What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XIII)
Posted by: Richard Dane on 01 January 2017
2017 has arrived today, so time to start this thread afresh.
Last year's thread can be found here;
Zimerman/Bernstein/VPO: Brahms PC1 - '83 rec.
early DG digital recording sounds thin in massed strings but piano sounds reasonably well and dynamic.
Not sure what possessed Lenny to take such a slow tempo, particularly a torturous 1st movement!, but luckily Zimerman's pianism comes through in the rest of the movement.
Clive B posted:Unfortunately I just can't find a pressing of 'Who's Next' which has the sound (the energy, the excitement) of the version I remember from when I was at school. Maybe that's just the effect of time.
I have the same finding. It's among the favorite albums of my youth, listening then to US vinyl. Since my recent vinyl revival I've gotten early UK and German pressings. Each different and each good, still none seem to recapture the same excitement I heard back in the day. I attribute this to my (then) genericizing gear coupled with the excess testosterone running through my blood as a teen. All that said, Who's Next is one of rock music's landmark albums. My 21-year-old son also holds it in high regard.
Kevin-W posted:
UK first press vinyl. Why? Because of this:
This guy Knowles (for those outside the UK, he's an irritating TV presenter) was in my class at school and was a pillock even then. Anyway, I accidentally heard a track from this album and it's just about the most horrific thing I have ever heard, so I needed some FrappFeltMountain to cleanse my ears and soothe my soul...
Kevin - this really should be in the Best Jokes thread!
I've just read some of the reviews on a well known on-line retailer - some are priceless. Worth a visit.
£9.99 for the CD....someone has a sense of humour. Issued by the 'Commercial Marketing' label - sums things up.
Now playing......
Anouar Brahem - Barzakh
Received in the mail today, another treat from Anouar Brahem!
Ripped to NAS and now streaming
Note from ECM Records website: Recorded in 1990, Barzakh was the ECM debut of Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem, and an album that immediately captured the attention of press and public with its gracefulness and authority. “Phenomenal…this is pure Arab music, without ‘world music’ frippery,” wrote Karl Lippegaus in Stereo. Brahem is joined here by Bechir Selmi, the sensitive violinist from the Musical Ensemble of Tunis, and percussionist Lassad Hosni, whose earthy frame drum and speeding darbouka would come to be important components of later Brahem recordings including Conte de l’incroyable amour and Astrakan Café. Beyond the improvisatory brilliance, Barzakh gave notice also of Brahem’s gift for writing arresting themes and luminous melody, as illustrated by “Raf Raf”, “Parfum de Gitane”, “Kerkenah” and other pieces here.
Buchbinder/Harnoncourt/Concertgebouw: Brahms PC1 - 1999 rec.
After an extravagant ponderous Lenny's this is a breath of fresh air. Right off the gate, Harnoncourt nails the tempo and tone for my Brahms ideal colours. I am astonished be Buchbinder's dramatic incissive style reminds me of young Pollini in this live recording. Previously I formed an impression of this pianist as a bland and benign. But he proves me wrong in this session.
All'n'all, this *fat free* rendition isn't lacking any of the emotional contents. It requires special talent and skills to say more with less and here is a good example.
joerand posted:Clive B posted:Unfortunately I just can't find a pressing of 'Who's Next' which has the sound (the energy, the excitement) of the version I remember from when I was at school. Maybe that's just the effect of time.
All that said, Who's Next is one of rock music's landmark albums. My 21-year-old son also holds it in high regard.
The lad has taste!
Fink - Resurgam.
Off to Manchester this evening to see Mr. Greenall and chums .............. so this has been on constant replay this morning. 
A rock morning - one of their best...
First listen - like it...
A few spins on the Okki Nokki with a little bio-ethanol and distilled water and I'm now enjoying my original version of this wonderful album. There's a photograph somewhere of me walking across this crossing. I suspect a few others may have done the same.
Rachel Podger - Bach: Double and Triple concertos
From allmusic.com:
There are numerous recordings of Bach's concertos avec plusieurs instruments, or with several instruments, as he called them. Posterity has labeled them double and triple concertos, but Bach's characterization lends support to Rachel Podger's interpretation here, which is based on the supposition that Bach's orchestra in such works consisted of one instrument per part. There are still many objections to this idea, beginning with the fact that the concertos of Vivaldi that served as Bach's model were demonstrably played by larger forces (Rousseau called the ensemble at the Ospedale della Pietà a "great orchestra"). However, if you want to try out Podger's playing, or the one-instrument-per-part approach, or historically oriented performance in general, this release (or its companion album of violin concertos) makes a good starting point. Podger, who has emerged as one of the leading Baroque violin players in Britain, is altogether appealing here, interacting almost playfully with her partner soloists and her hand-picked and -developed Brecon Baroque ensemble, and delivering sober slow movements that correctly prize contrapuntal detail. The one-instrument-per-part idea is especially defensible in these concertos even if you don't buy it general; Bach even called the Concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043, a "concerto a sei," concerto for six. The Baroque-era instruments have wonderful timbres that define the constantly shifting textures of this music (its primary appeal) beautifully, and the Challenge Classics engineering team gets a big sound out of London's St. John the Evangelist church without booming resonance or stodgy cathedral hollowness. Very well done on all counts.
Also cleaned and now sounding superb. LP album version.
Maria Joao Pires - Mozart: piano sonatas
Now Playing......
Keith Jarrett - A Multitude of Angels
Taking this Keith Jarrett album out for a spin for the first time. Continuation of the ECM catalogue exploration.
Streaming for TIDAL
Note from the ECM Records website here:
A Multitude of Angels is a 4-CD set of recordings from a series of solo concerts in Italy in October 1996, documenting the conclusion of Keith Jarrett’s experiments with long-form improvisation in performances from Modena, Ferrara, Turin, and Genova. “These were the last concerts I played having no breaks within each set,” Jarrett explains in his liner notes. The arc of the music is characteristically comprehensive: “Jazz is ever present here, alongside my deep closeness with classical music (modern and ancient, Ives and Bach).”
Fearsomely good UK avant-funk from January 1982. One of the very best album of its year and, indeed, of the post-punk era. On original UK vinyl on the Fetish label.
Kevin-W posted:Fearsomely good UK avant-funk from January 1982. One of the very best album of its year and, indeed, of the post-punk era. On original UK vinyl on the Fetish label.
Hi Kevin, Can you tell me the name of the band? I cannot make it out from the image. Regards, Jeroen.
Now Playing......
Pat Metheny - Bright Size Life
Continuation of the exploration of the ECM Catalogue.....
Streaming from TIDAL
Note from TIDAL: Pat Metheny's debut studio album is a good one, a trio date that finds him already laying down the distinctively cottony, slightly withdrawn tone and asymmetrical phrasing that would serve him well through most of the swerves in direction ahead. His original material, all of it lovely, bears the bracing air of his Midwestern upbringing, with titles like "Missouri Uncompromised," "Midwestern Nights Dream," and "Omaha Celebration." There is also a sole harbinger of radical matters way down the road with the inclusion of a loose-jointed treatment of Ornette Coleman's "Round Trip/Broadway Blues," proving that Song X did not come from totally out of the blue. Besides the debut of Metheny, this CD also features one of the earliest recordings of Jaco Pastorius, a fully formed, well-matched contrapuntal force on electric bass, though content to leave the spotlight mostly to Metheny. Bob Moses, who like Metheny played in the Gary Burton Quintet at the time, is the drummer, and he can mix it up, too. ~ Richard S. Ginell
Now Playing......
Gary Peacock & Ralph Towner - Oracle
Continuation of the exploration of the ECM Catalogue.....
Streaming from TIDAL
Note from TIDAL: This set of duets by bassist Gary Peacock and guitarist Ralph Towner, as one might expect from an ECM album, makes expert use of space and has its quiet moments. But there is a surprising amount of ferocious interplay between the two musicians. They may play at a consistently low volume, but the set of originals has a few rather passionate grooves and a little more energy than one would have predicted. ~ Scott Yanow
(1972)
I've not pulled this one out for a while and had forgotten what a slow tempo they had put on the tracks.
Brad Mehldau trio - Ode
Very nice album by the Brad Mehldau trio.
