What are you listening to right now?

[spaceray]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:



...one's current lady is perfect except for this one, small flaw, is this not the same philosophically as the Persian rugmakers who had to put one imperfection into each carpet in order to avoid challenging Allah?

Gurn ,I thought it was the Hopi who left an error in their weaving to let the evil out.I should consider myself very lucky if my husband could find only one flaw.

So what was Mozarts musical joke?

Muriel

[Gurn Blanston]

What a pity indeed. He did not even have the luxury as I do of being able to say that she was otherwise perfect, since she was also a capitol shrew! Yikes
P. Did you receive my communication yesterday? "Dance of the Sugar Babes" eh?
Well, I start off the day in a most perfect way: Op 59. Right now, it is the Quartet in C major - Op 59 #3 - Tokyo String Quartet - The string quartet enters the modern age!


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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Gurn ,I thought it was the Hopi who left an error in their weaving to let the evil out.I should consider myself very lucky if my husband could find only one flaw.

So what was Mozarts musical joke?

Muriel

Space,
Oh, the Hopi may have done that too, but I am sure the Persians did it. Apparently not offending a god was one of those universal fears!
Mozart's Musical Joke? Well, it was a very amusing swipe at all the mediocre composers working at the time. Right from the beginning, a totally insipid theme, there are a non-stop string of bloopers, ranging from unbalanced phrases, false leading tones, exposed parallel fifths, accompaniments meandering along aimlessly without a melody to accompany (!) and very clumsy, unprepared modulations. The minuet becomes total chaos for the horns, and in the overlong trio, the violins are practicing scales, leaps, and other unrelated technical studies. In the Adagio cantabile, at least the horns shut up for a while, but there are wrong keys, sudden, loud punctuation at the end of passages, and the first violin takes off into a cadenza to nowhere which is totally lunatic! The Presto has so many things going on it is nearly indescribable (by me at least), but one thing I lie is the beginning of a nice little fugue that fizzles out after 4 bars and becomes a series of modulations into every key you can think of.
I can only think about what a talent it takes to write so as to appear that you have none at all!



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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[King Stephen]

On this very, very hot afternoon (96deg.F) in am trying to keep cool listening to Handel's Water music. The music is great but I am still hot.

[King Stephen]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Pastorali,
Good,I'm delighted to hear this!
Did you know that Haydn's wife had no ear for music and no understanding of what a great man her brilliant husband was?She was a thorn in his side for their entire married life ,what a pity.
Muriel

I'm listening to Mozart "Ein musikalischer Spass" K522

Haydn refered to his wife as the "infernal beast". She wanted a house so he bought one just outside of Vienna but he made sure she never set foot in the house. He was in London when she died and it did not seem to upset him at all. At any rate he said getting married was his big mistake in life. How true these stories are, your guess is as good as mine.
Steve


[This message has been edited by King Stephen (edited 05-15-2004).]

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by King Stephen:
Haydn refered to his wife as the "infernal beast". She wanted a house so he bought one just outside of Vienna but he made sure she never set foot in the house. He was in London when she died and it did not seem to upset him at all. At any rate he said getting married was his big mistake in life. How true these stories are, your guess is as good as mine.
Steve

King,
Well, my guess is that they are very true. On the one hand, Haydn played around later in life, but even if the descriptions of The Beast are only half exagerrated, even a prude such as myself can scarcely blame him, given his inability to get a divorce. I will look up and post a couple of other stories about her that I have, I think in Geiringer.
But on to happier subjects, I continue to wend my way through the Heroic Era of Beethoven, now I am listening to the Symphony in Bb - #4 - Op 60 - BPO/von Karajan - Perfect for a beautiful late Spring evening!



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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Pastorali]

Let me tell you, the concert yesterday's evening was very nice! A shame, halfe of the seats kept empty. This with such a great program and the entry was free! unbelievable
But it were very cheerful concerts and later my 'better half' and I went out a little for a drink, so it came late this morning... yes, some Pilsner, but no little brown sausages made it even better

Today I'm taking an overlook on my newest discs. Satie - Piano Works. Mozart - Magic Flute selection (Karajan 5/30/1962). Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957). Codex 121 - Gradualies and Sequences, Choralschola of the monastery Einsiedeln (Switzerland)
Gurn, I gave you answer on Friday... happy 9th to you.

[This message has been edited by Pastorali (edited 05-16-2004).]

[Gurn Blanston]

P.
It must have come after I left work. I will get it tomorrow then. Pity about the concert, you know if they had been charging 30 euros to get in, it would have been standing room only!
For me this morning,it is the Symphony in d minor - #9 - Op 125 - Beethoven. Chicago Symphony / Sir Georg Solti. Perfect to watch the sunrise, the go play golf on this beautiful day.

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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Pastorali]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Pastorali,
Good,I'm delighted to hear this!
Did you know that Haydn's wife had no ear for music and no understanding of what a great man her brilliant husband was?She was a thorn in his side for their entire married life ,what a pity.
Muriel

I'm listening to Mozart "Ein musikalischer Spass" K522

Muriel
My wife was very inspired by the lovely Symphony of Kraus yesterday. After the concerts, our diversity was easy to see. Her hunger for CM was momentary satisfied and I was still hungry for much more... Finding compromises is the best way for such situations. Yesterday, it was a good mix.
Amazingly in this affair of Haydn's wife, that Haydn could be like that productive. Love inspires, hate and struggles quite the reverse.

Right now: E.W. Korngold, Baby Serenade Op.24. I listen sometimes to things with odd names...

[Pastorali]

Originally posted by King Stephen:
On this very, very hot afternoon (96deg.F) in am trying to keep cool listening to Handel's Water music. The music is great but I am still hot.

Steve
I become hotter and hotter by listening the Symphony No.9 Op.125 transcribed for Piano by Franz Liszt.

[ruudp]

Originally posted by Pastorali:
Steve
I become hotter and hotter by listening the Symphony No.9 Op.125 transcribed for Piano by Franz Liszt.

Are these piano arrangements available on CD???how interesting..Do you happen to know whose performing and which label and wether these cd's are available in the netherlands
Thnx for any info you could supply...
Regards,
Ruud

[Gurn Blanston]

Lovely afternoon here, just got back from playing golf, and now I relax with the Symphony in F major - #6 - Op 68 - LvB - Some days it is not hard to say "Life is good!" ;D
PS - As for the golf, it should be sufficient to point out that "golf" spelled backwards is "flog"

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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Pastorali]

Gurn, do you wear a walkman while golfing? I would flog myself, if not... if I would play Golf!
Ruud, Naxos has a serie of those trnscrptns. http://www.naxos.com/ played by Scherbakov.

Peter I. Tschaikowsky: Serenade for Strings, Op.48 again a very beautiful work of T. My admiration for this composer is growing constantly.

[Gurn Blanston]

P.
No amazingly enough, playing golf is one of the very few activities that I undertake music-free. It is such an intense activity that I would not be able to realize that music was playing until after I was done!
Tonight, it is the Kreutzer Sonata, but not really, as since I have been now inspired to listen to transcriptions, I am listening to a splendid transcription for Cello Quintet - L'Archibudelli - If B had scored it that way to start with, it would have been one of the great string quintets ever. Just as it is one of the greatest Violin Sonatas ever. In fact, I suspect it could be played on the trombone and would be one of the...


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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Pastorali]

While I've outed myself as a golf philistine, I'm listening to Schumann, Fantasie Op.17 Durchaus fantastisch.