On CD:-

What do you think Andy?

Ultra relaxed .....

Good choice !

consider following with :

Have been given this:

At its best a poor Rush rip-off, otherwise 1980s pop with some heavier guitars. Not good.

steve

On tour?

G

Sonic Youth - Dirty Boots e.p. -  cd.

Back on the deck as its so darn good

Judas Priest  -  SCREAMING FOR VENGEANCE  -   on c.d. 

Yes, I am very much looking forward to the new one coming out in a couple of days.

On the Black

This was so good that I have to watch and listen to it again tonight. The CD and DVD now are ordered. Fantastic.

And for anyone who like myself, is unfamiliar with Tal Wilkenfeld a 19/20 year old female bass guitar player (at the time Dec' 2008), check it out.

Original Vinyl.... great SQ

BLACK SABBATH  - Born Again -   on cd. 

Brian Lauritzen

Musings, coherent and otherwise, from my life.

At first, “conversations” seems like too hopeful of a moniker for this album. A bold juxtaposition of such disparate artists as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Morton Feldman, Roy Lichtenstein, Arthur Rimbaud, and Gabriel García Márquez, “collision” might be a more apt description.

But in the mind–and the hands–of Jerusalem-born pianist David Greilsammer, the worlds of Baroque and contemporary music, visual art, and literature all come together quite naturally. The 35-year-old Greilsammer certainly has some pianistic and intellectual pedigree. He started playing piano at age six, studied at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem, then at Juilliard after his compulsory service in the Israeli military. Most recently, he spent time under the tutelage of one of the great thinkers of the keyboard, Richard Goode. Greilsammer’s early recordings of Mozart Piano Concertos reflect the spirit of Goode, but his more recent pairings of very new and very old music reveal a mature and already flourishing concept of the repertoire.

“The worlds of Baroque and contemporary music,” Greilsammer says in the program notes, “each living in its own modernity, are driven here to an unusual encounter, to a deep conversation, feverish and intimate. Thanks to the radicality of each of these worlds, a dialogue becomes possible, in spite of the initial distance separating them.”

On this album, Greilsammer creates mini-suites using two works from the Baroque era (and before) as the outer movements and a contemporary work as the middle movement. For example, the fourth suite on the album:

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643): Toccata ottava di durezze e ligature
Helmut Lachenmann (b. 1935): Wiegenmusik
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621): Mein junges Leben hat ein End’

Then, in the liner notes, there is an accompanying literary passage. In this case, it’s a moment from Doce cuentos peregrinos by Gabriel García Márquez.

The aforementioned Roy Lichtenstein comes into play in the second suite on the album, which features as its middle movement, Whaam!, by the 30-year-old Israeli pianist and composer Matan Porat. Naturally, the music is inspired by Lichtenstein’s diptych of the same name. The inside of the jewel case sports a reproduction of the work itself.

I have to say I love these Baroque Conversations. By listening to old music in the context of new I’m reminded of how daring Couperin, Rameau, and Frescobaldi were in their day. Similarly, by experiencing new music alongside the old it is possible (and revelatory even) to discover many different century-crossing musical bloodlines.

Greilsammer concludes, “Music allows the promise of a dialogue, as well as the power to bring together distant souls. Music allows us to accept the terrifying doubts we all shelter, and gives us the strength to discover the most distant feelings and ideas, whose existence we could never have imagined before.”

Graffman Plays Schumann: 

Symphonic Etudes Op.13

He seems to be taking much more daring moves than the G Minor Sonata but on balance his style too mechanical for my taste lacking some breathing quality behind notes.

'52 recording of Hess' Etudes Studies.

Soft, lyrical and feminine. 

The things open up a bit towards the end but her style of playing seems a tad loose and open ended which is one way to interpret the indecisive composer but somewhat unsatisfying.

Revising Perahia's Schumann's G Minor Sonata.

Blazing fast dramatic entrance with excellent clarity and precision. Not as incissive as say, Argerich, but less serious and lively. Can't say this is most emotional reading but well structured and organised so easy to follow the tune. 

Here comes the big gun. '72 recording. Stereo.

Kempff does it all for me.

There is a sense of adventure and spontaneity that I don't hear form any other.

....always good e.s.t....

Hi Char Wallah

You seem to be a glutton for punishment. I've always loved Sabbath but that is the only album of theirs I ever regretted buying. What is it you like about it and what am I missing?

Russell