What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

No problem. Given how massively popular Russian/Soviet music and performing art is here on the GMG, Gavrilov's book may be a must read, an eye-opener at least. It's written very vividly and reads interestingly. What he writes about Richter in detail, or Gilels to a much lesser extent, would sure enrage fans of the former and the latter.

I was fb friends with Gavrilov for several years some time ago. It was interesting to talk to him. One day he banned me after I told I found Stewart Goodyear's performance of Rachmaninoff's 3rd concerto interesting. Gavrilov is not the right person to speak favourably of other musicians to.

Well, professional jealousy and harsh judgments about fellow artists are only too frequent in the artistic world, particularly in the musical field. Gavrilov is not alone in this respect. Actually, if I had the opportunity to talk to a famous musician, be they pianist, violinist, conductor, singer or whatever, I would bring up any topic but music.   

[AnotherSpin]

Well, professional jealousy and harsh judgments about fellow artists are only too frequent in the artistic world, particularly in the musical field. Gavrilov is not alone in this respect. Actually, if I had the opportunity to talk to a famous musician, be they pianist, violinist, conductor, singer or whatever, I would bring up any topic but music.   

I don't remember what we talked about. The question about Goodyear arose in connection with the scandalous story when Valentina Lisitsa's performance was cancelled in Canada and Goodyear replaced her.

[Florestan]

I don't remember what we talked about. The question about Goodyear arose in connection with the scandalous story when Valentina Lisitsa's performance was cancelled in Canada and Goodyear replaced her.

My impression about Gavrilov's persona, based on that concert I attended, is that he's rather eccentric and aloof. Demidenko is far more unassuming and amiable: he played Rachmaninoff's 2nd PC and gave no less than 4 (four) encores, the highest number of encores I've ever witnessed.

[AnotherSpin]

Thanks to everyone who mentioned it earlier. It's a terrific book. Just finished.

[vers la flamme]

^I read Stoner last year, liked it so much I got a copy of it for my dad for Christmas. He also loved it.

I'm about halfway through Ben Lerner's The Topeka School. Very interesting book; like the semi-autobiographical protagonist, I was also a boy raised by psychologist parents, albeit a little bit later on. I do not like it as much as Leaving the Atocha Station by a long shot; I get the impression that the author is trying to touch on as many "hot-button issues" as possible, to variable success. Who am I to knock the author's lived experience, but I don't believe that Lerner really gets at the essence of adolescent masculinity (particularly the "toxic" flavor) in our times, as seems to be the author's intent. However it is entertaining and I like the setting and characters, though some seem flatter than others.

[San Antone]

This showed up on my Kindle this week - a pre-order that I forgot about.  It is very good, although there are some glaring typographical errors which I assume will be corrected in future editions.

Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy

[AnotherSpin]

Somewhere in the middle

[vandermolen]

Thanks to everyone who mentioned it earlier. It's a terrific book. Just finished.

Good to know. My son-in-law bought it for me last Christmas but I haven't read it yet.

[Mookalafalas]

   Reads like a novel. Can't put it down.

[vers la flamme]

Somewhere in the middle

Read this in the winter. Loved it. I need to get around to reading volume 2.

[Florestan]

[SimonNZ]

[AnotherSpin]

[vers la flamme]

Very very good writer. Read The Makioka Sisters if you haven't, and if you have time for a fairly long book. (DBK, one of our other Tanizaki fans, doesn't like it, but I thought it was a beautiful book.) I haven't read that one, but may head back to Kinokuniya to get a copy, if you say it's worth it 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Very very good writer. Read The Makioka Sisters if you haven't, and if you have time for a fairly long book. (DBK, one of our other Tanizaki fans, doesn't like it, but I thought it was a beautiful book.) I haven't read that one, but may head back to Kinokuniya to get a copy, if you say it's worth it 

I will get the Japanese edition of Makioka sisters next year. I tend to prefer his early short stories to the later works. As I mentioned before, I think the book below is vg. "Secret" is about a cross-dresser in Tokyo before WWI, and "Children" is about a sado-masochistic play by children.

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/books/sensation.html

https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/tanizaki/gourmet_club.htm

[Harry]

I am trying to read the complete works by Anthony Trollope. So far so good.

[vers la flamme]

I will get the Japanese edition of Makioka sisters next year. I tend to prefer his early short stories to the later works. As I mentioned before, I think the book below is vg. "Secret" is about a cross-dresser in Tokyo before WWI, and "Children" is about a sado-masochistic play by children.

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/19/books/sensation.html

https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/tanizaki/gourmet_club.htm

I bought it shortly after you recommended it to me in the spring, but haven't read it yet. Now it's on a moving truck somewhere with the rest of my personal effects, none of which I have seen in over a month I think I'll read it as soon as my stuff comes. I have been wanting to read more Tanizaki.

Currently reading a book called The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. So far so good. Kind of reminds me of a funny, Southern Camus.

[ando]

Not sure how many poetry lovers there are on the board but I'm finally (seriously) tackling Gjertrud Schnackenberg's Heavely Questions (2011 Farrar, Straus and Giroux); "six long poems, Schnackenberg's rhyme-rich blank verse, with its densely packed images, shifts effortlessly between the lyric and the epic, setting passion to a verbal music that is recognizably her own." - B&N



The description doesn't tell you anything but it is, indeed, a kind of masterwork reminiscent of no other poet I know. Recommended.

[AnotherSpin]

Very very good writer. Read The Makioka Sisters if you haven't, and if you have time for a fairly long book. (DBK, one of our other Tanizaki fans, doesn't like it, but I thought it was a beautiful book.) I haven't read that one, but may head back to Kinokuniya to get a copy, if you say it's worth it 

Thank you. I've read this book many years ago, in Russian translation it's titled The Fine Snow, I think it's closer to the original. I've been a fan of Tanizaki for decades (he and Kawabata are very dear for me from 70s), and have read almost all translated into Russian and many books translated to English. Diary of a Mad Old Man is the last one I read. My favourite book of his is In Praise of Shadows. It had a decisive influence on my ideas about design and decoration and my attitude to things.

Edit: Oh yes, definitely worth a read. But I'm biased :-)

[vers la flamme]

Thank you. I've read this book many years ago, in Russian translation it's titled The Fine Snow, I think it's closer to the original. I've been a fan of Tanizaki for decades (he and Kawabata are very dear for me from 70s), and have read almost all translated into Russian and many books translated to English. Diary of a Mad Old Man is the last one I read. My favourite book of his is In Praise of Shadows. It had a decisive influence on my ideas about design and decoration and my attitude to things.

Edit: Oh yes, definitely worth a read. But I'm biased :-)

I also loved In Praise of Shadows. I'll have to read it again. (Big Kawabata fan as well, one of my favorite Japanese writers.) Thanks.