Classical Music - November 2015

Andresen - Three Norwegian Dances
Bach, J.S. - Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, saviour of the heathen) (BWV 62)
Bach, J.S. - Wohl dem, der sich auf seinem Gott (Happy is the man who on his God)
Beethoven - Violin Sonata No.10 (2 versions)
Brahms - Clarinet Trio
Chopin

• Waltz in A flat, op.42
• Waltz in E flat for Emile Gaillard ('Sostenuto')
• Mazurka in A minor for Emile Gaillard
• Mazurka in A minor for 'Notre Temps' 
• 3 Nouvelles Etudes
• Fugue in A minor 

Haydn - Symphonies 86, 90 and 93
Holmboe

• Cantata Profana 'Frieze'
• Omnia flumnia
• The Heron of Oblivion
• Elder Tree
• What the Beech Tree Sang

Janacek - String Quartet No.1, 'Kreutzer Sonata'
Nørgård - Images of Arresø
Schubert - Piano Quintet
Senstius - Fantasia in D minor
Schumann - Introduction and Allegro appassionato in G for piano and orchestra
Sibelius - Night Ride and Sunrise
Szymanowski - Masques
Vine - String Quartet No.5
Vivaldi - Vos aurae per montes (You breeze through the mountains)

The Brahms Clarinet Trio is one of those works that really connects with me. Who knows why. It's inward, withdrawn music, and something about the way it hesitatingly unfolds makes me respond in ways that bolder music wouldn't.

That this is true is evidenced by the fact that, unlike so many of the works listed in my classical music spreadsheet, which I created precisely because some works just melted into an undifferentiated blur, I can immediately hear bits of the Clarinet Trio when I think of it. I certainly don't know all the notes by heart, but I know the mood, what it evokes. And when that spreadsheet told me I hadn't actually listened to the piece for over 5 years(!), I still had a clear notion of what I would hear when I finally pressed play again in November.

I don't want to just listen to my existing favourites. A key part of my listening decisions is to avoid that. And yet, at the end of the day the reason I keep exploring is to find music like this. Music that, when I need it, I know I will enjoy. Music that moves me.

Popular Music - November 2015

Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk
Tori Amos, Samuel Adamson and Cast - The Light Princess
James Blake - Overgrown
FKA twigs - EP1
Patty Griffin - Servant of Love
Incubus - A Crow Left of the Murder
Lior - Autumn Flow
Wendy Matthews - Cafe Naturale
Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon
Katie Noonan's Vanguard - Transmutant
Agnes Obel - Aventine
Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt
Foy Vance - Hope
Rachael Yamagata - Chesapeake
Rachael Yamagata - Loose Ends

In November I made a decision to try and focus on the new pop music purchases I'd been making recently. Some of which I'd already listened to, some of which were just sitting there waiting, and some of which only arrived during the month.

It was a partial success. I got to know a few of these albums much better, which was the intention. I listened to a few without really paying close attention (not least because I broke my usual rule that I must first listen on CD before using the iPhone, meaning that in some cases I didn't ever sat down with the booklet lyrics). There were some new ones that I didn't get to during the month.

"New" purchases also included Foy Vance's album, which I can tell you for certain I purchased in October 2009, because I know where I was and he signed it for me. I've finally listened to it! However, it's in the 'not really paid close attention yet' category.

Of the things that I paid more attention to, Autumn Flow is worth talking about because I had in mind to buy Lior's debut album many times over the last decade and just never made the leap until now. There was always something else that was on special or a higher priority. I'm now kicking myself a bit, because it really is a very fine album indeed that I should have started enjoying a long time ago.

It starts with what is essentially the only hit song Lior has ever had, 'This Old Love', which is beautiful, but the great strength of the album is that it is in no way a stand-out track. The whole record is at a consistent level of inspiration. If you think this is good... well, in my opinion the whole album is just as good.

And there is enough change of mood to keep things interesting. The tone does tend towards mellow, but unlike some albums that get a bit boring as a result, there are plenty of songs that pick up the pace without ever feeling that they don't belong.

Of course, there is also new Tori Amos on this list, but she is the composer rather than performer (apart from a couple of bonus renditions at the end). And The Light Princess is truly fascinating. I'd go so far as to say Act I is a masterpiece. The economy with which Amos and librettist Samuel Adamson communicate the story is at times breathtaking and brilliant, especially when two parallel scenes are playing out in two kingdoms at once. While I'm no expert on musical theatre, the performances generally seem excellent.

Act II is just a little weaker, with one section in particular that (so far) does not work so well for me. In part this is probably because the one performer/character that I find a bit strident and grating takes centre stage and is basically called on to be as strident as possible, then to wallow in sentiment.

But overall, it's an impressive piece of work, that took many people many years - not just Amos and Adamson, but a whole cast and crew, and a director and other people at the UK's National Theatre who shaped and guided the creation of the work long before it reached the stage.

And now I get to keep the aural parts of the results, at least, in my library. Well done everyone.

Classical Music - October 2015

Bach, J.S - Mache dich, mein Gest, bereit (Make yourself ready, my spirit)
Bach, J.S. - French Suite No.1
Beethoven - String Quartet No.11 'Quartetto Serioso'
Brahms - String Quartet No.2
Chopin

• Piano Sonata No.2
• Ballade No.2
• Scherzo No.3
• Impromptu No.2
• 24 Preludes, op.28
• 2 Nocturnes, op.37
• 2 Polonaises, op.40
• 4 Mazurkas, op.41
• Mazurka for Emile Gaillard
• Mazurka 'Notre temps' 

Haumann - The Day the Cherry Trees Blossomed
Haydn - Symphonies 86 and 104
Holmboe

• Suono da Bardo
• Hevjið í homrum (Raise in the Passes)
• Lauda, anima mea 

Jørgensen - Quintet for brass
Norby - Herbst-Lieder (Autumn songs)
Schubert - Piano Sonata in A, D.664
Sibelius - Symphony No.3
Szymanowski - Metopes 

Hmm. Well, I was supposed to be catching up in January, and instead I fell even further behind.

The part of this list I think is worth talking about is the Chopin. This selection of pieces all come from a period around 1838-40, although parts of them were started a bit earlier than that and took until then to come to fruition.

And that means we're in the period of Chopin's relationship with George Sand, and their trip to Mallorca which seems to have been a mix of storms, sickness and working on some rather fantastic music. I don't know whether it was good for Chopin, but the results are certainly good for the music-listening public.

By now Chopin was a fully mature and powerful composer. But then one remembers that he was still only in his late 20s, turning 30 in 1840.

For me, the 24 Preludes are an absolute masterpiece, conveying a huge range of moods in fragments that are often tiny in themselves yet coalesce into a single whole. Some of them are definitely capable of being played on their own, but it's the way that they contrast with each other when played in sequence that really impresses me. There's two levels of structure going on at once, the small-scale and then the 40-minute expanse.

All of the pieces from this period, though, are worthwhile. And they show that while Chopin knew how to be pretty and decorative, as he had right from his teenage years, his mature music has a great deal of depth and sophistication.

Popular Music - October 2015

Tori Amos

• Under the Pink
• American Doll Posse
• Night of Hunters

David Bowie - Scary Monsters
Kate Bush - Never For Ever
FKA twigs - EP1
Patty Griffin - Silver Bell
Incubus - If Not Now, When?
Joe Jackson - This Is It (The A&M Years 1979-1989)
Jars of Clay - Good Monsters
John Mayer - Continuum
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Joni Mitchell - Hejira
Agnes Obel - Aventine
K T Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
Megan Washington - There There

Well, hello there... I set up the bare bones of this post at the end of the appointed month, but consciously put it aside on the grounds that there were other things I had to work on more than this blog. Readers should know by now that production of posts is erratic, even though the keeping of records is not.

There is in fact quite a bit to talk about here: new purchases and new listens primarily.

FKA twigs' first EP was not quite a first listen I think, but it was a new purchase and actually it was rather challenging to find a way of parting with money to express my appreciation for the music. For reference, EP1 can be found on Bandcamp, tucked away under the artist name "[artist]" in somewhat typical FKA twigs fashion.

Or you can just download it in a million places, or listen on youtube. The artist herself helpfully provides all the videos, including here. Personally the visuals aren't a major selling point for this EP, but it's an opportunity to listen. Perhaps the easiest single track to try is "Breathe".

But for me, making a purchase was important. Because this is wonderful music, in a genre I'm only occasionally attracted to. I'm so unfamiliar with it that I had to double-check just now that "trip hop" was a suitable term for this particular flavour of electronica. What's so great about it is the delicacy of touch. In fact, having listened to some of FKA twigs' later work, I find some of it less immediately appealing because the beats are heavier. EP1 is 16 minutes of ethereal, erotic music.

Agnes Obel's Aventine was another case of a new purchase after previous listens. I was introduced to Agnes' music at a party earlier in the year, liked what I heard, and made a note to try more later.

And honestly, part of my reaction is that I shouldn't like this music. It is very simple, even simplistic, with the most basic pulsing piano bass lines that would be barely distinguishable from song to song were it not for the fact that some are in duple time and some in triple. Add a few strings and Agnes' dreamy vague lyrics, and that's it.

But by golly, it works. And it works because the mood, the atmosphere of this music is pitched so perfectly. It's a sparse, intimate sound that evokes mists and twilight and fairytales. There's an air of magic about it.

Lastly, I should mention Silver Bell almost by way of apology over the ridiculously long time it took me to listen to it after receiving it as a gift. I wasn't ready to listen. I guess I didn't want to mix up my Patty Griffin albums. I was still coming to grips with Downtown Church and then there was American Kid... and so Silver Bell sat in my collection, much in the same way that it sat in record company vaults for many years.

My understanding is that a lot of Patty Griffin fans did in fact hear a bootleg of the album in the intervening period, but for me, hearing what should have been her 3rd album but ended up being her 8th has been a really interesting experience. It's a curious time capsule of sounds, and even of songs as some of these tracks ended up on other albums. There are things here that make perfect sense as a follow-up to her 2nd album, Flaming Red, and things that I'm not sure sound quite like anything else in her catalogue.

A fuller listening retrospective may be required to place it in context...

Classical Music - September 2015

Dvorak - The Wild Dove
Haydn - Symphony No.91
Holmboe - Lagerkvist Songs (partial)
Holmboe - Contrasti
Nordentoft - Doruntine
Rachmaninov - Six Songs, op.38
Schumann - Piano Sonata No.2
Vivaldi - Longe mala, umbrae, terrores (Away with woes, shadows, terrors), RV 629

Well, pop music didn't dominate in September quite as much as it did in August, although I think I listened to most of these works late in the month.

The highlight of the month would have to be the Rachmaninov songs. The last collection that the composer wrote, they differ from previous sets in being all for the one voice (soprano) and so they have a certain unity - although I wouldn't think they represent a "song cycle".

They are also very good, with a real sensitivity to the words being set. That's true of most of Rachmaninov's songs - at least, that's the impression I get from the recording I've been working through, with 7 different singers and Iain Burnside as the pianist. It's been a real discovery of new repertoire, a different side of Rachmaninov that I didn't know, and it's been clear that a lot of work went into the recording project precisely because they wanted people to get to know this music. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who is curious.

Popular Music - September 2015

Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel
Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
David Bowie - Scary Monsters
Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Delirious? - World Service
george - Unity
David Gray - White Ladder
Nik Kershaw

• 15 Minutes
• To Be Frank
• You've Got To Laugh
• Ei8ht

Wendy Matthews - Cafe Naturale
Joni Mitchell - For the Roses
Katie Noonan and the Captains - Emperor's Box
Pearl Jam - Vs
Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science
Talk Talk - It's My Life
Tears for Fears - Raoul and the Kings of Spain
Thrice - Beggars

I'm actually slightly surprised the list for September is this long. My main memory of the month is undertaking "phase 2" of the Nik Kershaw discography, complete with 2 albums I bought in August to complete the set.

Speaking of a second phase makes sense because there was a gap of about a decade between Nik's last 1980s album and the arrival of 15 Minutes. In the intervening period he focused on work as a songwriter for others. Whatever he was doing, in my opinion it resulted in probably the best album of Kershaw's career.

For one thing, I'm impressed by the ambition and grandeur of the songs. There are several 6-minute efforts, and while length isn't everything, it's a sign that Kershaw is prepared to let the material breathe. It's also the album where he succeeds at having a more rock-oriented sound. On other albums, I typically feel the tracks where he attempts to move from pop to rock are among the weakest, but here they are a real strength.

And then there are the lyrics. Nik's concerns have changed just a little since the 1980s, with some more positive, domestic thoughts, but that strain of disillusionment with the world still crops up and on 15 Minutes it generates some sharply witty numbers.

Released a couple of years later, To Be Frank initially felt like a bit of a disappointment to me, with only a few songs standing out. I think this month is when I finally paid attention to it properly, and I've realised that it's intentionally a more relaxed, less ambitious album than its predecessor. Having a bit of a smile is actually the point in some tracks. It's lighter pop, but still fairly good pop.

Much the same can be said for You've Got To Laugh, although this time around there are a couple of genuine clunkers. I was initially put off by the album because the first song is one of them (whereas on every other one of Nik's albums, the first song is one of the best). Later on, "Loud, Confident and Wrong" is a badly judged attack on George W. Bush - not badly judged in terms of politics, but executed in an unsubtle way that ends up sounding like a schoolyard taunt. In both cases it feels like Kershaw's sense of humour has misfired. Elsewhere, though, there are some pretty strong pop songs, and "She Could Be The One" is genuinely warm-hearted.

The most recent album (and other new purchase) is Ei8ht, with a bunch of comments about the number 8 in the booklet... unfortunately the one that has a musical aspect is completely wrong, which is rather embarrassing.  In terms of the music, there is pretty well a direct correlation between track number and quality. The opening "These Tears" is as good a pop song as Kershaw's ever done. "The Sky's The Limit" was the single, and while it does have a distinctly sentimental tone he makes it work. The next couple of tracks aren't classics but are enjoyable, and then things start to fall away a bit. By the time we get to "Stuff" and "Rock of Ages" the lyrics are embarrassingly uninspired.

If that last review sounds oddly familiar, it's because it's very similar to my thoughts on Kershaw's last 1980s album, The Works. There are some definite parallels between the two phases of his career, with 4 albums each at this stage. Although the gaps between albums are longer in the second phase, they do have quite a bit of stylistic similarity and form a group distinct from the 1980s albums. Most of Kershaw's stylistic development (such as it is) seems to have occurred in the 1990s.

And in each group, it feels to me like there's a falling off in quality towards the end. Which is a shame, as I'd prefer a sense that a musician I like is developing rather than running out of ways to do much the same thing. But there are still some rewards even on the weaker albums, and every one of them would definitely contribute something to my Nik Kershaw mixtape.

Okay, iTunes playlist. But I'm going to plan it just like a mixtape.

Classical Music - August 2015

Brahms - String Quintet No.2
Snider - Penelope

Was that really it?

Yes. That was really it.