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

Robert Plant - Fate Of Nations

On CD

On 10" vinyl. This mini album is totally infectious. There's been another thread recently about toetapping, well I defy anyone to hear 'There's Good Rockin' At Midnight' on this disc and not be boogying around the place. 

I just Percy had released volume 2. And 3...

Clive B posted:

On 10" vinyl. This mini album is totally infectious. There's been another thread recently about toetapping, well I defy anyone to hear 'There's Good Rockin' At Midnight' on this disc and not be boogying around the place. 

 

Is that boogying or toe tapping? (There's a thread on each!)

But won't make me do either - I don't like it!

Robert Plant - Manic Nirvana.

Boogie on !

Camel - A Nod and a Wink

On CD

John Doe. - Westerner

While watching the latest episode of Billions on catch-up TV last night I was struck by this being used on the closing scene where the character Axlerod speeds away in his yellow supercar.   And I thought, yeah, I haven't listened to rock with cannons for a while. Must did that out.  

Kevin-W posted:

ewemon posted:

That is a great title and cover Ewe. Music any good?

I like some of the trax on the album but it isn't for me. 

Kevin did you see the Can Singles album cover I posted in the new release thread. Due out in June and it has some rare stuff on it?

Robert Plant - Dreamland.

Still boogieing with Percy ........ toe tapping stuff!

Stunning

On CD

Travis - 12 Memories

Robert Plant - Band of Joy.

Signing off with this from Planty.

A slice of Americana from an artist who is constantly moving forward, rather than simply play "remember when?"

Working my way though this colourful 6LP set.

I'm familiar with the first two albums but the rest are a new experience.

Presently playing Panorama on the green coloured vinyl : )

ewemon posted:

Kevin-W posted:

ewemon posted:

That is a great title and cover Ewe. Music any good?

I like some of the trax on the album but it isn't for me. 

Kevin did you see the Can Singles album cover I posted in the new release thread. Due out in June and it has some rare stuff on it?

 

Yes Ewe, I did. really looking forward to it.  I've ordered the triple vinyl. Thanks for the heads up!

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) | Richard Wagner (1813-1883):  Imogen Cooper (piano)

Music is such a wonderful thing!  It informs a life for pondering and reflection.  Franz Liszt is such a towering figure in history yet many do not see it this way unfortunately.  As Cooper reminds us that Franz Liszt was the first to travel so extensively playing, teaching, composing and conducting.  This was not so easy in those days but he was the one composer who could be considered a true European because of this alone.  He was also the first to play complete programmes from memory and he was the first to place the grand piano at right angle to the audience and this holds to today.  For lack of a better term, he may also be considered the first 'rock star' performing to crowds of up to 3,000. 

Imogen Cooper is a musician renowned for her Mozart, Schubert and Schumann.  Then in mid-2016 we receive an album of Chopin from her; a first.  This is followed by Liszt and Wagner; again, a first.

This album is fantastic!  Played on a beautiful Hamburg Steinway this is a program that is wonderfully conceived.  This is not your usual Liszt album that contains the b-minor sonata, Dante Sonata, Etudes and other Mephisto/Faustian pyrotechnical wonders etc.  My sense is that this is Imogen Cooper coming to terms with Franz Liszt.  Her own comments in the booklet suggest that she spent a great deal of time going through the complete Budapest Edition and was pleasantly surprised by what she found.  In fact, she says, "How is it possible that this giant and his music can still be misunderstood?"

All of this was proceeded though by the death last year of Zoltán Kocsis (1952-2016).  Apparently, in the late 70's he gave Cooper a signed copy of his own transcription of Wagner's Einleitung zu 'Tristan und Isolde' after it was published in Hungary.  After his death she found this score and continued from there and the album seems to centre around this and a nostalgic sombre tone.

I must comment on the excellent notes by D. Conor Farrington regarding the pieces here and in regards to many historical facts that lend context to this music of Liszt and Wagner.  A must read for any lover of Liszt certainly and I agree with Cooper (and have for my entire life) about how perplexing it is that Liszt has been stereo-typed somehow and hated by the haters for no explicable reason.  

The program here is a mix of middle period to late Liszt.  There is a preponderance of darkness to the music.  It is the Liszt that most people do not really know and possibly might find it difficult to understand.  For instance, some of the music is possibly the world's first taste of atonal music.  Other music is about traveling and love but it is no longer 'puppy love,' rather it is love mixed with the hard knocks of life or the Liebestod kind (dear/love death). 

The program opens with the Deuxième valse oubliée, S215/2 (second 'forgotten valse) and closes with "Bagatelle sans tonalité, S216a" which I think make perfect book ends for this recital.  First, the nod to the "forgotten" music that Cooper is discovering as if for the first time and with the ending, this Bagatelle without tone is actually an unfinished "fourth Mephisto valse" so it is eerie how it just 'disappears' leaving us mid-sentence, so to speak. 

If I was allowed one suggestion in how to make this album any better it might be that I wish she could have squeezed in the second "La lugubre gondola."   One can only hope she is saving this for a followup Liszt album?

So this is not your typical Liszt and Cooper is not your typical pianist.  This is precisely what must attract me then to her and her choice of a program.  This is for diehard fans like me.  If you love Liszt from the beginning of his life to the end then this is for you.  I can only hope that this album will convert some people along the way but sadly I think think this is really for the 'already converted' among us.  This is not for you if you tend towards the 'bigger, louder, faster, bangier' style.

Liszt's music is really a diary of his life.  You will find every human emotion conceivable at every point of his life.  This album tends to his more reflective side and also his end period where he wasn't always happy about everything.  He faced many struggles in his life.  By him sharing with us seems to add comfort to our own lives.

Among my favourite albums this year for sure and certainly near the top in my Liszt albums.  What a surprise for me!

Ry Cooder - Jesus on the Mainline, played on BBc4 TV, on a 9 year old mid-range Panasonic TV, sometimes performances make the system irrelevant, Ry rocks!

Thanks Florestan, that sent me to look for Liszt in my collection, Brendel's Concerto No. 2 is sublime, and I've ordered the Cooper, which will be wonderful to hear. Why should people want to hear this, great pianist playing great music.

Eoink posted:

 

Thanks Florestan, that sent me to look for Liszt in my collection, Brendel's Concerto No. 2 is sublime, and I've ordered the Cooper, which will be wonderful to hear. Why should people want to hear this, great pianist playing great music.

Eoink, nice choice!  You will be happy to know that Imogen Cooper did study with Alfred Brendel among others in her formative years.  This album of Cooper's will seem quite introverted compared to Liszt's big works like the piano concertos etc.  which are of course very extroverted.  Regarding the atonal music of Liszt I personally have to say it is quite pleasing to me.  So not at all in the same camp as the Schoenberg, Webern, Berg atonal camps to come which I find mostly repulsive. 

Franz Schubert (1797-1828):  Lars Vogt (piano)

Four Impromptus D.899 (Op. 90) | Six German Dances D.820 | Moments musicaux D.780 (Op. 94)

Now this is Schubert playing of the highest order!  The recipe for this seems simple: follow the score, respectfully listen to Schubert conveying/bearing his inner most soul to you, have a beautiful touch (nothing percussive), have the ability to play softly when required and never overly loud, play very musically, play it on a beautiful sounding piano and have this recorded accurately and faithfully and you end up with this recording.

For me anyway, Lars Vogt has found Schubert perfectly here.  It is music of the confessional.  Deep, probing, dark, intimate - extremely satisfying to hear this level of perfection for me.  

Maybe it is just my mood today which seems to be a very satisfying musical day.  If you can tell the Lars Vogt and the Imogen Cooper somehow hit the right spot for me today.  I listened to both of these recordings three times each completely.  Maybe it was to try to pinch myself to wake up as it seemed what I was hearing was so good that it could only have been in a dream.  I suspect my dreams tonight will be a letdown compared to my daytime musical dreams today.  It has been a memorable day on the music front for me.

Imogen Cooper:  La Lugubre Gondola No. 1

This is just a taste of some of the Liszt.  Hypnotic really.  This is a piece based on a premonition he had where he saw/predicted the death of Richard Wagner in advance (by several months).  It is a scene of watching his body float down the water way in a funeral procession of gondolas. 

For those who want a taster of the new Chris Stapleton. The opening track.

Listened to Jesse during my workout, nice sophisticated jazz...

I am the only one on this forum listening to Lang Lang as it seems, however...some Chopin in the early morning...