Popular Music 2019

There are various ways of counting these things, but on the best measure I listened to 95 different albums and EPs of popular music during the year.

Which is holding at the same lowish level as the previous year. I guess I'm relieved it hasn't sunk any lower.

As before, this doesn't count any material I don't own a copy of. Even though I increasingly use streaming (primarily Deezer) to listen to music, the goal is still to purchase things that I really respond to. And that did actually occur a couple of times during the year, as well as some requests for Christmas gifts.

Most Tori Amos albums were heard at least once, though Midwinter Graces missed out again. More interesting is the large amount of Pearl Jam that I listened to in a fairly concentrated burst, including buying more albums post-streaming. I certainly won't claim to have got to know those additional albums properly, but they're now in the library.

Patty Griffin also received a decent airing (5 albums), as did Something for Kate along with Paul Dempsey's solo albums. Radiohead was supplemented by purchase of Amok by Atoms for Peace and a couple of digital Thom Yorke singles.

I also bought my first Sarah Blasko album. I know I want to buy at least one more. The first choice was just a question of which one I found in a shop.

Chronological listening to Depeche Mode albums confirmed that Violator, which I'd picked up a couple of years ago in Germany, really was the best one to own, so that worked out well.

The full list:

Tori Amos

• Little Earthquakes
• Under the Pink
• Boys for Pele
• from the choirgirl hotel
• To Venus and Back - venus orbiting
• Strange Little Girls
• Scarlet's Walk
• Scarlet's Hidden Treasures
• The Beekeeper
• American Doll Posse
• Abnormally Attracted to Sin
• Night of Hunters
• Unrepentant Geraldines
• Native Invader
• Live in Sydney 11/11/14

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
Tina Arena - In Deep
Atoms for Peace - Amok
The Badloves - Get on Board
Beyonce - Beyonce
Sarah Blasko - What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have
Kate Bush - The Sensual World
Toni Childs - House of Hope
Toni Childs - Keep the Faith
Christine and the Queens - Christine and the Queens
Christine and the Queens - Chris (English version)
City on a Hill - City on a Hill
Marc Cohn - Marc Cohn
Tim Corley - Anywhere But Here
Tim Corley - Like Stars
Elvis Costello - Extreme Honey
Crowded House - Together Alone
Paul Dempsey - Everything is True
Paul Dempsey - Strange Loop
Depeche Mode - Violator 
FKA twigs - LP1
Brooke Fraser - What to do with Daylight
Garbage - Garbage
george - Polyserena
Gomez - Liquid Skin
Gotye - Making Mirrors
Patty Griffin

• Flaming Red
• Children Runing Through
• Downtown Church
• American Kid
• Servant of Love

Missy Higgins - Solastalgia
Incubus - Make Yourself
Jars of Clay

• If I Left the Zoo
• The Long Fall Back to Earth
• The Shelter

Billy Joel - River of Dreams
Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
Elton John - Madman Across the Water
Nik Kershaw - Human Racing
Jennifer Knapp - The Way I Am
Wendy Matthews - Cafe Naturale
John Mayer - Continuum
John Mayer - The Search for Everything
Joni Mitchell - For the Roses
Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark
Janelle Monae - The Archandroid
Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer
Katie Noonan and the Captains - Emperor's Box
Over the Rhine - Ohio
Pearl Jam

• Vitalogy
• No Code
• Yield
• Binaural
• Riot Act
• Pearl Jam
• Backspacer
• Lightning Bolt

Radiohead

• OK Computer
• Kid A
• Hail to the Thief
• A Moon Shaped Pool

Seal - Human Being
Simply Red - Picture Book
Something for Kate

• The Official Fiction
• Desert Lights
• Leave Your Soul to Science

Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
Tears for Fears - The Seeds of Love
Thrice 

• The Alchemy Index
• Beggars
• Major/Minor

Suzanne Vega - Tried and True
Washington - Insomnia
Washington - There There
Rachael Yamagata - Happenstance
Rachael Yamagata - Heavyweight
Thom Yorke

• Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses
• Tomorrow's Modern Boxes
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry

Classical Music - December 2018

Bach, J.S.

• Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot  (Break with the hungry your bread)
• Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen (God goes up with jubilation)
• Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden (See, I will send out many fishers)

Brahms

• Academic Festival Overture
• Violin Sonata No.1
• Two Rhapsodies, op.79 

Bridge

• String Quartet No.2
• Berceuse in B flat (solo piano version)
• Pensée Fugitive
• Scherzettino in G minor
• Moderato in E minor
• 3 Poems for piano
• Arabesque
• 3 Improvisations for piano left-hand
• Miniature Pastorals, Set 3
• 3 Songs with Viola
• All Things that we Clasp and Cherish
• Love is a Rose
• Dear, When I Look into Thine Eyes
• Isobel
• O That It Were So!
• Strew No More Red Roses
• Where She Lies Asleep
• Love Went A-Riding
• Thy Hand In Mine

Debussy - Fêtes galantes, set 1
Debussy - Proses lyriques
Dvorak

• Piano Quintet No.2
• Cypresses for string quartet
• Psalm 149
• Two Little Pearls for piano
• Album Leaf in E flat 

Falla - Psyché
Mozart - String Quartet No.17, 'Hunt'
Nielsen

• String Quartet No.2
• Violin Sonata No.1
• Romance in D for violin and piano
• Romance (arranged for violin and piano)
• Two Fantasy Pieces for oboe and piano
• Symphonic Suite for piano
• Five Pieces for piano
• Humoresque Bagatelles

Schubert - Klage der Ceres
Schumann

• Three Romances for oboe and piano
• 3 Gesänge, op.95
• Lieder und Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister
• Requiem for Mignon

Scriabin - 10 Mazurkas, op.3
Shostakovich - Two Fables by Ivan Krylov
Shostakovich - Four Poems of Captain Lebyadkin 
Sibelius

• Four Legends, op.22
• 10 Pieces for piano, op.58
• 3 Sonatinas, op.67
• The Maiden in the Tower
• Cantata for the Coronation of Nicholas II
• Serenad for baritone and orchestra

In summary: lots of new recordings of Bridge (not least because each piece is fairly short) and Nielsen, some new Debussy and Shostakovich. Mostly new Sibelius, though the Four Legends I've had for a while. Brahms and Dvorak chronologies that are still rolling along, and... after over 6 years I still haven't finished going through Bach's cantatas, so those are all first listens.

I don't want to mention anything specifically except to say that getting to know Debussy's songs is proving very rewarding. This is a side of the composer that should be better known.

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The total number of works in my collection listened to during 2018, large and small, was 525. That's slightly down on last year, but not particularly low on longer term trends.

Calculating the top 10 composers for the year throws up the following:

1. Bridge (67)
2. Dvorak (57)
3. Schumann (45)
4. Sibelius (43)
5. Scriabin (38)
6. Nielsen (28)
7.= Beethoven (26)
7.= Mozart (26)
9.= Bach (23)
9.= Haydn (23)

Bridge's top place is to a large extent due to counting lots of songs as single entries, because that's the way they are presented rather than in collections. Scriabin also scores highly from having a lot of very short opuses. The high numbers of Dvorak, Schumann and Sibelius works more genuinely represent very strong interest. These are now undoubtedly among the composers I most enjoy listening to.

Debussy just missed out on the list again, along with Brahms and Faure. It was an extremely lean year for Holmboe, with just 8 works. Chopin was listened to only once.

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This might be the point at which these monthly lists end. I haven't decided for certain, and the more obsessive side of my personality might refuse to let me finish when I'm still a couple of months behind...

This doesn't mean that I won't be keeping records of what I listen to. That's an exercise that I find valuable for my own purposes. But reporting on it for the blog can be a bit of a chore, not least because it means I have to make sure I have a clean break each month in my data (something that tends to be more effort for popular music, where I'm more likely to listen to something a number of times over a period of a week or two).

So I might try writing about particular things instead, discussing music that is getting my attention. Which actually might look a fair bit like the parts of the blog entries that have been below the lists.

It might make posts more frequent, or less frequent. I'm not sure. I haven't thought it through before now.

There are in truth only a handful of people who actually read entries on this blog (and if you do, thank you), so I doubt anyone besides me will be perturbed about changes. But I'm hoping any changes are for the better.







 

Popular Music - December 2018

Tori Amos - Under the Pink
Tori Amos - Abnormally Attracted to Sin

Whatever I was doing in December, it wasn't listening to pop music. Perhaps occasionally it was in a form that doesn't count for this blog, where the music needs to be a complete album (or other work, as conceived by the artist) that I own.

But I do also remember some difficult circumstances at work, where I normally do a lot of my pop music listening, which meant that I wasn't getting comfortable and listening at my desk.

So let's just move onto the yearly summary, shall we?

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I listened to only 96 albums during 2018 (including one greatest hits and a couple of EPs), which is a bit low.

Within that list are 12 Tori Amos albums (a couple of hers did miss out), 7 Jars of Clay albums, and 6 Patty Griffin albums.

My pop music listening continues to stagnate, really. I didn't make a lot of new purchases, though the ones I did make were thoroughly rewarding. I am in fact trying, at the time of writing, to push myself to explore a bit more. However that won't be reflected in this blog as currently conceived unless it leads to purchases.

It's possible I might change the way this blog works, though...

Classical Music - November 2018

Bach, J.S. - Violin Concerto No.1
Bach, J.S. - Keyboard Partita No.4
Barber - Piano Concerto
Barber - Canzone for flute and piano 
Brahms - Violin Concerto
Bridge - Four Characteristic Pieces
Bridge - Miniature Suite 
Dvorak

• Saint Ludmila
• Slavonic Dances, Series 2 (piano and orchestral versions)
• Terzetto for 2 violins and viola
• Miniatures for 2 violins and viola
• Romantic Pieces for violin and piano 

Haydn - Harmoniemesse
Mendelssohn - Cello Sonata No.1
Nielsen - String Quartet No.1
Nielsen - String Quintet 
Schumann - Introduction and Allegro appassionato for piano and orchestra
Schumann - Der Handschuh
Scriabin

• Valse in F minor, op.1
• 2 Nocturnes, op.5
• 2 Impromptus a la Mazur, op.7

Sibelius

• The Wood-Nymph (tone poem and recitation versions)
• Cantata for the University Graduation Ceremonies of 1894
• Menuetto for orchestra
• Two Rondinos for piano 

Snider - Penelope

This list isn't as long as for some months, but some of the works are rather substantial. Dvorak's Saint Ludmila runs for over 2 hours. Unfortunately it's also one of his less appealing works. I tried this time to listen to the music without paying much attention to the horribly outdated plot, but this strategy was only mildly successful in improving my impression.

The Wood-Nymph is one of Sibelius' early tone poems that doesn't seem to be performed very often. I already knew the tone poem version, which has a quite astonishing passage depicting a rider going through a forest. However, at the same time Sibelius also produced a considerably shorter (and even more rarely performed) version where the poem that inspired the work is recited over the music. This version is in the BIS Sibelius Edition box of works for voice and orchestra that I purchased recently.

Reading descriptions of what the tone poem depicts in liner notes is one thing. Having a chance to hear and read the full text is quite another. Not only did it make the recited version a rewarding experience, it enhanced my enjoyment of the tone poem when I listened to it shortly afterwards.

Popular Music - November 2018

Tori Amos

• Under the Pink
• From the choirgirl hotel
• American Doll Posse

Christine and the Queens - Chris (English and French versions)
Paul Dempsey - Everything is True
Jars of Clay - Good Monsters
Jars of Clay - The Long Fall Back to Earth
Nik Kershaw - Human Racing
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science
Suzanne Vega - Tried and True
Rachael Yamagata - Happenstance

Once I had a little bit of familiarity with the English version of Chris, I turned to the French version. Really, with the songs that appear on both versions the effect is pretty much the same. When it comes to the songs that differ, my initial reaction was that the English listeners got the better music.

The (rather slow) excursion through the Jars of Clay discography reached the last two albums I'm familiar with. Good Monsters was raved about in some quarters when released, but struck me as disjointed. Over time it's gradually rehabilitated itself in my ears, and this time I found that I was consistently enjoying myself. I still don't love certain parts of certain songs, but I can cope with them. The Long Fall Back to Earth had already been rehabilitated more quickly, possibly because it is unashamedly a pop album and my expectations are different.

Classical Music - October 2018

Brahms - Piano Pieces, op.76
Bridge

• Capriccio No.2
• A Sea Idyll
• Lean Close Thy Cheek
• Fair Daffodils
• Adoration
• So Perverse
• Tears, Idle Tears
• The Violets Blue
• Come to me in my Dreams
• My Pent-up Tears Oppress my Brain

Debussy - Fêtes galantes, set 2
Debussy - Three Ballades of François Villon
Dvorak

• From the Bohemian Forest
• Violin Sonata in F
• 2 Waltzes for string quartet
• Polonaise for cello and piano
• Bagatelles for strings and harmonium

Haydn - Symphonies 100 and 104
Holmboe - To the Unsettled Weather
Nielsen

• Piano Trio
• String Quartet in D minor
• String quartet movements / possible quartet in F
• Violin Sonata in G
• Duet for violins
• Fantasy piece for clarinet and piano
• Humoresque Bagatelles for piano

Schubert

• Erinnerung (Totenopfer)
• An die Natur
• Lied (Ferne von der grossen Stadt)
• Täglich zu singen
• Ganymed
• Die Erde
• Wehmut
• Die Mutter Erde
• Die Allmacht
• Das Lied im Grünen

Schumann - Lieder-Album for the Young
Schumann - Konzertstück for 4 horns and orchestra
Shostakovich - Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok
Shostakovich - Six Poems by Marina Tsvetayeva
Sibelius

• Kullervo
• En Saga
• Karelia Suite
• Overture in E
• Scene de Ballet
• Rakastava (choir and orchestra version)
• Two Chorales for choir and orchestra
• Pensées Lyriques
• Kyllikki

The focus in October was very much on new purchases, both the ones that arrived in September and a few more.  The new additions were several albums from Hyperion's set of the complete Schubert songs (which I decided were more interesting to get as the single recitals, a decision that might lead to years of frustrated hunting on eBay), and 2 different collections of Sibelius' orchestral music.  After a very protracted period of research I worked out that these particular boxes would provide 80 to 90 percent of the works I wanted to add to my collection.

Sibelius is, in my opinion, one of the greatest orchestral composers. I've decided to explore this part of his work chronologically, which does present some very interesting early works. Kullervo being the exceptionally large and grand example. Not every work is a masterpiece, but they are certainly instructive. For example, the Overture and Scene de Ballet started life as the 2 movements from Sibelius' first attempt at writing a symphony.

Apart from the Sibelius, one of the other highlights of this list was Dvorak's From the Bohemian Forest. It's the only one of his piano duet works that he did not orchestrate. It's also perhaps the finest of them.

Popular Music - October 2018

Christine and the Queens - Chris (English version)
Amy Grant - Lead Me On
Jars of Clay - Who We Are Instead
Jars of Clay - Redemption Songs
Level 42 - Running in the Family
Wilco - Star Wars

There aren't many albums on the list (yet again), but some of them were listened to multiple times  Either on the grounds of being new, or on the grounds of being old and not as familiar as they ought to be.

Chris was the brand new album that I was very much looking forward to. Having taken some effort to get both the original and English versions of Christine and the Queens' debut album in order to hear how it was originally envisioned and what was done to it, I was very pleased indeed that Chris offered parallel English- and French-based versions in the one package. Not all the songs are the same, with a handful only being available in one of the languages, but that's fine when it's equally easy for me to hear both.

Having said that, I decided to focus on just the English version initially to try and get familiar with the music. I'm not sure I know all of it equally well yet, but (as with the debut album) there is some very accomplished and catchy pop music here. Enjoyable riffs are abundant.

One of the older albums was Redemption Songs. I'd never connected with this as well as other Jars of Clay albums, until now. Essentially it consists of hymns and spirituals, but with many of them recomposed to some extent. It often has a quite old-fashioned feel to it, particularly in the words. I think I listened to it a few times when I first bought it, but not much after that. Apart from the two songs I had previously heard, the album tended to blend together for me. There was a lot of steady mid-tempo music.

This time around, though, by concentrating more, and splitting the album into two halves (CDs might have physically killed A- and B-sides, but I firmly believe that most albums are still conceived with them), I felt more shape to the music. There is a sort of basic, traditional "niceness" to Redemption Songs that means it doesn't plumb the emotional depths, but it's still a good listen.

The other album that was metaphorically picked up and dusted off was Star Wars, which I only have as a download because that was the way that Wilco offered it entirely free back in 2015. My records indicate I hadn't listened to it since 2015, and I suspect that might only have been once. Twice at the most. The collection of mostly 2- or 3-minute songs, and a total playing length under 34 minutes, simply hadn't the weight to make an impact.

But the same strategies I used for Redemption Songs also worked for Star Wars. It wasn't enough to make me think this is a great album, but it was definitely enough to make me think it's an album I will enjoy listening to, and so I will try to do that a bit more often from now on.

Classical Music - September 2018

Bach, J.S.

• Selig ist der Mann (Blessed is the man)
• Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (May our mouth be full of laughter)
• Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen  (We must pass through great sadness to enter into the Kingdom of God)
• Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt (Sweet comfort, my Jesus comes)

Barber - Toccata Festiva
Barber - Die Natali 
Beethoven - Diabelli Variations
Beethoven - String Quartets 13 and 14  
Brahms

• Symphonies 1 and 2
• String Quartet No.3
• Neue Liebeslieder 

Bridge

•  Sonnet: When Most I Wink
•  If I Could Choose
• The Primrose
• A Dirge
• The Devon Maid
• Dawn and Evening
• Two Songs after Heine
• Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
• Go Not, Happy Day
• Night Lies on the Silent Highways
• A Dead Violet
• Cradle Song
• Capriccio No.1
• Etude Rhapsodique
• Dramatic Fantasia
• 3 Sketches for piano
• 3 Pieces for piano
• Miniature Pastorals, Set 1
• Fairy Tale Suite
• The Hour Glass

Debussy

• Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire
• Three Melodies (Verlaine)
• Les Angelus
• Two songs (Romance / Les Cloches)
• Nuit d'étoiles
• Fleur des blés
• Mandoline
• Voici que le printemps (Romance)

Dvorak

• Symphony No.7 
• Piano Trios 1 to 3
• Serenade for flute, violin, viola and triangle
• Romance in F minor (version for violin and piano)
• Nocturne (version for violin and piano)
• Capriccio for violin and piano
• Mazurek for violin and pinao
• Ballad for violin and piano
• Slavonic Dances, series 1 (piano version)
• Legends (piano version)
• Dumka and Furiant for piano
• Furiant for piano
• Humoresque in  F sharp for piano

Faure

• Cinq mélodies "de Venise"
• La bonne chanson
• La chanson d'Ève
• Three songs, op.23
• Clair de Lune
• Au Bord de l'Eau
• Apres un reve

Haydn - Symphonies 73 to 75, 94 and 96
Mozart

• Symphony No.36
• Piano Concertos 13 and 17
• Piano Sonata No.12

Nielsen

• Five pieces for piano, op.3
• Three piano pieces, op.59
• Symphonic Suite
• Festival Prelude for the New Century 

Nørgård - Symphony No.1, 'Sinfonia Austera'
Schubert - Piano Trio No.2
Schubert - String Quartet No.12, 'Quartettsatz' 
Schumann

• Lieder und Gesänge, Volumes 1 (op.27) and 2 (op.51)
• Spanisches Liederspiel
• 4 Duets, op.78
• Adagio and Allegro for horn and piano
• Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces) for clarinet and piano
• Waldszenen

Shostakovich

• Symphony No.1
• Two Romances to Lyrics by Lermontov
• Four Songs to Lyrics by Dolmatovsky
• Four Monologues to Words by Pushkin
• Greek Songs
• Five Songs to Lyrics by Dolmatovsky (Songs of Our Days)
• Spanish Songs
• Five Romances on Words from Krokodil Magazine
• A Foreword to my Complete Works and a Brief Contemplation with Respect to this Foreword

Sibelius

• Pohjola's Daughter
• The Oceanides
• Violin Concerto
• Suite for violin and orchestra
• Piano Sonata
• Ten pieces for piano, op.24
• Six Impromptus, op.5
• Bagatelles, op.34
• Narciss
• Små flickorna

Vine - String Quartet No.4

While some of this big haul consists of small items (such as songs that are only a few minutes in length), the reason many of those items appear on the list is that I made another large purchase. Well, technically it was multiple purchases from different shops, but it was essentially one decision-making process about what to buy.

I didn't immediately start listening to everything that I bought, but purchases on this list include songs and piano pieces by Frank Bridge, songs by Debussy, chamber music (including piano duet works) by Dvorak, songs by Faure, piano pieces by Nielsen, songs by Shostakovich and piano pieces and the Violin Concerto by Sibelius.

I'm not going to discuss all of those just now, but I do want to make particular mention of some. The piano pieces by Bridge are performed by Mark Bebbington, and the ones by Sibelius are performed by Janne Mertanen. In both cases the pianists do a simply superb job of making the most of small-scale pieces. I had picked them over rival performances (yes, in both cases rival performances of this repertoire do exist) because they'd given that impression in samples, but it's a different thing again to sit down and properly listen to a work. Time and again these two performers make really satisfying music.

The other album that deserves special mention is the recital of Faure songs by Veronique Dietschy and Philippe Cassard. Faure is one of my favourite composers, and I went looking for alternative versions of certain songs because I was dissatisfied with my existing recordings on the Hyperion label (generally good, but unfortunately Jennifer Smith is a glaring weak spot). I came across Dietschy and Cassard's version of La chanson d'Ève and it was magic.

Unfortunately I cannot get hold of a physical copy of the album, so I've bought it on iTunes. The whole recital has the same magic. Dietschy is a simply exquisite singer. She has the kind of smooth, liquid voice that Faure's long flowing lines need. The combination of music and performance makes this one of the most enjoyable classical albums I have.

As well as the new purchases, there's room to mention one part of the existing material. I reached the end of my "chronological chunks" exploration of my Beethoven collection. This included listening to the Diabelli Variations for the first time, as I'd saved the recording purchased last year until the appropriate chronological slot. The very last thing I listened to was the C sharp minor string quartet, truly a masterpiece.

I started the process in January 2016, so it took 2.75 years to work through my Beethoven collection. I'm not a quick listener, but also I have quite a bit of Beethoven. And what's striking is the incredibly high proportion of music that is of the highest quality. To my ears he truly is one of the greatest composers the world has known.

Popular Music - September 2018

Kate Bush - Before the Dawn
Incubus - If Not Now, When?
Jars of Clay - Who We Are Instead
Jo Lawry - Taking Pictures
Alex Lloyd - Watching Angels Mend
Joni Mitchell - Turbulent Indigo
Radiohead - OK Computer
Radiohead - In Rainbows

Much of September was, for reasons I won't go into, not especially conducive to listening to popular music. I mean, look, there isn't even a Tori Amos album in the list. But there was a period that was conducive to finally tackling all of Before the Dawn, which captures Kate Bush's set of live shows in London and in total lasts about 2.5 hours.And which I was gifted (on request) not long after it came out. And which, sad to say, doesn't excite me very much at all.

Live albums are awfully difficult things to pull off. In this case it's very clear there is an important visual component that is missing from a quite theatrical show, but that's not always true of live performances and doesn't really explain why I find so many of them lacking. The bigger issues here are twofold. First, it's difficult to capture the energy of a live show and make it sound big and bold while still having the kind of clarity we expect for home listening.

The second issue, and the one that really hampers Before the Dawn in my view, is that so many of the songs sound a great deal like the studio versions. Just with less studio polish.

It's made particularly bad by the fact that most of the concert is taken up by renditions of Bush's two studio-conceived suites: the "Ninth Wave" suite that formed the second half of the album The Hounds of Love, and "A Sky of Honey" which did the same for Aerial. Playing these whole sequences of songs means there's no opportunity, for over half the running time, to have new and interesting juxtapositions of material from different eras.

There's nothing particularly wrong with the music, in fact the "Ninth Wave" is particularly fine. But while it might have been exciting to see it come to life on stage, there's very little to cause me to listen to this rendition when I can play The Hounds of Love instead. A bit of extra linking narration is well done, but that's about the only nugget to be found. The performance of the music didn't seem to offer anything new.

If that album was a disappointment, Jo Lawry's Taking Pictures was a very pleasant surprise. The music is not radical, but it's very finely crafted adult contemporary pop. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that I have this album at all. It's been sitting waiting to be listened to for some time (quite possibly a couple of years), and... I honestly have no idea how I came to have it. After I enjoyed it so much I had 2 guesses as to who gave the album to me, and both of those people denied any knowledge of it. I had thought it might be something that I borrowed, but if so I have no means of returning it.

Whether it was a loan or a gift, I am happy to make it part of my collection. Just as soon as I get it back from my parents...

Classical Music - August 2018

Bach - Mein Seufzer, meine Tränen (My sighs, my tears)
Bach - Herr Gott, dich loben wir (Lord God, you we praise)
Barber - Nocturne (Homage to John Field)
Barber - A Hand of Bridge 
Beethoven

• Symphony No.9
• String Quartet No.15
• Große Fugue for string quartet
• Bagatelles, op.126

Brahms - Piano Quartet No.3
Brahms - 3 Vocal Quartets, op.64 
Bridge - Two Intermezzi from "Threads" (orchestral version)
Bridge - Sir Roger de Coverley (A Christmas Dance) - quartet, strings and full orchestra versions
Dvorak

• The Spectre's Bride
• The Heirs of the White Mountain
• Scherzo Capriccioso
• Piano Trio No.3
• Impromptu in D minor for piano
• Question for piano 

Faure

• Nocturnes 4, 5 and 7
• Barcarolle No.5
• Valse-Caprice No.3
• Impromptu No.6 (piano version)

Haydn - Symphonies 70 and 71
Holmboe - Symphony No.9
Mahler - Symphony No.1
Mozart

• Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in D 
• Horn Quintet
• Piano Sonata No.11

Nielsen - An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands
Schumann - Piano Trios 1 and 2
Schumann - Romanzen und Balladen, Volume 4 op.64
Scriabin

• Piano Sonata No.10
• Preludes, opp.37 and 67
• 2 Impromptus a la Mazur, op.7
• 3 Pieces, op.49
• Album Leaf, op.58

Sibelius - Six Runeberg Songs, op.90

A fair bit of activity back in August, from grand works to rather tiny ones.

My exploration of Beethoven's works (at least, the ones I own recordings of) certainly hit a grand mark with the 9th symphony. I think this was perhaps the most I'd ever enjoyed the work, enough that I listened to it a couple of days in a row. I also pulled out some other formidable symphonies. Any Mahler is inherently a bit grand, and while Holmboe wrote considerably more concise symphonies his own 9th is perhaps the toughest and most difficult work he composed in the genre.

At the smaller end of the scale were many of the piano pieces, including Bagatelles from Beethoven and a tiny Question from Dvorak. But this was also the month that I finished going through Maria Lettberg's recordings of Scriabin's piano works, an exercise which took just over a year. And it was a pretty rewarding exercise. I have a distinctive bad memory of the op.3 mazurkas, but that is the only misfire I can recall.

And a few months later, I'm turning around and going through Scriabin again. More on that when the relevant time comes.

Popular Music - August 2018

Tori Amos

• From the Choirgirl Hotel
• To Venus and Back - venus orbiting
• Night of Hunters
• Unrepentant Geraldines
• Native Invader

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel
Kate Bush - Never For Ever
Janet Jackson - Janet.
Jars of Clay - Furthermore
Nichole Nordeman - Woven & Spun
Pearl Jam - Binaural
Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt

It remains true that, if in doubt about pop music, I retreat to Tori Amos. But there are a couple of other things on the list that were not quite so predictable.

Picking up Janet. for the first time in a long time was a slightly left-field choice. Absence hasn't really made the heart grow fonder, though. It's still an album that rates as enjoyable without being stellar. There are good things on there, certainly, and nothing terrible, but I have no strong reaction to it. It did remind me that I want to explore her whole catalogue at some point, just to see what I've been missing outside of this album and Rhythm Nation.

Pearl Jam's Binaural is, if anything, dropping lower and lower in my opinion. Yes, there are a few good songs, and "Light Years" is gorgeous, but there are also some clunkers, killed by music or lyrics or production. I can never get over how "Sleight of Hand", one of the songs supposedly recorded using special techniques, sounds so lifeless.  Lightning Bolt, on the other hand, which I admittedly still don't know that well, leaves a much more favourable impression as an album.

As I work, very sporadically, through the Jars of Clay catalogue, I listened to both halves of Furthermore, one live (which I hadn't listened to in years) and one acoustic. Most of the known songs are not revelatory, with these versions tending to be similar to the original studio recordings. The real assets are the songs not previously on albums. Frankly, Furthermore is worth hearing for "The Valley Song" alone.

Classical Music - July 2018

Bach, J.S.

• Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen (Dearest Jesus, my desire)
• Alles nur nach Gottes Willen (Everything only according to God's will)
• Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke (I am content with my fortune)

Barber - Summer Music
Beethoven - The Consecration of the House (complete)
Beethoven - String Quartets 12 and 16
Brahms - Variations on a Theme by Haydn (orchestral version)
Bridge - A Prayer
Dvorak

• Legends (orchestral version)
• String Quartet No.11
• String quartet movement in F
• Moderato in A for piano 

Faure - Cello Sonata No.1
Faure - Piano Quintet No.2 
Haydn - Symphony No.63
Mozart - Symphony No.35 "Haffner"
Mozart - String Quartet No.16 
Nørgård - Symphony No.3
Schumann - Symphony No.2
Shostakovich - Symphony No.8
Sibelius - Six songs, op.88 (the "flower cycle")
Stravinsky - Orpheus

There hasn't been a lot of evidence that I've been progressing through Stravinsky's works chronologically, because I don't own very many recordings and my self-imposed rules for this blog don't include things that I stream.

I'm sure that I'll be increasing the size of my Stravinsky collection, but in the meantime Orpheus is one of the works that had already made me realise there was far more to Stravinsky than the few early ballets that are famous. It's a very appealing score, often gentle and melodious.

There were a few symphonies in the mix this month, and a general focus on orchestral music which isn't entirely typical for me. But much of this was simply due to where my planned explorations of composers were up to. And there was no lack of quality in the music I was hearing.

Popular Music - July 2018

Tori Amos - Under the Pink
Beyonce - Beyonce
Agnes Obel - Aventine

Let's face it, this list is pathetic. The albums are good, but just 3 completed listens in 31 days? Pathetic.

I know the first half of the month was affected by the World Cup. The second half of the month, as far as I can remember, was affected by me working too damn hard.

It was not a great time. For one thing, Croatia was robbed...

Classical Music - June 2018

Bach, J.S. - Der Friede sei mit dir (Peace be with you)
Barber

• Melodies passageres
• Hermit Songs
• Souvenirs ballet suite

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.30
Beethoven - Bagatelles, op.119
Brahms

• String Quartets 1 and 2
• Liebeslieder-Walzer
• Hungarian Dances 1, 3 and 10 (orchestral versions)

Bridge

• Two Old English Songs for string quartet
• Thy Hand in Mine (orchestral version)
• Mantle of Blue (orchestral version)
• Blow Out, You Bugles

Dvorak

• Symphony No.6
• 6 Piano Pieces, op.52
• 6 Mazurkas for piano
• 4 Album Leaves for piano, B.109
• 2 Waltzes for string quartet

Faure - Piano Quintet No.1
Haydn - Symphonies 62 and 68
Hindemith - Kammermusik No.5
Holmboe - Sinfonia II
Lorentzen - Tower Fanfare
Lorentzen - NUMUS Fanfare 
Mozart

• Piano Concerto No.12
• Rondo for piano and orchestra in A
• String quartets 14 and 15

Nielsen - Symphony No.6
Prokofiev - Piano Sonata No.9 
Ruders - Three Motets
Schumann

• Piano Concerto
• Das Paradies und die Peri
• Soldatenlied

 Scriabin

• Piano Sonata No.3
• Preludes, opp.16, 48 and 74
• Poèmes, opp.44 and 71
• Pieces, opp.52 and 59
• 2 Nocturnes, op.5
• 2 Dances, op.73

Sibelius - 6 Songs, op.86
Vaughan Williams - Songs of Travel

This was a pretty active month in classical music. I spent more than one session juxtaposing a selection of Scriabin's fragmentary piano pieces. Once you're paying close enough attention to not miss them going by, you can notice they are of consistently high quality.

I also played some of the my favourite Barber songs for the first time in several years. Both Hermit Songs and Melodies passageres (in French, which is rather interesting for an American composer) contain some real gems and are among the Barber works I would recommend people hear.

But I think the real highlight for me during June was listening to Brahms' Liebeslieder-Walzer, which are for a quartet of singers with piano duet. This sequence of songs (and it's undoubtedly a planned sequence) fizzes with wit. Finally listening to the recording I had purchased a year earlier (the singers are Mathis, Fassbaender, Schreier and Fischer-Dieskau) was a total delight.

Popular Music - June 2018

Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk
Tori Amos - Native Invader
Fiona Apple - When the Pawn...
Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Francis Dunnery - Fearless
Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight
FKA twigs - M3LL155X
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Gomez - In Our Gun
Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses
Missy Higgins - Solastalgia
Lior - Autumn Flow
Joni Mitchell - Turbulent Indigo
Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer

Recent albums coupled with some old favourites and a few oddities. The latter category includes Francis Dunnery's album. It contains his one big hit "American Life in the Summertime", which once you understand his aesthetic is fairly consistent with the rest of his work, just a little more pop.

I own a total of three Francis Dunnery albums, and to be honest I'm not sure why. Well, I know that it was partly because a couple of them were very cheap opportunistic purchases, and I was curious. What I don't know is quite why I was so curious. The more I've listened, the more I've realised that Dunnery is a rather quirky songwriter, which could be interesting but the quirks are not the kind I embrace. There's a ramshackle quality, and I'm a listener who likes structure.

Fearless is probably the most conventional and organised of the albums that I have, but ultimately I still don't quite find the songs satisfying.

I suspect that nowadays, when I use the internet to sample music that I'm interested in, Dunnery might not have found his way into my collection, or perhaps Fearless would have but not the later more obscure albums. These CDs are relics of an age where I worked from memories of the radio and, when available, sampling in a shop.

Classical Music - May 2018

Bach, J.S. - Ich habe genug (I have enough) (Soprano version)
Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.32
Beethoven - "Gratulations" Menuet
Bridge

• Summer
• Lament
• Two Poems for Orchestra after Richard Jefferies

Dvorak - Eight waltzes for piano
Dvorak - Eclogues
Haydn - Symphonies 67 and 69
Holmboe - Concerto No.9, for violin and viola
Medtner - Skazka, op.31/3
Medtner - Skazka (1915)
Mozart - Piano Concerto No.11
Mozart - Piano Sonata No.13
Schumann

• String Quartets 1 to 3
• Piano Quartet
• Piano Quintet

Scriabin

• Allegro appassionato
• 4 Preludes, op.37
• 2 Pieces, op.57
• 2 Poèmes, op.69

Not a long list by classical standards. I think I was spending a lot of time with those new pop albums I've discussed in recent posts.

My Schumann chronology reached the point where, after a year of song and then a year of orchestral works, there was a year of chamber music. The results of which were rather good.

Popular Music - May 2018

Tori Amos

• Little Earthquakes
• Abnormally Attracted to Sin
• Native Invader

Beyonce - Lemonade
Christine and the Queens - Chaleur Humaine
Paul Dempsey - Strange Loop
Missy Higgins - Solastalgia
Jars of Clay - The Eleventh Hour
John Mayer

• Battle Studies
• Born and Raised
• Paradise Valley
• The Search for Everything

Joni Mitchell - Blue
Janelle Monae - Electric Lady
Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer
Alanis Morissette - Under Rug Swept
R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
Simply Red - Picture Book
Thrice - Major/Minor

Assuming that anyone actually continues to read this blog, you would have noticed that the April entry for pop music talked about my purchase of two albums as soon as they came out, but only went on to discuss one of those albums.

That was partly for reasons of length, and partly because I knew full well that I had spent a considerable amount of May listening to Missy Higgins' Solastalgia  and could discuss it here.

Of the pair of new purchases, Solastalgia was the one that was a little unexpected and a very pleasant surprise. I already have Missy Higgins' first 3 albums, but had skipped her fourth which consisted of covers of other Australian artists. I might get back to it one day, as reviews indicate she did successfully place her own spin on the material.

Those first 3 albums are a slightly mixed bag for me. They are never poor, but also don't always seem to be quite as great as they could be. Her debut, a significant success at least in Australia, has a somewhat folk feel and some truly beautiful and powerful songs. The second album feels like a struggle in comparison, as if she didn't know how to avoid repeating herself. The third album's first half is a bit more pop and in my opinion has some of the best work she has done, but then the second half falls away a bit.

Solastalgia is something new again, and all the better for it. For one thing it has a considerable tinge of electronica. But the more interesting aspect of the album is how clearly thematic it is. The title itself is a term referring to distress caused by environmental change, reflecting how the album is a rumination on life, the state of the world and in particular the ways in which we seem to be destroying it.

It's the opening track, "Starting Again", that I think is a stunning success. It's a song to a child about all the reasons it's not a good idea to bring a child into the world, and how those reasons evaporate once a child arrives. It's a powerful, complex sentiment that I don't think I've ever heard put into song before, and Higgins' lyrics are fully up to the task.

Nothing that follows has quite the same impact, but the arc of the album is a satisfying one as it roughly moves from past to future, ending with "The Old Star" which imagines our distant descendants returning to the solar system to see what little is left.

The album as a whole is perhaps not a masterpiece, but it's always at least good, and worth hearing. And it means something. I think that was one of the pleasing things when I bought this alongside Dirty Computer: here are two singers both using the album format to present a considered artistic statement and to get listeners to think about things as well as being entertained.

Classical Music - April 2018

Bach, J.S. - Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen (I will gladly carry the Cross)
Bach, J.S. - Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet (You, who call yourselves of Christ)
Barber - Nuvoletta
Beethoven - Piano sonatas 27, 29 and 31
Beethoven - Es ist vollbracht (finale for "The Triumphal Arches")
Bridge

• String Quartet No.2
• Where She Lies Asleep
• Love Went A-Riding

Dvorak

• Silhouettes
• Ave maris stella
• O Sanctissima

Haydn - Symphonies 61 and 66
Jersild - Il Cantico delle Creature
Liszt - Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne
Medtner - Romantic Sketches for the Young
Mozart

• Symphonies 33 and 34
• Piano Sonata No.10
• Oboe Quartet

Nielsen - Symphony No.5
Nørholm - Two Studies, op.113
Schubert - Symphony No.9
Schubert - String Quintet
Schumann

• Symphonies 1 and 4 (original version)
• Overture, Scherzo and Finale
• 12 Gedichte aus "Liebesfrühling", op.37 
• Der deutsche Rhein "Patriotisches Lied"
• Romanzen und Balladen, op.53
• Belsatzar
• 2 Ballades (fragments), WoO 11

Scriabin - 24 Preludes, op.11
Vivaldi

• Kyrie in G minor
• Credo in E minor
• Magnificat in G minor (1720s version)
• Dixit Dominus in D, RV 594
• Lauda Jerusalem

It seems like it was a fairly busy month, progressing through my various listening projects and throwing in a few other bits and pieces when I felt like it. But nothing is particularly standing out as something to write about. Not when I still have some more entries to catch upon.

So, April is duly catalogued.

Popular Music - April 2018

Tori Amos

• Boys for Pele
• From the Choirgirl Hotel
• American Doll Posse
• Unrepentant Geraldines
• Native Invader

Marc Cohn - The Rainy Season
Crowded House - Temple of Low Men
Peter Gabriel - So
Patty Griffin - Downtown Church
Patty Griffin - American Kid
Missy Higgins - Solastalgia
Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
Wendy Matthews - Ghosts
John Mayer - The Search for Everything
Joni Mitchell - For the Roses
Janelle Monae

• The Archandroid
• Electric Lady
• Dirty Computer

Pearl Jam - Binaural
Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
U2 - Rattle and Hum
Thom Yorke - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

Something rather unusual happened right near the end of April. I bought two albums right on the day that they were released.

Yes, it's true I occasionally manage this for very favourite artists like Tori Amos, though in that particular case I'm usually after some special edition with bonus tracks, so in fact I don't walk into a store on release day anymore.  In any case it's a rare event, and what was perhaps more unusual this time around was that I'd already listened to both albums on Deezer late at night (releases appear at midnight) and over breakfast. In one case in particular, that was an important part of my purchasing decision. I'm still very much of the view that I should spend proper money for music that I appreciate, rather than tossing a fraction of a cent to the artist via a streaming service, but streaming has created a "try before you buy" environment I make extensive use of.

The first album, and the one I already had a fair idea that I wanted from the previously released singles, was Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer. At the time of writing I'm actually playing it for the first time in a couple of months, having utterly devoured it upon release.

Part of that release (and from memory it might have been my introduction to the full album) was a film version, an "emotion picture", available for free online. It doesn't completely match the audio version but is very close, and contains videos for the majority of the songs as well as some important linking narrative that helps express the themes and ideas.

And what themes and ideas.

Much of pop music can be dismissed as little more than a catchy tune. There's never been any doubt, though, that Janelle Monae intends to say things with her music. There's been an ongoing kind of story in her previous albums about being different and not belonging, wrapped in references to androids. I've frequently loved it (as can be seen in some previous blog entries), but one criticism some reviewers have had is that her style tends towards intellectual and slightly arch. Personally, I don't have the slightest problem with these qualities. I actually like my music to be intellectual.

Dirty Computer, though, is something different. It is unabashedly pop music, full of hooks and singalong tunes. It is unbuttoned, uninhibited.

And to be honest, some of it initially made me a bit uncomfortable and disappointed for those very reasons. I was worried that I wasn't going to warm to the first half of the album in particular. "There's not much there", I found myself thinking. It felt shallow.

But I was completely wrong. What's there is a grand celebration of difference, queerness and freedom. A statement that it is better to live than be in hiding. A declaration that being 'other' is not the same as not belonging.

I still struggle to some extent with taking on the message and "letting go" while listening to the album. I continue to prefer the more subtle and restrained songs on the album, though none of the brasher ones actually put me off now. I wasn't sure I'd ever enjoy "Pynk", essentially an ode to lesbian love. It's a song that is so emphatically not about something I can relate to. But now I do enjoy it.

More than anything, though, even with the songs that are not what I would consider a natural fit for me, I can feel the music urging me to feel differently, to open up to change. It's speaking to me.

That's art. And I like that.

Classical Music - March 2018

Bach, J.S.

• Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild (God the Lord is sun and shield)
• Lobe den Herren, den Mächtign König der Ehren (Praise the Lord, the mighty king of honour)
• Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort (Settle account! Word of thunder)
• Cello Suite No.1

Barber - Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Bartok - String Quartet No.3
Beethoven

• Cello Sonata No.4
• "Kakadu" Variations for piano trio
• Germania (finale for "The Good News")

Brahms - Horn Trio
Bridge - Dance Poem
Chopin - 24 Preludes
Debussy

• Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
• Nocturnes for orchestra
• La Mer
• Images for orchestra
• 2 Dances for harp and orchestra
• Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet (orchestral version)
• String Quartet

Dvorak

• Czech Suite
• String Quartet No.10
• 2 Furiants for piano

Faure - Nocturne No.6
Haydn - Symphonies 53 and 54
Hindemith - Kammermusik Nos. 2 and 3
Holmboe

• Viola Concerto
• Concerto No.5 (for viola)
• Sextet

Mozart

• Piano Concerto No.10 (for 2 pianos)
• Symphony No.32
• Piano Sonatas 7 and 8

Nielsen - Pan and Syrinx
Nørgård - Symphony No.2
Ravel - Le Tombeau de Couperin
Schumann

• Dichterliebe
• Romanzen und Balladen, opp.45 and 49
• 3 Duets, op.43

Scriabin

• Piano Sonata No.2
• 5 Preludes, op.15
• Poeme, op.41
• 4 Pieces, op.51
• Vers la flamme

Shostakovich - Symphony No.9
Sibelius - Five Christmas Songs, op.1
Sibelius - Songs, op.72 (first two are lost)


March was a fairly active month for my classical music listening. The most notable exploration was of Debussy, as a couple of large box sets were released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of his death. I spent quite a bit of time sampling those sets, particularly for works that I didn't already own recordings of.

What's listed here, as per usual self-imposed rules, is what I heard from my own collection. It's not hard to see that I was focusing on the orchestral works. I listened to most of the 2-CD set that I have with Bernard Haitink as the main conductor, a collection that is consistently recommended.

I didn't, in the end, decide that either box set was going to meet my needs. One was too comprehensive (with a large number of discs given over to transcriptions and arrangements that I'm just not interested in) and the other was not comprehensive enough, with a handful of awkward gaps. What the exploration did was give me a better sense of Debussy's body of work and the areas where my collection was lacking. It so happens that, at the time of writing, I'm waiting delivery on 4 albums worth of his songs.