Classical Music - October 2014

Beethoven - Piano Trio No.3 (op.1/3) 
Brahms - Cello Sonata No.1
Bridge

• Summer
• Phantasm
• There is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook
• Vignettes de Danse
• Coronation March
• Sir Roger de Coverley (A Christmas Dance) - orchestral version 

Chopin

• Introduction and Polonaise Brillante for piano and cello
• Rondo in C, op.73
• Variations in A, 'Souvenir de Paganini'
• Polonaise in G flat
• Nocturnes in E minor and C sharp minor (Lento con gran espressione)
• Mazurkas in D, C (op.68/1) and F (op.68/3)
• Waltzes in A flat, B minor (op.69/2), D flat (op.70/3), E, E flat and E minor

Debussy - 2 Dances for harp and orchestra
Dvorak - Nature, Life and Love (In Nature's Realm, Carnival and Othello overtures)
Grieg - Piano Concerto
Haydn - Symphonies 85 and 86
Holmboe - Concerto No.8, 'Sinfonia Concertante'
Holmboe - String Quartet No.1 
Janacek - Violin Sonata
Mozart - String Quartet No.18
Schumann - Piano Trio No.3
Shostakovich - String Quartets 7 and 13
Sibelius - Pohjola's Daughter
Vivaldi - Beatus vir in C, 1720s version

I've left this commentary far too late and I didn't have a clear idea at the time of compiling this list as to what I might talk about.

So let's start off by going with the obvious attribute: quantity. The exploration of the young Chopin continued, with a focus on things that had no intention of making his name with. Most of these pieces were published after his death after being presented to friends or admirers. Only the Introduction and Polonaise Brillante has an opus number from Chopin's lifetime, and his own comment on it was "nothing to it but dazzle".

But the young Chopin certainly knew how to dazzle.

I also continued with my re-visitation of Bridge's orchestral works, and this CD (volume 3 in the Chandos series) was arguably the most attractive yet with its mix of large- and small-scale works. Summer is a fine work indeed, and I was already impressed with Phantasm the first time around.

The other thing that stands out here is Dvorak's trilogy of overtures, which I listened to a considerable number of times, both together and separately. The pieces were first performed together, and are clearly linked with one musical motif in particular recurring in all of the quite different pieces (as a main theme in the 1st and 3rd, and as key part of the central contrasting section in the 2nd). While the pieces are moderately popular as fillers on Dvorak programs and their quality is recognised, it's surprising how infrequently the pieces are kept together these days on CD or in concert. I'm therefore quite pleased that I found a box that had them together (performed by Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic). The colour and variety in these works is a testament to Dvorak's skill as a composer.

Popular Music - October 2014

Tori Amos

• From the Choirgirl Hotel
• Night of Hunters
• Unrepentant Geraldines

Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man
Blur - The Best of
Deborah Conway - Bitch Epic
Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses
Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
Roisin Murphy - Overpowered
Nichole Nordeman - Woven & Spun
Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science
Thrice - Major/Minor
Washington - Insomnia
Thom Yorke - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

Apologies for the delay. Life was sufficiently interesting after the end of October for me to not get around to completing this post.

Which is a pity, because the music was rather interesting. There are no less than 3 new purchases on this list, although (as is typical for me), only one of those is a recent release, the others being from 2009 and 2011.

The first is Two Suns, which I had decided a while ago to purchase on the strength of iTunes clips. As The Haunted Man has come to impress me more and more, it seemed desirable to get to know Bat for Lashes' previous album as well. And it's pretty good. It's perhaps a little grander and more romantic in mood, and has a few more beat-driven songs, but it's recognisably from the same skilled musician who can create quite a lot from only a few elements.

The second is Major/Minor, which I picked up after listening to a few Thrice albums on Spotify and deciding it was worth picking up their last two (I've yet to purchase Beggars). I don't really feel that I've listened to this one enough yet to comment much on it, other than to observe that it is definitely louder and more aggressive than a lot of The Alchemy Index (my previous exposure to this band, and an album I've mysteriously failed to talk about much) but the songs seem well constructed.

The third is Thom Yorke's new album, which I found out about by complete accident via a classical music message board a few weeks after it quietly was released for download via bittorrent of all things. It didn't take me very long to become hooked on the freely available single,'A Brain in a Bottle', and after that it wasn't a difficult decision to purchase the album given how cheap it was... although the traditionalist/dinosaur in me would still dearly love to have a CD in my collection rather than just an image in iTunes to remind me from time to time that this exists.

The album's length (about 38 minutes), the fact that you're really not getting that many full songs and the weirdly experimental 'There Is No Ice (For My Drink)' might all have provided incentives for Yorke to drop the album cheaply and with minimal marketing, but buried in here are a couple of the most moving songs he's done. For me the most impressive is 'The Mother Lode', which somehow succeeds during the main vocal sections in evoking a bright, chirpy big band number from another era while consisting of little more than glitchy beats.