blow, winds

For various reasons we need something cheerful today, so here is my all-time favorite work of chamber music for winds, an obscure piece you may not know: Rimsky-Korsakov's Quintet for Piano and Winds. I first heard this piece around 1971, at which time I was not listening to much chamber music, but I loved this one instantly and ever since:

Watch on YouTube

Tolkienist on the loose again

You've seen Stephen Colbert on The Late Show criticizing the scientist who named a species of spider after Sméagol? You wanna know what I think?