Saturday 1 October 2011

August 2011 - Classical Music

Bach, J.S. - Brandenburg Concerto No.4
Chopin - Barcarolle
Holmboe - Symphony No.5
Schubert - Piano Sonata in B flat, D.960
Simpson - Symphony No.10

Hmm. Well, this is where the difficult nature of August (remember the month of August??) shows itself.  Classical music listening disappeared for most of it.  Partly this was because of a couple of trips away and the relative difficulty of loading Classical works onto the iPhone properly - no I don't want to listen to a whole album in one go, etc etc.

Partly it was just because my stress levels never seemed to let me get back into the right kind of headspace.  It's interesting that I went for a bit of Robert Simpson.  His music is not exactly what you'd call restful.  Frequently very angular and above all it's quite dynamic, with a sense of propulsion.

That's probably true of the Holmboe symphony I went for, which I think is one of his most accessible and has a lot of rhythmic drive. Holmboe's 5th actually manages to remind me of Beethoven's 5th in some ways.  Which might make sense if somewhere in the history of the universe, someone reads this blog who's actually heard both...