Popular Music - November 2016

Tori Amos

• Boys for Pele
• Night of Hunters
• Live recordings: Fort Myers 17/11/07, Melbourne 18/11/07, Clearwater 20/11/07, West Palm Beach 21/11/07, Brisbane 21/11/14

Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man
Beyonce - Beyonce
Beyonce - Lemonade
Christine and the Queens - Christine and the Queens
Janelle Monae - Metropolis Suite II
Radiohead - Amnesiac
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Water and Air volumes
Rachael Yamagata - Chesapeake

There's no way around it. My popular music listening has stagnated significantly in recent months. As much as anything, this is a function of the way in which I tend to listen to popular music compared to classical music.

Popular music largely sits on my iPhone and gets taken to work. Classical music largely sits on CDs and gets played on my CD player at home. This is not a hard and fast rule, but it's most definitely the trend. To a large extent this is due to the greater effort required to get classical music into iTunes in a format I find satisfactory, with sensible metadata.

What this means, though, is that when I open up my iPhone, the same subset of my popular music collection will always be there unless I've actively done something to change what's on there. Yes, at this point someone will point out to me the existence of Apple Music and the cloud, but that's not a route I've taken. Nor am I inclined to take it. I like personal control and curation of my music.

For classical music, by contrast, all of my CDs are available in my house. The entire collection is at my disposal when listening at home.

There's also the fact that my popular music collection is still not fully catalogued in the way that the classical one is. And so I'm less likely to engage in the systematic listening, and projects, that characterise my classical listening - systems that were originally designed to stop me from listening to the same old things over and over again.

This is an elaborate way of explaining why I look at this small list of popular music works listened to in November (not including things I sampled or streamed that I don't own), and don't feel that I have anything to say about any of them.

Classical Music - October 2016

Bach, J.S.

• Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen (Dearest Immanuel, Ruler of the Pious)
• Meinem Jesum lass ich nicht (I will not Leave my Jesus)
• Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (In Peace and Joy I Shall Depart)
• English Suites 1 to 3

Beethoven

• Symphony No.2
• Piano Concerto No.3
• The Creatures of Prometheus
• Piano Sonatas 14, 16, 17 and 18
• Violin Sonatas 8 and 9
• Variations on 'Bei Männern, weiche Liebe fuehlen' for cello and piano 

Berlioz - Sur les lagunes from Les nuits d'été
Brahms - Piano Pieces, op.118
Chopin - Fantasy on Polish Airs
Chopin - Krakowiak 
Dvorak - Biblical Songs (piano and orchestral versions)
Faure

• Violin Sonata No.1
• Piano Quartet No.1
• Nocturnes 1 to 5
• Barcarolle No.1
• Valse-Caprices 1 and 2
• Impromptus 1 to 3
• 3 Romances sans paroles
• Ballade
• Mazurka
• Fugues, op.84/3 and 6
• Songs: early Hugo settings, Opp. 1 to 8, 10, 18, 23, 27, 39/4, 51/4 and 76/1
• Cantique de Jean Racine

Gudmundsen-Holmgreen - Jubilemus
Haydn - Masses: 'Theresienmesse', 'Schöpfungsmesse' and 'Harmoniemesse'
Haydn - Missa brevis in F (1749 version and 1805 version)
Holmboe

• String Quartets 4 to 10
• Piano Trio, op.64
• Quartetto Medico
• Quartetto, op.90
• Aspects
• Brass Quintet No.1
• Violin Sonata No.3

Mozart - Piano Concertos 6, 7, 10, 13, 19, 23 and 26
Mozart - Rondos for piano and orchestra, K.382 and 386 
Nørgård / Holmboe - Sinfonia Profana (Quodlibet)
Nørholm - Love's Philosophy
Nørholm - Three songs for male choir, to words by Kierkegaard
Rachmaninov - Cello Sonata
Schubert - Piano Trio No.1
Schumann - String Quartet No.2
Shostakovich - Symphony No.3
Vine

• Symphonies 1 to 6
• Celebrare Celeberrime
• 2 movements from Knips Suite (String Quartet No.1)
• String Quartets 2 and 3

I drafted the list for October ages ago and then never went back to write any commentary for it. I'm thinking about changing the format of this blog, but I'll at least finish off 2016 properly...

The thing I remember most clearly from this list is embarking on a new exploration of Faure's songs, but going by poet rather than pure chronology. This explains the somewhat patchy list of opus numbers, but it's not all that patchy because in most cases Faure's interest in a poet was during a specific period of his own career. So for instance there is a lot of Victor Hugo very early on, but then Hugo settings disappear.

And along the way I'm listening to the instrumental music from around the same period. Any excuse to listen to such excellent music is fine by me.

Another thing I did was listen to as much Carl Vine as I could get my hands on. The above works represent recordings I own, but I also hunted down other works online. In truth, though, the discography is quite patchy, even using Vine's website as an information resource.

The music itself is also sometimes patchy in my opinion. Symphony No.5 was a massive disappointment for me, and Symphony No.6 only a partial rebound. But the first 4 symphonies have many good things in them, as do the string quartets. And I really do need to purchase a recording of at least the 1st piano sonata.

And, um... I do remember thinking those late Haydn masses are pretty great. I just can't remember much detail right now. They shall have to be listened to again!

Popular Music - October 2016

Tori Amos

• Little Earthquakes
• Boys for Pele
• To Venus and Back (studio disc)
• Strange Little Girls

Paul Dempsey - Strange Loop
george - Unity
David Gray - White Ladder
k d lang - Drag
Lior - Autumn Flow
Joni Mitchell - Night Ride Home
Moloko - Catalogue
Radiohead - The King of Limbs
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Simply Red - Picture Book

Do you know which album stands out the most on this list? The one I don't like.

The reason I even own a copy of Drag is because it was actually cheaper to buy it in a 2-pack with another k d lang album, Invincible Summer, than it was to get the latter on its own. I'm not automatically attracted to group lots of that kind, but when it's actually cheaper I'm not going to say no.

But Drag has always been a disappointment. Every now and then I've mustered up the will to give it another shot, as I did during October. And each time I end up thinking no, this is really quite boring.

The whole concept of the album - a smoking theme - doesn't entirely help. The whole thing is a little bit arch, and a bit too fond of its own cleverness with the double reference to lang wearing men's clothing. But it's the triple reference that kills it: the album drags. There are flashes of interest here and there, but over the course of 52 minutes it lives up to its name in ways that are quite unfortunate.

...Anyone want a copy?

Classical Music - September 2016

Bach, J.S. - Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit (What My God Wants, May It Always Happen)
Beethoven

• Symphony No.1
• Romance for violin and orchestra No.1
• Piano Sonatas 6, 10 and 13
• Violin Sonatas 2, 5, 6 and 7
• String Quartet No.2
• String Quintet 

Chopin

• Mazurkas, op.67/2, 67/4 and 68/4
• Galop Marquis
• Largo in E flat
• Nocturne in C minor
• Waltz in A minor

Dvorak

• Requiem
• Mass in D
• Te Deum 

Haydn

• Missa Sancti Bernardi von Offida ('Heiligmesse')
• Missa in tempore belli ('Paukenmesse')
• Missa in augustiis ('Nelsonmesse')

Holmboe

• Symphonies 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 13
• Concerto No.1 (for piano)
• Epitaph
• Tempo Varibaile
• String Quartets 1, 2, 3, 9, 12, 13 and 16
• Violin Sonatas 1 and 2
• Primavera

Mozart - Piano Concertos 1 to 4, 15, 16 and 25
Nielsen - [various songs and choral works translated into English]
Nørgård - Inre och yttre landskap (Inner and outer landscape)
Nørholm - Three Songs for male choir, to words by Garff
Poulenc - Sonata for 2 pianos
Rachmaninov - Suite No.2 for 2 pianos
Ravel

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

Schubert - String Quartet No.15
Schubert - Piano Sonata in G, D.894
Shostakovich - Symphonies 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 and 15
Sibelius - Lemminkainen Suite
Vivaldi 

• Concerto for Strings in D minor ('Madrigalesco'), RV 129
• Sonata a 4 in E flat ('Al Santo Sepolcro'), RV 130
• Sinfonia for Strings in B minor ('Al Santo Sepolcro'), RV 169
• Violin Concerto in C minor, RV 202 (Op.11/5)
• Violin Concerto in C minor ('Amato bene'), RV 761
• Concerto for 2 violins in G minor, RV 517
• Concerto for violin and cello in B flat, RV 547

Quite a long classical list again. Although the length of the list doesn't always reflect the listening. For example, nine of Shostakovich's symphonies take up just one line. And Dvorak's colossal Requiem, which in some ways is one of the more challenging things I've listened to despite his innate tunefulness, doesn't take up any more space than the little scraps of Chopin's last works.

The Beethoven chronology is a little more scrambled than usual, because it catches the end of one of my time slices (works from around 1798-1800) and the beginning of another (works from around 1801-3). There's a lot development in those years, and the end of Beethoven's "early period" isn't all that far from the beginning of it!

One of the most pleasant surprises of the month was early Mozart. I had assumed that the first 4 piano concertos, which are essentially his arrangements of piano works by others, would be relatively uninteresting. But they were a real delight. It's true they might not have the depth of the more mature piano concertos, but listening to them was highly enjoyable.

And at the other end of a career, the late Haydn masses. I think it will take a while to really get to know these works well, but they are making a good first impression. The 'Paukenmesse' and the 'Nelsonmesse' in particular strike me as compositions I will want to return to quite a bit.

And, um... that's it. Having left the last post lingering so long, I don't want to dwell on this one. I want to catch up.

Popular Music - September 2016

Tori Amos

• Scarlet's Walk
• Unrepentant Geraldines
• Flicker (single)

Christine and the Queens - Christine and the Queens
Paul Dempsey - Strange Loop
Seal - Human Being
Thrice - Beggars
Megan Washington - There There

Another rather light month for pop music listening (partly affected, as is always the case, by my rule that a partial listen that gets interrupted doesn't count). There's plenty to talk about, though, because of the new entry on the list: the self-titled album from Christine and the Queens.

I stumbled across "Christine" (essentially just one person, not a band) on an episode of the Graham Norton Show.

I watch the show fairly regularly. It's quite rare, though, for the musical performance to grab my attention the way this one did. Pop music, undoubtedly, but art-pop. And a true performance piece, not simply a singer standing on the stage.

A few weeks later, Deezer chose another track from album, "Science Fiction" as one of their featured songs. After that, I decided that I had found a pop artist I wanted to hear more of. I can't remember now whether I sampled the whole album online before going out to find a CD copy. Yes, yes, I'm still buying CDs...

And Christine and the Queens is a fine CD. Those first two songs I heard are arguably among the best ones, but the album as a whole is strong. Lots of pop hooks, easily digestible but not mindless.

What annoys me, though (and this would have applied whether or not I chose physical media) is that the record companies have decided that I absolutely must listen to Christine and the Queens and not the album that Christine originally released, called Chaleur Humaine. Apparently, the French quotient of this French singer was too much for us all to stomach.

Some of the songs appear to be identical, though, and still include considerable amounts of French. Some have been rewritten, including the first two tracks I encountered. And in some cases the two albums have completely different songs.

This annoys me on two levels. The first is that I still believe in the integrity of albums and don't think this kind of thing should be done, though when it comes to a different language I can understand it. Plus, Christine and the Queens still flows well and some of the new songs are very good indeed.

But the second annoyance, and the far greater one in this day and age, is that I'm denied the choice. It would be a trivial thing to allow Chaleur Humaine to also be available for download from iTunes and the like, but no. English language stores simply deny that it exists. It seems my best bet for purchasing Chaleur Humaine, which I would like to do having found a way to hear it, is buying a good old-fashioned physical CD from Amazon France.

It appears that there is a special tour edition of Chaleur Humaine that also includes the new songs added to Christine and the Queens and a couple of tracks, so that might be what I go for. But it's a perfect illustration that the way music is sold as digital files still doesn't reflect the way the internet works. Finding out about music from around the world is easy, and yet the record companies want to insist that they will decide what I listen to based on where I live.

Classical Music - August 2016

Bach, J.S. - Ich freue mich in dir (I rejoice in you)
Beethoven

• Romance for violin and orchestra No.2
• String Quartets 1 and 4
• String Trio No.3
• Piano Sonata No.11 

Chopin

• 3 Mazurkas, op.63
• 3 Waltzes, op.64
• Cello Sonata
• 2 Bourees

Dvorak - Saint Ludmila
Haydn

• Symphonies 83, 84, 86, 88, 89, 91-94, 96, 98-104
• Missa Sancti Nicolai ('Nikolaimesse')
• Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo ('Kleine Orgelsolomesse')
• Missa Cellensis ('Mariazellermesse')

Mozart - Piano Concertos 5, 17 and 18
Nørgård

• Spell (piano trio version)
• Four songs for male choir
• En livslang ven (A lifelong friend)

Rachmaninov - Preludes, op.23
Rachmaninov - 15 songs, op.26
Ravel

• Daphnis and Chloe
• La Valse
• Sheherazade
• String Quartet
• Piano Trio
• Violin Sonata No.1 (posth.)
• Berceuse on the name of Gabriel Fauré
• Tzigane
• Pavane pour une infante defunte (piano and orchestral versions)
• Menuet Antique
• Jeux d'eau
• Sonatine
• Miroirs
• Gaspard de la nuit
• Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn
• Ma mere l'Oye
• Valses nobles et sentimentales
• A la maniere de...
• Prelude
• Le Tombeau de Couperin

Schubert - Piano Sonata in D, D.850
Shostakovich - Symphonies 5, 8, 10 and 15
Shostakovich - String Quartets 13 to 15 
Sibelius - The Wood-Nymph
Vine - Symphony 4.2
Vine - Celebrare Celeberrime

The month started with a continued wave of Haydn listening, and ended with a wave of Ravel listening. And some other composers managed to get a hearing in between.

As I mentioned in the entry for July, I ended up deciding to listen to all 23 of the Haydn symphonies I own to work out which were my favourites. This was prompted by a poll on a forum about favourite Haydn symphonies. Not being entirely confident I would be fair to them all going by memory, I held a run-off.

Over several rounds, symphonies 93 and 102 were the winners. They were closely followed by symphonies 98, 99 and 103. Though of course this is all relative; it's not as if I didn't enjoy all the other symphonies that didn't make the cut.

I don't remember what, if anything, triggered the avalanche of Ravel. It may have been as simple as realising that it had been quite some time since I'd listened to most of this music. It turns out that it doesn't take a great deal of time to listen to Ravel's complete works (including use of online resources for works I don't own a recording of) as he was not a prolific composer and many pieces are quite short.

Still, the quality of what he wrote is very high. Personally I think he wrote some of the very greatest piano music, and what I know of his other work is equally impressive. Perhaps the small quantity of work is because he was so painstaking in getting it right.

Elsewhere, I reached the end of my chronological exploration of Shostakovich's works (with the last 3 string quartets, the final symphony and other material I listened to online)... and promptly turned around and started exploring the symphonies further. Many months had passed since I listened to the earlier symphonies after buying a box set in January, and I felt I wanted to get to know them better.

Symphony No.10, which I did already have another recording of, strikes me as a superb work. Symphony No.5 is not too far behind. Symphony No.8 I struggled with on this occasion. It felt in some ways like a re-run of the 5th symphony, only longer and bleaker, and I found myself disengaged.

The largest work I listened to during the month was Dvorak's oratorio Saint Ludmila. Frankly, it was a bit of a struggle compared to some of the other sacred and choral works I've been listening to. And that wasn't primarily due to the length, but the text. 19th century sensibilities were obviously a bit different to mine, as I couldn't warm to a story that seems to consist of a country converting to Christianity not because of any theological conviction, but because the leader fancied a woman and was told he had to convert in order to get her. That, and a little bit of good old-fashioned threatening about God's retribution. I wasn't inspired.

Popular Music - August 2016

Tori Amos

• Under the Pink
• Scarlet's Walk
• Abnormally Attracted to Sin
• Audience bootleg - Melbourne 15 November 2014

Kate Bush - The Red Shoes
Marc Cohn - The Rainy Season
Paul Dempsey - Strange Loop
Eskimo Joe - A Song is a City
Gotye - Making Mirrors
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Nik Kershaw - 15 Minutes
Level 42 - Running in the Family
Wendy Matthews - Cafe Naturale
Joni Mitchell - Mingus
Agnes Obel - Aventine
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Seal - Human Being
Tears for Fears - The Seeds of Love
Tears for Fears - Elemental
Thrice - The Alchemy Index, Volume 1 (Fire)


Hmm. It would seem my sense of adventure is decreasing when it comes to popular music.

Admittedly, this list includes two albums that were new the month before (Paul Dempsey and Radiohead), which I was still exploring. But apart from that it feels like there are a heck of a lot of old favourites here. A little spurt of listening to Australian artists, an apparent fondness for artists associated with the 1980s...

It's all rather safe. Even if I'm listening to the Kate Bush album I listen to the least, it's still largely in my comfort zone.

I can't be adventurous all the time, because my notions of musical adventure require attentive listening and it takes a fair bit of time and energy. And a lot of my more exploratory listening in recent times has been on the classical music side.

Still, I'm a little bit disappointed. I don't see anything on this list that makes me think "ooh, I have something to say about that for the blog".

Sorry about that.