"You can imagine how Burgundy hit me like a ton of bricks.."

It's not much of a stretch to say that the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera is the best opera orchestra in the world. And, on its day, may be the best orchestra in America. That's a bit more of a stretch, yes, but an argument could be made. The concert master is a man named David Chan. He secured this job in 2000 when he was the ripe old age of 27. Since then he has led the world's greatest pit band in some ravishing performances night in and night out. Those of you who saw the Met HD transmission of Thais last year will doubtless remember his wonderful rendition of the Méditation that somehow infused new life into what has, let's face it, become something of an old chestnut. That was no mean feat. A couple of days ago I came across a New York Times article about Mr Chan from November 2008 that I had bookmarked and had been meaning to share with you. This shows what Mr Chan does with his spare time and spare cash - he's a wine expert. My kinda guy. Apparently, he is a completist:

    "As a teenager, if I discovered one Mahler symphony, I had to know all of them - one Wagner opera, I had to know them all. You can imagine how Burgundy hit me like a ton of bricks. If I had one producer's Meursault Genevrière one night I had to have the Perrières the next night. Whatever would advance the knowledge."

Thank you Mr Chan. You have provided me with the perfect excuse for the next occasion that I awake to find the previous night's Burgundy has hit me like a ton of bricks. I was just advancing the knowledge, that's all.

And you thought the Macarena was bad?

It's been pretty much impossible to entirely avoid the FIFA World Cup competition for the last couple of weeks. I used to be something of a soccer fan in my youth and, while baseball has now replaced soccer as my favourite spectator sport, I can usually muster some enthusiasm for major competitions. Unfortunately, this recent World Cup has just been thoroughly average in almost all regards. Where it has quite failed to come up to the level of average is in the music department. What has dominated the media coverage of the event is not the skill and fitness of the players but the strange 'instrument' called the vuvuzela. This is a form of trumpet played by South African football crowds incessantly during a match. Sir Thomas Beecham once said something along the lines of "The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes!" Even the English are finding the vuvzela hard to take. Here's why:

Now you don't get that at a baseball game. Thank God!

Have a happy and constructive week!