Category Archives: Federico Guglielmo

Day 35: In the Dark

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HaydnCD35I began this blog entry in the dark of morning. I’m finishing it in the dark of night.

Frankly, I prefer the morning.

By nightfall, I’m tired and I just wanna put on my jammies and watch an episode of Doctor Who.

Thankfully, the music is terrific.

L’Arte dell’Arco, according to the CD sleeve for the Brilliant Classics Haydn Edition, is playing period instruments. In the past, that has meant a headache for me.

Which is so ironic. You see, I’m a purist. I want to hear Classical music the way people in the 17th century heard it.

Problem is they heard, among other things, French horns without valves, which means the players had to swap the crooks to attain a greater range of notes (or they had to develop superhuman lips to reach the notes modern players achieve with valves), and they heard harpsichords instead of pianos. The former isn’t hard on the ears. The latter wears thin quickly. A harpsichord is fine for setting a mood, transporting the listener back to the 17th century quicker than the TARDIS. But, after awhile, that Continue reading →

Day 34: Piano Concertos, Denny’s, and Serendipity

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HaydnCD34I love this music!

Today’s CD is a new beginning. Gone are Haydn’s symphonies. This morning starts Piano Concertos.

So what better place to be on a dark, chilly Sunday morning in November – in search of a new beginning – than a Denny’s restaurant?

Well, I suppose the case could be made that a beach in Tahiti with a tall, cool piña colada – served by an equally tall, cool island girl – beats where I’m sitting right now. But Denny’s runs a close second, right? (Admittedly, Kevin, our server, is tall. And he’s probably cool in his own way. But I am dubious that Kevin serving me a piña colada on a beach in Tahiti – or, anywhere, frankly – would have the same effect.)

The first composition on today’s CD is  Piano Concerto in D No. 11. (NOTE: The Hoboken-Verzeichnis system of cataloging Haydn’s compositions is used extensively for these concertos. The Hoboken-Verzeichnis system was named after Anthony van Hoboken, a collector and musicologist who lived to be 96 years of age, passing away in 1983.)

As usual when I start to explore a new type of music and its performers, I discover all sorts of things linking from other things. (The Internet is a blessing and a curse — a tremendous boon to people with insatiable curiosities…and a constant drain on said people’s bank accounts.)

For example: searching for information about the pianist (Yolanda Violante) on today’s CD, and the pianist (Paul Badura-Skoda) in the YouTube clip below, somehow lead me to the mind-blowing “Arthur Rubinstein The Complete Album Collection” boxed set, which consists of 144 discs for $101 (the price as of today’s date). I have no idea how I ended up on Amazon, or drooling on my keyboard in awe of the grandeur of this Rubinstein boxed set. But once I saw that collection, I immediately added it to my shopping cart.

One of my most beloved treasures is Rubinstein’s Chopin Collection. So, how could I possibly resist Arthur Rubinstein‘s complete recordings – touted “…as the world’s biggest CD edition for a solo artist, according to Guinness World Records”?

That’s what they call a rhetorical question. I couldn’t resist it. And didn’t.

But that’s what I love about doing this.

It is this serendipitous, circuitous discovery of tangental subjects that Continue reading →