# another good music day



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Unfortunately I had a lot of work to do today, so wasn't able to do any focused listening, but I did have some good stuff in the background.










Of course I didn't listen to the whole thing; today it was the Orgelbuchlein. That means I'm about half way through the box. I think the Orgelbuchlein may be a little more approachable that some of the other stuff I've heard so far.

Not sure why organ music is so obscure. It's not too hard to hear the structure, the individual pieces are usually short, matching my attention span, and in a box like this there are many hours of genius at a good price. Certainly a thing classical music fans would enjoy.










Exactly what I expected. Rachmaninov is just very easy to love. I look forward to hearing these many more times!










Down with HIP! Down with the snobs who foist it on us!

Ok, I'm playing. I like a lot of HIP/Period stuff. But what you have there is undeniably great, great music, and it was the best thing I heard today. Sure, get your Gardiner, your Hengelbrock, or whatever is trendy these days, but don't neglect the great Richter.

(BTW, this is not in the box of Richter's Bach. That is another performance, live in Japan, and I like it too. Perhaps someday I'll do a close listening of all my recordngs of the Mass in B minor and rank them. Sounds wonderfully snooty! How long can I resist?)










Like most of Bruckner's music, as far as I can tell this is an extended, extended meditation on how boring the brass section can be.

The 8th symphony has just started to grow on me, and I've listened to it a dozen times, several times closely, so for some reason I have a tough time getting Bruckner. Had the same problem with Strauss, whose music has also just begun finally to open itself to me.

It's a mystery to me that this music is so hard for me to appreciate; others obviously have an easy time with it but a much harder time with music that is easy for me. I sometimes suspect people's honesty when they declare their preferences, but that's probably not fair most of the time. Some of the time, of course, it absolutely is fair: it's pure pretension, and that's usually transparent. The rest of the time, it just really is a mystery.

Anyway, I'm probably going to have to listen to this ten more times before I get it too, but don't yell at me yet Bruckner fans, I will do it. I hate how condescending people are when I don't get the music that they love. I'm not dead yet, I'll figure it out.

I'm determined to be every bit as arrogant and condescending as you are. Eventually I will be able to.

So the winner, so far today, must be Richter's Bach. Great, lovely stuff.


----------



## whiteroses (Aug 14, 2011)

Hello Science. I am a new member and immediately searched for "rachmaninov" among the posts. Your blog was one of 5 results to my search. I would have thought there would be more rachmaninov likers (if not lovers) amongst us. Anyway, I enjoyed your blog and learned a lot already. I was looking at the rachmaninov album cover. Ashkenazy's rendition of Rach 2 (Op 18) is one that I admire. He is now the Principal Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and, coincidentally, Lang Lang played Rach 2 at the Sydney Opera House, accompanied by the SSO. I am sorry I missed it - I would have flown there to listen. Ciao whiteroses


----------

