The Classical Chat Thread

[MN Dave]

I have a classical recording which consists of nine tracks, yet the CD case indicates there are eleven. What they did was list the works' titles as actual tracks. D'oh! Nice work, Sony. You really care a lot.

[karlhenning]

On several discs I have, especially where there is insufficient space to list all the tracks on the rear cover, works are listed entire.

Sometimes the track range is printed:

[1] - [3] Symphony in Three Movements

Sometimes just the track at which each work begins:

[1] Symphony in Three Movements

[4] Mass

[10] Threni

[Opus106]

Something I didn't know, Mar 31, 2010 edition: Lorenzo Da Ponte died a U.S. citizen!

[karlhenning]

Yes, he wound up a grocer in Hackensack, New Jersey. Oh, the humanity!

[Scarpia]

Yes, he wound up a grocer in Hackensack, New Jersey. Oh, the humanity!

He came to the us to avoid a bankruptcy in London but he ended up a professor of Italian literature at Columbia University and an Opera Producer in New York City.

[karlhenning]

Just an apocryphal story I once hoid.

[Opus106]

He came to the us to avoid a bankruptcy in London but he ended up a professor of Italian literature at Columbia University and an Opera Producer in New York City.

While selling veggies for a short while in Philly. That's according to Wiki P., anyway.

[Brian]

I'm trying to figure out why you manage to keep a listening log book, while I can't. Have thought about it for 30 years.

Something I've been doing for two years now.  I just enjoy doing it, and I'll jot down some notes too from time to time.

Boy, I started keeping a listening log on January 9 and it's been a very fun, and very interesting, endeavor. I've noticed a lot about my own listening habits; for instance, that Beethoven and Dvorak are constants but that Sibelius and Shostakovich, my other favorite composers, come and go in very dramatic swings.

And I am VERY proud to see that, in the first 90 days (well, technically 88) of my log, I've listened to 140 pieces of classical music that I had never heard before, from Bach cello suites to music by at least a dozen living composers.

[karlhenning]

Well done, Brian!

We need to get some more new Henning in that queue . . . .

[Scarpia]

Boy, I started keeping a listening log on January 9 and it's been a very fun, and very interesting, endeavor. I've noticed a lot about my own listening habits; for instance, that Beethoven and Dvorak are constants but that Sibelius and Shostakovich, my other favorite composers, come and go in very dramatic swings.

And I am VERY proud to see that, in the first 90 days (well, technically 88) of my log, I've listened to 140 pieces of classical music that I had never heard before, from Bach cello suites to music by at least a dozen living composers.

I've been doing something similar, off and on, for years.  If you don't want to sound like such a nerd, call it your listening diary.

[Brian]

I've been doing something similar, off and on, for years.  If you don't want to sound like such a nerd, call it your listening diary.

But then I sound like a girl 

[MN Dave]

Just call it The Listening.

[DavidW]

Just call it The Listening.

That sounds like the name for a nu-metal band!

[MN Dave]

That sounds like the name for a nu-metal band!

Or a horror novel.

[DavidW]

Or a horror novel.

When Brian's listening log was found little did he know that there was a hidden message in it warning of the ghosts...

[MN Dave]

The Logging of the Tunes.

[DavidW]

First listen Sunday

Here are my thoughts on the Järvi/Bremen 9th:

It didn't floor me like the third, nothing unusual, experimental like he did in the third IMO, but perhaps it's there and my relative unfamiliarity with the 9th (I play it much less than the 3rd) left me drawing blanks.  But very sharp, incisive phrasing seems to drift between legato and staccato, in tune with the music.  It kind of works because usually when I hear a recording its just predominantly one or the other instead of smart, flexible choices based upon passage.  There is that patented Järvi/Bremen ability to sound like a chamber ensemble one minute and then the next minute make an impossibly huge orchestral sound out of such a small ensemble, these guys can project.  I was also impressed by how fast it is (an hour) but it never feels rushed.  Can't figure out how he did that.

[Brian]

DavidW, thanks for that review. I've got all the other Jarvi/Bremen recordings, so I'm going to pick up the 9th, but that writeup just makes me more excited. 

For my university's student magazine, I've just penned an article arguing that classical concerts should be a much more informal experience. You know, clap between movements, don't dress up, don't sit still ... 

[DavidW]

Brian cool article, I'm especially in agreement over applauding before they've even done anything.

[karlhenning]

In Maria Lettberg's hands, the Opus 11 Scriabin Preludes nos. 2 & 4 run a few seconds past two minutes each.  I've been keen to hear these "as written," to compare with the Preludes as Chick Corea muses upon them on the Solo Piano: Originals CD.  Charming comparative listening!