At nearly 90, piano jazz legend, Marian McPartland, paid tribute in music to the famed environmentalist
By Linda Pentz Gunter
It’s always a joy to come across extraordinary women. Rachel Carson was certainly one; Marian McPartland, longtime host of the NPR program, Piano Jazz, another.
Who would have thought there was a connection between them? It was therefore another joy to discover that there very much was.
Aside from being a wonderfully talented jazz pianist, McPartland was also an environmentalist. And so, a few months before her 90th birthday, with her show still on the air, McPartland set down an improvised piece of piano music in tribute to Carson. (McPartland hosted Piano Jazz from 1978 until her retirement in 2011. She died in 2013 at 95. NPR retired the show in 2018.)
For McPartland, as for many of us, Silent Spring, Carson’s breakout 1962 masterpiece, was a work of seminal importance. And it was to honor Carson and that book that McPartland composed what became her symphony, A Portrait of Rachel Carson. The orchestration was arranged by New Zealand pianist, Alan Broadbent.
McPartland premiered the work on November 15, 2007 with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra, herself on piano. At the time, she was enduring considerable medical challenges, and announced before the performance that “I can’t walk. I’m in miserable pain. But at the piano, I don’t feel a thing.”
You can hear the piece in its entirety, archived on the NPR website. The symphony begins, appropriately enough, with birdsong, evocative of the very sounds Carson warned us could disappear forever. It is worth quoting the NPR description of this work at length:
“Silent Spring begins: ‘There once was a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surrounding…’
The Belgian government has reached a deal to close seven ageing nuclear reactors by 2025.
The reactors, housed at two plants in Doel and Tihange, have long been controversial. They have been shut down repeatedly for safety checks and have sparked fear in neighbouring countries.
A compromise was reached after years of debate and overnight talks by government ministers.
The plan in principle was confirmed at a press conference on Thursday.
Closures will begin in 2022 with the aim of both plants being safely decommissioned and demolished by 2045, Reuters news agency reports.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said it was possible newer reactors built at the sites could be extended as a safety net but added this was “very unlikely”.
The country will not turn its back on nuclear technology completely as part of the compromise deal, with 100 million euros ($113m; £84m) to be invested into research including on smaller, modular nuclear energy plants.
Questions about nuclear power continue to divide Europe amid a push for countries around the world to switch from fossil fuels to cleaner energy resources that are not as polluting to the climate.
The European Commission is expected to present a green energy classification list in January, which will deem which sources are seen as sustainable and eligible for investment as part of carbon-neutrality commitments.
Some nations reliant on nuclear energy, like France, have pushed for it to be included in the taxonomy plan but other nations, like Germany, have showed opposition.
Germany is committed to switching off its last nuclear plant by the end of next year and its new government aims to phase out coal by 2030.