Very enjoyable, thank you Gozo.
All the across solutions are pieces of classical music, I had some fun looking them up in Wikipedia and Youtube. Most were familiar, some were new to me. They were all gettable from the subsidiary parts of the clues so as long as you have some form of reference material to hand an in-depth musical education is not required.
Hold the mouse pointer over any clue number to read the clue.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FACADE listen | AD (promotion) in CAFE* – Facade – An Entertainment is a series of poems performed to music by William Walton |
| 5 | CARNIVAL listen | IV (four, quartet) in CARNAL (erotic) – Dvorak’s Carnival Overture |
| 9 | SCYTHIAN listen | hYACINTHS* (first letter cut) – orchestral suite by Prokofiev |
| 10 | IMAGES listen | AG (silver) in SEMI (half) reversed – Images pour orchestre by Debussy |
| 11 | SALOME listen | (ME ALSO)* – Salome, opera by Richard Strauss |
| 12 | ODE TO JOY listen | anagram of OOO (three rounds) DJ and YET – poem by Friedrich Schiller set to music by Beethoven in his 9th Symphony |
| 14 | ALTO RHAPSODY listen | (A HOLST PARODY)* – orchestral piece written by Schumann as a wedding gift for his daughter |
| 18 | EUGENE ONEGIN listen | EUGENE sounds like “you Jean”, suggested address to Mis Jean Harlow (suggested=spoken out loud) with ONE (single) GIN (drink) – opera by Tchaikovsky |
| 22 | GOLDBERG listen | GOLD (top award) given to Alban BERG (composer) – work for harpsichord by Bach |
| 25 | CHORAL listen | CH (church) ORAL (examination) – Beethoven’s 9th, known as the Choral Symphony |
| 26 | MARTHA listen | MATHA + NOTES is an anagram of TAM O’SHANTER – Opera by Friedrich von Flotow |
| 27 | TURANDOT listen | RAND (money) in TOUT (spiv) – Opera by Puccini |
| 28 | LA BOHEME listen | BOHEa (tea, reduced=cut short) in LAME (unsatisfactory) – another Puccini opera |
| 29 | SPRING listen | SPReadING (outsides of) – Schumann Symphony No , the Spring Symphony |
| Down | ||
| 2 | ARCTAN | CT (court) in the ARAN islands – mathematical function |
| 3 | ASTROLABE | (BASALT ORE)* |
| 4 | EPICENTRE | anagram of sCENE I (one) PERT (model=anagram) – in forensic science the epicentre or ‘blast seat’ is the point at which an explosion detonated |
| 5 | CONTOUR | CON (against) TOUR (trip) – line indicating height on a map |
| 6 | RHINE | HINt (pointer, endlessly) going inside (padding) RE (regarding, about) |
| 7 | IDAHO | I with HAD (owned) reversed and O (zero, nothing) |
| 8 | ADENOIDS | D (daughter) ONE (unity) reversed (upset) in AIDS (helps) out=is outside – the pharyngeal tonsil, a mass of tissue in the throat |
| 13 | TAP | double definition, to be ‘on tap’ is to be copiously available |
| 15 | ALGECIRAS | (CIGAR SALE)* |
| 16 | SUNDOWNER | double definition – cocktail drink and tramp. In Australia a sundowner is a name for a traveller who wants a meal and accomodation in exchange for work, but turns up too late to do any. |
| 17 | KUROSAWA | (USA WORK A)* new=anagram – Akira Kurosawa |
| 19 | NAB | BAN (prohibition) reversed (lifted) |
| 20 | NIGHTIE | THING* (anagram=fancy) IE (that is) – definition is ‘worn in bed’, also &lit |
| 21 | MAROON | double definition – &lit again too |
| 23 | DITTO | OTT (extreme) ID (identity) reversed |
| 24 | ERASE | ERAS (times) Editorial (leading letter of) |
*anagram
Thanks for the very full blog – perhaps I’ll manage to have a listen later on. My last in was ADENOIDS – fortunately I had them out fairly memorably when I was seven but it still took me ages. “Tissue” was a rather cunning definition. It was all great fun; I thought the theme would make it too easy but there were a few unfamiliar ones (can’t claim to be a Flotow expert) and once I’d got the “o” I crazily put in Eroica instead of Choral which added an extra obstacle for a while.
By the way, is it possible to fix it so your second paragraph doesn’t appear on the 225 home page? At the moment it’s giving away the fact that all the across clues are pieces of music.