tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post788301269051864481..comments2024-03-26T07:58:59.761+00:00Comments on I'll think of something later: Rouvali: great performances with dodgy endingsDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-29447637705412585682019-06-17T09:09:32.873+01:002019-06-17T09:09:32.873+01:00No, I've not heard of the book or its author (...No, I've not heard of the book or its author (blush). Since you recommend it, I'll certainly read it. Waiting to write up the Svalbard experience while the Arctic Phil lady gets the last batch of professional photos up. I have some good ones, though as J says if you just pointed a camera anywhere there, you'd get a similar amazed response from viewers. I'm still trying to digest an extraordinary experience.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-8681488926589793282019-06-17T00:14:50.592+01:002019-06-17T00:14:50.592+01:00“Somewhere in between would be good” is an excelle...“Somewhere in between would be good” is an excellent comment for all manner of things. I hope and expect you will report on Svalbard. Totally off point, been thinking of you as I read a novel I’m enjoying, wondering if you might know it. It’s “The Kites” by Romain Gary. My favorite character so far, along with the kite maker, is the chef.Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15674930917585246294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-89641280788389192162019-06-16T00:53:38.980+01:002019-06-16T00:53:38.980+01:00Many of the best lines come from dear J, and that ...Many of the best lines come from dear J, and that one gave me a visual picture immediately. One adverb + adjective might be 'ferociously gloopy', which is a bit of an oxymoron. I envy you the balmy night looking at the hills. I've just come back from snow, 2 degrees and - eventually - brilliant sunshine at all hours of the day - Svalbard, definitely the most extreme place I've ever visited, but with wonderful music, interiors, food, people and nature - to deluges in London and mostly grey skies while central Europe sizzles. Somewhere in between would be good. Botstein has always been a bit earthbound as a conductor in my experience, though a brilliant mind and a good speaker.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-16283568513036184102019-06-16T00:33:40.797+01:002019-06-16T00:33:40.797+01:00So now, I have to report that we were just sitting...So now, I have to report that we were just sitting out on our front porch, gin and tonics in hand, looking over the beautiful hills on this balmy night. When I told J about the angry rice pudding, we both laughed out loud and, after pondering it a bit, she offered up a description of the acoustic effects of an angry rice pudding. To give you some idea, it was a bit like something out of the movie The Blob.Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15674930917585246294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-56910411268620863102019-06-15T22:27:35.805+01:002019-06-15T22:27:35.805+01:00Glad to gain two nice recommendations for listenin...Glad to gain two nice recommendations for listening (the Janowski/Symphonia Domestica and Rouvali/Sibelius 1), and am also sitting here, after reading this post, amusing myself by conjuring up images of an "angry rice pudding." This reminds me also of an Alpine Symphony I heard, with Botstein conducting, for which I could use a clever phrase, but not having one come to hand can only report that, rather than rise to Alpine heights, that performance never left the lowest ground.Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15674930917585246294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-43570674490525843262019-06-14T21:20:37.388+01:002019-06-14T21:20:37.388+01:00I listened to the Janowski recording again after o...I listened to the Janowski recording again after our exchange and was even more impressed than first time round (which led to its being nominated as a BBC Music Magazine Awards front runner) - he knows how to build to climaxes, and the sonorities there are extraordinary. Best of all, it makes you think 'what a great piece' even more than 'what a great recording'.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-3569424097386806152019-06-14T18:37:46.148+01:002019-06-14T18:37:46.148+01:00Another side remark ( O dear here's Damant ag...Another side remark ( O dear here's Damant again.....well, I do not know enough about the musical universe) but your remark about platitudes brings to mind my rule ....."Everything that I have to say has already crossed your mind" David Damantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-28052896730425450332019-06-14T15:10:16.731+01:002019-06-14T15:10:16.731+01:00Brilliant. Many thanks, David. I shall investigate...Brilliant. Many thanks, David. I shall investigate without further delay! JohnGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-52660394772655785422019-06-14T10:58:47.982+01:002019-06-14T10:58:47.982+01:00Not at all, JohnG, I'd rather be what Charles ...Not at all, JohnG, I'd rather be what Charles Mackerras called me, 'a publicist for music' (incidentally, my first Prom as a Prommer - I'd been taken to James Loughran's Viennese Nights with the Halle as a kid - was CM conducting Domestica, and Zoltan Kocsis in Bartok's First Piano Concerto. I promptly bought the Karajan LP of Domestica that week).<br /><br />What I especially love about Domestica are its infinite symphonic metamorphoses. He lays out all the themes at the start, as if for variation treatment, then composes a scherzo worthy of Mahler 4, a vast slow movement, an incredible double fugue and a deliberately OTT finale. When I did a BBC Radio 3 Building a Library on it, I chose Neeme Järvi and the Scottish National Orchestra, chiefly because the end is SO wild. Now I might go for Marek Janowski and the Berlin Radio Symphony ORchestra on Pentatone, which has a revelatory coupling in Die Tageszeiten for male chorus and orchestra, four Eichendorff settings: wonderful piece (who knew before?)Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14506881804082382739noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1248503935075362425.post-39950804771069276162019-06-14T07:46:55.332+01:002019-06-14T07:46:55.332+01:00Really interested to hear of your esteem for the S...Really interested to hear of your esteem for the Symphonia Domestica, David - which is not a preface to saying that I disagree! I don't know it: I guess a casualty of that vague sense of disdain which seems to float around about the piece. Any tips for listening (beyond those above), and a 'best' recording? (Sorry, trying to get you in your critic's hat on the cheap!)JohnGnoreply@blogger.com