The Classical Music Guide Forums

lmpower

The first word that popped into my mind was Turandot, but I should mention that some people consider Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron to be the greatest modern opera. I also like Stravinsky's Rake's Progress but mostly for the plot and characters, though Stravinsky does a fine job backing it up with the...

lmpower

I agree with Sator. I have tried to have a broad representative collection of great music rather than a lot of versions of the same thing.

lmpower

The lesson from this is to diversify your investments. Putting all your eggs in one basket is risky, even if you believe it to be a strong basket at the time.

lmpower

I own that recording on LP, and it truly is a sublime experience. I'll never forget the first time I discovered Mahler's Lied von der Erde. I was impelled to get hold of the score and start memorizing the lyrics. This is a classic case of words and music enriching each other.

lmpower

Yes, use your public library and listen on the radio and live performances. I have been collecting records for six decades, and I still have not gotten into collecting multiple versions of the same work. There are a few notable exceptions. I have four different versions of Richard Strauss' four last...

lmpower

She does have a point. I frankly hadn't thought of Jihadis having an influence on impressionable American prisoners. Perhaps the Jihadis could be segregated into a separate building. The inmates in American prisons probably don't have the best critical thinking skills. It would be all too easy for t...

lmpower

Can it be that nobody has mentioned Cyrano De Bergerac? For me that is one of the purest tearjerkers of all time.

lmpower

I have just listened to Mozart's C minor mass with Neville Marriner. I am amazed at how beautiful and undervalued this work is. I suppose it is overshadowed by the Requiem. The companion piece on the disc is the Ave Verum Corpus of Mozart. This has to be one of the most tender and soothing religious...

lmpower

I don't really use those features. I frequent pub, films and music. I also check the members list occasionally.

lmpower

BOOK REVIEW 'Surrender' by Bruce Bawer A missed opportunity to explore the intersection of Islamic fundamentalism with Western multiculturalism. By Tim Rutten May 20, 2009 A mediocre book on an important topic always is disappointing. When the treatment also is shallow and vulgarly argued -- as is t...

lmpower

Of the millions of animals that have lived only a small minority have become fossils, and of those only a smaller minority have been found. This illustrates why proving evolution from the fossil record is difficult. The anti-Darwinians like to point out gaps in the fossil record, but those gaps are ...

lmpower

Like Corlyss I prefer the chamber music, songs and late piano works by Brahms. Nevertheless I also enjoy all four symphonies, especially the second. There is a really special and unusual mood about his second symphony. Describing it defies words.

lmpower

I was struck by the fact that Thomas Mann was listed in the Santa Monica phonebook after he had won a Nobel prize. The teenage Susan Sontag was able to phone him and get a date for tea.

lmpower

I have never seen Barry Lyndon, but I have noticed it on the list of greatest movies of all time. My curiosity is piqued now.

lmpower

Well I prefer Mozart also, and I don't want to have to choose between Verdi and Puccini, but if I am forced it would have to be Puccini. I think it is too harsh to see nothing but saccharine in Puccini. He achieves greatness in Turandot and perhaps in other places too. It is astounding how music lov...

lmpower

I have owned the BMG record of Steven Isserlis plays Schumann for years. This includes the cello concerto as well as some of the pieces that are on the new record. It has given me many hours of enjoyment. I don't see much reason for me to buy this new record though.

lmpower

I am very pleased by the praise for Faust and Avenhaus, because that is the version I own in my collection. These works frankly haven't enchanted me as much as some other Schumann pieces. I guess I'll have to go back and do some intense listening after reading such enthusiastic appreciation.

lmpower

People who condemn Truman are usually not old enough to remember World War II. The allegation that we went easy on Germans because they were white folks is refuted by the Dresden fire bombing. It is also a fact that the Germans were already defeated while the Japanese might have held out much longer.

lmpower

I first read the Koran in the summer of 1957 along with the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, Analects of Confucius, Buddhist sutras the same summer. I have since read the Koran from cover to cover three more times. I am always astounded at what a poor book it is. It does not compare well wit...

lmpower

I finally got around to watching "Religulous" on DVD. I didn't laugh as much as I expected. My experience was a little different from Ralph's. I found it to be a serious film interspersed with a few humorous moments. I actually learned a few things worth knowing. The most humorous part was the inter...

lmpower

The only advice I can give Dulcinea is to be true to herself and not let the label "Aspergers" be a stumbling block in her life.

lmpower

That's right Cosima. They considered a happy Hollywood ending with Nathaniel giving a triumphant concert, but decided against it. I am happy that they were relatively true to the reality, because I and many Times readers have grown close to Nathaniel over the past few years. We don't want Hollywood ...

lmpower

I have recently been dealing with a couple of young men who were diagnosed autistic. One of them is the chess champion of this two county area, which includes millions of people. The other was recently selected to attend a leadership training conference. They have overcome their "handicap" magnifice...

lmpower

I have long been a reader of the Steve Lopez column in the Los Angeles Times, so my wife and I have been following this story from the beginning, long before it was a book or movie. Needless to say we are eager to see it. It is a fascinating true story. Hollywood tampered with the story only mildly....

lmpower

Flynn was the superstar of swashbucklers. I have read that the expression "in like Flynn" refers to his supreme position in Hollywood for several years. His autobiography "My Wicked, Wicked Ways" was originally called "In Like Me."

lmpower

Not just the film but the whole life of Fossey fascinates me. She seems to be an example of someone who had trouble with human relations and turned to animals for solace. The preacher who eulogized her said that she was to gorillas what Jesus was to humans. After all she did give her life to save th...

lmpower

What about M. Night Syamalan dropping from "Sixth Sense" down to the level of "Lady in the Water."

lmpower

Sipping a little wine makes me receptive to poetry and music.

lmpower

We didn't get around to watching this until last night. This was really an educational experience. Seeing the rotten attitude of the audience and judges gradually change. I found it quite moving. It is a modern day cinderella story. It even caused me to look up Paul Potts on youtube. He was a simila...

lmpower

The More the Merrier
Houseboat
Spy Game
The Sum of all Fears
Mars Attacks
Clear and Present Danger
The American President

lmpower

It all depends on how you want to draw the lines of classification. West Side Story and Porgy and Bess are musicals close to being opera. If you want to blur the picture even more, take a look at operetta, a European forerunner of the Broadway musical. Lehar's Giuditta was actually premiered at the ...

lmpower

I generally go to Roger Ebert first.

lmpower

I am absolutely appalled by this. I lived in Sweden for a year in 1958. It really was an enlightened Utopia at that time. The fact that Pat Robertson prefaced this clip doesn't undermine it's validity. Let me give a small example of the transformation of Swedish society. The clip said pork had been ...

lmpower

Speaking of musical backup, how about Pier Paolo Pasolini's selection of Bach, Mozart, Prokofiev, Missa Luba and negro spirituals. He had a knack for picking appropriate music for each scene from eclectic sources Regarding blue eyed Jesus actors, I don't think that is too important, but I have a fan...

lmpower

We are fortunate to have Agnes to inform us on Mozart, who is one of the dearest people in world history to me. I think that because Mozart cherished his inner child, he was liberated to grow to heavenly heights. This is best illustrated in Zauberflote, where he expresses the inner child or carnal m...

lmpower

I agree that Streetcar Named Desire was a truly great performance by Vivian Leigh. All of the other actors were also excellent. This may be Tennessee Williams masterpiece and it was beautifully realized on screen. The musical score enhanced it a great deal. I believe it was by Alex North.

lmpower

Have any of you heard Vadim Brodsky play the Sibelius concerto? My recent experience of seeing Jennifer Koh play that concerto was also pretty impressive. I realize now how fortunate I was to have seen Heifetz play the Beethoven concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Since the Sibelius is one o...

lmpower

The worst omission is George Stevens' "The Greatest Story Ever Told."

lmpower

That was more interesting information from Chalkperson! I remember that Huxley said that Gesualdo had to be flogged in order to go to the toilet. It was later alleged that Huxley made that up. I am strangely relieved for Huxley's sake that he was telling the truth, though sorry about Gesualdo's life...

lmpower

You know Thomas Mann lived in Los Angeles from 1939 to 1952. When Susan Sontag was a high school girl she found his number in the phonebook, called his house, and his wife invited her and her boyfriend to tea. Can you imagine a Nobel prizewinning author so accessible to the public today? It seems ev...

lmpower

I thank Chalkperson for this information on Gesualdo. I was first enticed to subscribe to the Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles by an advertisement that a Gesualdo program would be preceded by a lecture on the composer by Aldous Huxley. Huxley didn't go into nearly as much detail as Chalkperson...

lmpower

This article caught my eye in the Times this morning, and I was just getting ready to post it myself. My recent attendance at symphony concerts just reinforces my belief that there is no substitute for a live performance. Even my expensive stereo is no competition for the vivid and dynamic sound of ...

lmpower

I am gratified that we all share so much enthusiasm for her work.

lmpower

These are all fine suggestions. Although I don't really have one favorite film composer, I want to put in a good word for George Auric, who wrote the music for Symphonie Pastorale.

lmpower

The suicide rate did jump about 21 percent during the depression, but it seems murder-suicide was not as fashionable. I wonder what role the copycat effect from mass media publicity has? Various social pathologies seem to become fads like airline hijacking or suicide bombers.

lmpower

Haydn was the Papa of classical music.
Beethoven initiated the romantic movement in music.
Perhaps Gabrieli was a forerunner of the Baroque.

lmpower

Eduard Van Beinum had just been appointed conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic when he suddenly died. I remember how surprised I was as a subscriber at that time. I only got to see him conduct a relatively few times.

lmpower

Last night we saw Jennifer Koh play the Sibelius violin concerto with the Redlands symphony. The conductor was Co Nguyen. Although they attended the Curtis Institute at the same time, this was the first time they had ever performed together. I notice that Jennifer has received some positive comments...

lmpower

I only thing in my collection with Midori is the Elgar and Franck sonatas. I enjoy it very much.

lmpower

The Schwarzkopf, Ludwig, Edelmann version will always be the definitive performance for me. I was fortunate enough to see Schwarzkopf and Edelmann perform this work twice with the San Francisco opera. Frances Bible sang the Octavian role in those performances though.

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