Last weekend featured one of our occasional forays into the world of culture – classical music, no less. Our friend Rachel plays viola in the Devon Philharmonic Orchestra (the orchestra formerly known as Exeter Music Group), who give performances in Exeter Cathedral each spring and autumn – we’ve been going down to stay with Rachel and her partner in Exmouth and going to the concerts for over a decade now.My dad would have been amazed Continue Reading
classical
Some Saturday Night Listening
After listening to Crowded House’s Woodface earlier, we got through a bit of vinyl on Saturday night, so here’s brief rundown of what we played. I think this came from an Amazon.fr purchase a year or two back, and I assume we’ve listened to it before but can’t say for sure. Nice early 60s jazz from a pretty impressive trio. Not a great fan of some of the bass, but overall very nice. I picked Continue Reading
Ravel: Bolero; Mussorgsky-Ravel: Pictures at an Exhbition
Deutsche Grammophon 139010Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan This a keeper – two pieces of music that I know, one of which I really like (Bolero).And yes, I probably know Pictures at an Exhibition more from Emerson Lake & Palmer that I do from classical versions. If you haven’t seen the ballet of Bolero, look it up. I recommend the Sylvie Guillem version.
The Best of Aaron Copland
CBS Classics 614311970 This is a little unexpected – you don’t see many “Best Of” albums in the classical world. It opens, of course, with Fanfare For The Common Man. I can’t hear the start of it without expecting it to burst into the bass-driven Emerson Lake and Palmer version. Which is probably heresy, but that’s my rock background for you. The rest of it (El Salon Mexico, Celebration from “Billy The Kid”, Hoe Down Continue Reading
Cantate Domino
Oscars Moteekor; Torsten Nilsson; Alf Linder; Marianne MellnasPROP 77621980 Next random selection and it’s organ music, which was unexpected. There was a specific section in my dad’s collection for organ music, and all of that has (rightfully) been stashed away in the garage while work out what on earth to do with it. Because the one thing we don’t want to do with it is listen to it.But the rules say that if you pick Continue Reading
Everything You Always Wanted to Hear On The Moog *
* but were afraid to ask forKazdin/ShepherdCBS 73146 I’m having a bit of a blogging day – I’m also blogging some of my photos over at http://www.shendy.co.uk/blog/ – and needed something on in the background, so I’m delving into the random depths of my dad’s vinyl. Dear god, this is as bad as you would think it might be. This is not a keeper!
Terry Riley – St George’s, Bristol. 13th April 2019
I was quite surprised when I saw this concert in the listings for St George’s in Bristol. What, the Terry Riley? At the lovely little 500 seater venue in Bristol?Yes, that Terry Riley – he of “In C”, “A Rainbow in Curved Air”, half of the inspiration for Baba O’Riley by The Who, and one of the pioneers of minimalist music. So we booked.As an aside, it was really unfortunate timing, as we then found Continue Reading
Reading List
As this blog is supposed to about more than just records and gigs, I thought I would start its new iteration with a reading list – some of the music books that I’ve read and some I plan to read. Joe Boyd “White Bicycles” – I read this on the back of his work with Fairport Convention – someone who seemed to be there at every key event in the 60s Glyn Johns “Sound Man” Continue Reading
Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique, Sir Thomas Beecham & French National Radio Orchestra (1961, HMV SXLP 30295)
This one surprised us a bit – we thought Berlioz was experimental, but this sounded pretty normal to us, nothing too untoward and pleasantly listenable in an occasionally forthright way with some quite loud horns. It seemed to flow, nothing atonal about it – which is perhaps what we expected, a bit of honking and clanging. So forgive the ignorance, what’s controversial/innovative/unique about it (I’m reading from the sleeve notes here)? We enjoyed it and Continue Reading
Schubert – Symphonies 5 & 8, Karl Bohm/Berlin Philharmonic (1966, Deutsche Grammophon)
This one hasn’t really done it for us, and we didn’t make it to the end of the 5th Symphony, let alone the 8th – I suppose it would have been more apt not to finish the 8th, given that it’s the “Unfinished Symphony”. It wasn’t helped by the record sounding quite scratchy, but SWMBO also described it as “cut-price Elgar”. I’m not sure what it was about it – most things have been “yes, that’s nice” Continue Reading