Classical Music, Poetry and stuff

[robertlouis]

Change of subject, and as a guitarist RobertLouis -have you any of the Schubert song cycles with guitar? Of the two that I have, Die Schone Mullerin with Peter Schreier and Konrad Ragossnig is outstanding, the haunting song Die Liebe Farbe in particular works well with guitar; for some reason Winterrreise is recorded with two guitars, the Folkwang Gitarren Duo -Scott Weir, the tenor does a good job but doesnt have the dramatic range of sensitivity to pull the cycle off, but its an interesting comparison with the single guitar, as well as coventional piano. Can't find samples on youTube but you might have the recordings anyway. The Ragossnig used to be in HMV on Oxford St, I bought the Winterreise on amazon.

Some recommendations for recordings of classical guitar would be welcome, for family reasons.

I wish I could help, Stavros, but my contact with the classical guitar world has always been at arm's length and as a listener rather than a player. I'm entirely self-taught as a guitarist and have never had a lesson (and it shows, lol). Aside from mainstream Spanish and Latin pieces by the likes of Villa Lobos my collection is shamefully thin, I'm afraid. I learned from listening to the likes of James Taylor, Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell, Dick Gaughan and Richard Thompson.

[Prospero]

A few fragments of info.... Blind Boy Grunt, referred to in an oldr osting here was a fiction. it was pseudonym Bob Dylan once used. No such person.

Totally agree about the lack of knowledge of people in most chain bookstores and music stores these days. They might as well be selling potatoes. There is, funnily enough, one guy who works in the basement of HMV's main store on Oxford Street who really does know and care about music. Don't know his name - older guy with long hair often in a ponytail in the folk, blues, world, country, easy listening desk.

Dobells is long gone but another of the old jazz shops (Rays) is now housed inside Foyles and the guys there know their stuff. There is also still an excellent classical music store on Great Marborough Street where they're enthusiasts and well informed.

On classical interepretations for guitar you might like to investigate a duo Agustín Maruri & Michael Kevin Jones (Maruri is a guitarist, Jones a cellist)

http://www.agustinmaruri.com/home%20..._catalogue.htm

[Prospero]

[Stavros]

I had vague memories of Bert Jansch from the 60s and his album SirJohnAlot etc -I bought a 3 disc-set last year and was so bored by it I gave it to a relative, some things are for connosseurs. I did see John Williams at Ronnie Scott's on a double bill, I think, with Blossom Dearie; and John McLaughlin with the Tony Williams Lifetime at the now defunct Country Club in Belsize Park, but I think some of his work is cerebral and I never had any empathy with the Indian mysticism trip....maybe I should go back and try McLaughlin again.

Thanks for the link Prospero; Henry Stave is the shop on Great Marlborough St I have no idea how they survive, but having said that earlier this year when I couldn't find a dvd set HMV never sold, until I decided to buy it, I went straight to Henry Stave and bought it -I guess their stock moves even more slowly. There were a couple of shops called Asman's I think, one was in the City where I used to work when I left school, they were outstanding. I have been to Ray's once when I was looking for a dvd of John Handy Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1965 (the one with Spanish Lady) -I used to have it on vinyl before getting rid of all that, and actually wanted to buy it as a present for a Jazz enthusiast -it doesn't seem to be available, although some extracts are on YouTube

[Prospero]

Stavros - I still have that john Handy album on Vinyl - and have burned a cd of it. PM your email address and i can e-mail you the MP3 tracks if you want.

Re: John McLaughlin. He was back at Ronnie Scotts this week - and John Williams is there next month in a duet situation (I am going to see him). Cant recall who he is appearing with.

[Erika1487]

Does any one else a Wagner fan?


I love Wagner's dark melancholy.

Vienna Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwangler
Studio Recording, March 2, 1954

[trish]

Just heard 18 year old cellist Ivan Karizna play the Quadrille from Shchedrin's "Not Love Alone." Stupendous!! You can hear it on the July 14th broadcast of Performance Today about 22 minutes into the first hour.

http://performancetoday.publicradio....y=14&year=2011

[Stavros]

The death of Lucian Freud does not end a chapter in art, end an era or anything like that. Freud was obviously a man of his time, but was never part of a movement -in his time there was Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism, Conceptual and Kinetic Art (as the two used to be known), and the more recent BritArt, Stuckists and so on. Freud was notoriously a loner, a shy man who loathed travelling and stayed in London most of his life.

Freud was clearly fascinated by paint, by colour and form and the rigours of working within a confined space, for some reason considered 'conventional' in comparison with the experimental work of artists working with different materials. In addition, the greater part of his work consists of portraits. The bold brush strokes, the depth in his paintings, the way flesh folds and creases in his subjects, the mood, the position -every aspect of portraiture was there, yet while completely unlike Velasquez or Titian, Rembrandt or Ingres, four of the most phenomenal portrait painters, Freud nevertheless captured his subject. It is not surprising that Chardin was a great influence, the painter of still lives whose ability to make the border of a tablecloth look exquisite is an ability beyond the reach even of Gilbert and George, whose selfish, juvenile rubbish can sometimes be drawn with much care (why bother is what I usually think when seeing their stuff).

Freud was not unique, there are plenty of portrait painters around; but he was a painter of great depth, and one whose work has given me a lot of thought and pleasure, which I cannot say about most of his contemporaries (with the exception of Bridget Riley).

As we have not discussed art much in this thread, other BM's opinions are welcome.

[Miss Aeryn]

As long as no-one says Cage's '4:12' (or whatever the hell it is) is a art masterpiece, I'll remain very gruntled

Agustín Maruri and Michael Kevin Jones duo is hot hot hot

[Prospero]

As long as no-one says Cage's '4:12' (or whatever the hell it is) is a art masterpiece, I'll remain very gruntled

Agustín Maruri and Michael Kevin Jones duo is hot hot hot

No one would claim the Cage is a masterpiece lol - just a stroke of originality i think

Yes the duo are wonderful. I have sat in a room with them - and heard them play to me a couple of others. Sheer bliss.

I have to agree with Stavros's summation of Freud. An uncomfortable brilliance though - enveloping us in the power of the real. There is no romanticising vision there. And thank god for his power over the ephermeral triviality of the stuckists, the brit art movements etc.