Sweet as a nut, mate.
February 16th, 2010 Posted in classical music
It doesn’t matter how experienced (and pretentious) I get with regards to classical music, this way-overplayed piece will be awesome forever:
When I first started grad school everyone was showing off (fairly discreetly, for a bunch of borderline autistics) just how much stuff they knew, and how clever they were, and how they were gonna become professors. Blah blah blah, took this class, solved these problems, mathematical genius, blah blah. Well, after a couple of weeks of getting assaulted by graduate school, almost everyone did a perfect half-spin, and it became cool to talk about how you would NEVER stay in academia, and how things were way more impossible for you. And of course now, at graduation time, everyone is going on to do post-docs.
Well that’s sort of how I feel about the Nutcracker Suite. It’s the kind of piece which is fine to like when you listen to classical only casually, then you have to not like it for a bit, and finally it’s alright to come back to it again. As long as you give some sort of long-winded explanation proving that you know it’s not considered a masterpiece or anything. Classical musical enthusiasts snooty? Never!
February 16th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Indeed, like mentioning in every review of Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky or even the slow movement of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, that “the conductor/orchestra/soloist is not milking all the emotions, because the music speaks for itself”.
Why not just admit that feeling emotions that overwhelms one’s mind is OK for an adult; you’re allowed to cry as well?
Similarly, having *fun* with some light-hearted music is a big no-no for a “serious connoisseur” of classical music!
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:41 am
I had to start Black Dogs again after it was taken down. Thought you might like to know.
April 6th, 2010 at 10:53 am
But it *is* a masterpiece! It has amazing melodies and delightfully descriptive orchestration. And this was the first ever piece to use a celesta as well!