Music for the halls...or the earbuds: LP

Showing posts with label LP. Show all posts

2015-05-31

Recent listening

I'm still digitizing LPs that have sat unplayed for thirty years. I have enough that I'll be doing this for another month, ten hours per day. This past week, I've recorded these gems:

Hans Werner Henze: Streichquartette 1-5.
Paul Hindemith: The Four Temperaments; Nobilissima Visione; Kleine Kammermusic, Op. 24, No. 2; Trauermusik; Kammermusic No. 5 for Viola and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 36 No. 4; Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orhestra, “Der Schwanendreher;” "Als Flieder jüngst mir im Garten blüht;" String Quartet No. 3, Op. 22;
Jacques Ibert: Trois pièces brêves.
Leoš Janácek: Mládí; Zápisník zmizelého (Tagebuch eines Verschollenen) Cycle on 21 Poems by Kalda
György Ligeti: Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet; Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists; Ramifications for string orchestra or 12 solo strings; Aventures for 3 singers and 7 instrumentalists; Nouvelles Aventures for 3 singers and 7 instrumentalists.
Alan Hovhaness: Talin, Concerto for Viola and Strings; October Mountain.
Oedeon Partos: Yiskor (In Memoriam).
Michel Legrand: “Brian’s Song” Themes & Variations.
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66: Ye-Me-Le.
Soundtrack for "Nashville."
The Randolph Singers: Lament for April 15 and Other Modern Madrigals.
Randy Newman: "Good Old Boys."
Pepe Romero: guitar pieces by Tárrega, Villa-Lobos, Lauro, Albéniz, Sagreras, and Sor.
Bernard Herrmann: Soundtrack slections from "Journey to the Centre of the Earth," "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad,' "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and "Fahrenheit 451."
Virgil Thomson: Sonata da Chiesa, Praises and Prayers, Sonata for Violin and Piano.
John Williams: guitar pieces by Bach, Dowland, Batchelor, Paganini, Giuliani, and Sor.
George Antheil: Ballet Mécanique.
Ronald LoPresti: Sketch for Percussion.
Carlos Chavez: Toccata for Percussion Instruments.
Arnold Schönberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21.
Charles Ives: Songs; "Three Places in New England;" Symphony No. 2; Symphony No. 3 “The Camp Meeting;” Symphony No. 4; Piano Sonata No. 1; "The Fourth of July;" Nine Chamber Works; Three-page Sonata for piano.
Walter Piston: Concertino for piano and chamber orchestra.
John Alden Carpenter: Concertino for piano and orchestra.
Kelsey Jones: Songs of Experience; Suite for Flute and Strings.
Aram Khachaturian: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.
Ernst Krenek: Horizon Circled, Op. 196; From Three Make Seven, Op. 171; Von vorn herein, Op. 219; Four Pieces for Oboe and Piano, Op. 193.
Zoltan Kodaly: String Quartet No. 1, Op. 2.
Charles Wuorinen: Composition for Oboe and Piano.
Lawrence Moss: Unseen Leaves.
Meyer Kupferman: Concerto for Cello, Tape, and Orchestra.
Lou Harrison: Koncherto Por La Violino Kun Perkuta Orkestro.
Vinko Globokar: Discours II für 5 Posaunen.
Luca Lombardi: Proporzioni für 4 Posaunen.
Mauricio Kagel: Atem für einen Bläser.
Wolfgang König: KomSol für 5 Posaunen.
Gustav Mahler: "Das Lied von der Erde;" "Das klagende Lied."
Beethoven: 15 Piano Sonatas, 5 Concertos for piano, the Violin Concerto.

What's stuck with me through the hours I'm not playing LPs have been the pieces for oboe by Lawrence Moss and Krenek, portions of the Krenek chamber works (very mixed together), huge chunks of the Charles Ives symphonic works, and some of the Lombardi trombone piece. Of course, the Beethoven piano music wafts in and out, but I'm not sure that's merely from recording the LPs.

Next up: a dozen recordings of Mahler works!

2015-05-25

Virgil Thomson: Strict music

I've just recorded three works by Virgil Thomson that Composers Recordings published on their LP CRI 207. I believe only an autographed version of the LP recording is available, at a stiff price. (Of course, each track is available for download.)

Sonata da Chiesa. I Chorale (5:54); II Tango (4:12); III Fugue (5:00).

Thomson, Virgil (cond); Fuchs, Lillian (vla); Simenauer, Peter (cl); Mills, Fred (tpt); Ingraham, Paul (hn); Erwin, Edwin (tbn)

Praises and Prayers. I From the Canticle of the Sun (St. Francis of Assisi) (5:42); II My Master Hath a Garden (1:53); III Sung by the Shepherds (from “Hymn of the Nativity” by Richard Crashaw) (3:49); IV Before Sleeping (1:57); V Jerusalem, My Happy Home (4:03).

Allen, Betty (mezz); Thomson, Virgil (pno)

Sonata for Violin and Piano. I Allegro (3:39); II Andante nobile (3:17); III Tempo de Valtzer (1:40); IV Andante: Doppio movimento (6:07).

Fuchs, Joseph (vln); Balsam, Artur (pno)

This is one of the many LPs that went through the tornado in 1974, and it is in pretty good shape, although the album cover didn't survive. I'll be recycling the vinyl, as I have some 50 other LPs already.

I found both of Thomson's sonatas to be unpersuasive. His melodic invention is not memorable, even for the purposes of gathering the themes for a formal organization in each work. Much less for something to happily hum when the spirit moves me. Thomson was a proponent of minimalist music before Philip Glass and Steve Reich began to take the appellation into the realm of exploding tme signature and reinventing the concept of development. Thomson's minimalism was content with simple theme, simple structure, and simple performance. Neither the Sonata da Chiesa nor the Sonata for Violin and Piano disappoint if you seek the original minimalism.

But Thomson struck gold when he set existing melodies to his accompaniment in Praises and Prayers! Much like Benjamin Britten's settings of English folk songs, Thomson leaves the melodies almost intact and focuses his attention on the accompaniment. The result is a fresh and inspired look at material that has lain too long on the shelf.

© Thomas Kohn, 2015.05.25

Vinyl heard once again, and now ready for sale

I've had a small library of LP recordings sitting around for that day when I would again have an audiophile setup. Remember those days long gone? An RCA Vicotr phonograph wasn't enough. Nor just a good turntable, since its output couldn't be fed directly to any speakers. No, you needed a pre-amplifier, which fed into an amplifier (or tuner, if you wanted to listen well to radio broadcasts too), which in turn connected to those pieces of furnture that produced BIG sound. And collected vases, books, sometimes drinks (sometimes on coasters).

For 34 years the LPs have stood there, waiting for that day I would again visit the antique technology. Collecting dust. Perhaps mildewing, never to be heard again in glory. Now we're diminishing our householdings. Going through memorabilia, tossing the chaf from thick binders of lecture notes, reminding ourselves of our past appearance in snapshots long forgotten, listing unwanted books for sale on our Amazon storefront, donating the less valuable books to our local book fair that benefits Planned Parenthood, placing many belongings in garage sales.

In the "many hours of free time," I've decided to digitize a good portion of my LP library. I acquired a good turntable, connected to a converter to USB input, and monitor the resulting WAV files in transfer software. It's time consuming because of three parts of the activity:

Recording the LP in real time. There's no alternative, no shortcut to playing the recording on the turntable. If the record is in lousy shape, I can decide to end the recording in the middle of things. (My house was hit by a tornado when I lived in Kansas, and I tried to salvage many LPs from the debris. Some survived well. Others...well, I wasn't so lucky.)
Dutifully listing in my database the composer, performer, and track titles. I admit to being obsessive-compulsive here!
Photographing the covers and any text inserts. (This portion takes the least time, with my camera on a tripod, a stable frame for the album position, and even lighting from studio lamps. The digital photos are detailed and sharp, much better than any existing images on Amazon.com or other sites that sell CDs.)

Occasionally, as time allows, I'll enter a few comments about the music I'm rediscovering. My collection is wide-ranging, but a primary component is classical music of the late 20th Century. For example, the latest LPs I've offered for sale on Amazon: