I’m listening to a pianist today that I hadn’t heard of before: Byron Janis (1928 – ). Mr. Janis recently celebrated his 93rd birthday! He’s considered one of the great pianists of the 20th century. At one point, according to his entry on Wikipedia, he was even a student of famed Russian pianist Vladimir Horowitz. … [Read more…]
Okay. I’ll admit it. When I saw that today’s composer was Tchaikovsky, I cringed. Just a little. I’ve encountered Pyotr twice before in my Fritz Reiner project: Day 7, with his Piano Concerto No. 1, and Day 13, with his 1812 Overture In my first encounter, I compared Tchaikovsky to Swedish heavy metal guitarist Yngwie … [Read more…]
This morning’s fare is a hodgepodge of music from four different composers: Johan Strauss II, Carl Maria Weber, Josef Strauss, and Richard Strauss. The overall theme is Vienna. Since I’m not really a fan of Strauss, nor of waltzes as a general rule, I’m not sure I’ll dig today’s CD. But I’m a trooper. I’ll … [Read more…]
Arthur Rubinstein could play chopsticks and I’d sit up and take notice. I’ve developed a keen interest in Rachmaninoff thanks to this set of Fritz Reiner CDs. I never gave the Russian composer a second thought prior to this. But now I’m intrigued, hooked by Rachmaninoff’s ability to write multi-layered music, usually featuring complex piano … [Read more…]
I arose this morning, feeling a bit groggy and unsure about plopping my butt in a chair at the local eatery to which I hie myself at 6am most mornings, but then I looked at what today’s musical fare would be (whatever it was would surely beat what the local eatery would be playing over … [Read more…]
Now this is more like it. As I’ve mentioned, several years ago (July 21, 2018 – December 29, 2018, to be precise) I spent 162 Days with Beethoven “Evaluating Symphonies 1-9 from 18 CD Box Sets.” (Famed conductor Herbert von Karajan was in there twice, with two different box sets. If memory serves, he recorded … [Read more…]
Richard Strauss again. This project of listening to the 63-CD Fritz Reiner box set is good for me. I wouldn’t normally listening to Bartok or Strauss or Tchaikovsky were it not for this project. So I’m being exposed to different composers. Whether I like them or not. And, I must admit, I haven’t liked Richard … [Read more…]
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I dislike the opening to Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Whenever I hear it, I immediately think of hokey music sold on TV, or played – in an appropriately flamboyant manner, with exaggerated hand movements and the use of way too many notes – by third-rate … [Read more…]
This morning, I return to Brahms, one of my least favorite Classical composers (second only to Haydn as composers I just didn’t get), although this time I am treated to the debut (to my ears, anyway) of Jascha Heifetz, widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest violinists. From his entry on Wikipedia: Jascha Heifetz … [Read more…]
Today’s listening fare is Beethoven’s Eroica (Symphony in E-Flat, Op. 55). Three years ago, I spent five and a half months (162 Days) listening to all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies, as interpreted by 17 different conductors (Herbert von Karajan appears twice) in 18 CD box sets. So I’m relatively familiar with Symphony No. 3. To … [Read more…]