Classical Music - October 2014

Beethoven - Piano Trio No.3 (op.1/3) 
Brahms - Cello Sonata No.1
Bridge

• Summer
• Phantasm
• There is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook
• Vignettes de Danse
• Coronation March
• Sir Roger de Coverley (A Christmas Dance) - orchestral version 

Chopin

• Introduction and Polonaise Brillante for piano and cello
• Rondo in C, op.73
• Variations in A, 'Souvenir de Paganini'
• Polonaise in G flat
• Nocturnes in E minor and C sharp minor (Lento con gran espressione)
• Mazurkas in D, C (op.68/1) and F (op.68/3)
• Waltzes in A flat, B minor (op.69/2), D flat (op.70/3), E, E flat and E minor

Debussy - 2 Dances for harp and orchestra
Dvorak - Nature, Life and Love (In Nature's Realm, Carnival and Othello overtures)
Grieg - Piano Concerto
Haydn - Symphonies 85 and 86
Holmboe - Concerto No.8, 'Sinfonia Concertante'
Holmboe - String Quartet No.1 
Janacek - Violin Sonata
Mozart - String Quartet No.18
Schumann - Piano Trio No.3
Shostakovich - String Quartets 7 and 13
Sibelius - Pohjola's Daughter
Vivaldi - Beatus vir in C, 1720s version

I've left this commentary far too late and I didn't have a clear idea at the time of compiling this list as to what I might talk about.

So let's start off by going with the obvious attribute: quantity. The exploration of the young Chopin continued, with a focus on things that had no intention of making his name with. Most of these pieces were published after his death after being presented to friends or admirers. Only the Introduction and Polonaise Brillante has an opus number from Chopin's lifetime, and his own comment on it was "nothing to it but dazzle".

But the young Chopin certainly knew how to dazzle.

I also continued with my re-visitation of Bridge's orchestral works, and this CD (volume 3 in the Chandos series) was arguably the most attractive yet with its mix of large- and small-scale works. Summer is a fine work indeed, and I was already impressed with Phantasm the first time around.

The other thing that stands out here is Dvorak's trilogy of overtures, which I listened to a considerable number of times, both together and separately. The pieces were first performed together, and are clearly linked with one musical motif in particular recurring in all of the quite different pieces (as a main theme in the 1st and 3rd, and as key part of the central contrasting section in the 2nd). While the pieces are moderately popular as fillers on Dvorak programs and their quality is recognised, it's surprising how infrequently the pieces are kept together these days on CD or in concert. I'm therefore quite pleased that I found a box that had them together (performed by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic). The colour and variety in these works is a testament to Dvorak's skill as a composer.

Popular Music - October 2014

Tori Amos

• From the Choirgirl Hotel
• Night of Hunters
• Unrepentant Geraldines

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man
Blur - The Best of
Deborah Conway - Bitch Epic
Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses
Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
Roisin Murphy - Overpowered
Nichole Nordeman - Woven & Spun
Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science
Thrice - Major/Minor
Washington - Insomnia
Thom Yorke - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

Apologies for the delay. Life was sufficiently interesting after the end of October for me to not get around to completing this post.

Which is a pity, because the music was rather interesting. There are no less than 3 new purchases on this list, although (as is typical for me), only one of those is a recent release, the others being from 2009 and 2011.

The first is Two Suns, which I had decided a while ago to purchase on the strength of iTunes clips. As The Haunted Man has come to impress me more and more, it seemed desirable to get to know Bat for Lashes' previous album as well. And it's pretty good. It's perhaps a little grander and more romantic in mood, and has a few more beat-driven songs, but it's recognisably from the same skilled musician who can create quite a lot from only a few elements.

The second is Major/Minor, which I picked up after listening to a few Thrice albums on Spotify and deciding it was worth picking up their last two (I've yet to purchase Beggars). I don't really feel that I've listened to this one enough yet to comment much on it, other than to observe that it is definitely louder and more aggressive than a lot of The Alchemy Index (my previous exposure to this band, and an album I've mysteriously failed to talk about much) but the songs seem well constructed.

The third is Thom Yorke's new album, which I found out about by complete accident via a classical music message board a few weeks after it quietly was released for download via bittorrent of all things. It didn't take me very long to become hooked on the freely available single,'A Brain in a Bottle', and after that it wasn't a difficult decision to purchase the album given how cheap it was... although the traditionalist/dinosaur in me would still dearly love to have a CD in my collection rather than just an image in iTunes to remind me from time to time that this exists.

The album's length (about 38 minutes), the fact that you're really not getting that many full songs and the weirdly experimental 'There Is No Ice (For My Drink)' might all have provided incentives for Yorke to drop the album cheaply and with minimal marketing, but buried in here are a couple of the most moving songs he's done. For me the most impressive is 'The Mother Lode', which somehow succeeds during the main vocal sections in evoking a bright, chirpy big band number from another era while consisting of little more than glitchy beats.

Classical Music - September 2014

Bach, J.S.

• Meine Seel erhebt den Herren (My soul magnifies the Lord)
• Wer nun den lieben Gott läßt walten (Whoever lets our beloved God rule)
• Was frag ich nach der Welt (What do I ask of this world)

Beethoven - Piano Trios 1 and 2 (op.1/1 and 2)
Brahms - Piano Quintet
Brahms - String Sextet No.2
Bridge

• The Sea
• Dance Poem
• Dance Rhapsody
• Norse Legend (orchestral version)
• 5 Entr'actes from 'The Two Hunchbacks' 

Chopin

• Piano Sonata No.1
• Rondo in C minor
• Rondo a la Mazur
• Variations on a German national air
• Variations in D for piano duet
• Polonaises in G minor, B flat, A flat, G sharp minor, B flat minor
• 3 Polonaises, op.posth. 71
• Mazurkas in G, B flat, G (op.67/1) and A minor (op.68/2)
• Funeral March in C minor
• 3 Ecossaises
• Contredanse in G flat 

Debussy - Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Debussy - Nocturnes
Dowland - In darkness let me dwell
Dvorak - Symphonies 7 and 8
Dvorak - String Quartet No.7 
Haydn - Symphony No.84
Holmboe - Concerto No.3 (for clarinet)
Holmboe - Benedic Domino (from Liber Canticorum)
Mozart - String Quartets 16 and 17
Poulenc - Oboe Sonata
Rachmaninov -  Songs, op. 8 and 14
Rachmaninov - Did you hiccough, Natasha?
Schoenberg - Pelleas and Melisande
Schumann - String Quartets 2 and 3
Shostakovich - String Quartet No.2
Sibelius

• Lemminkäinen Suite
• The Dryad
• Dance-Intermezzo

Simpson - Symphony No.10
Telemann - Tafelmusik Volume 1
Vaughan Williams - Silent Noon
Vivaldi

• Dixit Dominus, RV 594
• Domine ad adiuvandum
• Cur sagittas, cur tela

Having very recently listened to the last few pieces of Chopin solo piano music that I hadn't touched in recent years (I have the box set by Vladimir Ashkenazy), I went slightly Chopin-mad. Mostly, this was because I wanted to get a clearer idea in my head about the chronology of those works not published with opus numbers in Chopin's lifetime. There are a few publications from his youth, and also various works that were not published until after his death. It seems that in quite a few cases these were things he wrote out for friends and acquaintances as personal gifts.

So essentially, part of September became about listening to teenage Chopin, particularly on one weekend. It is actually quite astounding just how quickly Chopin developed into a first-class composer. It is true that most of the focus here is on sounding brilliant rather than being profound, but my goodness, it is brilliant. By the time he was 17 or 18, Chopin was already dazzling.

Beethoven seems to have taken a little longer to really get going. In August I listened to the earliest Beethoven now in my collection, the piano trio WoO 38, and to be honest it was a bit pedestrian. But in September, I reached the opus 1 piano trios. The improvement from the earlier piece is considerable.

Another highlight of this list would have to be my introduction to the Lemminkäinen Suite (well, to three-quarters of it as I'd previously heard The Swan of Tuonela. Up until recently I've known very little Sibelius beside the symphonies, but with my recent purchases I'm feeling that I just want to hear even more. I can well understand why his orchestral music tends to dominate recordings of his output, though, because right now I think he might just be the finest orchestrator of them all. The sense of colour and mood in these pieces is amazing.

Popular Music - September 2014

Tori Amos

• To Venus and Back (Venus Orbiting disc)
• Strange Little Girls
• Unrepentant Geraldines

Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man
Beyonce - Beyonce
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Toni Childs - Union
Toni Childs - House of Hope
Paula Cole - This Fire
Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club
Gotye - Making Mirrors
Moloko - I Am Not A Doctor
Radiohead

• The Bends
• Amnesiac
• Hail to the Thief

Seal - Human Being
Sixpence None the Richer - This Beautiful Mess
Sons of Korah - Shelter
Washington - Insomnia

A couple of years ago,  I wrote about Washington's debut album and expressed my disappointment. I also mentioned that I had bought Insomnia at the same time. And now I've finally listened to it.

That gives you some idea about just how long things can sit in the listening pile, if they're not my primary focus for some reason at the time of acquisition.

The silly thing is that I suspected, even then, that it would be better than I Believe You Liar, and yet that apparently didn't induce me to open up the CD and confirm that suspicion. Well, the suspicion is finally confirmed. Insomnia is considerably better because it showcases Washington's finest weapon - her voice - in a way that the first album never did. Double-tracked vocals and thickening of texture is now the exception, not the norm. The arrangements get the hell out of the way and let you listen to the bittersweet sound of a voice that sounds a little sad even when it's upbeat.

I've in fact left listening to Insomnia so long that Megan Washington (now with first name intact) released her next album about the same time, and from first samples THAT sounds like it might be even better. But please, don't wait for the reviews from me...

This month was also the first time in a surprisingly long while that I listened to Moloko's I Am Not A Doctor. An absolutely fascinating album, this. It seems to have been the band's least commercially successful album. In many ways it's also the one that I would expect to like the least, as it's full of music that Wikipedia tells me is called "trip hop" and "drum and bass" and other things that I wouldn't head towards in a store.

It's also a really consistent album that's a fantastic listening experience.

I think one of the reasons it's so excellent is that it's thematically pretty consistent. From the opening track and single 'The Flipside', it's an album that openly acknowledges how weird and strange it is by including references to bending the mind. Hypnosis and possession come up in the lyrics on multiple occasions. This is an album that is intentionally taking you on a 'trippy' experience and tells you that you're powerless to resist.

 

Now, I might not be in the mood all the time for being told how my will is going to be overridden by a bunch of skittering beats, but if it's going to be done it should at least be done with flair and imagination. And Moloko delivers.

August 2014 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S. - Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam (Christ our Lord came to the Jordan)
Bach, J.S. - O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O Eternity, you thunderous word) - 1724 work
Beethoven - Piano Trio in E flat, WoO 38
Beethoven - Theme and Variations for piano trio, op.44
Brahms - String Sextet No.1
Brahms - Piano Quartets 1 and 2
Bridge

• Mid of the Night
• Isabella
• Two Poems for Orchestra after Richard Jefferies
• Enter Spring  

Byrd - Sing joyfully
Chopin

• 3 Waltzes, op.64
• Mazurkas, op.posth. 67 and 68
• 3 Ecossaises, op.posth. 72/3

Debussy

• Preludes, Book 1
• Clair de lune (original piano version and orchestral version)
• Marche ecossaise (orchestral version)

Dvorak

• Legends (orchestral version)
• Serenade for Strings
• Czech Suite 

Haydn - Symphonies 82 and 83
Haydn - The Creation 
Hilgendorf - Daichi
Holmboe - Concertos 1 (for piano) and 11 (for trumpet)
Holmboe - Suite from 'The Ill-Tempered Turk' 
Mozart - Piano Sonatas 6, 9 and 18
Mozart - String Quartets 14 and 15 
Poulenc

• Clarinet Sonata
• Elegie for 2 pianos
• Improvisation No.15 

Rachmaninov - Six songs, op.4
Schoenberg - Transfigured Night (orchestral version)
Schumann

• String Quartet No.1
• 'Album leaf' No. 1, op.99/4
• Novelette No.9, op.99/9 

Sculthorpe - Cello Dreaming
Shostakovich - String Quartets 4, 10 and 14
Shostakovich - Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok
Sibelius - En Saga (2 versions)
Sibelius - The Wood-Nymph
Strauss, R. - Four last songs
Telemann - Tafelmusik Volume 2
Vivaldi - Kyrie in G minor
Vivaldi - Magnificat in G minor (1720s version)

My Bach listening really did hit a bit of a milestone this month, as I reached the second year of Bach's employment in Leipzig. Which, it turns out, means I arrived at a sequence of 'chorale cantatas' where both the music and text are heavily based on existing hymns. Early impressions are very favourable - there is nothing staid or straightforward about the way Bach incorporates the existing material into his new works.

Elsewhere, there is plenty of evidence of new purchases on my part - Beethoven piano trios, Mozart string quartets, Haydn symphonies, Rachmaninov, Holmboe, some Debussy, Dvorak, Schumann and Sibelius. Again, early impressions are favourable. I was particularly taken with Haydn's 82nd symphony, the early Rachmaninov songs and a particular section of Sibelius' The Wood-Nymph which had an extraordinary rushing sound.

I've started a survey of Brahms' 24 major chamber works, as I now own a recording of each. I'm re-engaging with the Chandos set of Bridge's orchestral works, this time by the relatively novel method of listening to a disc at a time. And, after listening to the 8th quartet last month, I've officially returned to surveying Shostakovich's string quartets for the first time in a few years. I do like my listening projects, and have to replace old ones as they fade away, such as reaching the end of my (not that large) Richard Strauss collection.

Listening to Peter Sculthorpe's Cello Dreaming had absolutely nothing to do with the composer's death, which reached the news a day or two later. It was simply that I unearthed an long-unheard, locally produced CD that was gathering dust in an obscure location in the house and had not been added to the catalogue. I actually know very little of Sculthorpe's music, but am certainly aware of his reputation as one of Australia's most significant composers. I actually met him once as a student many years ago. I shall have to investigate further.

I shall also have to plan these rambling posts a bit more carefully...

August 2014 - Popular Music

Tori Amos

• Boys for Pele
• From the Choirgirl Hotel
• Midwinter Graces
• Unrepentant Geraldines

Beyonce - Beyonce
Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
Peter Gabriel - So
Patty Griffin - American Kid
Missy Higgins - The Ol' Razzle Dazzle
k.d. lang - Invincible Summer
Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark
Janelle Monae - Metropolis Suites II to V
Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
Katie Noonan and the Captains - Emperor's Box
Radiohead - Amnesiac
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Thrice - The Alchemy Index

It really is about time that I talked about The Alchemy Index, but I have this idea in my head that one day it will get an essay in its own right. So even though this is the first in a while I unearthed it and listened... you shall just have to wait.

Aren't I wicked.

Instead I'm going to briefly remark on The King of Limbs, because this is perhaps the most I've enjoyed it. In late 2012 I was still saying, after having the album for over 18 months, that it wasn't appealing to me on the level of most Radiohead albums. This past month something finally clicked. I actually listened to the album twice in one afternoon, having enjoyed it enough the first time to want to repeat the experience.

I think perhaps I allowed the sounds of the album to wash over me, without trying to pay too much attention to individual details. I had already thought of it as something of a 'soundscape' album (particularly the opening track, 'Bloom'), so it makes sense that it would work better experienced in that way.

But that's one of the things I love about music - that there are a variety of approaches, and that it's actually necessary to adjust my listening technique and expectations to get the most out of different pieces of music. Not all music is trying to do the same thing, so it shouldn't all be judged by the same criteria.

July 2014 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Sie werden euch in den Bann tun (They will put you out of the synagogues (no.1))
• Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen (They will all come from Sheba)
• Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen (Jesus sleeps, what should I hope?)
• Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde (Blessed time of the new covenant)
• Violin Concerto No.2
• Brandenburg Concerto No.5
• Harpsichord Concerto No.1
• Oboe D'Amore Concerto in A (reconstruction - BWV 1055R) 

Bartok - Piano Concerto No.3
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.3
Bizet/Shchedrin - Adagio from The Carmen Ballet
Brahms - Piano Trio No.1
Chopin

• Fantaisie-Impromptu
• 3 Polonaises, op.posth.71
• Rondo in C, op.posth.73 

De Lisle - Le Marsellaise
Debussy - String Quartet
Debussy - Children's Corner
Diamond - Balcony Scene from Romeo and Juliet
Dvorak - Piano Trio No.3
Dvorak - String Quartet No.11 
Falla - Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Gliere - Waltz from Red Poppy Suite
Hanson - Symphony No.2, 2nd movement
Haydn - String Quartet in E flat, op.64/6
Holmboe

• Symphony No.12
• Violin Concerto No.2
• String Quartet No.5
• Liber Canticorum, Books V, Va and Vb 

Hovhaness - Four Bagatelles for string quartet, op.30
Kancheli - Styx (excerpt)
Korngold - main title music for Captain Blood
Liszt - Festklänge
Liszt - Heroide Funebre
Mozart - Piano Sonatas 3, 13 and 17
Myslivicek - Dunque Licide ingrato from L'Olimpiade
Obradors - Del Cabello mas sutil
Poulenc

• Flute Sonata
• Elegie for horn and piano
• Improvisations 13 and 14
• Novelette on a theme of Falla 

Purcell - Chacony in G minor
Rachmaninov - Etudes-Tableaux, op.39
Scarlatti, D. - Keyboard sonatas, K.8, 25, 29, 113, 141, 173, 259, 523
Schubert - Piano Trio No.1
Schumann

• Piano Trio No.2
• Waldszenen (Forest Scenes)
• Introduction and Allegro appassionato in G for piano and orchestra
• Tragoedie, op.64/3 

Shostakovich - String Quartet No.8
Sibelius - Symphonies 1 to 4
Sibelius - Finlandia
Simpson - Symphony No.9
Strauss, R.

• Metamorphosen
• Oboe Concerto
• 1st and 2nd Waltz Suites from Der Rosenkavalier

Telemann - Tafelmusik Volume 3
Vine - String Quartets 4 and 5
Vine - Knips Suite (String Quartet No.1), 2 movements
Vivaldi -In turbato mare irato (In an angry, rough sea)
Vivaldi - Sum in medio tempestatum (I am in the midst of stormy weather)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PHEW!

That is a big list. One of the reasons for that is that July was one of the times I went through the spreadsheet to find some of the odds and ends that I hadn't listened to since 2009, when I started that system. So there are a few things on here that are from sampler CDs.

I also went through one of those phases of trying to better catalogue what I own... right about the same time as going through an exhausting process of deciding what to add to my collection (the fruits of which you still start seeing in the next classical entry). And that led to obsessive-compulsive behaviour like identifying all the string quartets I have, and all the piano trios, and all the symphonies...

It does add up. And naturally, I started listening to some of them (especially trios). One of the benefits of building a collection is that you can make your own little concert programs in the comfort of your own home.

Alongside all of that was my continuing thematic or chronological explorations of various composers, some new additions to that process, and various 'just because' ideas when I got sick of all of that.

My progression through the Bach cantata recordings by Maasaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan reached an interesting stage. Volume 21 is the last volume to have works from Bach's first year of employment in Leipzig, and they saved a couple of exceptionally colourful works until the end. Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen is about the arrival of the three wise men and uses different instruments to sound 'oriental'. Jesus schläft, was soll ich hoffen is based on the story of Jesus calming a storm, and the waves being whipped up are vividly portrayed.

July was also when I finished listening to Holmboe's Liber Canticorum, his collection of choral works written to Latin versions of passages from the Old Testament. I think it'll take some more listening before these appeal to me as much as his instrumental works, but I did enjoy them and certainly wasn't disappointed.

The biggest highlight of the month, though, was probably my reacquaintance with Sibelius' first four symphonies. I couldn't tell you why it's been so long since I last listened to these (it's been even longer for the symphonies yet to come), because there's a lot of truly fantastic music in there. Sibelius knows how to use an orchestra, and knows how to build structures and create drama from them. Of these, the 4th symphony continues to be my favourite, but the first two did a particularly good job this time around of reminding me how good they are.

July 2014 - Popular Music

Tori Amos

• Little Earthquakes
• American Doll Posse
• Gold Dust
• Unrepentant Geraldines

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Bryan Duncan - Mercy
Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark
Katie Noonan and the Captains - Emperor's Box
Pearl Jam - No Code
Radiohead

• The Bends
• Hail to the Thief
• In Rainbows

Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science

I made a brief mention of the album Emperor's Box when I first bought it last December (it was actually released in 2010), and wondered whether it would rival Katie Noonan's previous work with the band 'george' in my affections.

I think the answer is yes.

My growing familiarity with the album has brought it to the point where I know the overall shape of the songs, and can listen to the album in a more flowing way. Last month I found myself really, really enjoying the listening experience and wanting to repeat it.

The second of george's two albums, Unity, has arguably held a place as my 'favourite album released in the last decade' for quite some time, but it was released in 2004 and there needs to be a new contender. I don't know whether Emperor's Box is the replacement. For one thing, it's been such a long time since I've embarked on the painstaking and exhausting exercise of trying to rank my favourite albums that I've no idea where anything stands or what the contenders are (first rule: no more than one album per artist, so before we reach the main round there have to be sub-battles for Something for Kate, Radiohead and Patty Griffin at least). Secondly, I'm sure there are other serious contenders from the period, such as Fiona Apple's Idler Wheel and Radiohead's In Rainbows (if it survives the in-house contest...).

What I do know, though, is that Emperor's Box is very much a successor to Unity in terms of aesthetics and inventiveness. There's the same desire to play with the musical palette and come up with different combinations of sounds, with acoustic instruments blending with electric and electronic ones. There's the same desire to let the music flow and pulse and avoid square, flat-footed rhythms. There's the same emotional range with songs that sound passionate, even angry mixed with songs that are tender lullabies (although it's rather startling to read the lyrics of the fierce rocker 'Page One' and discover it's actually a wedding night love song).

I don't know if it's the best album to enter my collection in recent years, but I do know it's an album I'd recommend to anyone as well worth hearing, and it seems to be getting richer with more listens.

June 2014 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Sie werden euch in den Bann tun (I) (They will put you out of the synagogues)
• Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten (I) (If a man loves me, he will keep my words)
• Erhöhtes Fleisch und Blut (Elevated flesh and blood)

Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra
Berwald - Piano Trio No.1 (2nd movement)
Brahms - Piano Trio No.2
Faure

• Violin Sonatas 1 and 2
• Cello Sonatas 1 and 2
• Piano Quartets 1 and 2
• Piano Quintets 1 and 2
• Piano Trio
• String Quartet
• Elegie for cello and piano
• Romance for cello and piano
• Papillon for cello and piano
• Sicilienne for cello and piano
• Serenade for cello and piano

Holmboe - Liber Canticorum, Book IV
Poulenc - Sonata for 2 pianos
Scarlatti, D. - Keyboard sonatas, K.11, 268, 386 and 387
Schumann - Piano Concerto
Schumann - Piano Trio No.1
Sibelius - The Swan of Tuonela
Strauss, R. - Don Quixote
Strauss, R. - Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life)
Tchaikovsky - Music from The Sleeping Beauty (two separate arrangements)
Vine - String Quartets 2 and 3

Yes, all the Faure kept coming out to play. At the start of the month it was still complete works. Later on it became movements on their own, and after that it ended up just being the 'slow' movements (some Adagios, but many of them Andantes) on their own.

And it was bliss.

But as well as that some normal service was resumed. There were some existing favourites, such as Poulenc's sonata (which was a highlight of my first run-through the box of Poulenc recordings I own), and Schumann's piano concerto which was one of the first concertos I took an immediate shine to.

There were also some new potential favourites. I've heard The Swan of Tuonela before, but I was paying a lot more attention this time and was very impressed. Sibelius is a master orchestrator. Every bit his equal, but in a different way, is Richard Strauss. Again, I'd heard both Don Quixote and Ein Heldenleben before, but this time I read a bit more programmatic information and was astounded at how vivid some parts of each of these works is.  In Don Quixote the episode with the sheep is brilliant and the use of a wind machine astounding. And the part of Ein Heldenleben that takes a swipe at music critics is downright funny.

June 2014 - Popular Music

Tori Amos - Unrepentant Geraldines
Joni Mitchell - Clouds
Roisin Murphy - Overpowered
Pearl Jam - Vs
Radiohead - OK Computer

Fairly slim pickings here, really.  So let's talk about OK Computer. Partly because it seems I haven't talked about it specifically before, and partly because I was surprised how long it was since I had last listened to it.

In full, that is. I strongly suspect that this is one of those albums that's been on my player at work, and I've been interrupted, and I haven't gone back to it. That happens to me fairly frequently in general (more than I'd like, but, you know, they're not paying me to listen to music and if something comes up that requires me to speak to other human beings instead of just quietly work away at my desk, the music has to take second priority), but it's especially difficult when listening to a rich, dense album.

Let's face it, OK Computer has been talked about an enormous amount since it first came out in 1997. It's one of the more acclaimed albums in rock music history. I think that's not only because it's good, but because in some ways it was unexpected.

I don't have my figure on the pulse of current, up-to-date music in the way that music journalists supposedly do, so I can't tell you what music generally sounded like in 1997, and therefore I can't tell you whether OK Computer was unlike anything else on the market. I do sometimes get that impression from what's been written about it. It also was frequently praised for somehow tapping into the zeitgeist, or even being ahead of the curve: a 21st century album written before the 21st century began. Lyrically, there are hints of a high-speed, impersonal and isolating world that certainly do seem relevant to our age of technology.

What I can say for myself is that I'm fairly sure this album was unexpected from Radiohead. Their first album was that of a fairly average rock band, all set for one-hit wonder status. It's difficult to remember any song besides 'Creep' and it's difficult to muster up much interest in listening again - apparently, I haven't sat through Pablo Honey since I started this blog.

Their second album, The Bends, is a vast leap in quality. It's a fine record, but it's a fine record from a fairly straight-ahead rock band that sounds like it wants to fill arenas. Actually that's probably not entirely fair, as the album does have lots of nice touches that aren't completely straightforward, and point in the direction of later Radiohead if you already know what you're looking for.

But back in 1997, people didn't already know what later Radiohead sounded like. And what OK Computer sounded like was a vast collage of sounds. Layer upon distorted layer. 'Airbag' opens proceedings with processed drums, jangling guitars and something that sounds like sleigh bells. 'Paranoid Android' throws in a computerised voice and changes sound and pace multiple times. 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' features great washes of keyboard sound, and so it goes on.

There are times when it's quite difficult to work out what sort of instrument is used, as acoustic, electric and electronic contributions collide. 'Climbing Up The Walls' features the scariest string section you can imagine.

Every song contributes something a little different, and pretty well every song is a winner. My favourite, though, has always been 'Let Down'.  The melody line of the song is sheer genius, with steps constantly falling downwards even while each sequence manages to take the melody slightly higher than before. Each of the 3 verses has a different melodic shape, with the last of the 3 expanding gloriously into a kind of ecstasy. Somehow, a song with lyrics about the 'emptiest of feelings' and being 'crushed like a bug in the ground' ends up being one of the most achingly beautiful and uplifting things I've ever heard.

May 2014 - Classical Music

Dvorak - String Quartets 10 and 13
Faure

• Violin Sonatas 1 and 2
• Cello Sonatas 1 and 2
• Piano Quartets 1 and 2
• Piano Quintets 1 and 2
• Piano Trio
• String Quartet

It was a difficult month.

I stopped listening to classical music for a couple of weeks, roughly coinciding with the start of the month. And then the month got more difficult on a personal level, and I found myself anxiously searching for music that would both express my mood and change it.

And I grabbed for the chamber music of Gabriel Faure.

All 10 of his large-scale works ended up loaded onto my iPhone. There were times in the last 6 or 7 weeks when I listened to little else. I drowned myself in these masterpieces. I listened over and over again, hoping to grasp every note. In some cases I ended up listening while reading the score.

This was actually the first time I'd ever listened to the string quartet, which was Faure's last work, because I decided to save it for the end of my chronological journey through his compositions. That started in September 2012, by the way, so that's... 21 months of occasional listening to get to the end of his career. With 60+ years of music.

There are still more works to collect, choral music in particular. I still don't even own a copy of the Requiem which for many people seems to be the one work of Faure's that they do own! Aside from that there are a few violin works, a couple for harp, two operas and various incidental music (some of which I'm not even sure is recorded).

I suspect, though, that it will always be this chamber music that I'm drawn to, with its subtle interplay of lines, its constant evolution, its yearning, its passion. There are 34 movements here, and it's difficult to find a weak one anywhere. There's certainly enough quality to sustain many hours of listening.

May 2014 - Popular Music

Tori Amos

• Little Earthquakes
• Under the Pink
• From the choirgirl hotel
• Unrepentant Geraldines

Avicii - iTunes New Year's Eve Mix
Joe Cocker - The Essential Collection
Patty Griffin - American Kid
Jars of Clay - The Long Fall Back to Earth
Wendy Matthews - Ghosts
John Mayer - Battle Studies
Janelle Monae - Metropolis Suites II and III
Katie Noonan and the Captains - Emperor's Box
Over the Rhine - Ohio

Yes, a new Tori Amos album came out. Yes, I like it. A lot. Any surprises there?

Unrepentant Geraldines is warm, relaxed, confident, small-scale and intimate. It's entirely a family affair, with Amos and her husband performing all the instruments, and their daughter contributing one guest vocal. A highly impressive guest vocal, one might add.

Perhaps one of the most impressive things about the album is that it generally hides this relative lack of resources extremely well. It's true that there are far more solo piano songs on here than on previous albums, but in no way does it come across as "I'm doing solo piano because I haven't got any choice". For one thing, the solo piano songs are uncommonly good, with 'Weatherman' and 'Oysters' being among the very best tracks on the album.

In addition, the album is perfectly capable of sounding rich and full when that is called for. 'Wedding Day' certainly creates the illusion of a whole band playing.

That's about all I have to say about it at the moment. Like all Tori Amos albums, there's a sense that it'll take some time to really delve into all the nuances and know the album as much as I'd like to. That's a large part of why I enjoy her music so much.

Plus, I won't lie: right now I want to get a post or two out of the way here...

April 2014 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Du Hirte Israel, höre (Hear you shepherd of Israel)
• Wo gehest du hin? (Where are you going to?)
• Erwünschtes Freudenlicht (Awaited light of joy)
• Violin Partita No.2

Bartok - Piano Concerto No.2
Bartok - Violin Concerto No.2
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.5
Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.14, 1st movement
Brahms

• Double Concerto
• Clarinet Sonata No.2
• Piano Pieces, op.119

Dvorak - Piano Trios 3 and 4
Dvorak - Piano Quartet No.2
Faure

• Piano Trio in D minor
• Nocturne No.13
• L'horizon chimérique 

Holmboe - Liber Canticorum, Book III
Mozart - Symphony No.40
Mozart - Quintet for Piano and Winds
Poulenc

• Violin Sonata
• Theme varie
• Capriccio for 2 pianos
• L'Embarquement pour Cythère 

Rachmaninov

• Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
• Symphony No.3
• Symphonic Dances

Ravel

• Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
• Piano Concerto in G
• Violin Sonata No.2

Schubert - Piano Trio No.2
Schumann - Dichterliebe
Schumann - Der arme Peter
Sibelius - En Saga
Sibelius - Karelia Suite
Simpson - Symphony No.8
Strauss, R. - Also sprach Zarathustra
Strauss, R. - Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
Suk - Elegy in D flat (piano trio version)
Symanowski - Masques
Tchaikovsky - Pezzo capriccioso
Tchaikovsky - March from The Seasons
Vine - String Quartet No.3
Vivaldi

• Canta in prato, ride in monte (Sing in the meadow, smile on the mountain), RV 623
• In furore iustissimae irae (In wrath and most just anger)
• O qui caeli terraeque serenitas (You are the tranquility of heaven and earth)

Walton - String Quartet in A minor

There is some marvellous music here, but I find myself not really inclined to say much about it. I delayed this post partly in the hope of finding more to write, but various circumstances mean that hasn't happened.

The one thing perhaps most worth mentioning is the string quartet from Carl Vine, from a disc performed by the Goldner Quartet. This was a new purchase, of a CD that had been on my Christmas list. The desire for it was partly driven by this article, which includes the strongest recommendation imaginable from the composer himself.

And the third quartet is, in the hands of the Goldners, electrifying stuff.

Vine's name has always stuck in my mind since I first heard his first piano sonata, performed in the Sydney International Piano Competition. It's a great piece, and every now and then something would happen to remind me of it. I've heard little else of Vine's work, but that piano sonata was enough to consistently draw me back in curiosity.

But it's taken a decade or more for that curiosity to translate into a purchase. I haven't even listened to the rest of the disc yet, but it already seems a worthwhile purchase. I listened to the third quartet over and over again, across several days...and kept wanting to have another go. To be astonished at the sheer speed at which the outer sections flash by, to be gripped by the virtuosity, feeling that it was nevertheless musical virtuosity.

I'm only just getting a taste of who Vine is as a composer. It seems that he is quite intellectual in some ways, but it also seems to me that this is not an arid kind of intellectualism. There is force and passion.

I'm looking forward to hearing more.

April 2014 - Popular Music

Tori Amos

• Under the Pink
• Strange Little Girls
• Scarlet's Hidden Treasures
• Audience bootlegs - Lowell, MA 19 November 2002, Boston 12 April 2005

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow
george - Unity
Patty Griffin - American Kid
Dave Matthews - Some Devil
Joni Mitchell - Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm
Nichole Nordeman - Woven & Spun
Pearl Jam - No Code

There is something about Patty Griffin that has made me approach her 2 albums released in 2013 very, very slowly.

It's not that the music only speaks to me when I'm in a certain mood, it's more that the music is potentially so powerful that I feel like I need to save it for a time when I'm wholly present. I don't want to do a Patty Griffin album the disrespect of listening casually and treating it like background music. Heck, I don't really like treating anything like background music, but it seems even more important with Patty because she is engaging in character studies. Studies of real characters, not fantastical creations. Stories you believe that someone's genuinely lived.

That's even more true of American Kid than usual, and it's difficult to avoid the thought that the person who has lived many of these stories is Patty's own deceased father. There are specific references to Boston and to fighting in the war that feel like part of a single autobiography, even when scattered across different songs (although I've discovered in the middle of writing this post that 'Get Ready Marie' is about her grandparents, not her father - but hey, that's still his family). And while she has inhabited male characters in songs before (more often than most female singers), it's even more prominent this time around.

It's an album that's both haunting and gutsy. It takes guts to start an album with a song about the end of life. 'Go Wherever You Wanna Go' celebrates death as a release from all the worries and hardships that life brings. And then it's followed up by a classic Griffin stomp called 'Don't Let Me Die in Florida'.

As for haunting, there are two songs prominently featuring Robert Plant that peaceful and ethereal, even though one of them, 'Ohio', depicts people on the run and ends with the thought that if the singer hasn't arrived by morning, it will be because (he's) dead.

It feels like the album doesn't really tread new thematic ground for Griffin. These are the same lost, lonely, tired people, holding onto their memories, that have inhabited quite a lot of her songs before. But I'm not sure that matters a lot when she delivers such beautiful justice and respect for these kinds of stories. Someone needs to remind us about thoroughly 'ordinary' people. It might as well be a woman with a soul-piercing voice.

March 2014 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Wer da gläubet und getauft wird (He that believes and is baptised)
• Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ (Hold in remembrance Jesus Christ)
• Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch (Verily, verily I say to you)

Bartok - Piano Concerto No.1
Beethoven - Piano Concertos 3 and 4
Beethoven - Violin Concerto 
Brahms - String Sextets 1 and 2
Brahms - Clarinet Sonata No.1
Bridge - 3 Idylls
Dvorak - Piano Trios 1 and 2
Dvorak - Piano Quartet No.1
Faure

• Piano Quintet No.2
• Cello Sonata No.2
• Barcarolle No.13
• C'est la paix

Haydn - String Quartets, op.64 nos. 4 and 5
Holmboe

• Symphonies 1 and 7
• Chamber Symphony No.3, 'Frieze'
• Sinfonia in Memoriam
• Sinfonias 1 and 4
• Monolith
• Tempo Variabile
• Liber Canticorum, Book II
• Preludes 1, 3 and 4 for chamber orchestra

Lekeu - Violin Sonata in G
Mahler - Symphony No.8
Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde
Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto
Mozart

• Oboe Quartet
• Horn Quintet
• Quintet movement for clarinet, basset horn, violin, viola and cello

Poulenc

• Sextet
• Improvisations 11 and 12
• Intermezzo in A flat
• Melancolie
• Française
• Bourrée au pavillon d'Auvergne

Rachmaninov

• Piano Concerto No.4
• Piano Sonata No.2
• Etudes-Tableaux, op.39
• Variations on a Theme by Corelli

Ravel

• La Valse
• Tzigane
• Berceuse on the name of Gabriel Faure

Schubert

• Piano Trio No.1
• Notturno for piano trio
• Piano trio movement in B flat

 Schumann

• Piano Quintet
• Piano Quartet
• Liederkreis (Eichendorff)
• 3 songs from Rückert's 'Liebesfrühling', op.37

Shostakovich

• Symphony No.10
• Piano Trio No.2
• Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok

Simpson - Symphonies 4 and 5
Simpson - Variations on a Theme by Nielsen
Strauss, R. - Don Juan
Strauss, R. - Death and Transfiguration
Szymanowski

• Metopes
• Fantasy in F minor
• Four etudes for piano, op.4

Tchaikovsky

• Violin Concerto
• Variations on a Rococo Theme
• Andante cantabile from string quartet no.1 (orchestral version)

Lots of new listening in here again, thanks to another set of purchases hot on the heels of the previous set. Beethoven, Brahms, Bridge, Dvorak, Lekeu, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert and Szymanowski are all solely represented by first listens, and there are quite a few other debuts for other composers too. Come to think of it, the Bach is all 'new' as well, it's just that it's months and months since I bought the cantatas. Lots and lots of cantatas...

The chamber music, though, is where I've been finding the greatest delights. The Brahms sextets are both wonderful pieces. I think I enjoyed the first most consistently, but the opening of the second is so extraordinary that I actually stopped what I was doing about 20 seconds in to check that I had chosen the right disc and track... and then had to start again because I'd lost my focus on the music. To my ears it sounded amazingly modern - and it's not even late Brahms, it's still reasonably early in his career.

Dvorak is, I think, one of the most consistently enjoyable composers, certainly in his chamber music. Memorable melodies are everywhere. I knew at least one of these pieces before from hearing it live, so I did know what to expect, but it's still a real pleasure to be able to listen to this music at will.

The most exciting new work of all, though, might have been Schubert's first piano trio. I didn't expect to say that. Even though I now recognise that I enjoy later Schubert a great deal, I still wouldn't usually rank him as a favourite composer.  But this trio was absolutely sublime. I suspect that's down to the performance by the Florestan Trio (who are in fact also responsible for the Dvorak and Shostakovich trios, and members contributed to several other recordings on this list), which is one of the most sparkling and lively performances I've ever come across.

Then I became acquainted with Beethoven's 4th piano concerto, which is probably the best classical concerto I've yet heard. And then this list includes a couple of favourite recordings from my existing library - Faure's 2nd piano quintet, and Vladimir Ashkenazy's electrifying performance of Rachmaninov's etudes-tableaux.

It was a pretty damn fine month of listening, with the exception of Mahler's 8th symphony which proved again to be a nearly interminable disappointment. Oh well. One should count one's blessings. And they are plentiful here.

March 2014 - Popular Music

Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk
Neil Finn - Try Whistling This
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Madonna - Ray of Light
John Mayer - Paradise Valley
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Katie Noonan and the Captains - Emperor's Box
Something for Kate - Desert Lights
Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science

There was definitely a bit of digging down into the archives this month (archives that are still, sadly, a bit patchy on the pop music side, when the whole point was to make me aware of things I just hadn't listened to for years).  I listened to a Joni Mitchell album for the first time in 18 months, which seems an extraordinary amount of time for an artist whose body of work impresses me.

But the album I probably appreciated the most was Ray of Light. I enjoyed it so much the first time that I listened to it again within a day or two. That isn't common for albums that have been in my library for a long period of time.

I do own a couple of other pieces of Madonna's catalogue, but this is the only of her 12 'main' albums that I have. I'd still hesitate to call it a great album (as some of the songs are lacking in lyrical depth), but it is a very, very good one and a pretty satisfying listen. One of the best things about it is how much it feels all of one piece - I think of it and immediately there's a type of sound in my head - mature, restrained, electronic, atmospheric - and imagery to go with it. It's one of those albums where even the artwork plays its part in creating the whole package.

It's also great that it doesn't peter out at the end. In fact, the last few songs are among the strongest on the record.

I don't know how far Madonna's career still has to go, but at the end of it I think she'll be able to point at Ray of Light and say, this one I did really well. This had staying power. People still appreciate this one.

February 2014 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen (Rejoice, you hearts)
• Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend Weiß (A heart that knows its Jesus)
• Nimm, was dein ist, und gehe hin (Take what is yours and go your way)
• Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister (Careless muddled spirits)

Beethoven

• Piano Concertos 1 & 2
• String Quartet No.16
• The Creatures of Prometheus 

Brahms - Violin Concerto
Debussy - Piano Trio
Elgar - String Quartet
Faure

• Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra
• Cello Sonata No.1
• Mirages 

Holmboe

• Symphonies 2-6 and 8-13
• Chamber Symphony No.1
• Sinfonias 2 & 3
• Epitaph
• Epilog
• Liber Canticorum, Book I 

Mahler - Symphony No.5
Mahler - Kindertotenlieder
Mendelssohn - Cello Sonatas 1 & 2
Mendelssohn - Piano Trio No.1
Poulenc

• Les Soirées de Nazelles
• Suite Francaise (piano version)
• Feuillets d'album (Album leaves)
• Villageoises
• Presto in B flat
• Two intermezzi
• Humoresque
• Badinage 

Rachmaninov

• The Bells
• 13 Preludes, op.32
• Etudes-Tableaux, op.33

Ravel

• Piano Trio
• Violin Sonata No.1 (posthumous)
• Valses nobles et sentimentales
• Le Tombeau de Couperin
• Prelude for piano
• A la maniere de...

Schubert - Piano Sonatas in A minor, E flat and B, D.537, 568 and 575
Schumann

• 3 Romances
• selections from Myrthen
• Kerner Lieder, op.35

Shostakovich - Piano Trio No.1
Simpson - Symphony No.6 
Vivaldi

• Clarae stellae, scintillate (Bright stars, shine)
• Nulla in mundo pax sincera (There is no unblemished peace in the world)
• Vestro principi divino

A large and varied list, although with a bit of a focus on the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It includes a number of new purchases - the Brahms, Debussy, Elgar and Shostakovich, this recording of the Faure cello sonata, the Holmboe Liber Canticorum, the Ravel trio and violin sonata and most of the Beethoven. All of these are samples from discs or sets of discs that will probably take me a few months to work through completely.

No sooner had I reached the end of my (roughly) chronological journey through my library of Beethoven's opuses, which took me two years and one day to complete, that I started listening to new purchases that filled some gaps. The first two piano concertos and 'The Creatures of Prometheus' are all fairly enjoyable, although I don't know that any of them are especially outstanding by Beethoven's standards. 'Prometheus' is certainly full of dance in a style that's a bit surprising if you're used to think of Beethoven as a rather serious composer.

The piano trio was purchased just in time to slot into my chronological journey through Ravel's works, but I had to go backwards in time to slot in the first violin sonata - the one that wasn't published until 1975 along with other youthful works. It was well worth the trip. However, my favourite Ravel at this point is still the solo piano music I've known for much longer, particularly the larger works like Valses nobles et sentimentales and Le Tombeau de Couperin. It's a source of personal irritation that they seem to be much better known in their orchestral guises than in the original piano, because to me Ravel is one of the greatest writers for the piano in history.

It's perhaps my chronological journey through Rachmaninov's works, though, that has really hit its stride at the moment. Both the op.32 preludes and op.33 etudes-tableaux seem to me to have a greater depth than earlier piano works, and the choral symphony The Bells was one of the composer's own favourites.

February 2014 - Popular Music

Tori Amos - Abnormally Attracted to Sin
Beyonce - Beyonce
Janelle Monae - Metropolis Suites I to V

Okay, well that settles it. I am indeed going to talk about Janelle Monae. An amazing vocalist. An absolute ball of energy (who I think I'd quite like to see perform live). And I think she must have a positively encyclopaedic knowledge of music from the last several decades.

The reason I say that is because she slips in and out of musical genres constantly in these suites/albums, sometimes in the same song. The nearly 9-minute epic 'BebopbyeYa' sounds like jazz, then it's Latin, then it's classical. She does Stevie Wonder funk, she does disco, she does Prince (with Prince), she does folk, she does power ballads, she does psychedelia. It doesn't end up sounding like pastiche, either. The results are consistently convincing. The only track that I don't find convincing is 'Make the Bus', the only track that Monae wasn't involved in writing and where she's turned, for some inexplicable reason, into a guest star on her own album.

One of the exciting things is that it's clear Monae isn't stumbling onto these sounds without intent. The liner notes of The ArchAndroid and The Electric Lady have references to what each song is 'inspired by'. While many of these references are obscure or cryptic, careful listening makes them many of them decodable... and you can hear the references. After you know that 'Tightrope' is inspired by (among other things) James Brown's cape, listening to the song makes that James Brown DNA so obvious, you wonder why you didn't explicitly notice it before.

What we have here is a musical omnivore, with the capacity to understand what she's hearing well enough to then use it for her own ends. Those ends seem to consist of creating a dense web of interconnecting ideas, with lyrics that create an allegory about forbidden love between a human and a robot. Sometimes it sounds like it's referencing same-sex relationships. Other times it's about African-American empowerment.

But first and foremost it's a wild musical ride with a great singer, backed up it must be said by an equally great guitarist in Kellindo Parker. I'm generally a piano-biased person and no great fan of guitar solos, but time and again this guy creates something really outstanding when he's called upon.

I'm not going to declare that Janelle Monae has now leapt into my pantheon of truly great artists. What I am going to say is that she is incredibly dynamic and interesting, and that I sincerely hope she has a very long career and continues to generate music that pushes my musical boundaries. Because I'm certainly eager to hear what comes next - starting with 2 more 'suites' to accompany the 5 that I have selected the above videos to represent.

January 2014 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Herr, wie duwillt, so schick's mit mir (Lord, deal with me as you will)
• Es reisset euch ein schrecklich Ende (A dreadful end is being prepared for you)
• Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn (Praise, Jerusalem, the Lord)
• Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind (Behold, dear God, how my enemies)
• Mein liebster Jesus ist veloren (My dearest Jesus is lost)
• Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest (Much longed-for joyous feast)
• The Well-Tempered Clavier: preludes and fugues in D and G, Book I, and G sharp minor, Book II

Barber - Three Songs, op.45
Barber - Third Essay for Orchestra
Beethoven - Symphony No.9
Beethoven - 6 Bagatelles, op.126
Debussy - Two Arabesques
Delibes - Sylvia
Faure

• Barcarolle No.12
• Nocturne No.12
• Violin Sonata No.2
• Cello Sonata No.1 

Handel - Keyboard suites 1 and 4
Holmboe - Chamber Symphony No.2, 'Elegy'
Liszt -  Two Episodes from Lenau's 'Faust'
Mahler - Rückert Lieder
Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition
Poulenc

• Pastourelle from L'Eventail de Jeanne (piano version)
• Two Novelettes
• Three pieces for piano
• Piece breve on the name of Albert Roussel
• Nocturnes
• Valse-Improvision on the name of Bach
• Improvisations 1 to 10 

Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No.3
Rachmaninov - Liturgy of St John Chrysostom
Ravel - Ma mere l'Oye (Mother Goose)
Ravel - Menuet on the name of Haydn
Scarlatti, D. - Keyboard Sonatas - K. 87, 96, 146 and 520
Schubert - Schwanengesang
Schumann - Nachtstucke
Schumann - Liederkreis (to poems by Heine), op.24
Simpson - Symphonies 1 and 3
Vivaldi - Salve Regina in F
Vivaldi - Gaude mater Ecclesia (Rejoice, mother Church)

During the month I completed my survey of the works of Samuel Barber, of which there are surprisingly few. With just 4 CDs I have a substantial proportion of his output, and a decent chunk of one of those discs consists of early unpublished songs. It's consistently good music in my view, lyrical, and modern despite not following all the latest avant-garde trends. I find myself wondering, though, how he made a living. Did he get income from other sources besides composition? Did the success of the Adagio for Strings mean he wasn't under much pressure to create more works?

The Faure listening keeps going, and the work I want to make special mention of this time is the second Violin Sonata, which I hadn't heard for quite a while. Back in September 2012 I fell in love with the first sonata (this is how long my 'projects' can take!) and now I find that the second is every bit as wonderful. The opening movement is quite crazy in some ways, as the first half of it basically treats bar lines as things to be ignored. My ear frequently doesn't hear the beat where the printed music claims it to be.

Schubert's Schwanengesang (swan-song) is something I hadn't listened to for a very long time, and now I'm wondering why on earth not. I've already established that Schubert is one of those composers whose later music is, for me, the best, so it stands to reason that this collection of songs he wrote in the last year of his life would have relatively high value for me. And so it proved. There is some really lovely stuff here. For some reason a particular moment that happens twice in the song Am Meer (By the Sea) was something that struck me as particularly beautiful.

I think this might be the recording I have, which someone has helpfully combined with the score. The bit I love first appears around 1:18 and again about 3:13. 

 

January 2014 - Popular Music

Tori Amos

• To Venus and Back (studio disc)
• The Beekeeper
• Night of Hunters

Beyonce - Beyonce
Crowded House - Together Alone
Patty Griffin - Impossible Dream
Janelle Monae - Metropolis Suites I to V
Radiohead - Amnesiac
Rachael Yamagata - Loose Ends

Hmm. There's not actually a lot I want to talk about here. This was the first time I listened to Night of Hunters for quite a while and I found myself quite moved by it at unexpected places, in other words in songs that I hadn't previously ranked as favourites.

The new entry is Janelle Monae, and while I'm not going to talk about the music much at this point it would be remiss of me not to discuss my chosen terminology. Because you'd be hard pressed to go and buy any of these suites except the first. They don't come in this form. The second and third suites come as the album The ArchAndroid, and the fourth and fifth suites comes as the album The Electric Lady.

I find myself compelled at the moment to listen to these 'albums' in suite form. The musical pointers aren't all leading to that conclusion: yes, there are overtures to each suite that are clearly designated as such, but the overtures tend to borrow from the neighbouring suite on the same album, and there isn't even a clean break between the end of suite IV and the overture of suite V.  But in general each suite does tend to sound like a work in its own right, with a sense of ending, and with stylistic differences from it's neighbour.

Plus in all honesty, around 35 minutes of Janelle Monae at a time is probably enough right now. Not because her music is bad, but because it's so dense in terms of the number of ideas. More on that next month, I expect...

December 2013 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S. - Wachet! Betet! Betet! Wachet! (Watch! Pray! Pray! Watch!)
Bach, J.S. - French Suites 3 and 5
Barber - Canzone for flute and piano
Barber - Despite and Still
Beethoven - Meeresstille und glueckliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage)
Beethoven - 11 Bagatelles, op.119
Chopin - Nocturnes, opuses 9, 15, 32 and 62
Faure - Le jardin clos (The walled garden)
Faure - Barcarolle No.11
Holmboe

• Violin Concerto No.2
• Flute Concerto No.2
• Recorder Concerto
• Concerto for Orchestra
• Preludes 5 to 10 for chamber orchestra
• Epitaph
• Epilog
• Tempo variabile
• Primavera
• Quartetto Medico
• Aspects
• Quartetto, op.90
• Sextet
• Music with Horn
• Gioco
• Ballata
• Eco
• Sonata for solo flute
• Sonata for solo cello

Mozart - Piano Sonatas 17 and 18
Poulenc

• 3 Pastorales
• Sonata for piano, 4 hands
• Trois Mouvements perpétuels
• Valse for Album des Six
• Suite pour piano
• 5 Impromptus
• Promenades
• Napoli
• Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano

Rachmaninov - Symphony No.2
Rachmaninov - The Isle of the Dead
Ravel - Daphnis and Chloe
Scarlatti, D. - Keyboard Sonatas - K.3, 9, 17, 24, 213, 214, 257, 380, 404 and 519
Schubert - Symphony No.5
Schubert - Piano Sonatas in C, D.279 and 840 (both unfinished)
Schumann - Piano Sonata No.2
Schumann - Humoreske in B flat
Simpson - Symphonies 7 and 11

I rounded off my listening to new Holmboe, and threw in a few chamber works I already had for good measure. Of the new works, the violin and flute concertos were both big hits, and I was also particularly satisfied with Epitaph and the Sextet (which is for 3 winds and 3 strings). Some of the others will require a little more attention. The orchestral preludes are very good but tend to blur into each other at this stage.

My long-delayed chronological exploration of the relatively small amount of Mozart I own was completed, with the last two piano sonatas. There's no denying the increased sophistication of his compositions with age, and it's certainly a great pity he didn't live longer. I definitely need to buy quite a few more works, most likely starting with piano concertos and the mature string quartets.

Having got to the end of my Poulenc box set of piano and chamber music, I very soon went back to listen to the works again, this time chronologically. The very earliest pieces are not especially great in my opinion, but it didn't take all that long to reach some charming music. The trio for oboe, bassoon and piano, which is as far as I've got in this new traversal, is a lovely thing to listen to.

And finally, it's worth saying what a fine work The Isle of the Dead is. Symphonic poems are all about painting a picture in the mind, and in this case the music is wonderfully vivid. It unfolds at a slow pace, but each time I listened I found myself being transported, as if I was slowing down to fit in with Rachmaninov's music.

-------------------------------------------

The 2013 census was made slightly more difficult by a change in the way I keep records, but the final count is 383 different recordings. That's up on last year despite a lengthy period where classical music listening was quite limited. Holmboe was the winner with 68 entries, concentrated in a couple of major binges!

Obviously, the length of these works varies far more than with pop albums, so Dvorak's 70-minute (and rather exhausting) third string quartet counts the same as a Scarlatti keyboard sonata lasting less than 2 minutes. I can only take the music as I find it!

December 2013 - Popular Music

Beyonce - Beyonce
Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
John Mayer - Paradise Valley
Katie Noonan & the Captains - Emperor's Box
Radiohead - Kid A
Radiohead - In Rainbows

A little flourish of new music at the very end of the year thanks to Christmas - either gifts, bought with gift money or spotted for myself while shopping!

Katie Noonan's album was a long-intended purchase. She was one member of george, a band responsible for just about my favourite album of the last decade.  Since then she has explored a variety of styles, but I knew this particular album was the most george-like work she had done. So far so good, although really after only a few listens I can't say whether this will match previous work in my affections.

John Mayer in Paradise Valley appears very much like John Mayer in Born and Raised, although it's perhaps a bit more straightforward and less adventurous than the previous album. Then again it might reveal a bit more with further listening. At this stage, one of the most impressive things on here is the duet with Katy Perry, mainly because of how different she sounds - as one review said, she has warmth here that is nothing like her usual highly-produced pop.

The big surprise purchase, with Christmas money, was Beyonce.  I won't lie, the concept and method of delivery drew me in to begin with. Here was a singer explicitly saying 'this is an album, I want it thought of as a complete unit'. That's always a positive for me.  But then, as I watched 30-second samples of the videos, I was impressed. Then I read reviews saying how this was some of her finest work. Then I listened to 90-second audio samples on iTunes and was still impressed.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time in my life that I bought an album, and the first thing I did was sit down to watch it.

And you know what? I'm still quite impressed. After that first 'viewing' I've tended to focus more on the CD version. There are some differences, and it's actually nice to see that occasionally it's the audio version that is longer, not the visual version, but on the whole it plays/feels like the same work. That in itself is to be applauded.  But really the main point is there's some pretty good music here. It's not remotely what I could my 'normal' listening genre, and I wouldn't say I love all of it, but I do like all of it and it's constantly interesting and engaging. I find myself wanting to return to it to have another listen and explore further. I'd say that's a big win on Beyonce's part, in my little corner of the world.

---------------------------------------------

The tally for 2013 is in and it says I only listened in full to 73 pop recordings. Take away a few bits and pieces and it's just 65 albums. That's way lower than previous years. The reasons why include being away for a lengthy period, and probably a bigger focus on classical music. Still, I'm surprised and not pleased. There's plenty of other good music to be listening to.

November 2013 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S.

• Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes (For this purpose the Son of God was manifested)
• Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen (O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me)
• O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (O Eternity, you thunderous word)
• Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim (How can I give you up, Ephraim)
• Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben (Lord I believe, help my unbelief)

Barber

• Adagio for Strings
• Summer Music
• Nocturne (Homage to John Field)

Beethoven - Piano Sonatas 31 and 32
Bernstein - Overture to 'Candide'
Bridge - Dance Poem
Bridge - Allegro moderato for string orchestra
Chopin

• Two Nocturnes, op.27
• Waltz in A flat, op.42
• Three Mazurkas, op.63 

Dukas - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Dvorak - Slavonic Dance No.9 (orchestral version)
Enescu -Romanian Rhapsody No.1
Faure

• Nine Preludes
• Nocturnes 9 and 10
• Barcarolle No.9
• Impromptu No.5
• Serenade for cello and piano

Giazotto - Adagio in G minor
Hindemith - Kammermusik Nos. 4 and 5
Holmboe

• Symphonies 2 to 5, 13
• Chamber Symphonies 1 and 2
• Sinfonia 3
• Viola Concerto
• Flute Concerto No.1
• Preludes 1 to 4 for chamber orchestra 
• String Quartets 2, 4, 10, 11, 15, 17, 19 and 20
• Violin Sonatas 1 to 3
• Trombone Sonata
• Sonata for solo flute
• Quartetto, op.90
• Aspects
• Monolith
• Tempo variabile
•  Haiduc (Marauders)
• Bagatelle No.1 'Arabesque'

Honegger - Cello Concerto
Humperdinck - Overture to 'Hansel and Gretel'
Janacek - Sinfonietta
Thomas Linley the Younger - Overture to 'The Duenna' 
Mahler - Songs of a Wayfarer
Mozart - Symphonies 40 and 41
Poulenc - Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano
Poulenc - Clarinet Sonata 
Rachmaninov - Cello Sontat
Rachmaninov - 10 Preludes, op.23 
Ravel - Gaspard de la Nuit
Schubert - Piano Sonatas in A flat, F sharp minor and A, D.557, 571 and 664
Schumann - Fantasy in C
Schumann - Arabeske in C
Simpson - Symphony No.2 
Strauss, R. - Oboe Concerto
Vivaldi

• Laudate Dominum, RV 606
• Laetatus sum, RV 607
• Nisi Dominus in G minor, RV 608

Walton - Cello Concerto
Walton - Orb and Sceptre

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It happened again. I went completely Holmboe-mad.

I think it was stress-related, but whatever the precise cause,  I just had this moment where I knew specifically that I wanted to listen to Holmboe. Over the course of the next few days, not only did I listen to a sizable slice of the recordings I already had, I also ordered 6 new CDs. Which arrived in time for me to listen to about a third during the month.

Of the new pieces, the pick thus far would probably be the Viola Concerto. Fascinating music from late in Holmboe's life, but also a thrillingly good recording. It positively jumps out of the speakers.

There was another new purchase for the month, only it was really an old one... one of my early classical cassettes was an Andre Previn recording simply called 'Classical Favourites'. I believe it's culled from a couple of albums released when he had a television show (a fairly remarkable thing for a conductor when you think about it).  I haven't listened to the cassette for years, but I did love it and had long had a vague idea I should try getting it on CD. I finally acted, after some random thought about Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice reminded me just how long it was since I had heard that marvelous work. Other highlights of the disc include Barber's Adagio and Enescu's Rhapsody, but really the whole thing is a great listen.

I listened to more of the Bach cantatas, and BWV 60, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort was a highlight.  It's full of dialogue between different voices, rather than solos, and I found that helped it tell a dramatic 'story'.

I finally reached the end of my set of Bridge's orchestral works, having proceeded chronologically, and immediately thought about going back to listen to the works in the order they're actually presented in the set. So many silly completist plans, so little time...

This is all rather bits-and-pieces and not my finest writing, but the last thing I want to mention is the relatively late Faure piano music I've now reached. On one wonderful evening, I played the nocturnes, barcarolle and impromptu listed above, written in 1908 and 1909, and arranged them almost as a kind of romantic sonata. Except it wasn't that 'romantic' - Faure by this time was writing music that is more austere and often more knotty than his earlier work. And it's glorious stuff.