I’m surprised and pleased! This morning’s CD is much more enjoyable than yesterday’s. The performances sound better to me. At least, they’re more robust than what I heard yesterday. Woo-hoo! There are a couple of items from Kenneth Morgan’s book Fritz Reiner Maestro & Martinet that I’d like to mention. First, this from page 214: … [Read more…]
Now this is more like it. Whenever I think of Classical music, I think of composers from the Classical period – Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, et al. Also, I think of Anton Bruckner, who straddled Classical and Romantic, but whose symphonies (to me) seem more Classical than Romantic in their construction. Essentially, I think of composers … [Read more…]
My listening post today for two Mozart compositions is, actually, tonight. I didn’t get around to listening this morning because I just wanted to sit in a restaurant and eat, not eat while listening to music and writing. Sue me. As it turns out, it’s a good thing I didn’t decide to listen to the … [Read more…]
Today’s listening fare is Beethoven’s Eroica (Symphony in E-Flat, Op. 55). Three years ago, I spent five and a half months (162 Days) listening to all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies, as interpreted by 17 different conductors (Herbert von Karajan appears twice) in 18 CD box sets. So I’m relatively familiar with Symphony No. 3. To … [Read more…]
Full disclosure: I’m a huge fan of Arthur Rubinstein. More disclosure: I’m not a huge fan of Brahms. I could listen to Mr. Rubinstein all day long; and, in fact, I bought the Arthur Rubinstein Complete Album Collection box set in November of 2013. I paid a little over $100 for it. I just checked. … [Read more…]
This morning, my “office” is a nearby Panera, a restaurant known for its Asiago bagels, Light Roast coffee, loud-talking fellow diners, and truly awful piped-in music. The bagels require toasting twice (sometimes, they actually do that, too), the Light Roast requires that someone makes sure the urn is filled (sometimes, they actually do that, too), … [Read more…]