What Are You Listening To?

[apodemouse]

Since watching the absolutely brilliant K-pop.Demon Hunters, I've been rediscovering my love for the genre.

I used to listen to it a lot as a kid, but back then, it wasn't popular and people thought it was weird. Funny how once things become mainstream, attitudes change completely.

 

[stlukesguild]

Now I know what Stravinsky would say: Glass hasn't written 14 symphonies, he's written the same one 14 times...

Stravinsky’s famous quip plays a role in Alejo Carpentier’s “magic realist” novel, Concierto Barroco in which Vivaldi, Handel, Stravinsky, and even Louis Armstrong all meet. I remember there was a clever retort to Stravinsky’s quip… and the novel makes it clear just how big of an influence Vivaldi was and music including the work of subsequent composers such as Bach and Handel.

 

[brianvds]

One of those YouTube recommendations; something slightly different, by a local group...

 

[brianvds]

Now I know what Stravinsky would say: Glass hasn't written 14 symphonies, he's written the same one 14 times...

Stravinsky’s famous quip plays a role in Alejo Carpentier’s “magic realist” novel, Concierto Barroco in which Vivaldi, Handel, Stravinsky, and even Louis Armstrong all meet. I remember there was a clever retort to Stravinsky’s quip… and the novel makes it clear just how big of an influence Vivaldi was and music including the work of subsequent composers such as Bach and Handel.

Not for nothing that Bach did all those transcriptions of Vivaldi concertos.

 

[stlukesguild]

Strauss’ Four Last Songs are among my favorite works… one of those that I have at least 10 or more recordings of. Beside the Four Last Songs Fleming performs 4 other songs by Strauss as well as highlights from two of his operas: Ariadne Alf Naxos and Die ägyptische Heléna. I don’t think I ever noticed that this release included a second disc of recordings of Fleming’s signature roles from the Met Opera. I posted the one quote by conductor Sir George Solti above. I just came across another… perhaps even more impressive compliment by Solti: “In my long life, I have met maybe two sopranos with this quality of singing.” Sadly, I was not able to see Fleming during one of her extended runs at the Met as my wife took ill. My regret in having missed seeing her performed in person is perhaps only rivaled by my regret in having missed the big exhibition of William Blake’s art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

[stlukesguild]

I guess I’m also having a love affair with Renée Fleming’s voice.

 

[stlukesguild]

 

[stlukesguild]