Moved
Ok! I’ve got internet dripping off of my eyelids again. I’ve got music streaming wirelessly from the ‘office’ aka ‘north wing’ aka ‘disaster recovery zone’ into the living room, courtesy of the software titan we love to hate: Microsoft. Yeah, I’ve been a hardcore free-software lovin’ flower child for the last ten years, but now that there is an XBox sitting underneath the TV it requires about three clicks and a few wireless password entries to get everything pumped out there. It makes me feel dirty, but it works so nicely.
Unfortunately it makes you feel that MP3/Classical culture clash like BAM.
Still, we had piping hot, fresh Saint-Saens plummeting into the room during our introductory househeating meal of eggplant parmesan and freshly picked cherry pie. Good old Saint-Saens. He’s the bloke that got me into the genre. We were actually listening to the very piece that did the dirty, the 2nd piano concerto:
But the one I really like is the 4th. Anyone got any hot youtubings of that one? It’s so sparse, I love it. It’s like Shostakovich CC2 (another fave), in that there are rarely lots of groups of instruments playing at once. I remember intially thinking “what a waste of an orchestra!”, like if you’re paying ‘em all to sit there playing you wanna get the most bang for your buck. Everyone, full blast, all the time. Now I relish these unpopulated pieces. They’re pensive, cautious. The phrasing is more like equations in a quantum mechanics textbook than the bloody emissions of a sore heart.
Comp. Abbrev.
Yo what up! I’ve been, like, slightly in absentia recently due to retrieving G from deep within the midsts and/or mists of graduation. Now she has been plonked back in this area code for good, for now. Hoorays all round. Good job.
Despite the near weekly gap in posts, there was some vigorous commenting on my dubious abbreviation of Tchaikovsky from last Thursday’s post, in which some of the regular commenting crew (thanks dudes) shared their abbreviations. So far we have:
- Prok
- Rach
- Shosty/Shost
- Tchaik
for the Russians. Extrapolating this, does anyone use Strav? Or, errrr, Khat? Or… RimsKors? (RiKo?)
I feel like the Russians get extra special abbreviation priveleges, because their names are so syllable-heavy. And unwieldy, at least for non Cyrillic mouths. The abbreviations are actually practical, since it saves about ten minutes everytime you type or say the shortened version. So far the only (potential) non-Russian name abbreviation has been Wolfy for Mozart, which is an affectionate shortening instead of a timesaver.
So, any more meandering around out there?
Varying
Oh yeah. Forgot to stick this in the very exciting and meaningful and touching discussion about acquired tastes yesterday… the ROCOCO VARIATIONS. Mister Tchaikovsky. Here’s the youtubey experience for you crazy kids who can’t concentrate without some audio/visual accessories thrust in front of their grinning face:
Part two:
Aaaaaaand part three:
T’sky (c’mon, his name doesn’t abbreviate well, give me some slack) is one of the ultra-famous composers who I don’t mesh with so well. If he was in my class at school I’d probably hang out with him, but when it was just us, without anyone else, it’d be hard to make conversation. I can see why people might get really into his music — and there are some pieces I really like: certain movements of the symphonies, Marche Slave, etc. — BUT in general, ennnnh…. he doesn’t really do it for me.
BUT (again), recently the rococo variations have slipped and slided and skidded into the front bit of my perception. The first time I heard the piece properly (as in, not as an incidental piece on a CD which got glossed over as background music) was at the ROM in Toronto with G, when we got given free tickets to an unexpected concert on a Friday night. There were kids crying and people walking around the museum about 50 feet away, but that performance sowed the seed of future recognition.
You know how sometimes there is particular mote which catches your eye in a piece? A snippet of melody, or a key modulation, or weird orchestral texture — something small which ends up being the spoon on which the rest of the piece gets fed to you? Well with the Rococo variations it’s the orchestral bit at the end of the variation. Or is it? I can’t tell if it is the end or the beginning (but then, I’m fairly musically retarded) and that sort of adds to the mystique…
It’s the bit between 2:35 and 2:50 in the first video above. Particularly the last three seconds. It rocks!!!
Getting Smutty
SmuttyNOSED that is! Ba-dum tssch. It’s the guy over there on the left, one of these. This is basically my bestest, most favorite brand of beer, and there is one sitting next to me right now. Unfortunately it’s now a bit empty — about 99% empty, and I’m not touching the lukewarm dregs. Back in the glory days though, with knights and such, about fifty minutes ago, it was full.
It’s hoppy as hell. It drips IBUs like a wet cat.
Here I am tonight enjoying two acquired tastes. Hoppy beer and classical music. For the first unperformance of the evening I listened to that old standby, Shosty’s CC#2. It’s one of my oldest and deepest favorites, one which will ALWAYS shove a warm dagger directly between my cerebral hemispheres. SLICE, goes the first morose saw across the cello; ignore everything else but this.
Here is Rostropovich playing the first movement. Well sort of. The video cuts off right in the middle of the big climax, and there is no part 2 for the first movement. Aggggh! Well, what you do get is frickin’ sweet. He’s got this kinda coarse, throaty, push-it-to-the-last-millisecond way with his playing. It’s sexy stuff:
An old favorite – Saint Saens PC4
Here is one of my oldest favorites: the stunning two-movement piano concerto #4 by Saint Saens, with Stephen Hough performing. Protip: it gets (a bit) louder after the first ten seconds or so:
Part 1 (beginning of 1st movement):
Part 2 (end of first movement, beginning of second):
Part 3 (end of 2nd movement):
