In Brief: Labor Day Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• With hat tip to Bryant Manning, the flamboyant Cameron Carpenter plays Chopin's Revolutionary Etude. On the organ. [YouTube]


• Everything you wanted to know about the renovated Salle Pleyel in Paris. Pictures, too. [Intermezzo]


• Ha! My dislike of Rachmaninov puts me in distinguished company. Alfred Brendel on the subject: "The piano repertoire is vast, and Rachmaninov to me seems a waste of time." John Gibbons valiantly tries to change my mind but leaves me unconvinced. [Holde Kunst]


• With hat tip to Daniel Felsenfeld, composer Mark Adamo has a blog. In it, we learn that we need to congratulate him and John Corigliano, who were married in California earlier this month. [Mark Adamo Online]


• Marie-Noëlle Tranchant reports on an interesting stop in the upcoming apostolic visit of Pope Benedict XVI to France (for the 150th anniversary of the Lourdes apparition). During that trip, he will deliver an address at the newly renovated and about to be rededicated Collège des Bernardins in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. The audience will be composed of representatives from the various domains of the arts and culture in France, and the pope will speak about the relationship of the church and the arts. [Le Figaro]