What Are You Listening To?

[stlukesguild]

 

[stlukesguild]

By the way... I obviously didn't listen to Mozart's complete piano concertos (all 27) in a single sitting. Today I listened to the last 3: 25-27. This next disc might be one Brian would like. It's a selection of works from The Magic Flute, The Abduction from the Seraglio, and a couple piano sonatas all arranged for guitar and flute.

And a nice Boucher painting.

 

[Desforges]

I listen to all kinds of music . Lately, Townes Van Zandt and more Townes...
Keeps me grounded.

 

[stlukesguild]

Still hooked on Mozart's piano concertos... this time performed by the great classicist, Wilhelm Kempff:

 

[stlukesguild]

And now for something completely different:

From Mozart to old school Bluegrass.

 

[stlukesguild]

 

[stlukesguild]

 

[brianvds]

And now for something completely different:

View attachment 3024

From Mozart to old school Bluegrass.

That Satan looks rather like the one in the South Park movie. Next thing Saddam Hussein will put in an appearance.

 

[stlukesguild]

The Satan was a cheesy plywood mock-up... and then they actually set the stage set on fire: old tires soaked in kerosene. One of the brothers was almost set on fire during the photo-shoot.

 

[stlukesguild]

We were supposed to have an appliance delivered between 6:00 AM and 3:00 PM so we were all up early. I went to bed late and hadn't slept well so around 1:30 I crashed on the bed surrounded by the dogs while my wife snored on the couch. I put on some mellower jazz:

It turned into an all-afternoon lazy Sunday with the delivery never showing up.

We decided to order out pick-up for dinner. I'm still listening to some rather mellow music. Now it's Sarah Vaughan doing classic standard torch songs with her chocolatey rich voice.

I have Helen Merill waiting in the on-deck circle (You'll need to look that reference up, Brian. By the way, Brian, you might want to give the Brubeck Nocturnes a listen along with William Bolcom's piano music... especially the Rags. These are a good introduction to Jazz coming from classical music)

 

[brianvds]

If you want something pleasant, you can't go wrong with Mendelssohn...

 

[stlukesguild]

Dug out my carrying cases of CDs and put on a number that I haven't heard in a while.

 

[brianvds]

Haven't heard these before. As with much of Schumann, very listenable...

 

[stlukesguild]

Listened to this while up in the hot studio this afternoon.

This evening I shifted over to Mozart: Josef Krips' recordings of Mozart's symphonies are among the finest. I listened to nos. 21-25, 29, 31 "Paris", 35 "Haffner", 36 "Linz", & 41 "Jupiter". These late symphonies are marvelous. I might give Haydn the edge as a symphonist through sheer scale... but he never composed any symphony that might rival the "Jupiter". We'd have to wait until Beethoven's 3rd for another symphony on that scale.

 

[brianvds]

When I was a kid, we had the full set of Beethoven's symphonies conducted by Krips. I was too young and unsophisticated to be able to tell whether they were great performances or not.

It says something of Haydn's ego strength that he befriended Mozart, instead of being jealous at the young upstart who seemed to get everything so easily. It took Haydn a lifetime of labor to master symphonic form; in comes thirty-something Mozart and dashes off the Jupiter plus two other great ones in a few weeks. "Hey, I invented the form, you little brat!"

But no, no Salieri-like shenanigans from Haydn (and I mean the movie Salieri, not the real one).

 

[stlukesguild]

Bach's alto cantatas sung by Monica Groop with her sensual chocolatey mezzo-soprano.

The burly-looking David Daniels... counter-tenor... performs a selection of Bach arias and cantatas.

Lisa della Casa was one of the most classically beautiful and talented operatic singers of the last century. Only Elizabeth Schwarzkopf surpasses her in the performance of the Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) of Richard Strauss. She was one of the finest singers of Mozart and Strauss. In 1964 when Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (her colleague and rival at the Vienna State Opera House) made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera of New York as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Della Casa sang Octavian. What a phenomenal pairing.

 

[stlukesguild]

After starting back to work... distance teaching for at least the first quarter... beginning with 3+ weeks of professional development... learning a slew of platforms for distance learning/teaching/meeting: ZOOM, Microsoft Groups, Schoology, Office 365, Seesaw, etc... etc... I already feel like this:

I had to take a handful of Ibuprofen, lay on the bed, and listening to something more relaxing:

The Russians have always been "hit or miss" with me... depending upon my mood... but Rachmaninoff has always been far more hit than miss.

I noticed Brian's been listening a lot recently to Mendelssohn. Of all the big name composers of the Austro-Germanic Hegemony
Mendelssohn may be the composer who appeals least to me. Of course, I love his violin concerto and several other works, still... But I quite enjoy a good many of his chamber works... including this trio. Dvořák, on the other hand, for all his elements of East European folk music, may be as much part of the Austro-Germanic tradition as Brahms... not unlike Liszt. His Dumky Trio is one of his finest works. I remember on the old music forum that Brian and I used to frequent there were frequently debates as to who was the greater composer: Tchaikovsky or Dvořák... or Brahms or Dvořák. At first, it seemed as if the answer was obvious in each case... and didn't favor Dvořák... but the more we looked into his oeuvre the more impressive he was. Having said that... maybe some more Dvořák later?

 

[Iain]

I have been listening to The Smith for a month (or two) continuously. Not deliberately, you understand.

I guess it could be worse. I could have a Bieber ear worm instead. A "Bieb-ear"?

 

[stlukesguild]

Yes... a "Bieb-ear" would definitely be among the worst cases of ear worm.

 

[Iain]

It would involve emergency earhole surgery.