CURRENT WEEKLY DISCOVERIES
.... from the history of music
THE GREAT PIANISTS
Vladimir Horowitz
Once described by broadcaster Karl Haas as having twenty fingers, Horowitz is one of the top-most tier of pianists on record. Here, in a great close up, he plays Liszt's Consolation No 3
Artur Rubinstein
Note Neumann microphone at high left?
In the 1920s, Rubinstein was disturbed to hear about a young star pianist called Horowitz, who was new on the scene. But Rubinstein himself, then becoming the world's greatest pianist, is today regarded by many as the best of all (Rachmaninoff aside, presumably).
In his autobiography he said he would blur a difficult passage if he couldn't be bothered playing it as written, by pedalling. The audience wouldn't know the difference and would be taken away with the overall effect anyway. A classical equivalent of the guitar effects pedal?
"On stage," Rubinstein told in an interview with Harold C. Shonberg in 1964, "I will take a chance. There has to be an element of daring in great music-making. These younger ones, they are too cautious. They take the music out of their pockets instead out of their hearts. And they know little about pedalling or tone production." Source: www.arims.org.il
Here he plays Chopin, whose music he played uniquely--he is immediately identifiable on Chopin pieces. This is one of the great Chopin Polonaises, the Heroic Polonaise Op 53
An early show piece, de Falla's Ritual Fire Dance
Ignaz Paderewski
The Polish pianist, composer and statesman. Paderewski apparently wrote his famous Minuet in G as a joke, trying to convince colleagues he had found a new piece by another composer.
Here he plays Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 2
A recording of his Minuet in G
Wilhelm Backhaus
"Damn stylists!"
Backhaus was German and it has been said that he was considered likely to have been very close in style to Beethoven himself. Here is a great film of the slow movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4. Warning: Backhaus appears to be sporting a punk haircut--can you handle it? Hear also the beautiful and distinctive sound of the Bosendorfer piano.
Beethoven Concerto
He also bashes out some of Beethoven's heavy rock sonata the "Waldstein" (1950)
Sviatoslav Richter
Russian, and rushin' he is here... faaaaaaast
Richter also plays from Mussorgsky's "Pictures At An Exhibition"--looking like Jim Morrison, Mussorgsky is also rumored to have done a lot of drugs (he was a military doctor)
Wilhelm Kempff
Kempff was a major German pianist, and here plays the third movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata--where the first movement is slow, this last movement is fast and heavy. The "Moonlight" could be the ulitmate slow to fast sonata, the sonata with the greatest dynamics--but then, of course, it was called "quasi una fantasia" by the composer. It was not going to be the usual sonata.
Murray Periaha
Periaha plays the same movement, and is probably more interesting than Kempf. Certainly the visuals (for showing what he is doing) are better.
Daniel Barenboim
Barenboim can be relied on to make a good record, whether as pianist or conductor--he is a definitive choice as both, when looking for a purchase. He was also the first pianist to perform solo at the Met (in 2008) since Horowitz in the '80s. This is, again, the "Moonlight's" third movement.
Grigory Sokolov
Less-known Russian--very dynamic in action. Here, he addresses the percussive Prokoviev's Piano Sonata No 7
Emil Gilels
Russian also, and a major figure. In addition to concertos, his piano quartet recordings always worked very cohesively. A safe purchase. These are two early recordings, from the 1930s, Rameau's "La Rappel Des Oiseaux" (Bird Song) and Liszt's "La Chasse" (The Hunt)
Emil von Sauer
A pupil of Liszt himself, he plays his teacher's "La Campanella". There is available an excellent live recording of Sauer in 1940, playing both small pieces and a concerto.
Brahms!
The composer himself is just audible towards the end of this tape, made from a cylinder in 1889.
Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff is considered perhaps the greatest pianist of all time after Liszt. Here he plays the introductory movement of his romantic classic, his Piano Concerto No 2
"Boublitchi": here he backs up some friends singing a Russian folk song
"Melody in E": Rachmaninoff reprises (in 1940) a piece he wrote years earlier
Alfred Cortot
Cortot and Kempff
Cortot was a French master: Chopin Waltz Op 69 No 1 "The Poet Speaks"
Van Cliburn
The American star plays from
Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 2
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THE '80's: WAS THERE ANY GOOD "TOP 40" MUSIC RELEASED THEN?
Most people would say, "Of course not!" But if you look there were one or two records that were quite good...
Actually, by careful investigation I found ten. These tracks would stand up with any decade. But that's all I could find... I am setting high standards, those of the '70s, for example. It may be that a lot of the reason for '80s music was the instrumentation: an excessive use of strange rhythm instruments now largely regretted by "conventional song" musicians recording at the time, for example Mick Jagger. Some people were led up the wrong path. I think it would be hard to write a good conventional song for "synthesiser and drum machine".
Now, U2 wrote good music, of course, and Madonna made "Like A Virgin" and "Angel". Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone", from the film "Topgun", was also a good descriptive effort, and it was presumably written "to order". There was very good rock and roll-metal, for example early Motley Crue (more on that later). It could be said that the '80s saw only a handful of writers dominate, eg: in addition to U2 and Madonna, there were only George Michael and Prince. This is unusual: why were there so few others? The instrument point is probably the most likely reason, and also the media blitz of financial trading and scoops... did less people even try to write music?
Martha And The Muffins "Echo Beach"
1980 began with a good song (somewhat analogous to the amazing "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves, which is too "commercially" produced to list here). The Canadian band takes a punk vibe to kick off with, then adds a great tune.
Falco "Rock Me Amadeus"
"Can you spot me?"
The song has been described by some Youtube poster as "Best Song in the World", but this may be stretching it...! At least Falco caught attention, and reminded people that there was a guy called Mozart who could write.
Nena "99 Luftballons"
"Do you like my
chainless necklace?"
Whether there are any balloons that are not "luft" is open to question...
Men At Work "Who Can It Be Now?"
Great sax on a strong rock beat, door knocks... here's a live clip in Dortmund:
Culture Club "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?"
An opus, or open letter, to his swinging drummer, Boy George used his experiences to write this number. "Karma Chameleon" was also very clever.
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?
Frankie Goes To Hollywood "Relax"
"Now don't laugh, OK?
I bought it from Oxfam"
Frankie's singer Holly Johnson wrote "Relax" about a multi-partnered social adventure. The music and words occurred to him, as he tells it, when he was later walking a long way from the bus to a band rehearsal and somewhere down the road the tune started up in his head. Writing songs always comes from experience one way or another. As with Duke Ellington, they can also happen with travel... whether on a train or just walking.
George Michael "Faith"
You could also add "People" from the same album, which is of course also called "Faith". His music with Wham! is also brilliant. He is probably the best writer of the '80s.
Prince "1999"
The "Minneapolis Mozart" (as opposed to the Mozart the subject of Falco's hit) came out with "1999"... there is also "Little Red Corvette" from the same time, a song that uses words and colorful music to create a double picture.
Michael Jackson "Billie Jean"
An extraordinary record, though he apparently didn't write the music to the song (unlike as was indicated in the credits--there was a law suit). Jackson also released more good records in the '80s, for example the music he wrote on "We Are The World".
Rick Astley "When I Fall In Love"
Yes, you've been Rick-Rolled, but not in the way you expected. This record was a good one, maybe better than the Nat King Cole original. For cover fans, there was also Nina Simone's "My Baby Just Cares For Me ", a re-issue by a desperate record industry looking for some real music somewhere, anywhere. It was a total re-issue, not even a cover.
But... then there was the eventual run of covers from the '50s, and finally a left slide to lambada music in 1989--Western popular music seemed to have simply all but run out. Is that why Bob Dylan released an album called "Oh Mercy"?
By 1990, things were so bad that "Blue Velvet" and other essentially shapeless re-issues from the early '60s (the blandest era ever in popular music to that time) were in the charts. Earlier, Jackie Wilson's, "Reet Petite", from 1957, had been re-released complete with cartoon video. The influence of techno and dance "music" was so destructive that it seemed to have moved the tec(h)-tonic plate of good taste away from the traditional chart music-making continents forever. "Aceeeed!" had replaced "encore" as a crowd cry.
"Prominent '80s
artist" Jackie Wilson
In a way, the absence of real tunes from the charts is still the status quo. Musicians are increasingly listening to "world" music, jazz is intersecting more and more with other musical styles (electronic, world and so on), and, most importantly, fans are seeking out "their" niche musics selectively, particularly online (for example, on Youtube or the brilliant online radio Pandora's Box). The continued presence of records sourcing hip hop, and bland chart concoctions of what is now in fact ironically actually called "chart music", have largely denied real (composed) songs a place in the mainstream media. Good music is better sought out privately.
An example of a niche music that has survived, if not become stronger, is metal... met-tal! As an authentic form or style, it must compare with blues as a long-lived and stable musical type. It has many sub-categories (though some are silly) and, perhaps unlike blues, continues to evolve. Swedish band Opeth are closer to dramatic and lyrical composer Sibelius than Black Sabbath.
Metal was hidden from mainstream view during the '80s, but in reality it was surging at that time. And today, metal performers from the '70s and '80s are worshipped as if they were new on the scene. Given its evolution, metal may be more comparable now to jazz than to blues.
Metal lasts because it is music that has to be created from a blank page: you have two guitars, a bass and drums, and what you write for them has to be good or you won't be heard. In this way, this is exactly as it is in classical music. Like classical strings, guitars and drums also have a raw exciting sound, which obviously helps: instrument sound and texture matters. A Zildjian cymbal sounds better than a drum machine, a flute sounds better than a bodyless electronic squeal... just like they did (or would have, had the electronic options existed) in 2,000 BC.
Ozzy survived the '80s, "A Flock Of Seagulls" did not. So who went "off the rails like a crazy train," then?
Clips: the brilliant Youtube.com
Photographs: Wikipedia/Myspace/Mymusicdiscovery
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