A lengthy and rambling discussion on some of the best music ever - Songs and Dances of Death
The past 22 hours have been so awful I can't even bring myself to write about it. However, one shining triumph:
I find looking for recordings for classically trained singers to be tricky... I'm not really a huge opera fan. I actually don't understand the opera "mentality" I guess, when I read reviews for opera singers they don't make much sense to me. I don't like most opera, what with all the severe vibrato and well it's the severe vibrato. Also, it's okay, we have amplifiers and stuff now, you don't really have to train/strain your vocal cords so your musical shouting can be heard in the back row of the back of the balcony. Anyway, years ago, I'm certain I've journaled about this previously, I discovered the most amazing recording of the most amazing song cycle ever - Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death. I knew the composer and song names, but for whatever reason, did not get any other information. It may not have been printed, some times classical music recordings are a little light on that sort of thing. I particularly find the Serenade to be... amazing. It's really close to 'possibly favorite song EVER' category, if not in fact my favorite song. Actually all of it is beautiful enough to bring me to tears, except for the Marshal, which is all militaristic and rather jarring to hear after the gorgeous and melodic Lullaby, Serenade, and Trepak. Mussorgsky originally wrote it for bass/bass-baritone and piano. I have not yet found a version with a male singer that I've cared for. The best recording I found, the male vocalist did not seem to understand that his part was NOT central, in Mussorgsky, all the parts work together. Prima donnas don't get this and can't pull it off. They'll be warbling to beat the band, when the melody and incredible harmonies will be elsewhere. The parts flow together, and need to be balanced for the music to work. Much to my amazement, just now I finally found the singer to the original recording that I encountered in the winter of 93/94, I've been hunting for it ever since. I've gone back to the music library where I checked it out (after swearing I'd never step foot in that building after my brief disastrous experience as a music major), called music librarians and scoured the internet for years to no avail... but it turns out, after hours of raiding everything I could find on Amazon, it was Brigitte Fassbaender with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And thanks to Amazon it's now on my hard drive. You have to understand I thought I'd never find it, when I copied it from the CD so many years ago, I copied it to a bunch of cassette tapes because I knew this was music too good to live without. The tapes have made it through every culling. Eventually all of my tape players died or went to the wayside, and about 6 years ago or so I panicked. No problem, my friend Phillip said, as he handed me his old walkman he had in a box. Well a couple of weeks ago I started the walkman up and plopped these old cassette tapes... and heard nothing. Big fat tears down my cheeks, I cannot explain to you the longing the solace of this music, and after all these years gone forever.
V examined the walkman and decided that it did not actually work, and that the tapes might be intact. Wiped my tears away, tossed the walkman, and carefully put the tapes back in their box in the back of the shelf.
Fast forward to today. I found the above youtube video with Marjana Lipovsek. Unlike the Fassbaender recording, she is paired with the original piano part Mussorgsky wrote (Rimsky Korsakov, a pal of Mussorgsky, fleshed out an orchestrated version, interestingly enough youtube commenters complained that RK f'd up in this and left out some of the more fantastic/unique things Mussorgsky did in the original). I like this recording too, and have just ordered it. She's actually not quite as heavy handed as Fassbaender which I appreciate, and the more I listen the more I suspect her phrasing and overall performance to be superior, and the recording is fucking perfect in terms of the pairing with the piano. She and the piano player get this work, and they get Mussorgsky. So, at least there's good music to look forward to. I'll get classical music in mp3 format, but I always want it in cd form for all of my audiophile needs. We no longer have the giant system, but eventually I'd like to get something quite nice. My ears can always tell a difference in quality, alas.
Wish I had a music room, I'd just play today, pull out the cello and bassoon and just play...
Click to viewI find looking for recordings for classically trained singers to be tricky... I'm not really a huge opera fan. I actually don't understand the opera "mentality" I guess, when I read reviews for opera singers they don't make much sense to me. I don't like most opera, what with all the severe vibrato and well it's the severe vibrato. Also, it's okay, we have amplifiers and stuff now, you don't really have to train/strain your vocal cords so your musical shouting can be heard in the back row of the back of the balcony. Anyway, years ago, I'm certain I've journaled about this previously, I discovered the most amazing recording of the most amazing song cycle ever - Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death. I knew the composer and song names, but for whatever reason, did not get any other information. It may not have been printed, some times classical music recordings are a little light on that sort of thing. I particularly find the Serenade to be... amazing. It's really close to 'possibly favorite song EVER' category, if not in fact my favorite song. Actually all of it is beautiful enough to bring me to tears, except for the Marshal, which is all militaristic and rather jarring to hear after the gorgeous and melodic Lullaby, Serenade, and Trepak. Mussorgsky originally wrote it for bass/bass-baritone and piano. I have not yet found a version with a male singer that I've cared for. The best recording I found, the male vocalist did not seem to understand that his part was NOT central, in Mussorgsky, all the parts work together. Prima donnas don't get this and can't pull it off. They'll be warbling to beat the band, when the melody and incredible harmonies will be elsewhere. The parts flow together, and need to be balanced for the music to work. Much to my amazement, just now I finally found the singer to the original recording that I encountered in the winter of 93/94, I've been hunting for it ever since. I've gone back to the music library where I checked it out (after swearing I'd never step foot in that building after my brief disastrous experience as a music major), called music librarians and scoured the internet for years to no avail... but it turns out, after hours of raiding everything I could find on Amazon, it was Brigitte Fassbaender with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And thanks to Amazon it's now on my hard drive. You have to understand I thought I'd never find it, when I copied it from the CD so many years ago, I copied it to a bunch of cassette tapes because I knew this was music too good to live without. The tapes have made it through every culling. Eventually all of my tape players died or went to the wayside, and about 6 years ago or so I panicked. No problem, my friend Phillip said, as he handed me his old walkman he had in a box. Well a couple of weeks ago I started the walkman up and plopped these old cassette tapes... and heard nothing. Big fat tears down my cheeks, I cannot explain to you the longing the solace of this music, and after all these years gone forever.
V examined the walkman and decided that it did not actually work, and that the tapes might be intact. Wiped my tears away, tossed the walkman, and carefully put the tapes back in their box in the back of the shelf.
Fast forward to today. I found the above youtube video with Marjana Lipovsek. Unlike the Fassbaender recording, she is paired with the original piano part Mussorgsky wrote (Rimsky Korsakov, a pal of Mussorgsky, fleshed out an orchestrated version, interestingly enough youtube commenters complained that RK f'd up in this and left out some of the more fantastic/unique things Mussorgsky did in the original). I like this recording too, and have just ordered it. She's actually not quite as heavy handed as Fassbaender which I appreciate, and the more I listen the more I suspect her phrasing and overall performance to be superior, and the recording is fucking perfect in terms of the pairing with the piano. She and the piano player get this work, and they get Mussorgsky. So, at least there's good music to look forward to. I'll get classical music in mp3 format, but I always want it in cd form for all of my audiophile needs. We no longer have the giant system, but eventually I'd like to get something quite nice. My ears can always tell a difference in quality, alas.
Wish I had a music room, I'd just play today, pull out the cello and bassoon and just play...