Category Archives: 1794

Day 109: Haydn, the Astute Diplomat

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HaydnCD109I got to Panera Bread this morning, settled in, prepared the background info on today’s Haydn Piano Trios, stuck in my earbuds, and looked for Disc 109 in iTunes.

And couldn’t find it.

Somehow, when I was ripping and scanning Haydn Edition CDs a few nights ago, I missed ripping CD 109.

Fear not!

Luckily, I remembered the chap on YouTube who has been uploading these CDs. So I just listened to his (her?) YouTube clips, which wasn’t easy given the spotty Internet connection at Panera. But I soldiered through.

Although these Piano Trios were not as immediately wonderful as I thought previous compositions were, I think I have to classify today’s Piano Trios as…

…FAVORITES!

As were the previous selections, these compositions (except as noted) are brilliantly performed by the Van Swieten Trio, which – on this CD – consists of:

Bart van Oort fortepiano
Franc Polman violin
Jaap ter Linden cello

Here’s a list of Haydn’s piano trios. The are referred to by their Hoboken catalog names, and their date of composition is not always certain. So I’ll Continue reading →

Day 108: Flute Not Included

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HaydnCD108More FAVORITES!

Haydn CD 108 features another fantastic collection of Piano Trios…

…despite the fact that the flute is no longer one of the trio. (See yesterday’s post to know what that means.)

These compositions are lively, intricate, clever, nuanced, and brilliantly performed by the Van Swieten Trio, which consists of:

Bart van Oort fortepiano
Remy Baudet violin
Jaap ter Linden cello

Here’s a list of Haydn’s piano trios. The are referred to by their Hoboken catalog names, and their date of composition is not always certain. So I’ll Continue reading →

Day 79: Just…Songs

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HaydnCD79Ooh, now this is pleasant stuff, a delicious change of pace.

After listening to Scottish Songs For [fill in the blank] for what seemed way too long, today’s CD – titled simply Songs – strips down the performance to just a soprano (Elly Ameling) and a pianist (Jorg Demus). It’s an enjoyable simplification, pairing two of my favorite instruments.

Questions: Who is Elly Ameling? And who is Jorg Demus?

Google time!

I learned that Elly Ameling is a Dutch soprano born in 1933. Info about her can be found here. According to that Wiki article,

After her professional début as a concert singer in Rotterdam in 1953, she performed for more than forty years in virtually every major cultural centre in the world. Her frequent appearances with the leading international orchestras and conductors (Bernard Haitink, Rafael Kubelík, Carlo Maria Giulini, Benjamin Britten, Seiji Ozawa, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Masur, Sir Neville Marriner, Karl Münchinger, André Previn, Edo de Waart among others) established her as one of the greatest singers of our age.

Jorg Demus is Continue reading →

Day 32: November 1, The Irony, and The Reaper

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HaydnCD31One of the songs playing over the Muzak system this morning at Mr. Burger was the Who’s “My Generation,” perhaps the most famous line of which is this:

“I hope I die before I get old.”

When I heard that lyric, I took stock of my fellow diners; a sea of white heads, belonging to people who were easily in their 70s, all kvetching over cups of steaming coffee.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Did they see the irony? I thought. I doubt it. Otherwise…

Otherwise, what? What can one do about growing old?

Nothing. It is inevitable. I’m not the person I was when the Who’s song was released on November 5, 1965 — nearly 48 years ago to the day.

I was five years old. And very likely peeing my pants from fear because I had to walk to the elementary school about a mile away from where we lived.

Kindergarten.

Always a momentus time in the life of a young lad. But for me it was a huge deal, indeed. I was petrified.

Fast forward nearly half a century. Here I sit. It’s November 1, 2013. I’m no longer petrified. And definitely not peeing my pants. But there is a mug of steaming coffee in front of me. And I suppose Continue reading →

Day 31: Something Wicked

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HaydnCD31There’s nothing wicked about this morning’s Haydn selection. It’s somewhat bland. But it’s hardly evil.

No. My title refers to a book, one of my very favorite books. Every year, around this time, I read Ray Bradbury’s superlative Something Wicked This Way Comes.

If you’ve never read it, I encourage you to do so. It’s truly scary. And written with such precision and verve that each word crackles with life. Some of Bradbury’s sentences are so well written that I often re-read them, in awe, savoring every syllable, before moving on to the next one.

Screen Shot 2013-10-31 at 9.13.23 AMOh? You don’t believe me? Try this, the opening paragraphs, on for size:

THE SELLER of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm. He came along the street of Green Town, Illinois, in the late cloudy October day, sneaking glances over his shoulder. Somewhere not so far back, vast lightnings stomped the earth. Somewhere, a storm like a great beast with terrible teeth could not be denied.

So the salesman jangled and clanged his huge leather kit in which oversized puzzles of ironmongery lay unseen but which his tongue conjured from door to door until he came at last to a lawn which was cut all wrong.

Bradbury, Ray (2013-04-23). Something Wicked This Way Comes (Greentown) (Kindle Locations 101-105). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Not good enough? Hmm. Tough crowd. Okay. How about Continue reading →