Kate
Deadhead
Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but CRF is so delightful...
Currently 6F, but when puppy & I ran earlier this afternoon the start temp was 21F with a casual breeze; 75 min. later when we cleared the trail, it was 17F with a strong W wind that was driving snow showers horizontal. Tomorrow's outing, with a forecast high of 18F, should be delightful!
Still, I was warmed by Morrisey's dulcimer Summer crooning while listening for the 827th time to "Louder Than Bombs"; honestly, I can think of few bands (like The Doors, TYA, Canned Heat, but certainly NOT the Dead by virtue of sluggish later work and plebian late-career originals like Samba, as well as disastrous early covers (i.e., Hey Jude on 3/1?! OUCH!)) who never performed a bad track as did The Smiths.
Even so, the bitter cold drained a 3/4-full ipod charge - that would otherwise last days - in about 60 minutes! Yet, optimism reigns as sourpuss Reiner and the first Klemperer installments are due in the post tomorrow.
Classical collectors amass on the basis of opportunity and, therefore, can accumulate a tremendous catalogue of backlogged listening. I found it both funny and poignantly profound when a poster on a Classical site contended that aficionados are perhaps under the delusion that they are purchasing the TIME to listen to all they collect...in which case, I'd continue buying big boxes until I was in hock for a few hundred years worth of recorded performances!
I'm an almost exclusive patron of the Dead Conductors - not to mention Composers - Society, which, for some reason a while back, caused me to question whether my Classical pursuits were unreasonably restricted by historical tunnel vision. This is by way of segue (note my Seussical rhyme scheme) to discussion of what I've been listening to at work during the past week.
I check in regularly at a couple genre-specific sites, like TalkClassical, so I was able to quickly accrue enough suggestions regarding recent works to fill a life-sized '85 Jerry doll! Yet, after a couple dozen contemporary compositions had me on the brink of sealing both ears with hot wax, I shifted to conductors and quickly discovered David Zinman and, in particular, his recent directorship of Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra....Holy Smokes!
For audiophiles - which I'm certainly not (I can groove to a decent C+/B- GD Aud any day!) - performances of the Zinman Symphonies & "other Classical works" box yield consistent sonic epiphanies by virtue of the magnificently engineered clarity, balance, and warm tonal space that positively illuminate the vast wealth of disparate, complex sound mined by Z and his orchestral arsenal.
In conjunction with the bright audioscape, Z's energetic approach to compositional execution often leaves me hitting "rewind" (or the digital equivalent thereof) after an unconventional - or outright heretical - passage that precipitates a snap of the head and murmured exclamation along the lines of "What?!" (kind of like listening to Jerry's solos on Loser 5/8 or TMNS 6/7/77).
But, further, it's not just Z and the fine audio engineering, but the very score off of which he and the orchestra work. What?, you say: Isn't Beethoven just Beethoven? Well, not really. And here's where I'm in way over my head. Apparently scholars, conductors, performers, and production companies disagree on the interpretation of the NOTES (kind of like a map's legend) accompanying a given Classical composition; for instance, I've read that LVB's famous 5th Symphony comprises over 300 pages when including all such annotations.
Back to Z and the Zurich Tonhalle: With respect to the box set's prodigious LVB component, Z apparently conducted under guidance of one of the newest - and arguably most recently accurate - interpretations of the great composer's original scores as translated by Norman del Mars. I give you these names for research, should you be so inclined, as the subtext here is absolutely intriguing!
Anyway, as I alluded earlier, the net effect is that even otherwise uninitiated veteran listeners will likely perk up on occasion either in revolt or pleasant surprise at Z's interpretations. Let me conclude this line of discussion by also mentioning that I've found traditional readings of Mahler to be somewhat ponderous, but throughout the 15 CDs committed to his works in the Zinman box, I've discovered a new and potent favourite based on his seemingly HGH-inspired modus operandi behind the podium! (kind of like discovering '77 Dead after insisting that a real devotee would never venture beyond '74)./peace, K
Currently 6F, but when puppy & I ran earlier this afternoon the start temp was 21F with a casual breeze; 75 min. later when we cleared the trail, it was 17F with a strong W wind that was driving snow showers horizontal. Tomorrow's outing, with a forecast high of 18F, should be delightful!
Still, I was warmed by Morrisey's dulcimer Summer crooning while listening for the 827th time to "Louder Than Bombs"; honestly, I can think of few bands (like The Doors, TYA, Canned Heat, but certainly NOT the Dead by virtue of sluggish later work and plebian late-career originals like Samba, as well as disastrous early covers (i.e., Hey Jude on 3/1?! OUCH!)) who never performed a bad track as did The Smiths.
Even so, the bitter cold drained a 3/4-full ipod charge - that would otherwise last days - in about 60 minutes! Yet, optimism reigns as sourpuss Reiner and the first Klemperer installments are due in the post tomorrow.
Classical collectors amass on the basis of opportunity and, therefore, can accumulate a tremendous catalogue of backlogged listening. I found it both funny and poignantly profound when a poster on a Classical site contended that aficionados are perhaps under the delusion that they are purchasing the TIME to listen to all they collect...in which case, I'd continue buying big boxes until I was in hock for a few hundred years worth of recorded performances!
I'm an almost exclusive patron of the Dead Conductors - not to mention Composers - Society, which, for some reason a while back, caused me to question whether my Classical pursuits were unreasonably restricted by historical tunnel vision. This is by way of segue (note my Seussical rhyme scheme) to discussion of what I've been listening to at work during the past week.
I check in regularly at a couple genre-specific sites, like TalkClassical, so I was able to quickly accrue enough suggestions regarding recent works to fill a life-sized '85 Jerry doll! Yet, after a couple dozen contemporary compositions had me on the brink of sealing both ears with hot wax, I shifted to conductors and quickly discovered David Zinman and, in particular, his recent directorship of Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra....Holy Smokes!
For audiophiles - which I'm certainly not (I can groove to a decent C+/B- GD Aud any day!) - performances of the Zinman Symphonies & "other Classical works" box yield consistent sonic epiphanies by virtue of the magnificently engineered clarity, balance, and warm tonal space that positively illuminate the vast wealth of disparate, complex sound mined by Z and his orchestral arsenal.
In conjunction with the bright audioscape, Z's energetic approach to compositional execution often leaves me hitting "rewind" (or the digital equivalent thereof) after an unconventional - or outright heretical - passage that precipitates a snap of the head and murmured exclamation along the lines of "What?!" (kind of like listening to Jerry's solos on Loser 5/8 or TMNS 6/7/77).
But, further, it's not just Z and the fine audio engineering, but the very score off of which he and the orchestra work. What?, you say: Isn't Beethoven just Beethoven? Well, not really. And here's where I'm in way over my head. Apparently scholars, conductors, performers, and production companies disagree on the interpretation of the NOTES (kind of like a map's legend) accompanying a given Classical composition; for instance, I've read that LVB's famous 5th Symphony comprises over 300 pages when including all such annotations.
Back to Z and the Zurich Tonhalle: With respect to the box set's prodigious LVB component, Z apparently conducted under guidance of one of the newest - and arguably most recently accurate - interpretations of the great composer's original scores as translated by Norman del Mars. I give you these names for research, should you be so inclined, as the subtext here is absolutely intriguing!
Anyway, as I alluded earlier, the net effect is that even otherwise uninitiated veteran listeners will likely perk up on occasion either in revolt or pleasant surprise at Z's interpretations. Let me conclude this line of discussion by also mentioning that I've found traditional readings of Mahler to be somewhat ponderous, but throughout the 15 CDs committed to his works in the Zinman box, I've discovered a new and potent favourite based on his seemingly HGH-inspired modus operandi behind the podium! (kind of like discovering '77 Dead after insisting that a real devotee would never venture beyond '74)./peace, K
