iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Some of you may be interested in the new YouTube channel I’ve started. It’s called “The Middlebrow Musicologist,” and will feature reviews, discussions, and lists. @ middlebrowmusicologist

000

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

“[Charles] Rosen convinces me entirely of Chopin’s technical prowess as a composer. But I still somehow doubt that Chopin’s stature as a dominant figure of 19th-century music rested on his structural skills alone.”—-Susan McClary, review of Rosen, The Romantic Generation, Notes 52/4

020

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

My review of Samuel Hasselhorn’s and Ammiel Bushakevitz’s latest Schubert lieder disc from Harmonia Mundi’s Schubert 200 series. I enjoyed this one very much! classicalcandor.blogspot.com/2026/05/schu...

010

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

😂😂😂 But I wasn’t wrong.

030

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

😂😂😂 (Jan Swafford, “Johannes Brahms: A Biography” [Vintage Books/Random House, 1997], pg. 338.)

110

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

One of my personal heresies: Beethoven never again equaled his Razumovsky Quartets. The late ones, while in some ways "deeper" and even more impressive, don't have the same expressive directness and emotional sweep.

120

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Paavo Järvi is not a great Mahler conductor.

120

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Martin Romberg’s songs and piano music have been a wonderful recent discovery.

020

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

I’m honored to be chosen for the Music Library Association’s 2026 Eva Judd O’Meara Award for my review of Byron Adams’s and Daniel Grimley’s “Vaughan Williams and His World” in Notes.

080

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Your music isn’t great just because your story is sad.

040

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Saddened to hear of Tamás Vásáry’s death. A very fine pianist who left behind some terrific Chopin recordings among other things.

020

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a very good composer.

120

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

“There is always a danger in musicology of making too much out of too little.”- Alan Walker, “Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times” (Picador, 2018), p. 478. I’d say over 50% of musicology I read has this problem. Amplification of mere possibility, + impatience with the limitations of primary sources.

020

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Okay, one area where Apple outdoes Spotify: 100,000-track playlists. Wow! Ideal if you want to put a huge body of musical literature together and just marinade in it over months.

010

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I’d like to quit X and move fully to Bluesky. But this place lacks the reach, variety, and engagement of X. I hate that microblogging is so fractured now.

430

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

This is exactly right. Balakirev 1 needs more love in the concert hall. It’s a fabulous romantic symphony. No wonder Karajan recorded it.

020

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Many now object to Schenker because of his racism. I just think his kind of analysis isn’t that meaningful. It’s all a glorified Sudoku puzzle, not that important for experiencing the music in performance.

030

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Nice to have regular access here again. As a Mississippi resident, I had to verify my age. My state and this app reached an agreement just very recently. Yay.

030

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

My review of Matthew Riley’s fine book, “English Diatonic Music, 1887-1955,” is up at Music & Letters. academic.oup.com/ml/advance-a...

120

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Always nice to receive one of these emails. :)

070

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

This is a terrific cycle. Engerer really feels these pieces. She does nothing weird/off-putting; she’s just a performer accentuating what makes the music great.

010

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Don’t sleep on this music. I’m still enamored with it even after many months. The sixth etude especially, La Forêt Oubliée,” is a contemporary treasure.

120

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Liszt’s Fifth Hungarian Rhapsody is a masterpiece. One of his very best compositions. It should be treated like the gem of Romantic musical expression it is. So underrated.

121

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

Wonderful recording. Some of Bach’s best cantatas.

010

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

We need more recordings of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies. Such colorful, fun pieces. Lots of room for new interpretations.

120

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I don't think the most important thing about a piece of music is its structure. I think the most important thing about it is its spiritual or emotional effect upon the listener. Structure can have something to do with this, but very often it doesn't.

220

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Schubert’s development sections often turn out to be more like “fantasy remixes” of his themes. I absolutely LOVE that about his music.

040

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

I'm glad to be back at Classical Candor reviewing music. Here is my (positive) take on the new Ruth Gipps orchestral works disc from Chandos: classicalcandor.blogspot.com/2025/02/ruth...

classicalcandor.blogspot.com

Ruth Gipps Orchestral Works, Volume 3 (CD Review)

Classical Candor, classical music reviews, news, compact disc, CD, SACD, XRCD, XRCD24, HQCD, audio, stereo, orchestral, chamber, jazz, John J. Puccio

041

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Just listened to the new Rouvali Sibelius 6 and 7 on Alpha. 6 is better than 7 here, but neither is particularly good. He doesn’t always have a good sense of what to assign to the foreground, the middle-ground, and the background in 6. And 7 is just a spasmodic mess.

010

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

“It is impossible really to appreciate a truly great symphony without understanding its structure, because in such a work, expression is largely the result of structure.”—Marc Vignal POPPYCOCK!

120

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

All FREE today at the local library! 😲😲😲

020

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

This place is nice and all, but it lacks the engagement that I used to enjoy on the other app. It’s a pity that new ownership and bitter political feuds eventually created a situation where people were compelled to seek forums along partisan lines. Now no app scratches all the itches.

020

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Dirty little secret: Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony had a more consequential influence upon the course of the symphony genre than his Fifth did.

220

Ryan Ross @ryanmross.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

I guess the music folks I enjoy following have largely migrated to here. Very well.

3230