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

On CD:-

On CD:-

Bat for Lashes - Two Suns

Toe.  Japanese "post rock" band.  Great drumming.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane over the Sea. A band I had heard of but never heard until I picked up the CD cheap on Friday.

Just browsed some storm corrosion on youtube, I had heard Mikael from Opeth was in it.  Amazing song. I'll be picking this up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5wgVnzlnUQ

Original 70's Vinyl.

A good old record. Impossible to listen to this without breaking into a smile, other then the rather pretentious "Amazing Grace" at the end. One of music's great originals.

Graham 

Chords,

I'm so far behind simply because I am so busy trying to find all the great music you listen to and getting it on my wishlists.  This one is proving to be a challenge to find.....

EJ, you put me back in the mood for the Impromptus again with this.  I bought this recently because I was trying to fill the holes I had in my Perahia collection; one of my favourite pianists.  That was before I realized that Sony will release a box with his "First Forty Years." 

How many times in the past few years has this happened?  Lots.  I have probably 90% of Perahia and I end up buying the box set to get the last 10%.

I find it interesting to listen to a musician from the beginnings and along the path of their development.  In the case of Perahia, of course, Mozart concertos was his beginning base, however, my favourite Perahia comes from his latest recordings and maybe including the last decade I can sense a real maturity in his playing which establishes him as one of the leading living pianists currently.

Again, maybe it is following my own changes that come with age but I find I am less and less inclined or enamoured by the youthful drive or the firebrand and more and more attracted to the levelled wisdom and sage perspective of experience and age.  Not exclusively but the balance may be heading in this direction past 50/50.  This maturity you can hear in his latest recordings of Bach and Beethoven which he wisely waited until he was of age and experience to record.

Some musicians sound the same at 20 as they do at 60 and that is not a good sign to me.  Yes, each has there own DNA which cannot be removed but I mean the aged wine must start as grape juice and not the other way around.  Only time can distill and develop one.

On Original Vinyl.

Frank Zappa's Overnite Sensation remains an utterly fabulous album IMO.

Graham. 

Johann Sebastian Bach: Das Wohltemperierte Clavier (WTC complete): András Schiff

Here is another fabulous pianist, András Schiff, who through years of experience has come of age.  We have his early Bach recordings on Decca from the early years and now he is revisiting Bach and others on ECM.  His complete Beethoven on ECM really won me over to his side and like Perahia, I tend to like how he matures with every recording.

Well, what to say about the then and now?  I need to spend a lot of time listening and thinking about this because there will never be a straightforward answer to this.  In fact, with great music there is never any straightforward answer; surely, it is impossible to answer especially with the music of Bach.  With Bach or any great composer there is never just one way.  A hundred years on this earth is not enough time to get to the depths of this music.  You do get closer but there is no end point.  There is no right nor wrong.  Be wary of those who claim there is only one way.

Gut reaction based on memory though is that there is a clear difference in his playing and philosophy, if you will, but still cut from the same cloth, though with some qualifying distinctions or differences.  Schiff, like Pollini, will always be a musician who in one way or another refuses to let emotion cloud their thinking or come to the forefront.  Put them in a room and try to get them to come to terms with their emotions and they will come out kicking and screaming claiming that emotional people sicken them.  Their emotional energy has to be harnessed and delivered through intellect, and intellect only.

This recording is allowing Schiff to correct some of the wrongs of the early years (informed by his own maturity), of course, guided by his own nature.  Or should I say that after years of chiseling and thinking this is what you get;  The sculpture is not so jagged anymore and is much smoother and polished.  Not that his earlier recording was anywhere near being jagged.  Back then he still would have been the polar opposite of someone like Gould, whose Bach is very chiselled and distinct.  Today, the difference are even more pronounced.  

The Schiff of today has distilled his original thoughts and we have a recording that sounds deceptively easy.  With his incredible technique he makes it impossible to hear how difficult this music is actually to play.  This changes everything.  Next, he makes it impossible to avoid hearing what simple clarity is.  There is not a forced inclination to direct the counterpoint and voice-leading.  He simply lays it out with pristine skill and directs your ear without you being aware of it.  He aims not to the right or to the left but smack down in the middle.  Dynamic range is quite narrow and phrasing and articulation just seems so natural and unobtrusive.

Some will like it; some will not.  Schiff knows this but Schiff also knows that he is of the age to know that he only needs to play for what is right for him.  Nobody else and this is good.  To those inclined to have a musician liven it up a bit this won't be for you.  Schiff may even come off as nonchalant here, by comparison.  The beauty here is in how he appears to be so smooth and blasé but behind this there is such a wealth of dialogue and colour going on.  

Going through a major Duran Duran resurgence at the moment having just read John Taylor's superb autobiography - in fact I've now moved on to Andy Taylor's book.  Both give you a real insight into the pressures they faced on their meteoric rise and just how difficult fame at that level was to cope with.  In John's book there are certainly some interesting reflections on parents, family, love, sex and life.

As a result I have been hammering my Amazon account buying the Greatest Hits DVD, Notorious 3 disk remastered CD/DVD, the first album remastered 2 disc set and also the Wedding album CD from their later period.  I haven't yet directly compared the remasters to my original vinyl copies but gut feel and memory says the vinyl sounds rather nicer.  The remasters on CD (especially the first album) are very cold and thin sounding.  My main reason for buying the CD's was to allow me to stream them and of course play them in the car.  I'm actually wondering if I should investigate capturing the vinyl sound via some kind of analogue to digital device rather than replacing what I have on vinyl with CD copies in future.

Currently listening to Notorious (streamed)

Anybody done the vinyl to wav/flac thing or have you all been re-buying on CD?

Jonathan

GY!BE - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

Joseph Haydn: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in Volume 4 of the Piano Sonatas

I keep thinking every release is better than its predecessor and this one is no exception.  They are all good though but I still am trying to get my head around why Bavouzet chose a Yamaha for this project.

CD

This CD is a joy. The band are absolutely superb, Leonard's voice 'pours down like honey' and  Its is brilliantly recorded.

Graham.

Doug,

It is always a rare pleasure to read your thoughts and reactions to the various pieces of music you come across. Seems also that you don't skip any..

Haim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bof_0yy0Qb8

Wonderful-sounding full mechanical organ; brilliant music.

Almost the last generation who belived seriously that musical harmonies are going from the heaven.

Highly recommended..

Me too.

An old(er) favorite, concertos 12 and 17 judged to perfection by Brendel and Mackerras.

Cheers,

EJ

"John Peel Show" 1973