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jbuck919

Horowitz was an eccentric pianist if ever there was one. In his later years, he insisted on playing Kinderszenen at every recital, a work that any school-child pianist of a certain talent including myself could play quite adequately. As John F pointed out, people still came because they wanted to sa...

jbuck919

I do suggest that you listen to them because they are a gorgeous performance. Nobody can explain the Bach cello suites. Though I'm sure he knew the basics of the instrument, it was not one of his. In a contrapuntal sense, they are all but impossible. No cellist in his own time is known to have accom...

jbuck919

Sorry, Ben HAIM. ( Wait until you're 70 ! ). Haim (chaim), as in the late actor Corey Haim who died much too young, is of course Hebrew for "life," no matter how one pronounces it. I've been trying to think about a violin concerto that might not be popularly known here. There aren't very many that ...

jbuck919

Two words: Clarence Thomas.

jbuck919

Thank you, John. I knew nothing about Robert Levin. He is a miracle. So many mediocre professors at even the finest universities. I did have one professor named Claudio Spies who was a manuscript expert, not just of Mozart, and had a huge collection of facsimiles. As you know, Mozart did not write t...

jbuck919

You are rather making us work for this. I have zero interest in the Holberg Suite, so to get past it is already a chore. Also, there is no such thing as a superior performance of a Mozart concerto, all of which were long ago mastered by great pianists. If there is a problem, it is that no one is wil...

jbuck919

Maybe you're right - I hope so. But for me, both conductors are at best of the second rank, as Alan Gilbert was before them. And if neither has an agenda for his tenure, or at least some major projects, they're lacking in what one of our presidents called "the vision thing," which Gilbert certainly...

jbuck919

Just got an email from B&N that says: John, if you liked Mozart in Vienna: The Final Decade, our expert booksellers recommend these top titles in the Music category The titles: Just Kids Illustrated Edition Led Zeppelin, by Led Zeppelin Beastie Boys Book My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road o...

jbuck919

There's a lot to question in that, starting with Nixon in China being an undisputed masterpiece. But mainly, they don't present any performance by most of the figures mentioned, requiring us to seek them separately on YouTube assuming anything is available. Also, though I never think any but the bes...

jbuck919

There's a lot to question in that, starting with Nixon in China being an undisputed masterpiece. But mainly, they don't present any performance by most of the figures mentioned, requiring us to seek them separately on YouTube assuming anything is available.

jbuck919

I first learned the name of Mompou in college, and it was because my also very musical roommate thought his name so funny. Though it is not pronounced exactly the same, it is close enough to "mon poux" (my louse) to be quite hilarious. Just saying, and not criticizing Rach3 for his post.

jbuck919

There aren't enough trying to save their own hide to compensate for those who think their fate is tied with Trump and the Republican Right. Statistics, j. One swallow does not make a summer, or, as my mother used to say, if a sewing machine is broken, wishing will make it sew.

jbuck919

I am not optimistic. 2018 is not 1974. Most Republicans would die before they would give up Trump, if only because they are married to the party rather than the country.

jbuck919

Yes, but he was given a deal at least partly to get it over with before the November elections. I can't speak for other countries, but Americans have short memories, unless it's the phony situation with Hillary Clinton, Benghazi, and e-mails.

jbuck919

True, church acoustics are often a problem when performing music not composed with the long reverberations in mind. In his first season with the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur conducted Britten's War Requiem for his first Memorial Day free concert, in St. John the Divine. From where I sat, much ...

jbuck919

How so? Well, John, there is the question of acoustics. It rather reminds me of a rare performance of the Missa Solemnis attended by Pope Paul VI at St. Peter's basilica, which I was privileged to watch on channel 13 oh those many years ago. Then, the Ninth, the greatest and in some ways the most d...

jbuck919

They are performing the Ninth at Riverside Church? Heaven help us.

jbuck919

All I can say is that here we run into the difference between anatomically modern humans and human behavioral modernity. There is no figuring some things out, nor is there likely ever to be.

jbuck919

Which, to change the subject, explains why you are rather to the Right and don't even believe in Social Security. :roll: Sorry, Henry, but I know how to give it with both barrels when it is called for. I'm all for upward mobility for young people, and public libraries certainly facilitate this. So ...

jbuck919

We have many libraries in large- and small communities. I see them being used regularly by all sorts of people, young and old and in-between. While I have, personally, had no need to visit a library in a long time, except to attend NYCON conventions, I have my own ever-expanding library in a variet...

jbuck919

While I have, personally, had no need to visit a library in a long time, except to attend NYCON conventions, I have my own ever-expanding library in a variety of subjects My personal library is large and growing, but I also read books which I'm not going to reread and don't need to own, and the pub...

jbuck919

Harris, somehow I got on their e-mail list and receive messages all the time. I avoid them because they seem to rely on spontaneous streaming rather than what can be held for retrospective listening. Now you seem to be having a problem even with the spontaneous streaming. I don't know how to advise ...

jbuck919

I have a landline and zap a signicant # of robocalls daily, free of charge. Nomorobo has become a necessity. Hangs up on way more than half of incoming robocalls after one ring. Can't recall the last robocall I got roped into answering, but it's been several years. https://www.nomorobo.com Free for...

jbuck919

One more to hear, a guilty pleasure : Czech Vladimir Soukup’s ( 1930-2012) Piano Concerto of 1961 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dga66XAWhhY Irrelevantly, I have known two people in my life, both wonderful fellows, named Soukup (generally pronounced by English speakers SOO-cup). Sorry, Rach3, bu...

jbuck919

The one I keep getting (about once a day) has a caller ID of "Medical Supplies." I always just press talk and then off, but I agree with Lance, it is a nuisance. Another is the call that says it is about my credit cards. The first thing they say is that there is no problem with my credit. (Thank you...

jbuck919

We have many libraries in large- and small communities. I see them being used regularly by all sorts of people, young and old and in-between. While I have, personally, had no need to visit a library in a long time, except to attend NYCON conventions, I have my own ever-expanding library in a variet...

jbuck919

These are all elementary pieces for a "young pianist." I could once have played them all myself, including the third movement of the Opus 27 no. 2, (not Opus 14) which is much easier than it sounds or looks like when watching a performance. I am way past form for that now, but it is hard to impress ...

jbuck919

I choose to resign from this thread, for it is clear that it is turning into a pissing contest, and on CMG I will avoid that at all costs.

jbuck919

One has to remember that Forbes means Malcolm Forbes and represents the top .01%. They represent a way of thinking that would go much further than deprive us of libraries. And BTW, the double meaning of liber in Latin is coincidental as with many words in English, while the double meaning of salus (...

jbuck919

To some people it may sound like a ridiculous juxtaposition, but my favorite pianists are Schiff and Murray Perahia, and the reason puzzles even me. Although I could not hope to accomplish anything like they have, they both impress me as pianists who have had to work hard to where they have gotten, ...

jbuck919

Handel doesn't count. He didn't write songs, but rather great choral works, and Dryden's text was intended to be set to music unlike most of the poetry we are considering. I appreciate the information and will certainly give it and the selections my serious attention over the next day or two. Also, ...

jbuck919

I think the part that disappointed me most, and I've read that it also disappointed Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who originated it and was a POW during WW II (though I have also heard the opposite), was the crucial settings of the poems by Wilfred Owen. English simply came too late to art song for even ...

jbuck919

Nobody ever wrote a bad violin concerto. Tend to agree with you , but “ bad” of course is in the ear of the listener . For me , these can be charitably referred to as “ interesting “ ; perhaps ? : Giacinto Scelsi, “Anahit “ for Violin and Orchestra ( 1965 ) : Well, what do you expect from a compose...

jbuck919

In defense of Charles Rosen as a pianist, I must say that his only failure in the studio was the Beethoven Op. 111. In other repertoire, he did very well, IMHO, with excellent performances of Haydn, at a time when both Richter and Horowitz were just beginning to explore that composer. I still own h...

jbuck919

For me, other perhaps under-appreciated Britten works would be his Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, and Cello Symphony, although I prefer the first two. Just finished my hearing of the " War Requiem ". As I noted, I am not much of choral fan, but there certainly were nice moments , and I agree was ...

jbuck919

Primarily to Belle: As the only possessor here of two degrees in music theory, I assure you and everybody that there are only a very few great music theoreticians since Renaissance times, and Rosen is one of them. (Others are Fuchs, Schenker, Tovey, believe it or not Leopold Mozart, CPE Bach, and Qu...

jbuck919

If I had to use just one piece to "sell" Britten, it would be the serenade for tenor, horn and strings. What an extraordinary range of expression within such a short time, from the bright cheerfulness of "Queen and Huntress" to the darkness of "The Sick Rose" and sheer terror of "The Lyke-Wake Dirg...

jbuck919

[Brendel] rarely gives specific examples of what he's talking about; he may not have needed to when explaining things to himself, but by publishing he has undertaken to explain things to us, and too often I can't come up with examples off the top of my head of what he's talking about. Obviously, co...

jbuck919

I doubt that Trump has any problem sleeping at all. The problem he has is staying awake. (I would not be surprised if it were eventually discovered that he was on pills prescribed by physicians he pays off not to tattle on him.) As for falling asleep truly accidentally, it happens to everyone over t...

jbuck919

Many of your second paragraph comments are exactly my own complaints about Charles Rosen!!! English, of course, was his first language. Rosen has to be taken as a whole. In his book on Romantic music, he doesn't even mention Brahms, the greatest composer chronologically after Beethoven. Yet it is c...

jbuck919

I'm afraid I have a bit of a blind spot about Britten, and I know for a fact that among knowledgeable musicians I am not the only one to feel that way. Not everybody loves everything that became famous, you know. Vous avez seul la clef à cette parade.

jbuck919

I've heard this work live and also its 'disastrous' Coventry premiere performance which I thought was fabulous. After a half century it holds up well, as does Bernstein's Mass. Well, the recording is not disastrous. Unless you were actually at Coventry when it premiered I assume that is what you ar...

jbuck919

Great article, Len, thank-you! I think the finale to Stravinsky's Firebird is an excellent choice. What about "Mars," from Holst's The Planets ? For piano music, I would recommend Chopin's Andante Spiniato & Grande Polonaise . The sad truth is that most young people today are not offered European c...

jbuck919

All I've ever heard was the first recording based on the first (reportedly disastrous) performance at Coventry Cathedral. I can't think of any reason to re-visit it.

jbuck919

Nothing on God's Earth will ever convince the great majority of people to take an interest in classical music. We are lucky that the tiny percent of us who do, made it, and for all of us, I imagine, it depended on an exposure which is denied to many children these days. As a math teacher, I routinel...

jbuck919

I've flown many times in my life, including on wide-bodied jets, but my first memory almost put me off it for life. Anyone ever flown on a Douglas DC-7 from California to Guam? I believe there is one in the Smithsonian now. I was hopelessly airsick at the age of seven for something like 13 hours, an...

jbuck919

Someone, perhaps John F, may actually have the book The Joy of Opera by J. Merrill Knapp in his library. It is perfectly awful, and Knapp, whom I mention by name because I assume he is long dead, was what is known as tenured but useless faculty at Princeton at the time. Now I admit I was not the bes...

jbuck919

When I was in my 20s in Maryland, I heard a radio performance of the winner of the Maryland State Music Competition playing the Beethoven Opus 111. (I am not making this up.) He played it as though he had composed it. I don't really understand the point of censoring YouTube content regarding prodigi...

jbuck919

This is a complete change of subject, and you must feel free to ignore it and continue with the topic of the thread, but I can never hear about "stilted English" from a German speaker and not think of this, which Freud, who at the time had spent no period in an English-speaking country, wrote in bet...

jbuck919

It is a very famous saying which I have had in memory in both languages since grad school. Of course, there is not an ounce of modernity in that work. Now, who allegedly said, though even my most brilliant colleagues have never been able to find it in his writings, "How will they ever understand my ...

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