Recent posts

#11

Composer Discussion / Re: Brazilian Composers

Last post by Dry Brett Kavanaugh - Today at 01:18:59 PM

Danças Brasileiras. São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Roberto Minczuk. Fun, introductory recording.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n_4ZXIkiFOvpLpt9qvmy7l1-Cw4ZprNHk&playnext=1&index=1

[William Powell]

#12

The Diner / Re: Last Movie You Watched

Last post by SonicMan46 - Today at 01:14:50 PM

Continuing our alphabetical journey through the collection, we have hit The Thin Man comedy-mystery series, of which we have four, i.e. The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, and Shadow of the Thin Man.

William Powell is perfect as the wise-cracking, less than sober retired detective, and Myrna Loy is also perfect as his very rich and very tolerant wife, who matches his wit in her own droll way.

It was hard to believe that the first movie is now...90 years old!!!       

I remember watching some of these in the 1950's: every Saturday a local television station came on at 6:00 A.M. and showed old movies from the late 1920's and 1930's. Back then the movies were barely 20-25 years old!

Anyway, of interest is that the second movie (from 1936) has James Stewart, billed third as a co-star.  He would need three more years before becoming a major leading man.

William Powell, who was in his 40's and 50's during the run of 6 movies, was not particularly thin, but was in pretty good shape.  After retiring in 1955 (his last role was in the famous comedy Mr. Roberts), he lived until age 91, in 1984.

Myrna Loy kept acting into her 70's, and died at age 88.


 

Probably my favorite William Powell films are the Thin Man (TM) movies (esp. the ones from the '30s) and My Man Godfrey - years ago I had the DVD box of the 6 TM films (shown above) but made a local donation when BD arrived along w/ my first HDTV, hoping that the series would be converted to 'High Definition' - now I have only the first Thin Man as an Amazon HD streamer but the others now offered on Prime Video are all in SD, unfortunately.  Dave

P.S. Powell & Loy made 13 films together (14 actually where Loy was uncredited) - one of the 'royal' Hollywood pairs of their era (Source)

#13

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What's your live concert "...

Last post by lordlance - Today at 01:12:50 PM

What pieces of music do you really want to see live before you "kick the bucket"? What pieces are you willing to travel to see?

I think my live bucket list currently looks like...

Berlioz - La Damnation de Faust
[edited to add] Chavez - Sinfonia india
Janacek - the operas
Kabelac - Mystery of Time
Lloyd - Symphony No 5
Martinu - Piano Concerto No 4
[edited to add] Mendelssohn - Octet
Roussel - Bacchus et Ariane (complete)
Widor - Organ Symphony No 5 but they don't rush the toccata

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I've been lucky enough to successfully tick off a number of "bucket list" pieces of music: Janacek's Glagolitic Mass (twice) and Sinfonietta (three times with a fourth canceled by covid), Nielsen's Fourth, the Gothic Symphony, Mahler 3, Sibelius 5, the Alexander Nevsky Cantata, Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra (twice), Dvorak's Te Deum, and Schubert's string quintet.

I assume you saw Gothic when performed by Brabbins? Those performance(s?) that became the Hyperion disc.

#14

Composer Discussion / Re: Brazilian Composers

Last post by Brian - Today at 12:54:07 PM

Fernandez is most famous for a short piece, "Batuque," that was often used as an encore and national pride piece, and was recorded by Bernstein in New York. Batuque is included in that new Naxos CD in its original context as part of a suite. I'm very excited for both those new recordings.

BTW as an additional resource to this very good thread idea, there is also a thread specific to the Naxos Brazil recording series.

Taking a look to the programme, I see it's certainly inventive and varied and there are some composers new to me (Carreño, Estévez, Castellanos and Romero). It seems that those didn't write much music, and recordings like that DG CD is a perfect entry point to be familiar with them.

Castellanos' Santa Cruz de Pacairigua is a simply amazing 17-minute piece - in length and structure it is roughly comparable to An American in Paris actually, with a wonderful contrast between "sacred" inspired music and folk festivals. The ending absolutely rocks!

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Did anyone ever listen to that cycle of symphonies from Ecuador that was released a few years ago on Brilliant?

#15

Great Recordings and Reviews / Re: New Releases

Last post by Brian - Today at 12:47:41 PM

The thing is I genuinely really like C-T's music but to inflate its stature annoys me.

How is his stature inflated by inclusion in a mixed rep Chandos recording?

I have to side with Todd here - the whole point of a mixed-repertoire program is to mix repertoire, and very naturally many or most such programs will include composers of varying greatness. The artists may have some artistic reason that they feel the music belongs together. They may explain it in the booklet. Maybe the music sounds good together. We don't know! But there are so many more reasons to account for including a 15-minute work - as filler!! - than that the performers found some piece to fulfill a media narrative.

Even to capture media attention - they don't need to do that because Chandos already gets big reviews in the British press for everything they do.

I guess my bigger question for you, as a person who (like me) likes C-T's, music, is: how would you tell the difference between the "correct" way to record his music and the "inflated" way? Would you accept a new recording of his Violin Concerto coupled to the Delius but object to a recording coupled to the Elgar?

#16

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by foxandpeng - Today at 11:43:06 AM

I listened to one of Simpson's string quartets recently and he started off with something that sounded very classical and then his variations upon it quickly took it off of Earth and off towards like Neptune!

Yeah, Simpson SQs!

#17

Composer Discussion / Re: Brazilian Composers

Last post by Symphonic Addict - Today at 11:09:14 AM

I happened to listen to this disc again the other day;



Superficially it looks like a "pops" disc but actually - apart from being really well played! - its a well constructed programme with a couple of "pops" - Estancia/West Side Story Mambo etc - balanced by some really interesting and quite unusual repertoire.  Genuinely excellent and enjoyable.

Taking a look to the programme, I see it's certainly inventive and varied and there are some composers new to me (Carreño, Estévez, Castellanos and Romero). It seems that those didn't write much music, and recordings like that DG CD is a perfect entry point to be familiar with them.

#18

Great Recordings and Reviews / Re: Debussy's Preludes

Last post by Atriod - Today at 11:08:15 AM

After several plays with some gap inbetween them to make sure my initial impression was not rushed, Gianluca Cascioli's cycle of the Preludes have made my absolute favorites for this cycle (top notch in the rest of the works as well). They are interesting interpretations; he doesn't completely go down the school of Michelangeli route with an ethereal, dreamy aesthetic. It reminds me of the old style French pianists.

[Moeran: String Quartet No. 2]

#19

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by Symphonic Addict - Today at 10:57:22 AM

Moeran: String Quartet No. 2

I feel this beautiful music like depicting the English countryside. A good performance and disc that gathers together a big portion of Moeran's chamber music, but the volume of the recording is a little low.

#20

Composer Discussion / Re: Brazilian Composers

Last post by Roasted Swan - Today at 10:52:05 AM

Like you, I think Latin American composers had and have lots of interesting stuff to contribute to classical music.

I happened to listen to this disc again the other day;



Superficially it looks like a "pops" disc but actually - apart from being really well played! - its a well constructed programme with a couple of "pops" - Estancia/West Side Story Mambo etc - balanced by some really interesting and quite unusual repertoire.  Genuinely excellent and enjoyable.