On 4/11/2011 3:22 PM, Ken Norton wrote:
>> Ok, moose, I can take the gun and suv stuff, but you must stop at the Miles
>> bashing!
> Uh oh! Moose has finally stepped over the line. We can put up with most
> anything, but Miles bashing is a bridge too far.
On 4/12/2011 8:21 AM, Nicholas Herndon wrote:
> If you only buy one jazz album in your life, it should be "Kind of
> Blue" by Miles Davis.
You know, I bought Kind of Blue back when it was new, on the advice of others.
I hated it so much that I somehow managed
to browbeat the record store to take it back. I was young and poor and that was
too much money to waste on something I
hated. I have it on CD now, and can tolerate it. Enjoyment may have to wait on
another incarnation.
On 4/23/2011 4:31 PM, Ken Norton wrote:
> Brian, you are just about to be voted off the island. :)
On 4/23/2011 5:14 PM, John Hudson wrote:
> Jazz should be voted off the music island :-)
Aaaah, nice to see consensus opinions. ;-)
It seems to me that all the major genres cover such a wide range of highly
disparate music that generalizations have
little or no meaning. What relationship does Couperin have to Stravinsky, to
Glass?
I enjoy lots of music under the loose rubric of Jazz, Jelly Roll Morton, much
Dixieland, Bix Beiderbecke, Brubeck,
Ellington, the MJQ, Holly Cole, and so on. Davis, Contrane, and that whole
group who mix unpleasant sounds with mind
numbing repetition just don't float my boat. No need to castigate me in public
- just pity me in private. :-)
On 4/23/2011 5:21 PM, (without taking a breath) John Hudson wrote:
> . . . Compared to such towering
> pinnacles in the classical world of the piano such as Murray Perahia, Radu
> Lupu, and Nelson Freire whereabouts do any jazz players stand?
I dislike almost all rap and hip-hop. That doesn't prevent me from recognizing
that some of their practitioners are very
talented musicians; same for jazz. Take any number of them away from their
public specialty and/or love, and you will be
surprised to find that many are excellent at the classical repertoire, at which
they trained. Same for a lot of rock 'n
rollers, including heavy metal.
I just don't think there is any meaningful way to compare talent between
different genres.
More specifically, I like and have a fair sized collection of classical piano -
and I wouldn't have chosen any of your
three favorites as "towering pinnacles"
I have pretty much the whole Murray Perahia set of Mozart Piano Concertos. Hard
to say they aren't generally excellent,
but not the best in all, perhaps even most, cases. I prefer Ashkenazy for those
of his I have, Barenboim is awfully
good, though overall no better than Perahia and Curzon for #27 is a pinnacle,
to my ears, and excellent for #20.
I mostly think of Bishop-Kovacevich in Beethoven, but his Mozart Nos 20 & 27
are, to me, better than Perahia. Perahia is
almost, but not quite, too . . . well, for want of a better word, effete (well,
maybe polite) for the gutsier parts of
Mozart. I don't remember if he did Beethoven, but I wouldn't even consider him
for that. I mostly think of Gilels in
terms of Beethoven, but his 27 is wonderful and his Double with his wife is
excellent.
Horowitz did Concerto #23 (with Giulini and company mostly just along for the
ride) with a combination of strength,
delicacy and beauty that I find a pinnacle. His Mozart is often spectacular.
Careful listening of his Sonata K. 333
against Uchida shows him both more muscular when called for and more delicate,
when appropriate, than that paragon of
delicacy.
When I was collecting, there was only limited Lupu available. I've got a little
somewhere around here. My recollection
is that he had a strong, almost wild streak, and Perahia could have become
truly great by taking some Lupu pills. I'm
afraid I know nothing about Freire. I see he's almost my age, so he must have
been around a while, oh well.
Still, to me, you missed the towering greats of classical piano. Which is only
to say again, as I did above about
composers, that experience and opinions vary. Nobody's Right and Everybody's
Wrong - just to bring in some great talent
from another genre. :-)
There are just so many great pianists, we are very blessed. I heard George
Lopez* do the Goldberg Variations last fall
at Bowdoin College in Maine. Just excellent - and his vocalizations were
informative talk before the music, not mumbling
during it. :-)
A. Musical Moose
PS: This mail gave the spell chucker it's biggest workout in some time.
* Yes, he is amusing, not least in talking about his comedic namesake.
--
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