After the long march

Happy National Day to everyone in China – today celebrates Mao Tse-Tung’s declaration of the People’s Republic on October 1, 1949.

Mao declares the existence of the People's Republic.

The importance of China to the US is demonstrable by the amount of information we get about it – everything from its robust renewable energy industry (it meets 17% of its energy needs with renewables, though much of that is due to hydroelectric, a dicey eco-issue from the point of view of some) to the latest Shanghai ferry sinking or train crash. You can google any particular aspect of Chinese life and find something about it on the web, so I will leave you to it.

It’s also the day Vladimir Horowitz was born in 1903; he was the last word in piano performance until his death in 1989. But reading about him led me to his good friend Sergei Rachmaninov, which led to this very early recording of Sergei playing a familiar Chopin piece – and for some reason, his interpretation of this nocturne seems mysteriously superior to all others. Not even the hissing can detract: