What are you listening to right now? (VOL I)

quote:

Originally posted by Earwicker:
I still can't make up my mind about Frank Zappa; was he great or was he dreadful?

What an easy question. EW, FZ was great - a true Mother of Invention.

Freak Out
Crusin' With Ruben and the Jets
Filmore East
Grand Wazoo
Apostrophe
Ship Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch

all sound so unalike and yet were all superb albums and they weren't even Frank's best.

Yeah, but FZ also perpetrated Broadway the Hardway amongst othe atrocities!

quote:

Originally posted by Nime:

Superb choice - and yes humour definitely does belong in music - it's just like a penguin in bondage, boy.

I think his first 25 albums are his best - and We're Only In It For The Money is as good as it gets.

under-rated and over here.

Apollo's Banquet / John Playford / harmonia mundi

Found this delightful disc at Tower for $4 yesterday. It is 17th Century music from the publication of John Playford.

David Douglass, violin
Paul O'Dette, theorbo
Andrew Lawrence-King, harps

Just listened to Beethoven's first Piano concerto in C. (The second one really, but published first). Schnabel/ LSO/ Sargent, from the early thirties on HMV. The rough and tumble humour of Beethoven, the young man,is very evident here, and all the better for it! Not to say that the slow movement is not very tender indeed: It is. I wore out a set of the 78s, as a child, and it is still my favourite recorded performance of it.These artists recorded all five, but only the fourth is as fine - truly great I mean - whereas the others are very good, and certainly more than historic curiosities! Edwin Fischer is more engaging in the last three (with the Philharmonia, and Furtwangler in the Emperor only, as Fischer conducts rather well from the keyboard in the Three and Four), but I have never really heard a performance of the Second (really the First of course) that measures up. Several years ago I recorded from the radio a Prom of Schiff playing it with the COE, and no studio effort has proved as fine to my mind, at least for me. I once had Serkin (father) playing it with Ozawa, but that was both charmless and very heavy. To call it big-boned would be polite, I think. So maybe it is me, and really I just don't really like the Second all that much.

The First I adore!

Fredrik

John Clark, French Horn

Blaze: Spiritually Speaking

Blue Six: Beautiful Tomorrow
Donw Tempo Late Nite Groove.

Brahms for a snowy morning.

Fredrik,

I listened to the Fischer/Furtwangler Emperor for the first time the other day and was very much impressed (I think I still prefer the Solomon account in this work) but it certainly had something special.

regards, Tam

Dear Tam,

I once knew the Solomon performance from old LP many, many yerars ago! It is out again on Testament - on my list of things I want to get this years. As I remember it, it is quite a contrast to Fischer's reading. Bit slower and much tidier, but somehow very magical on another level. Do I remember correctly? Who is the accompanying conductor (of the Philharmonia, presumably) on this one? Cheers, Fredrik

Franz Schubert / Piano trios Op. 99 & Op. 100 / Sony

Recorded in Haarlem, Netherlands 1996

WOW!

Holberg Suite of Greig. Tell me he was not a genius! Fredrik

I'll have to listen again to compare the tempi, I must confess it is a little while since I listened to the Solomon (the start certainly does seem slower) - I'd never got on too well with the Emperor until then (Kempff is my favourite pianist but I think somehow he doesn't quite have the grandeur for the 5th), which is what Solomon brought in spades.

The 5th is with Menges as are the 1st and 3rd (which are in stereo), the 2nd and 4th are with Cluytens and, as with the 5th, in mono. All 3 discs are well worth having (the 5th contains a fill up of some Mozart sonatas, K331 and K576 (which are fine but not in Uchida's league).

regards, Tam

Dear Tam,

Right that is it. Forget alternate Schubert Great C Majors for a while, I am going to get those Solomon discs, while they are still there!

Good news. I got some discs and my borrowed PC is now software enabled, so I will attempt the Schumann and Schubert we discussed in the morning.

How do you do the pictures of CD covers? With a scanner and messing with the scale?

Also I am considering trying to find A Fischer doing the Sonatas of Beethovem. Under guidance of Todd, though it a sort of gentle push as I know her work in other repertoire. I reckon they must be great in her hands...

All the best from fredrik

Fredrik,

I find a picture online somewhere (i.e. by searching the record company in question's catalogue) and then right click on the image and 'copy image address' or something like that. I suppose one could mess about with a scanner, but that would take far too long - also, since I'm just linking to their own image, there is no issue with copyright (or at least I don't think there is ).

Those Solomon discs are excellent, as are his Sonatas (also on Testament, though the cycle is not quite complete, most of the important ones are there, though sadly not No.20, always one of my favourites). I keep meaning to get his Grieg piano concerto since my only recording (Zilberstein/Jarvi/Gothenburg SO) doesn't quite seem to do it for me.

regards, Tam

p.s. While we're on the Great C major, my local cd shop's newsletter contained a review of the Rattle account, that (while I know you're not a fan) you might find interesting for its discussion of other versions and the score in general:

http://www.mmmusic.co.uk/reviews/schubertsymphony9rattle.html

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Holberg Suite of Greig. Tell me he was not a genius! Fredrik

Fredrik,

It seems to me that Grieg is all too often ignored as a second division composer and this I feel is very unfair. The first movement of his A minor piano concerto is very well known but I think the second movement, the adagio, is utterly sublime. What say you? What is Grieg's best work?

Erik

Pat Metheny / Watercolors / ECM

With Lyle Mays on the piano, Eberhard Weber on bass and Dan Gottlieb on drums. Recorded in 1977.

Haim

Dear Tam, and Dear Erik,

I have the Solomon recording of Greig's Pf Concerto. It is splendid in Solomon's non-exagerated way. H Menges is the conductor, with the Philharmonia, in good stereo if that helps. I think Testamant (what a record company!) have it out at the moment.

And Erik, probably to the annouyance of a certain person who is a BF, I think Greig was one of the true greats even if he only scaled the heights a few times. One great thing is worth a thousand almost great things. I love the slow movement of the Pf Concerto. In that rare key of five flats! B flat Minor/ D flat major... Bloody hard to keep in tune on strings, but so sublime that the technical problems fade into insignificance.

I heard it in the bay of the Holmenkolen Sky jump once with a HUGE orchestra, but it was clear and the atmosphere unbelievable - like the New Year's Day Concert ot the Last Night Of The Proms.

All the best from Fredrik

PS: His best work residse among the piano solos, which though miniatures are like Schubert's song, a world of whole opera acts emotionally in only a few minutes. Naxos has a splendid series out of about 12 CDs, with Norway's premiere senior Pianist playing it all. Not expensive, and worthy of investagation from end to end. Of the big scale , the PF concerto is the best, while the Peer Gynt is obviuosly a work of genius as well. In the Munch museum in Oslo are to be seen the original scenery from the first Copenhagen production of Ibsen's play for which the music was written. It is much darker than it is given credit for being, and very profoundly true to the failings of human nature. Munch, Greig, Ibsen... three names to ponder all in one go!

Dzihan & Kamien unplugged!
Their past popular titles all played in quintet.
A good record.