Dipping back into the Previn box today Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93 1982 Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue Gershwin: An American in Paris Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F major 1971 André Previn (piano & conductor) London Symphony Orchestra
This copy of the Liszt/Smetana is a tad noisy but I keep coming back to it, upgrading to a tulip label is on my shortlist. I tend to really like Karajan's conducting in general, I actually just ordered my first classical record off discogs which was described as NM/NM of Bruckner's 7th the 1977 recording. It was described to me as sounding like the wraith of the gods coming down on you on the 3rd movement and that intrigued me enough to pull the trigger at $13 shipped.
Last record tonight... Listening to Schubert performed by Sviatoslav Richter: Sonata In C Major (Unfinished) / 4 Ländler / Moment Musical In F Minor / Allegretto In C Minor. Monitor Records LP / 1962 / US pressing
On the turntable: Robert Schumann / Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Benjamin Britten, English Chamber Orchestra, Elizabeth Harwood, Peter Pears, John Shirley-Quirk, Aldeburgh Festival Ensemble, Wandsworth School Boys' Choir – Schumann's Faust London Records – OSA-12100
Yep Trying to occasionally listen to the operas to see if there's anything I like well enough to keep. So far, I'm enjoying this (Schumann's Faust) more than I expected to. Mostly, though, I'm not listening to music much right now because I'm watching the Olympics.
I've still got a couple operas to go through myself from my free haul. speaking of the olympics I hear the athletes from Russia are playing the first piano concerto so I'm revisiting this performance. The Cliburn is my go to generally, but this still has a certain charm
The Lombards conquered the area around my little town here in Italy in the 6th century. There are tombs nearby that produced some lovely gold decorative pieces. There is a very tall tower near my house called the Lombard Tower, part of a Lombard home, but probably from a later period, like 900-1100. Sadly, in many ways, things around here have not progressed much since those days! So I'm moving to Mexico at the end of August. The food is far more interesting. (Note: I didn't say "better", though in my opinion, it is! And I'm a phenomenal cook of Italian food, including making fresh pasta with a rolling pin; Tuesday I made "lasagne alla bolognese" for a few local friends...for them it might as well have been from Mars, they had never eaten it before. After all, Bologna is at least 200 miles away...a totally different universe! Can you say: "PROVINCIAL"????) ¡Hasta luego!!!
A few years ago my family journeyed to Cannes for my niece’s wedding there at City Hall( near the hall which hosts the Cannes Film Festival). We later all traveled overland to a small rural hotel near Radha-in-Chianti, Italy. We were surrounded by grape vineyards and olive trees as far as the eye could see. I loved the timeless quality of the region. The hotel itself had once been a monastery.
Finding works by British composers for 50p seems to have been my thing for the last few weeks, and I kept it going yesterday: Elgar - Symphony #2 & Sea Pictures - Mackerras/RPO, Della Jones (mezzo-soprano) I lie actually, this was in a two-for-50p at the charity shop, and I coupled it with Tom Waits' Rain Dogs. Elgar is another composer who I don't know at all, barring the cultural-osmosis fodder such as Nimrod. Always happy to find some Mackerras though, and I do like the livery of Decca's short-lived revival of the Argo label in the 90's.
I've been to RADDA 4-5 times to eat the best ravioli I've ever had, unfortunately the woman who owned the restaurant tried a few times to screw me over, once at the register, and the last time, trying to convince me that the bottle of wine I ordered in fact contained the wine proclaimed on the label...however, the bottle was presented to me already opened and the label had old wine stains running down the side. I told them I knew it wasn't the correct wine, they were trying to pass off their house wine as a much more expensive vintage. Bottles are ALWAYS opened at the table, for one thing. I approached another customer seated next to me, who was clearly in the wine business, and asked his opinion. He agreed with me and insisted they give me the correct wine! Needless to say, I never went back. On previous visits, no matter what I ordered (always for two people), the bill always came to 1,000 Lira, she added it without help of an adding machine. A strange coincidence! Anyway, lovely area, for sure. And great wines, most of the time! ha ha ha
Lol. I made the same Martian dish (Lasagne) for my Milanese aunt and she could not stop marveling at how "exotic" it was.
Yes! Another great one is Ian McEwan's "Atonement", in particular part II which stages the British army retreat to Dunkirk through the eyes of one of the protagonists walking with thousands of others to the coast through a war ravaged Northern France. The whole sequence is extremely vivid and realistically written so that you really have the feeling being there and walking along with all those soldiers to the coast. Absolutely riveting!
I assume you made lasagne Bologna-style with green pasta??? Bologna is not that far from Milan! People outside Italy mostly do not understand that "Italian food" doesn't really exist, but rather, dozens, or hundreds of regional/provincial cuisines, each unique in its own way. Bologna and Florence are 60 miles apart, yet the foods are totally different! Sixty miles!!!!! A chef friend in Montalcino, 45 miles south of Florence, once told me about a then-new restaurant in that lovely town which was owned by people from Lucca, 125 miles away, still in Tuscany. She complained that they served farro in some dishes: "We don't eat that down here...." !!!!!! Hilarious....
Mussorgsky - Pictures, Bare Mountain, Khovanshchina, Boris-- Transcriptions by Stokowski-- Knussen / Cleveland Orchestra-- DG, 2004. (Recorded 1995-96 -- why the wait?) I also have a Naxos disc from 2005 on which Serebrier /Bournemouth recorded the same program (with three additional short pieces by Tchaikovsky & Stoki himself).
Montalcino, of course, produces an exquisite wine under the name "Brunello di Montalcino". Well worth the elevated price!
Another charity shop find spinning for a first listen: Franz Liszt - Sonata in B Minor, Funerailles, Gnomenreigen & Apres une lecture de Dante - Mikhail Pletnev Another 2-for-50p, this one paired with Beck's Sea Change. It will be interesting to compare the Annees extract with my Lazar Berman recording.
