response 1 of 156:

Feb 23 20:23 UTC 1997

Anyone know of a good recording of Bethoven's ninth I might get? I've never
heard the whole thing in one sitting, and I just thoght someone might know
of a recording that is worth listening to. 

response 3 of 156:

Sep 29 23:33 UTC 1997

Pierre Boulez conducting almost anything.  He's made some immortal
recordings of Debussy, Bartok, Stravinsky and, recently, Mahler.
I'm not even a big Mahler fan and I'm crazy about his recording
of the 6th on DGG.  He's also recorded the 5th and 7th, but I
haven't heard them yet.

Lately I've been listening to Mozart piano concertos played by
Mitsuko Uchida.  She's beyond wonderful.  Must be heard to be
believed.

I recently saw a current classical Top 40 list, and was surprised
to see Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto in 1st place.  Does anyone
know which recording or recordings might be responsible for this?
(Everyone and his brother or sister has recorded it in the past
five years, it seems, so maybe that's the answer.)  I wasn't so
much surprised to see it on the list as I was to see ahead of
Beethoven's 9th, Rachmaninov's 3rd, etc.  It even beat out
Pachelbel's Canon.

response 5 of 156:

Oct 5 18:42 UTC 1997

Re Mitsuko Uchida, I recently read a review of her CD of Schubert's
Impromptus in which the reviewer predicted that in 30 years the
CD would be a collector's item.  I read another article about her
in which she was called a "priestess."  If you aren't familiar
with her, Mitsuko Uchida was born in Japam about 50 years ago,
moved to Vienna with her parents when she was 12, stayed there
to become a musician when they returned to Japan (she was 16 at
the time) and now resides in London.  She wears only black clothes
which her brother buys for her, she specializes in Haydn, Mozart,
Schubert & Beethoven, and has quite a cult following, it turns out.
Check out her recording of Mozart's 24th and 25th piano concertos,
or the Schubert Impromptus.

response 7 of 156:

Oct 25 01:30 UTC 1997

No help on the recording.  We have more than one concerto in Gm, but they
don't match.  As for the F. XII, n.4 part, that's new to me (& not on any
recording or listing I've ever seen, I think), but from our Encyclopaedia
Britannica entry on Vivaldi, part of the little section at the end labeled
"Bibliography:":  "(General catalog): The complete thematic catalog of
Vivaldi, _Catalogo_numerico-tematico_delle_opere_strumentali_, was published
by the Instituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi under the direction of Antonio Fanna
(1968)."  So I'd hazard a guess that it's #4 in volume XII of Fanna's edition,
or something like that.  Just a guess, but not quite a *wild* guess, this
time.

Of course, anyone who really *knows* anything about it is more than welcome
to jump in & explain where I'm confused!

response 9 of 156:

Oct 30 14:40 UTC 1997

I'd never heard of Fanna listings.  Thanks, Steve!  

In doing a little browsing thought our bookshelf, trying to find out more
about this piece, I looked up Vivaldi in _The Record Shelf Guide to
Classical and CDs and Audiocassettes_, by Jim Svejda, and found the
following (which I'm entering for Michael Delizia's amusement). 

The Four Seasons:
     With the possible exception of Pachelbel's Kanon, nothing makes me
want to start throwing things more, and I mean, literally throwing things,
than a half dozen bars of The Seasons.  I hate it with the same irrational
intensity that I reserve for peanut butter, for reasons which remain as
difficult to explain.  Like all of his other concertos, these four are
exceedingly inoffensive and exceptionally graceful.  In me, alas, they
stimulate nothing but violence, and if allowed to go on too long,
peristalsis. 

Gloria in D Major, R. 589:
     This is the sort of recording that almost makes on believe in
miracles, for, miraculously, I managed to remain conscious to the very
end. 

Svejda only reviewed these two works by this composer.  In his overview
(apology for paying so little attention to this composer) he refers to
Vivaldi as cocktail party music for yuppies and warns devotees to not
double-park their BMWs. 

response 11 of 156:

Nov 2 21:00 UTC 1997

Well, Vivaldi's Seasons isn't in the same league as Pachelbel's
Canon.  In the category of Music for People Who Want the Music They
Play to Sound The Way They Want People to Think They Are, we've
dumbed down five or six levels from Vivaldi to Pachelbel.  Why can't
I conceive of someone loving Pachelbel's Canon just because they
love it?  I can, of course, but the problem is, as soon as you start
in on Pachelbel's (or Vivaldi's) yuppie fans they *all* claim to
love the music just because they love it.  It's MD's Uncertainty
Principle.  CeCe, the woman who founded AOL's Classical Chat, feels
the same way I do about this.  Saying you don't like Pachelbel's Canon
is like saying you kick kittens, to these people.  I wonder why?

Btw, for a public swipe at Pachelbel's Canon, see my "CultureBrief"
on Ravel's Bolero on the AOL CultureFinder site.

response 13 of 156:

Nov 4 18:46 UTC 1997

The Seasons is certainly inoffensive, and certainly overplayed. I like 
the genre, though. If you are bored by the same 4 concerti, but like the 
concept, you should try the 12 Opus 3 concerti (L'Estro Armonico). They 
are for 1,2,and 4 violins (in a cycle) and also alternate (for the most 
part) major and minor keys.  Bach loved them, and transcribed one or 
two for organ. That doesn't mean you should, though. You should 
love them only if you do. They're similar, but I prefer them to opus 8 
(4 seasons). Probably that's because they are a bit more varied, but 
certainly because they are a lot less often heard.

I love the canon because I love it, but it exceeds the 4 season in 
overplayedness, so even while loving it I get bored by it. Bolero is 
nearly tied with it for being overplayed, but I'd hate that one even if 
it weren't. Sorry, I guess I kick kittens.

response 15 of 156:

Nov 5 02:21 UTC 1997

I like the Canon. Heard an interesting performance of it out in
Wyoming a few years ago. The conductor's opinion was that
everybody play it about twice as slow as intended; the orchestra
took it at a really fast clip. It works well at the faster
tempo.

response 17 of 156:

Nov 5 10:49 UTC 1997

Foof. Oh well, guess I left myself open to that one...

response 19 of 156:

Nov 5 23:15 UTC 1997

I'm darned proud to kick kittens and push litte old ladies down stairs and
whatever other horrible things some one isn't a fan of Pachabel's Cannon in
D does.

Unfortunately, my opinion of that is colored by my experiences as a
performer-- I play the bass.  Do you have any idea how boring that is?  Its
teh same two measures over and over and over until the final cadence.  eep!

But, I will say that it isn't its fault that it gets over played-- that's what
makes it so despised.  It isn't a terribly impressive peice (as far as I'm
concerned, anyway... but what do I know?), but it isn't bad.

Another high on the list of overplayed peices is, assuredly, the William Tell
Overture.  In my bass lesson the other day, my teacher was talking about it,
and he said, "if I had $50 for everytime I've played that, I could have
retired ten years ago," my response was, "if *I* had $50 for everytime I've
played it, I could retire."  

response 21 of 156:

Nov 15 12:46 UTC 1997

Silly question: I've been made to listen to Pachelbel's Canon many
times, but I've never actually heard a canon -- the "Row, Row, Row
Your Boat" sort of thing Mary mentions.  It sounds to me like a
passacaglia.  Did "canon" mean something else back then, whenever?

response 23 of 156:

Nov 18 02:24 UTC 1997

As I recall, it isn't really a true cannon, but was apparenly misnamed.  As
for what it is, I can only say that I hope faile brings us that definition
soon....