What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. X)

This classic album on the black stuff.I have yet to find a CD copy thats not stupid money.

This wonderful new LP 

On the nice new black stuff that came through the door today.

Bela Bartok:  Jerome Lowenthal (piano)

14 Bagatelles, Op. 6

Out of Doors

From "Mikrokosmos "Volume 6"

3 Etudes, Op. 18

Last week I wondered and wondered for a few minutes time what to get myself for Christmas?  What don't I have enough of already that I truly need?

Why, more music - of course !  

A recent discovery for me has been the pianist Jerome Lowenthal.  I am looking forward to every recording I can find that he made and hopefully many of them will be under the tree before next Wednesday.

The first to arrive is this Bartok disc.  It is funny how sometimes the best musicians are the ones you might not have heard of or never will hear. Another thing I am noticing is that I tend to really relate to most of the musicians that make it through the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels.  They tend to be the really musical ones.  Lowenthal was a prizewinner in 1960 and among other things is the chair of the piano department at Julliard now.

Bartok may be difficult music to understand.  It has an edge that either keeps you away or welcomes you in with open arms.  In my younger days when I was having my own musical renaissance so to speak the Bartok 3 Etudes were cataclysmic, so to speak, on my life from the time when I first heard them - they just blew me away.  So large and bold in rhythm and rapturous in scope I couldn't believe some of it could even be playable.

So, not anything here that will be on the Billboard top 10 and not a marketers big dream of top sales but a very special recording for any pianophile.  Lowenthal is a specialist in this music as well as core romantic period music.  What amazes me is how often a recording by an unknown label can clearly be better than many top household name labels.

I am equally excited to get the next disc which is a recording of the works of Christian Sinding.

Is it just me?

Page shows as 486 blank you then have to click on page 485 and scroll down the whole page to see the latest posts?

Paul McCartney

"NEW"     (2013)     mp3

Not just you.  Richard D is on it, from a posting several days ago, believed to be the length of this thread and expected to go away with the new 2015 thread.

Jeff A

Sugary sweet, but so much fun

EJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9Cd1otn1OE

Jeff,

I mailed Richard a few weeks ago saying thread is full again and time for the new one to start early?

He said not long to go until January .

Its a pain in the bum as it is now.

This brilliant  LP from this  outstanding SQ box set.

2013 - 2 x180g Vinyl

A guy at the top of his game. Moving on from the Beatles, in love with Linda, two great kids and the world at his feet. Making effortless music on his own terms. I don't think he ever topped his work through of first half of the 70s....

The photo album with this record is one showing a family at peace.

On CD:-

He gave me a lift home one horrid wet and windy night from the station in his Austin 1100 not long after it was released.

Miles out of his way.

Kate Walsh

"The Real Thing"    (2011)     mp3

Another wonderful SQ LP from this box set.

Kuma if you see this?

You should try and get a listen to this set.

Beautiful....

Frédéric Chopin:  Ingrid Fliter (Klavier)

24 Preludes, Op. 28

Finally, Santa delivered this LP to me.  I didn't think it would come this year.

Here we have a Fliter that plays an understated, reflective Preludes.  A grey canvas on which you paint images, thoughts, ideas, emotion in monochrome of what this music is.  Bright colours and constantly speedy tempos are not fitting here as this music is mostly pointing to melancholy. The back cover photo is a perfect creation to visually reflect this.  The link below actually will reflect better in Fliters own words than I could ever explain this astounding set of works.  I believe she is right on the mark in her assessment of the music.  It is light and darkness; it is hope and despair; both personified.

Fliter's interpretation of the music is quit unique though in comparison to the pack.  Surprisingly, the overall picture is darker and bleaker than most other in the field of comparison.  This is a positive comment from me as I prefer this type of view if I have my druthers.  Fliter doesn't push the points and in a level way just lets them happen in a low key fashion.  It is more of a psychological analysis of the music.

The total antithesis to Fliter here is another fellow Argentine pianist from Buenos Aires - Martha Argerich.  At times, Argerich is quite preferrable when in the mood with all its fire and brimstone pushing the boundaries like no one else on earth can.  It is nice to have so many nice versions with every different viewpoint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...ge&v=rCPnZn4LRvk

It never fails to amaze me that McCartney gets such stick for the odd bit of dross (Mull Of Kintyre, Frog Chorus et al.) while Lennon gets the cool vote for bitter rock n' roll retreads).

OK, I exaggerate, but I agree that the early 70s output from Macca (S/T, Ram, Band On the Run) is excellent in its own right.

I do like Lennon's stuff, but thought McCartney's and Harrison's early post-Beatles efforts were superior.

Whatever the differences in opinion, surely no-one could argue that the next two Beatles albums, had they not broken up, would have been AMAZING.

And +1 to Macca's niceness - my daughter went out with the son of his security man - a lovely lad who's carving his own pop career (his band The Propellers will be releasing their first pop album in 2015 https://soundcloud.com/propellers but refuses to engage Paul in promoting himself) - and he loves Paul, and he grew up loving Linda. His thoughts on Heather are censored. 

David Gray

"The EP's '92 - '94"     (2001)     mp3