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Posts Tagged ‘Mahler’

Day 139. Bach, Neil Young, Mahler, The Police, Brahms and Purcell.

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Tonight I have a nice mix of discs getting ripped. The Emerson String Quartet’s recording of Bach’s ‘Art of the Fugue’, a couple of mid 90s Neil Young and Crazy Horse discs, the live double disc of The Police along with some Purcell, Brahms and Mahler. The Neil Young and Police (especially the first Police disc from Boston, 1979) are pretty rocking. Even more striking about the Neil Young discs is how rocking it can be in one song, then how melodic and sweet it can be in the next. The funny thing (for me) about Neil Young is how little I think to listen to him. While he may not be in my top ten artists list, he is certainly pretty high, and when I think about the first time I heard ‘Sleeps With Angels’ (late at night at Tower, turned up really loud) I still think about how the sound on the record seemed just perfect. I listened to the whole album a few months ago (during a drive to Seattle to perform in a concert) and I was still struck at how well put together the disc was and how good the songs were. The jangly, saloon sounding piano that starts off the disc that leads into darker ‘Prime of Life’ with its haunting flute that weaves through most of the song, to the mellow ‘Driveby’ and finally into ‘Sleep With Angels’ which, while still slow, is grungier the grunge was in ‘94. And as awkward as it is to hear middle age guys bellowing ‘PIECE .. OF .. CRAP!’ in the chorus of a song, that song rocks pretty hard. And that goes a long way since my favorite part about almost anything Neil Young does with Crazy Horse is the sound of the band. They sound damn good on this disc. ‘Broken Arrow’, while it hasn’t had as many plays for me as most other Neil Young discs does have ‘Music Arcade’ on it. Charles placed this song expertly on his ‘Wood and Smoke’ mix disc 11 years ago. I’ve probably heard ‘Wood and Smoke’ more then any other mix disc I have, so there is some irony that the Neil Young song on the mix comes from the disc I have probably listened to the least.

Though not this specific recording, Bach’s ‘Art of the Fugue’ is, personally, a very significant work of art for me. My first memory of a piece of classical music really demanding my attention was in high school band. We played a transcription of the ‘little’ fugue in g minor, and I was amazed at how the counterpoint (though I didn’t know that’s what it was yet). I became fixated on the piece, and on the idea of fugue in general. The next day at work, I bought the first two things I found with the word ‘fugue’ in the title (Beethoven’s ‘Grosse Fuge’ and the Julliard String Quartet recording of ‘Art of the Fugue’). Though my appreciation of Beethoven’s great fugue is just about higher then anything else ever written now, at the time I thought it was a dissonant piece of crap that seemed completely non-sensical to me. Perhaps this made the opening of the ‘Art of the Fugue’ that much more special though. The opening D minor arpeggio was so refreshing, and the intricacy of the writing drew me in immediately. This was also the week I discovered Dover scores, and ‘Art of the Fugue’ was the first one I bought. And so I began my love affair with fugues and counterpoint that continues still to this day. I still get lost in them, and love how a person can focus their attention on a single part, as well as the whole. I love how we can aurally zoom in on a part of the piece, and back out again and hear the same thing in different contexts. And most of all, I love how it is music that still makes my brain tingle after knowing it for the better part of two decades.

Day 109. Ravel and Mahler (mostly with Herbert von Karajan)

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

So, more about Richard the loyal Tower customer. He once told me that he rated conductors by how he thought they would be in bed. Some of these rating were quite graphic and won’t be shared here, but for any given piece he would have a couple conductors that he thought would get the job done and others that he thought would leave you wanting. Almost always near the top of his list was Herbert von Karajan. And after a few required listenings in the classical room to this work or that work, I began to agree more and more. Karajan certainly had a way to shape phrasing, and certainly knew when to pause for a breath before continuing on… pacing quite often seems to be everything in Karajan recordings. And though he could handle the classical and romantic repertoire just about better then anyone else, I think it is also good that Karajan knew when there was area he couldn’t handle. The number of recordings of his that break into the 20th century avant-garde are few (his recording of Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ is good to hear, only because you can really see how much of a problem even a great conductor can have with it). But with the 20th century works that grew out of late romantic works, he could be brilliant. His Debussy is very well done, same with his Sibelius and Richard Strauss. But the recording that I remember Richard suggesting to me above all else was Ravel’s ‘La Valse’. Karajan conducted the Viennese new year’s concerts a number of times, and he certainly knew his was around the Strauss waltzes like few conductors do. But his recording of the Ravel is stunning. And if there is a work that needs Richard’s ‘good in bed’ rating system, ‘La Valse’ is certainly one of them.

But here was the trick – the CD of this recording was, in the 90s, long out of print. It also featured the Orchestre de Paris, and may have been the only recording he did with the group. I was able to find a vinyl recording a couple years later at Amoeba in Berkeley (oh Amoeba, I miss you so). The LP was in good condition, but the recording level was VERY low for the first part of the bass (the rumbling basses). But it wasn’t until about two years ago that I finally found a CD pressing during a trip to Copenhagen. This was one of three CDs or so that I looked for at every used record store I would go into, and after 8 or 9 years, I had finally found it.

It’s so good.

Also on the disc are good recordings of ‘Le Tombeau de Couperin’ and ‘Rapsodie espagnole’, but it is ‘La Valse’ that is the highlight. And it is damn sexy.

Also ripped tonight was lots more Mahler, including a few harder to find Karajan recordings (the 4th and ‘Das Lied von der Erde’). I have way too many recordings of the 9th and ‘Das Lied von der Erde’. But one find in the stack was the Herreweghe recording of ‘Das Lied’ with the Schönberg chamber version. Quite beautiful.

Day 108. Ravel, Debussy and Mahler.

Saturday, June 12th, 2010

After last night’s Pascal Rogé fun, as promised I searched for the other recordings of his that I have. The disc with the violin sonata took some time to find. It was literally the last place I looked in the back row of discs, at the bottom of a shelf. Didn’t find the piano trio disc yet though. Along the way, came across his Debussy London two disc set. And I also saw (by other artists) a number of Ravel chamber music discs, piano concertos, and scattered about, a number of Mahler symphony recordings. So I grabbed those for tonight as well.

The Rogé discs are on the speakers tonight though, in more ways then one. Celia wanted some different music for her room, and when I told her about ‘Mother Goose Suite’ she was open to Ravel. So the second disc of that set has been beaming through the house over her room monitor. The high notes are represented quite well. I ripped the disc with the violin sonatas first, and that has been on for a bit already. The disc features Chantal Juillet on violin, and Truls Mørk joins in for the violin and cello sonata. I forgot about the recording of ‘Tzigane’ on this disc which features a kind of prepared piano – the ‘piano luthiel’, which consists of an attachment to the harp of the piano that makes it sound like a cimbalom. Very cool. When this disc came out originally it was only available on Decca which, at the time, wasn’t available in the US. It’s presence was revealed to me by one of Tower’s regular customers named Richard who really knew his classical music (there will be a second Richard story probably tomorrow night… another disc I associate with him was in my ‘ooohhh… look what I found’ stack tonight). Richard regularly bought then returned discs to keep his library rotating, and since he usually bought more then he returned, we didn’t have too much of a problem with this at the Berkeley store. For me, the stuff her returned was always quite good, so from my point of view, we had good music to play once he brought it back. Anyways – Richard picked the disc up during a trip to Europe (I believe for a ‘Ring’ cycle) and let me borrow it. I brought it back to him a week later and was visibly sad to give it up again… but I imagined that since it was on Decca, at some point it would be released here in the states on London. About a week later  I saw the release of it announced, but it wouldn’t be coming for another six months! I told Richard about it and that I was excited it would eventually be coming in, and about a week later he brought it back to the store with a post-it note on the disc saying ‘Don’t postpone the pleasure! I’ll get another soon for myself.” I still have the post-it note in the liner notes… it really was a very nice thing to do, and it is still one of my favorite discs that was ever given to me.

The Rogé Debussy is quite well done, and just playing a few tracks tonight was fun.  The other discs were a couple of Klemperer Mahler symphonies. The Mahler 2nd (a live recording) is just damn amazing. And the recording of the 9th is still one of my favorite recordings of that symphony. The beginning is just about perfect… pulsing and dying at the same time, until finally the spring of life finally comes out of the strings playing the first melody. Just beautiful. Also in the stack is the soundtrack to ‘Un Coeur en Hiver’ featuring all Ravel chamber music. And for a soundtrack, the performances of the pieces on the disc (the trio, violin sonata and violin and cello duo) are great. It might actually be my favorite recording of the trio and IS my favorite recording of the duo.

More tomorrow as I keep working through the stack of fun…

Day 99. Mahler, Mozart, Berlioz and Stravinsky.

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

I’ve been a little slow to get to CDs this past couple of days, so I took the chance to throw some recent purchases from eMusic onto the computer. After a couple of playlists of orchestral music, I realized that I had so far been pulling off music that I had played while in the orchestra at UC Berkeley under Prof. David Milnes. I got to play in the orchestra for three years. Unfortunately, this was the bulk of my orchestral playing experience. I have subbed a couple of times for orchestras here in Seattle, but these are VERY few and VERY far between. And I think it was playing orchestral repertoire that did more for my playing then just about anything else I ever did. My first concert had Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie Fantastique’ on it, and there are some seriously difficult bass parts in that piece. Or – at least they were for someone who wasn’t really that experience playing double bass. That first concert was one of the best studies in rhythm and intonation that I ever had.

So – the pieces I went ahead and transferred over tonight were the Berlioz, the SF Symphony recording of Mahler 1, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra recordings of the last four Mozart symphonies and Bernstein’s recording of ‘The Rite of Spring’. I played quite a bit more in orchestra, but these pieces were a few turning points for me. Obviously, the Berlioz being my first orchestral piece is pretty significant, but even then, while it was amazing to be part of a group so big, I still saw the orchestra as a requirement. Later that year though, we did an all Stravinsky concert that included the ‘Rite of Spring’ and the ‘Symphony of Psalms’. This was the concert that got me hooked. First – it was amazing music to play, and difficult. I hadn’t practiced so hard on a piece before ‘Rite of Spring’, and felt like I got back WAY more then I put into it. It was an amazing experience. The best part though was on the second night. The performance was as tight as I could imagine any performance could be. And with the last chord, the most beautiful sound happened. There was nothing, absolutely nothing for about 3 seconds. Then the sold-out crowd went crazy. It was the best feeling in a performance I’ve ever had, and I have wanted to create a piece of my own that could create that kind of silence after the piece was over. I’ve cheated… but I haven’t done it yet.

My second year of orchestra, I felt like I knew what I was doing and had more confidence in general. We read through Mozart #41 for an upcoming concert, and it was a blast. VERY hard, but very fun to play. i felt like it was going pretty well when one of my biggest lessons was taught to me. Two weeks before the concert, we learned that a reduced orchestra was going to be playing the Mozart, and I didn’t make the cut. I was crushed. I really wanted to play this piece, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was playing pretty sloppy. It was a good lesson (and one I got many times at Berkeley). Mostly – it didn’t matter in music how hard you tried. If someone was doing it better then you were, they were going to get the gig. There were no A’s for effort. You had to perform to perform.

So – by the time we got around to Mahler’s 1st, I was taking my chair (near the end of the row) in the double bass section very seriously. I rehearsed and practiced when I could, and was much more disciplined about it. By the time I left Berkeley, I was still no where near where I needed to be to focus on performance on the bass. But, I was much more serious about how to prepare for pieces then I ever would have been without that education. Thanks Prof. Milnes – I learned a lot.