The Classical Music Guide Forums

Belle

Yes, I'm a donor and member of the IPA and I admire Brendan (not just as a reformed Marxist). Having been to one of his presentations in Sydney several years ago, he makes good arguments.

I think you've posted it on the Chatterbox instead of the Pub.

Belle

Emanuel Ax plays Haydn Sonata 53 Hob XV1/34. My favourite Haydn sonata; it's such a joy, filled with humour. This is a somewhat 'romantic' reading: I still favour the Brautigam but this one from Ax is absolutely charming. One thing I've noticed with these works when listening whilst reading the scor...

Belle

Our second son has travelled extensively in remote Australia - WA and SA - for work. The crews are all equipped with Starlink in their vehicles in case of breakdown or emergencies. Coping with the existential heat is a daily challenge for all crews and staff. Dust is off the charts, but it would be ...

Belle

I admit I was muddying the waters by mentioning B#. The main reason you see odd note names like B# or G## is because these notes are leading you somewhere. B# is like a finger pointing to C#. If you see a B# written on the page you can be sure there's a C# coming up soon. If it were going somewhere...

Belle

Absolute gold!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSI-ZRTNwWk

Belle

Thanks for this. I'm always intrigued about B# when it could be C! But that enharmonic 'spelling' will depend on the original key of the piece (E Minor in this case) and all keys relative to that, I guess - apart from some modulations to distant places. I've forgotten so much theory over the decades...

Belle

I agree that Atkinson's analysis is somewhat discursive, but I found some of the references useful. When you refer to those conventional harmonic progressions 1-1V-V-1 it did come as a surprise to find the less conventional modulations of which you write. One can 'read' different chords, pivots and ...

Belle

When these amazing works are played (and deconstructed) I always get the feeling that Brahms had the beating heart a lion trapped inside his dowdy, avuncular mien. He was in reality a VOLCANO.

Belle

I loved this quote, and it's so very true. I never grow tired of the Bach Passions, the B Minor Mass or 'the 48' and many more works by Bach. Same response to Beethoven (except final movement Symphony 9 - pass!) and Brahms (except Ein Deutsches Requiem - pass). These lines about music and passion fr...

Belle

Richard Atkinson completes his stunning essays on the forms of the Brahms symphonies with the Passacaglia which ends Symphony #4. He includes other works by Brahms to make his analysis, linking it back to previous compositions using this form of polyphonic complexity. I find it terribly moving looki...

Belle

The latest Kantor of Thomaskirche, Leipzig, is Swiss. Andreas Reize. A first for the role. The Passion performances I've posted here are both conducted by Reize.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rhAyVStAGA

Belle

I posted this recent performance of the St. John Passion in the wrong place. It's the same group which presented St. Matthew in their earlier performance, and which I'd posted under that heading. I've actually sung St. John Passion in a university choir - alto - decades ago (when a Musicology studen...

Belle

Oh, yes, of course!! Senior's moment. I'll repost it separately as it's from the same ensemble as recorded the St. Matthew earlier.

Belle

We've heard most of this before. The lead poisoning claim with regard to deafness; yeah, but Beethoven was going deaf by his late 20s. He wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament, out of despair, in 1802 a couple of months before his 32nd birthday. There is no irrefutable evidence that any of Beethoven's h...

Belle

I ask again if this is the same research outfit which predicted a win for Mrs. Clinton in 2016? And, if your stats are correct, they just prove my point about wholesale propaganda anyway. :lol: There's never any nuance, any discussion, any complexity or thoughtfulness. Just knee-jerk, easy to reiter...

Belle

Levit here from circa 15:20 playing this last movement of " The Hunt " sonata by Beethoven. Lots of humour and personality in this piece, in spades!! Levit has 'characters' in his playing of this work and, of course, it has a fairly hectic pace! He builds up the tension and brings a sense of relief ...

Belle

This Brahms #4 with Kna and the Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester (1953) sounds only a little like Dvorak - whereas the earlier 3 symphonies of Brahms do. The 4th is unique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su-iB-GM0tQ&t=15s

Belle

Monteverdi, Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi (Libro Ottavo) Jordi Savall. Beautiful, translucent and sophisticated music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TjkhWARBVE

Belle

Here's a fairly new performance of the St. Matthew Passion from Thomaskirche, Leipzig. This time one of my preferred countertenors, Andreas Scholl, is singing. It's an excellent performance altogether, with some interesting organ and continuo figurations - even in the chorale sections. https://www.y...

Belle

In Australia a major smallgoods company which makes processed ham is called Don. Just saying.

Belle

OH. MY. GOD.

Belle

Two men were talking. "Do you know that there are millions of people living on the moon?" "No. Imagine how crowded it is at half moon!!" "We could take a small room, couldn't we? That's an idea, isn't it? Yes, but who said we had to have an idea?" "The last mass trials were a great success. Soon the...

Belle

Another inflationary factor is labor shortage and not just in housing, but here is an article on housing: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/21/business/construction-industry-needs-immigrant-workers/index.html Of course, one of Trump's right hand men is xenophobe Stephen Miller, as is most of MAGA. Firstl...

Belle

Don't give it a rest for ethical reasons, supporting a terrorist organisation? Oh, nice one. And was that survey conducted by the people who predicted a Clinton win all through 2016? Donald Trump won't win the election and I'll say it till the day. Meanwhile, I note lefty heads are still exploding!!...

Belle

I don't want to think negatively about Yuja Wang (BTW, have you noticed the copy-cat pianists in the skimpy livery appearing on YT?). Her performances of modern composers and the speed at which she learns these works makes my head spin, as well as her huge repertoire. This off-the-charts impressive....

Belle

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/0 ... e-justice/

Belle

It's a Burmester system in ours, but the car itself is made in the USA. Reviews were good for the surround system, but I'll reserve judgment for now as our present Mercedes in the same class (also made in USA) has to be sold privately before we take possession of the new one. This new one has air su...

Belle

This is a very fine performance of St. Matthew Passion and I've posted it here before. I've seen the Akademie fur Alte Musik twice in Vienna. Wonderful!! What I love here is the faster tempi, the lyricism and the almost out-of-tune opening note!! It sent me right back to Leipzig and JS Bach's tenure...

Belle

Yuja Wang is technical wizard and she is ideal for much of the recent repertoire, like Glass and Kapustin. Probably Scriabin and Liszt. But her mannered playing, by which I mean alternating pp with mf no matter how the score reads, is a deal-breaker. In the romantic repertoire I also find her playin...

Belle

What a fabulous musician and wonderful human!! The irony will go way over the heads of the offenders, of which there is never a shortage.

Belle

Completely over the top!! Absolutely off-the-charts commentary. When I cuddle my 7 month old grand-daughter I wonder how anybody can abort a life, except in the most extreme situations or a life-threatening one. In the vast, vast majority of cases there's no excuse because of the contraceptive Pill....

Belle

I strongly recommend Paul McCreech and the Gabrielli players. The famous Richter version from 1959 flirts with HIP. I also have Solti, Gardiner, Chailly, Christoph Spering (HIP from memory - though all the 21st century accounts are influenced by it) and Georg Christoph Biller which was well reviewe...

Belle

Yes, we have cars in Australia. But we don't need these for some people to drive us mad. :D I've been busy helping family recently and haven't had a lot of time to order my CDs, but will get onto this shortly. The car is the newer, bigger, more powerful model of our previous Mercedes with an excelle...

Belle

But back to #1: If this group is so hard to find, it should surprise nobody in the internet age that something has gone amiss. And that's truly unfortunate. Perhaps the problem is with the searcher ? I just Googled " Classical music forums " and Chatterbox here came up as the second result and the ...

Belle

Things are finally looking up!!

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/0 ... ritarians/

Belle

The Spanish flu outbreak after WW1 was made worse by the depredations and shortages of WW1. Many people hadn't enough good food during this period, particularly in France, and the demobbed military was in pretty bad shape. This made people all the more susceptible to diseases of every kind. Whatever...

Belle

Thanks for the Presto Classical tip. It looks like I'll have to go this way, especially for the Brautigam Beethoven cycle which I really do want. The spouse bought us a new car yesterday so I may have more disc brakes than compact discs as time goes on!!

Belle

Brendel is a highly prolific recording artist, and I have well over 100 of his CDs. I find him entirely reliable, always thoughful, poetic and worth hearing. Brendel is quite the polymath; painter, poet and writer (on music). On top of that he's warm, with a good sense of humour. I attended a lectu...

Belle

A lecture about his life - as a substitute for an autobiography - but I'm not sure when this was. Probably about 2013, judging by his appearance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msgJ4Fn8dTY Belle, 1) At 00:27 of the video, Brendel said he had lived in London for almost 50 years. 2) At 16:23 of the ...

Belle

There are little children on Mein Kampus at Sydney University shouting "Intifada" and 'from the river to the sea". That makes their propaganda from the cradle absolutely complete. All thanks to the Left side of politics. Conservatives are much more interested in the welfare of our children and letti...

Belle

It's proving to be difficult getting the CDs I want. Having ordered Brautigam's Beethoven cycle some months ago I've just had an email saying it's 'not available'. Our government stitched up a deal with Amazon so that Australians would pay tax on all purchases, so buying from overseas has become com...

Belle

Tonight it's been all Bach, including a one hour documentary on YT made in Germany circa 1985 with the range of musicians and musicologists. It centred around Bach's life and compositional style and we all know much of this already. The spouse sat with me watching it in complete silence and stillnes...

Belle

Yet another version of the very same sorry tale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asS6RZMwAEc

Belle

Actually the statistics for both female and male-initiated domestic homicide have reduced in the last two decades, but I don't have the actual stats at my fingertips. The role of drugs and alcohol are certainly part of that mix, as is financial problems. In the late 1970s I do remember somebody tell...

Belle

A lecture about his life - as a substitute for an autobiography - but I'm not sure when this was. Probably about 2013, judging by his appearance. The comments below don't make it clearer either. He turned 93 last January.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msgJ4Fn8dTY

Belle

Things are going from bad to worse on Mein Kampus. Why are they even there; they'll only need to learn seven words for a successful career: "will that be fries with that today?"

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/0 ... ted-brats/

Belle

Comedy is alive and well in places not accessible to those who would police our thoughts. My local watering hole for instance is a good example. You can regularly hear laughter amongst the patrons as someone recounts an anecdote or tells a joke that they've heard. It's also alive in the workplace f...

Belle

Kamela, Kamela
I know it sounds a bit bizarre
But in Kamela, Kamela
That's how conditions are.

The snow may never slush upon the hillside
By nine p.m. The moonlight must appear
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-after-ing than here in Kamela.

Belle

What are your figures on females killing partners and children, Barney? We have one living 40km up the road from here who was recently released after serving 20 years for killing her 4 babies; the trial and evidence was deemed 'unsafe'. Suffice it to say her husband, who died recently and who had re...

Belle

Professor Alan Dershowitz refers to all this as "Mein Kampus". And he's nailed it. Of course, usual media attention seeking by a member of Bibi's friend Trump's legal team for Trump's first impeachment. https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/netanyahu-wants-alan-dershowitz-represe...

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