at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona with this program: the String Quartet No. 5 in E flat Major, by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf; L'infantament meravellós de Schahrazada, by Robert Gerhard (premiere) and the String Quartet in F major, Op. 96 by Antonín Dvořák (first audition). The Quartet Renaixement was performing with Eduard Toldrà as the first violin; soprano Conxita Badia and pianist Frederic Longàs.

My dearest, the brand-new year just arrived. Happy 2020! I wish you a year filled with peace and music.

Those who read the post the morning it's published are probably among waltzes and polkas and not totally awake; There's a time for everything, so enjoy with the Strauss family; I'm sure you'll find some minutes to enjoy with the beautiful song that is closing the Christmas posts this year.

A woman about to give birth and her husband go door to door asking for shelter; eventually, the baby is born in a stable. Today, as many families are knocking on our doors, we should be ashamed of ourselves for the ressemblance to this scene from 2000 years ago. This is not a original or modern reflection; tales like Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, to name a well-known one, tells us about our incoherence and our bad memory.