The ironic announce made by a completely naked speaker wearing only a bow tie punctuates the sketches of the Flying Circus, an irresistible show broadcast on the BBC from 1969 to 1974 by Monty Python, a collective of British actor-intellectuals who have brought English humor to sidereal levels, in the meantime talking about history, art, philosophy, music, with an intellectual acumen that has not yet been achieved.

After all, as the first of Italo Calvino's American Lessons reminds us, lightness is not superficiality, but rather a subtle irony that manages to reduce the burden of sadness through a lively and brilliant intelligence. So is English music (like its culture), if we think about it. It is never heavy. From the Edwardian echoes of the wise Elgar, in whose repertoire the Enigma-Variations stand out, to the production of William Walton, whose first Suite with brilliant entertainment Façade is proposed, and Ethel Smyth, with the Concerto written for the unusual combination of horn and violin.