After listening to yesterday’s (Day 60) compositions from Falla and Berlioz, today’s album is a breath of fresh air. And I’ve never been one of Haydn’s biggest fans. But this is filet mignon compared to yesterday’s Big Macs. Not that there’s anything wrong with Big Macs. Sometimes – especially when one is in the car, … [Read more…]
I decided I needed a change of pace from my usual listening post of nut-squeezing, piped-in music and, thus, chose a local food store that also features a large dining area and a kiosk that serves famous caffeinated brews (hint: it’s named after “the scrupulous and steadfast first mate of the Pequod,” in Herman Melville’s … [Read more…]
It’s a beautiful morning here in West Michigan. Temperature is a delightful 70 degrees under sunny skies and a relatively low humidity of 77%. By all accounts, it’s perfect. So, I decided to make the screened-in porch my office this morning. (Who wouldn’t?) My Sands Hotel Casino mug is beside me, as is the unmistakable … [Read more…]
I’m not sure I can express how little I cared for this performance. I was bored from the first five minutes, and I didn’t hear an exciting note thereafter. Whatever this piece of music is (another one of Strauss’ “Tone Poems,” from that I gather), I didn’t get it. Some composers resonate with me. Deeply. … [Read more…]
Okay. I’ll admit it. When I saw that today’s composer was Tchaikovsky, I cringed. Just a little. I’ve encountered Pyotr twice before in my Fritz Reiner project: Day 7, with his Piano Concerto No. 1, and Day 13, with his 1812 Overture In my first encounter, I compared Tchaikovsky to Swedish heavy metal guitarist Yngwie … [Read more…]
This morning’s fare is a hodgepodge of music from four different composers: Johan Strauss II, Carl Maria Weber, Josef Strauss, and Richard Strauss. The overall theme is Vienna. Since I’m not really a fan of Strauss, nor of waltzes as a general rule, I’m not sure I’ll dig today’s CD. But I’m a trooper. I’ll … [Read more…]
Arthur Rubinstein could play chopsticks and I’d sit up and take notice. I’ve developed a keen interest in Rachmaninoff thanks to this set of Fritz Reiner CDs. I never gave the Russian composer a second thought prior to this. But now I’m intrigued, hooked by Rachmaninoff’s ability to write multi-layered music, usually featuring complex piano … [Read more…]
Now this is more like it. As I’ve mentioned, several years ago (July 21, 2018 – December 29, 2018, to be precise) I spent 162 Days with Beethoven “Evaluating Symphonies 1-9 from 18 CD Box Sets.” (Famed conductor Herbert von Karajan was in there twice, with two different box sets. If memory serves, he recorded … [Read more…]
Richard Strauss again. This project of listening to the 63-CD Fritz Reiner box set is good for me. I wouldn’t normally listening to Bartok or Strauss or Tchaikovsky were it not for this project. So I’m being exposed to different composers. Whether I like them or not. And, I must admit, I haven’t liked Richard … [Read more…]
I admit it: I don’t get Bartok. Oh, I can read who he was and what he accomplished. And I, like many others, am impressed by his credentials. In fact, to be honest, I just learned from his entry on Wikipedia things about him that I didn’t know: Béla Viktor János Bartók; 25 March 1881 … [Read more…]