# keeping up with the Jones's



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Let's see here. Been awhile.










Perhaps the single greatest highlight of the past few days' listening for me was Chausson's Concert in D for piano, violin, and string quartet. Loved its range of tone and emotion. Romantic to the core. I cannot imagine why this isn't more popular.










"From Me Flows What You Call Time" is an old favorite of mine, my single favorite Takemitsu work. I must be unaware of what makes his other music so great, because this just outshines all the rest of it, to me.

This is a new recording of it, for me, and even after a single hearing I'm willing to say it is my new favorite. I should hear the old one (something really obscure... came free in a magazine), but I'm pretty sure I'll stick with this judgment.

It's like $9 or something. Hear it.










So it turns out that some stuff that is obscure deserves to be obscure.

That is a little harsh, but only a little. This is very Baroque, I had to remind myself that it wasn't Handel - except during the chant parts. The mix of Baroque and chant didn't appeal or offend.

I'd say it's like mediocre Handel mixed with mediocre chant.

I will give it more attention someday. Hopefully I missed something.










'Tis what it always was. Pretty good, but its popularity surprises me.

Still, I do love Dawn Upshaw. Another somewhat controversial artist, easy to find snobs criticizing her for this or that, largely (IMO) because she dares to flaunt her regard for non-traditional repertoire (God in Heaven Forbid!). Or maybe she actually couldn't do the big opera roles so well. What do I know? In any case, if she needs one more, count me among her big supporters.










This I just flat out did not get. Right over my head. Perhaps I'm distracted by the cover art, which just barely avoids being the most vulgar I've seen (at least it's a touch subtle, unlike some of those Carmens).

The music surprised me. Not the kind of surprise that leaves you thinking, "Oh, that was surprising." The kind of surprised that leaves you thinking, "Oh."










In the first place the cover art on my recording is much less cool than that, and in the second place I can't find a better image from a site whose bandwidth I feel comfortable stealing. Sorry.

What surprised me about this is how similar it is to Philip Glass's actual string quartets, which in turn are fairly similar to each other. There are some unique moments in Dracula, but I did not expect to hear the material from the string quartets so much.

Which should one get? I'd say Dracula for the stuff that is not in the string quartets, but OTOH the string quartets make sense as units in a way that Dracula, after one listening, did not seem to.

To conclude: Chausson's Concert and Takemitsu's "From Me Flows What You Call Time."


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