The Classical Music Guide Forums

Indeed, prevailing mass insanity is a compelling reason for faith Don't think that I haven't thought that :).........at least in combination with a mass willingness to accept what is drummed into us from an early age. And there is the newer theory that the brain is "programmed" to believe, which so...

I'm new to both CMG & GMG, having happened onto the latter first in a search for sites to help an interested youngster learn more about classical music. Both seem like terrific resources to me, comprising an overlapping community of knowledgeable, passionate, articulate music lovers. There are some ...

Sure, Hermann. They're the home team, one of the Bay Area's finest string quartets (the St. Lawrence SQ at Stanford is very good, and the Kronos Qt surely needs no introduction). Here's their website: http://www.asq4.com/about.htm

Corlyss, I agree, but sometimes one simply thinks "no one could think I'd seriously pay-out on the Bard and prefer Madonna" and just plough forward. Thank goodness. I hoped so, for your message was mixed, but thought it better to just take at at face value and hope for the best. From your end the s...

I bought the Fitzwilliams' cycle late last year, listened to it once through, and let it lie for a bit (it was a decidedly a decidedly positive experience, although not emotionally :cry: ). Recently, I decided to go through them again (when I get through them all, I'll post my impressions), and thi...

Why does the average youth emerging from high school need an education in evolutionary biology? Or Shakespeare – can anyone imagine something more utterly useless in the course of modern life than that garbage? Wow. What Shakespeare understood--and expressed--about human nature is one of the wonder...

Well, I suspect such devotion is not uncommon among the rank and file. That's what the leadership relies on to marshall outrage among the troops--or, more accurately, among the captains who command the troops. My comment addressed the liberals, not the creationists. IMO many of them are politically...

Hi, karl. McCoy Tyner, Stanley Clarke, & Billy Cobham together at Yoshi's back on January 27. One for the books. Best classical: John Williams, April 3. I've admired all these guys since I was a kid, but had never seen them before. Worth the wait. I hadn't realized that Tyner plays Yoshi's for a cou...

I don't believe for a second that there's any devotion to learning, truth, scientific or otherwise, or intelligence, or anything else behind this battle. It's politics, pure and simple. Well, I suspect such devotion is not uncommon among the rank and file. That's what the leadership relies on to ma...

I just am blown away that so many people in a largely educated (we can argue about the quality of the education another time) country are willing to say black is white and day is night. It says something to me about our culture. We tumbled down the rabbit hole long ago. Indeed, prevailing mass insa...

I confess to having never heard Thomson's music, unless inadvertently via some radio broadcast that failed to make an impression on me. I'll be interested in responses here, too, for when it comes to Thomson, I'm certainly guilty of contempt prior to investigation. I simply find it hard to believe t...

I've heard Al Franken referred to as "a comic genius." His political views are certainly laughable (or at least would be if not expressed in such viciously mean-spirited terms). Perhaps this is an attempt to outdo former SNL colleague Andy Kaufman?

Hi, Corlyss. No source--just my response to the foregoing posts. As a former intellectual (trained at some highly-esteemed temples of empiricism), I'm always chagrined by intellectual hubris. This seems like a fine site. I recognize some of your members from GMG, through which site I found yours. Ho...

Thank you, Darryl. Your kind comments shamed me into editing the post to remove a redundancy and a couple of stray commas. I do get to Dallas sometimes and will certainly consult DSO's calendar when planning my next visit.

I have only their Dvořák Violin Cto with Aikiko Suwanai. If all performances of this were so gorgeous, it might take a place in the repertoire alongside the Brahms, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn.

An intellectual is: (a) Someone who apprehends the world primarily through the intellect--the conscious "rational" mind. (b) A member of the intelligentsia--an elite determined largely by education and social class. Few who decry "anti-intellectualism" fail to fit both definitions above. Though perh...

The Adagio 3rd movement of Elgar's Cello Concerto--especially as played by Paul Tortelier with Sir Adrian Boult on the old Angel recording--rarely fails to evoke a deep sadness in me that verges on nostalgia and weltschmerz.

I like this set very much. It sparkles . Mr. Hough is lively and deft, formidably virtuosic, but his virtuosity is held in reserve rather than constantly calling attention to itself; it lets him play swiftly yet effortlessly, emphasizing the music and not his technique. His and Litton's approach to ...