Records at work
As most of you know, instead of military service, I am working at a sort of library/museum for old music records. We have about 100000 lp's, 40000 78's (the ones that were made before the lp. Room for only a couple of minutes on each side) 20000 8-tracks, some cassettes and cd's.
One of the two main donors (gave about 60000 lp's I think), was very fond of listening to the music and putting a small note inside describing in a few words whether or not he enjoyed the record. Typically these went something like "Remarkable performance, esp. in the second mov. of Beethoven sonata." or "badly scratched surfaces. 2 ex. better". However, every now and then, I come across a few records where he feels these few words do not seem to suffice. Some of these are rather hilarious to read, and in some instances, rather worrying;) (You will find out why). Although it is not the same to read a computerwritten copy, I will still try to rewrite the more interesting ones here, doing my best to recapture the soul of his writing, the light mix of English and Norwegian, the perfectly ordinary mish mash of capital and small letters, the general... Insanity.
I will start of with the most ordinary one I have found so far. I would not want to run out of good stuff too soon.
For starters, on the back of the record, he has corrected the grammar and misspelled words, also where it says "one of the best pianists of his generation" he has inserted "german" between best, and pianists. At the bottom he writes "RUBBISH" and "SCHEISSE". This gave me hope. When he does that, there is usually hope that there will be a gem inside. Although the actual content was somewhat disappointing, it still felt good enough for me to repeat it here. (Italic means his writing is in "løkkeskrift")
"The incomparably worst playing of D760 I have heard, by a pianist utterly bereft of rhythm, musicianship, appealing tone, taste & honesty. This is farther beneath the next - to - worst performance, than the next - to - worst is beneath the best. No two consecutive bars here have the same duration. Nauseating.
Several recordings of Op. 109 are appallingly bad, pretentious, striving to simulate a profoundity not present in the performer's soul, but the present one is assuredly as affectedly disingenuous, maliciously insincere, arhythmic and devoid of an iota of musicality as the worst. A disgustingly contemptible record. Gross, audible scratch through nearly 1/2 of Op. 109 (at which he adds "Who cares?")"
The poor pianist being slaughtered here was Gotthard Kladetzky, playing the Beethoven sonata Op. 109 and Schubert fantasie Op.15, D760
Well. Lunch over.
One of the two main donors (gave about 60000 lp's I think), was very fond of listening to the music and putting a small note inside describing in a few words whether or not he enjoyed the record. Typically these went something like "Remarkable performance, esp. in the second mov. of Beethoven sonata." or "badly scratched surfaces. 2 ex. better". However, every now and then, I come across a few records where he feels these few words do not seem to suffice. Some of these are rather hilarious to read, and in some instances, rather worrying;) (You will find out why). Although it is not the same to read a computerwritten copy, I will still try to rewrite the more interesting ones here, doing my best to recapture the soul of his writing, the light mix of English and Norwegian, the perfectly ordinary mish mash of capital and small letters, the general... Insanity.
I will start of with the most ordinary one I have found so far. I would not want to run out of good stuff too soon.
For starters, on the back of the record, he has corrected the grammar and misspelled words, also where it says "one of the best pianists of his generation" he has inserted "german" between best, and pianists. At the bottom he writes "RUBBISH" and "SCHEISSE". This gave me hope. When he does that, there is usually hope that there will be a gem inside. Although the actual content was somewhat disappointing, it still felt good enough for me to repeat it here. (Italic means his writing is in "løkkeskrift")
"The incomparably worst playing of D760 I have heard, by a pianist utterly bereft of rhythm, musicianship, appealing tone, taste & honesty. This is farther beneath the next - to - worst performance, than the next - to - worst is beneath the best. No two consecutive bars here have the same duration. Nauseating.
Several recordings of Op. 109 are appallingly bad, pretentious, striving to simulate a profoundity not present in the performer's soul, but the present one is assuredly as affectedly disingenuous, maliciously insincere, arhythmic and devoid of an iota of musicality as the worst. A disgustingly contemptible record. Gross, audible scratch through nearly 1/2 of Op. 109 (at which he adds "Who cares?")"
The poor pianist being slaughtered here was Gotthard Kladetzky, playing the Beethoven sonata Op. 109 and Schubert fantasie Op.15, D760
Well. Lunch over.