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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
