Popular Music - January 2017

Tori Amos - From the choirgirl hotel
Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk
The Badloves - Get On Board
James Blake - Overgrown
Christine and the Queens - Christine and the Queens
Paula Cole - This Fire
Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight
Frou Frou - Details
Garbage - Garbage
Nik Kershaw - 15 Minutes
Wendy Matthews - Emigre
Janelle Monae - The Archandroid (Metropolis Suites 2 and 3)
Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Thom York - The Eraser

My awareness at the end of 2016 that my pop music listening was being swamped by classical listening led to a concerted effort early in 2017 to listen to more pop music. Here is the result, a decent number of albums on the monthly list for January.

Yes, I know it's now April. Catch up plans are forming...

The best part was that I did manage to listen to at least a few things that I hadn't heard in quite a while. The most extreme example of this was Get on Board which, according to my spreadsheets, I hadn't listened to for about 6 years.

Which surprises me because I have always genuinely thought it is a fine album, particularly as it's a debut. The Badloves made just 2 studio albums before breaking up, although Wikipedia tells me they made some fitful attempts to reunite, and lead singer Michael Spiby also did some solo work.

Spiby's silky voice is definitely a highlight, but more than that Get on Board has that balance that's so important to making a coherent album. There's a range of moods and tempos, but also a common sound and aesthetic. It's slightly old-fashioned (in some ways more 1970s than 1993), with folk and blues elements. It does perhaps dip ever so slightly for a couple of tracks in the middle, but there are still plenty of highlights.

And it was a considerable success, thanks to expertly selected singles. "Green Limousine" seems to have been the one that got the most attention, but the one that made me sit up and take notice was the debut single, "Lost". 3-minute radio-friendly pop songs don't come much nicer than this.

Classical Music - December 2016

Bach, J.S. - Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How beautifully shines the morning star)
Bach, J.S. - Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort (Sustain us, Lord, with your word)
Barber

• Cello Concerto
• Piano Concerto
• Music for a Scene from Shelley
• Medea ballet suite
• Souvenirs ballet suite
• Adagio for Strings
• Serenade for Strings

Bartok - String Quartets 2 and 3
Beethoven

• Symphony No.4
• Triple Concerto
• Piano Sonata No.23, 'Appassionata'

Brahms

• Symphony No.1
• Serenade No.2
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn
• Liebeslieder-Walzer (orchestral versions)
• Hungarian Dances 1, 3 and 10 (orchestral versions)
• Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel

Bridge - Miniatures for Piano Trio, Sets 1 to 3
Bridge - Phantasie Piano Quartet
Chopin - Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante
Debussy

• Preludes, Book II
• Estampes
• Pour le Piano
• Images (oubliées)
• L'Isle Joyeuse
• Masques
• D’un cahier d’esquisses
• Danse (Tarantelle styrienne)
• Ballade slave
• Valse romantique
• Les soirs illumines par l’ardeur du charbon

Dvorak

• Slavonic Dances, Series 1 (orchestral version)
• Eight Waltzes
• Four Album Leaves
• Two Furiants
• Scottish Dances
• Eclogues
• Dumka for piano

Faure - Elegie in C minor
Faure - Papillon
Haydn - Symphonies 3, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 25, 27, 32, 37, 'A'
Holmboe

• String Quartets 14 and 15
• Nuigen
• Brass Quintet No.2

Mahler

• Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
• Rückert-Lieder
• 3 songs from Das Knaben Wunderhorn 

Martinů - Piano Trio No.1
Medtner

• Three Dithyrambs
• Three Arabesques
• Four Pieces, op.4

Mozart - String Quintets 3 and 4
Nielsen

• Symphonies 2 and 3
• Helios Overture
• Prelude to 'Sir Oluf He Rides'
• Willemoes: Prelude to Act III
• Maskarade: Overture and Cockerel's Dance

Nørgård - Symphonies 2, 6 and 8 
Prokofiev

• Piano Sonata No.2
• Sarcasms
• Visions Fugitives 

Ravel - L'heure Espagnole
Rimsky-Korsakov - Capriccio Espagnol
Schierbeck - Den kinesiske fløjte (The Chinese flute)
Schubert

• Piano Trio No.2
• Impromptus, Set 1
• Winterreise

 Schumann

• Symphony No.4 (1841 version)
• Overture, Scherzo and Finale
• Das Paradies und die Peri

Sibelius

• Symphony No.3
• Night Ride and Sunrise
• Pohjola's Daughter
• Dance-Intermezzo

Villa-Lobos - Choros No.10, 'Rasga o Coração'
Villa-Lobos - Bachianas Brasileiras 4 (piano version) and 6 

The wave of listening to new music continued, with large swathes of Barber, Brahms, Dvorak and Nielsen.  And Bach. Let's not forget that I've been slowly trawling through Bach cantatas for over 4 years now.

Among the things I particularly enjoyed here were the extensive suite from Barber's ballet Medea, the Bartok string quartets (which demonstrated very quickly why they're highly regarded), the 1st Brahms symphony (likewise), and quite a few of the Haydn symphonies.

Nielsen also impressed. The Helios Overture turned out to be a very fine evocation of sunrise and I definitely enjoyed both of these symphonies. Nørgård I will say more about later, though I will mention now that Symphony No.2 is one of the more immediately accessible ones in the series.

The Schumann orchestral works also tended to be enjoyable and Das Paradies und die Peri was a particularly nice surprise. On one level the plot of this oratorio is now distinctively old-fashioned, but I found that to be only a minor point because Schumann's music is so sensitive and he maintains the momentum more than many other composers would.

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As for the year as a whole, the approximate total of works listened to (a work being potentially a minute long or over 2 hours) was a rather startling 836. Easily the biggest total since I started keeping track, by a margin of several hundred.

I describe this as "approximate" because I suspect I accidentally erased a few 2016 entries by creating new 2017 entries, before I remembered I would eventually want to calculate the annual total. This is what I get for being so slow. I think I caught most of them though.

The large amount of buying during the year - not just the huge collection later on, but Shostakovich and Debussy near the start of the year and Mozart, Haydn and Dvorak in the middle, plus a few less bulky purchases - undoubtedly made a big contribution to this new record.

The top 10 most popular composers, in terms of works, did include the major newcomers but also featured some old warhorses of mine.

10. Chopin (30)
9. Shostakovich (36)
8. Nielsen (38)
7. Faure (39)
6. Debussy (45)
4.= Dvorak (49)
4.= Mozart (49)
3. Haydn (63)
2. Beethoven (80)
1. Holmboe (147)

I may well be the only person on the planet (outside of Denmark?) that listens to so much Holmboe, but that's a result of going on surveys across his entire output. It's also influenced by the fact his works are rarely lengthy, and that there simply are quite a lot of them!

Popular Music - December 2016

Tori Amos - Abnormally Attracted to Sin
Tori Amos - Unrepentant Geraldines
Toni Childs - Keep the Faith
Christine and the Queens - Christine and the Queens
Janet Jackson - Janet
Sting - Mercury Falling

Another month with not much pop music, if my records are to be believed. And they generally are, although they won't include any half-listens, incomplete selections or music I don't actually own.

I did go out of my way to explore some long-forgotten corners of the library. Neither the Toni Childs album nor the Janet Jackson album had been listened to for a number of years. And neither, to be honest, is anything wonderful, but they are least decent. I quite enjoyed Janet in particular, but it's still a bit uneven.

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For the year as a whole, it seems I listened to 91 different albums, EPs or singles. Which is a bit low. It's not even two a week, which is quite disappointing.

I could of course quite easily boost the number by slapping albums on as background noise and paying as little attention to them as possible, but that really isn't my preferred mode of listening. I think one of the things holding back the list has been my reluctance to add some new albums into rotation without listening to them carefully, with lyrics at hand at least once... and then not investing the time required to make that happen. Classical music - and in particular, Classical music without any lyrics - has generally been winning the competition for my time. As has good television, and less good internet.

This might change soon, when I've reached the end of my big collection of Classical purchases. I'm not sure. Maybe it's become my main habit.

Or maybe I'm just repeatedly listening to the pop music I like the most. Tori Amos of course remains a staple, with 12 entries for the year. Radiohead and Something for Kate/Paul Dempsey are also very well represented. There was some variety in my listening to Thrice and Jars of Clay, and after that it falls away badly. It seems I only listened to one full Kate Bush album all year!

It's worth mentioning that for many artists I might only have 1 or 2 albums in the first place, but nevertheless I do feel I need to work on the diversity here. That was one of the intentions of keeping track of my listening, to identify things that I hadn't listened to for some time and then listen to them. It seems that on the pop music side of things, it's only working intermittently.

Classical Music - November 2016

Alberg - Tú alfagra land mítt (Faroese national anthem)
Bach, J.S.

• Jesu, nun sei gepreiset (Jesus, now be praised)
• Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn (I have in God's heart and mind)
• Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir (Lord God, we all praise you)
• English Suites 3 and 4

Bæk - Nú rennur sólin frið
Barber

• Symphonies 1 and 2
• Violin Concerto
• Essay for Orchestra
• Overture to The School For Scandal 

Bartok - String Quartet No.1
Beethoven

• Piano Concerto No.4
• Violin Concerto
• String Quartets 7 and 8
• String Quartet in F, after piano sonata op.14/1
• Serenade for flute, violin and viola
• Piano Sonatas 12, 15 and 21 

Brahms

• Piano Concerto No.1
• Serenade No.1
• String Quartet No.2 

Bridge

• The Sea
• String Quartet No.1
• Phantasie Piano Trio

Chopin - Piano Concerto No.1
Chopin - Ballade No.1 
Debussy - La Mer
Debussy - Preludes, Book 1 
Dvorak

• Nature, Life and Love (In Nature's Realm, Carnival and Othello overtures)
• Silhouettes
• Theme and Variations
• Two Minuets
• Polka in E 

Enescu - Romanian Rhapsody No.1
Haydn - Symphonies 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 18
Haydn - 6 String Quartets, op.64 
Højgaard - [7 hymns]
Holmboe

• String Quartets 11 to 13
• Sextet
• Triade
• Hevjið í homrum 
• Sól og Kavi (Sun and Snow - Faroese version) [partial]
• Eydna
• Brúgvar (Bridges)
• Arrangements of Sigmund's Ballad, Ólavur Riddararós and Rura, rura barnið

Jøkladal - Sum hjørtur hyggur tráandi (Psalm 42)
Mahler - Das klagende Lied
Medtner - Stimmungsbilder (Mood Pictures)
Medtner - Three Improvisations
Mozart - String Quintets 1 and 2
Nielsen

• Symphony No.1
• Snefrid Suite
• Saul and David: prelude to Act 2 

Nørgård - Symphonies 1, 3 and 7
Olsen - [6 hymns]
Ørvad - Rura, rura barnið (arrangement)
Petersen - Nú firnast sól
Prokofiev

• Piano Sonata No.1
• Toccata in D minor
• Etudes, op.2

Rachmaninov

• Symphony No.2
• Piano Concerto No.2
• 12 songs, op.21

Rohwer - I mai er so stuttligt
Schubert - Moments Musicaux
Schubert - German Dances, D.783 and 790 
Schulz - [3 hymns]
Schumann - Symphony No.1
Schumann - 'Zwickau' Symphony 
Sibelius

• Symphonies 1 and 2
• En Saga
• Finlandia

Smetana - Piano Trio
Villa-Lobos

• Choros 2 and 3
• Two Choros (Bis)
• Introduction to the Choros
• Bachianas Brasileiras No.5

Vine - String Quartets 4 and 5
Waagstein - Tá ið skýming leggur
Whitwell - In the Deep Heart's Core

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And now, perhaps, you can see part of the reason why my popular music listening had died down.

The sheer explosion in the size of this list is due to a couple of factors. There are quite a few obscure names here as a result of a single disc of Faroese choral music. Not all of the composers represented are Faroese, but in those cases their work can be found in Faroese renditions, including in hymns.

But the other, bigger factor is that I made the biggest bulk purchase of music I'd ever made, and the majority of it arrived during November. A favourable exchange rate meant I seized an opportunity to make a serious dent in my long-term shopping list.

And so here we have a wealth of new recordings - Barber's orchestral works, Bartok's string quartets, Brahms' orchestral works, chamber music by Bridge, piano music by Dvorak, Haydn symphonies and quartets, Mahler, Medtner, Mozart quintets, Nielsen, Nørgård symphonies, Prokofiev piano, new Schubert, Schumann, Smetana and Villa-Lobos.

Phew. And these are just the first fruits.

Of the material that I listened to in November, the Brahms was a real highlight. The 1st Piano Concerto turned out to be a big, powerful work that satisfied me a lot more than most concertos do. The Barber and Schumann symphonies were also both very interesting, as was my most concentrated listening yet to Nørgård, almost certainly the most 'modern' composer in my collection.

It was of course all a bit much to take in and remember in detail, but I was generally pretty happy with my purchases. Now, if I can just make these posts a little closer to the actual listening...

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?