tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67172741062605943832024-03-19T06:07:52.256-07:00Mary Kunz Goldman - Music CriticMary Kunz Goldman was for over 10 years the classical music critic for The Buffalo News, the daily paper of Buffalo, N.Y. She is also the authorized biographer of the great American pianist Leonard Pennario.Howard Goldman http://www.blogger.com/profile/11835068305524570405noreply@blogger.comBlogger569125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-16837600765643746382024-01-27T05:16:00.000-08:002024-01-27T05:26:43.224-08:00Thomas Hampson and Schubert Week<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ra8pPJ4gKW8?si=TRlEnYUg-Wgtaie_" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe> </p><p>Today is Mozart's birthday however just this once, the day is about Schubert. Schubert Week is going on in Heidelberg, Germany! I am guessing it is timed with Schubert's birthday, Jan. 31. It takes place over the next few days at 3 p.m. Heidelberg time, 9 a.m. Buffalo time. You can find it on YouTube.<br /></p><p><a href="https://goldmanmusic.blogspot.com/2022/03/close-encounter-with-schubert-week.html" target="_blank">I became aware of Schubert Week over the last year. </a>It appears to be run by Thomas Hampson. Hampson is a singer I love! Twice when he has visited Buffalo he sang one of our Erie Canal songs, the great song that goes "Oh, the E-R-ie was a-rising, and the whiskey's gettin' low, and I scarcely think we'll get a drink till we get to Buffalo!" That is a great song and he rocks it!</p><p>The one problem with watching Schubert week is that it is mostly in German with no subtitles. I can understand a lot of Hampson's German, perhaps because he is American and does not talk too fast. And he throws in a lot of English, which I get a kick out of. However there is a lot that I miss. Including jokes! The audience cracks up and applauds and I am just sitting there, fie. They should add subtitles. That is the only suggestion I have.<br /></p>Otherwise Schubert Week is pretty much perfect. Up at the top of this post is the first episode of this year's Schubert Week, the one I saw yesterday. You know how YouTube videos always start with "Stay to the end, because...." I will say it in this case! Stay to the end because the fourth and last singer, a very good baritone, sings the Schubert song "Alinde." I love "Alinde"! It has this beautiful accompaniment that makes me think of a barcarole. And you do not hear it very often. I was thrilled when I saw it on the program.<p></p><p>I keep a notebook around when I watch Schubert Week and I jot down hacks I can use. I sing in the choir for the Latin Mass at St. Anthony's and I just joined the great choir at St. Louis Church. It is kind of a hobby gone out of control.</p><p>So I love collecting pointers. However here is one hack Hampson shared with us yesterday that we can all use in our lives. If you feel you are forgetting something -- lyrics, or maybe someone's name, or the last line to a<a href="http://marykunzgoldman.com/2024/01/the-poems-you-know-by-heart.html" target="_blank"> poem you have memorized</a> and are reciting to your friends -- look to the right.</p><p>It activates the right side of your brain, and you are more likely to remember! That is what Thomas Hampson said yesterday.<br /></p><p>Last night at Lounge Academy at the Hyatt downtown this wisdom was passed around and discussed. Howard is going to start using it at the piano on account of you never know. We were all testing it, looking to the right, trying to do it gracefully. It can just be your eyes. You do not have to swing your entire head.</p><p>Useful information, from Schubert Week.</p><p>Only 45 minutes until the next episode...<br /></p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yQSu1VI9734?si=RnwxhRnK5Zw5jr37" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-77938329785481736692023-09-24T03:09:00.005-07:002023-09-24T11:20:59.256-07:00BPO season opens with Russian flair<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrK4ZhMggzbyRkeQJTIES6Q14gSPm8b-caVVRdCd0FAnk-HjWGsTkuDCIODC6uDDVWeY-ojqOPXVeaWjRmaxhKxzMPEZiEoBF0yJbZ07kjSKiYHC_ZEY1xUPlw7Kd-gDTfeAUTDFL3zWTojh23g0sv6nJZPuywM8cbFOiZawojht_30QtEH0Oib-OBUgg/s4032/20230923_194753.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrK4ZhMggzbyRkeQJTIES6Q14gSPm8b-caVVRdCd0FAnk-HjWGsTkuDCIODC6uDDVWeY-ojqOPXVeaWjRmaxhKxzMPEZiEoBF0yJbZ07kjSKiYHC_ZEY1xUPlw7Kd-gDTfeAUTDFL3zWTojh23g0sv6nJZPuywM8cbFOiZawojht_30QtEH0Oib-OBUgg/w400-h300/20230923_194753.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The BPO, from where I sat.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>By MARY KUNZ GOLDMAN</p><p>Former Buffalo News Classical Music Critic</p><p>Saturday, JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra kicked off her 25th anniversary season with what promised to be a night to remember.</p><p>The music was all Russian, all popular. On the program was Moussorgky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," in the Ravel orchestration. Star violinist Gil Shaham was playing the Tchaikovsky concerto.<br /></p><p> The crowd was big, almost a full house. They loved what they heard. That Tchaikovsky! </p><p>You will never hear this concerto sound better. </p><p>Listening to Shaham play and dance his way through the piece, I could not stop smiling. I have not been to the BPO for maybe four years now, and this performance made me think of how much I have been missing.<br /></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgQgrFj1oPP6SX1dfQNzlHfesQguxn3O3q6ITa7gwyx3xFVLZn02ouMMdhNnEsuPtIWWRVii29OKcLBAQpvRlEE7yUj7Qy6_KX_zwgOlpp8QPR_CFPuVW-wOUmurCEpU_ZdaoyQE93Lcr0fq9wCr7eKVysRCjkrB8sqiM6GcOzHg8f5Eg2OkNi4WGIUE/s800/shaham_1600x660b.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhgQgrFj1oPP6SX1dfQNzlHfesQguxn3O3q6ITa7gwyx3xFVLZn02ouMMdhNnEsuPtIWWRVii29OKcLBAQpvRlEE7yUj7Qy6_KX_zwgOlpp8QPR_CFPuVW-wOUmurCEpU_ZdaoyQE93Lcr0fq9wCr7eKVysRCjkrB8sqiM6GcOzHg8f5Eg2OkNi4WGIUE/w200-h200/shaham_1600x660b.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gil Shaham<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Shaham radiates warmth. Even with his gray hair, is is perpetually youthful. He is still the comforting elfin figure I remember from past concerts -- smiling, scampering, full of energy and surprises. <br /><p></p><p>He played the concerto with beauty and feeling, bringing out the tenderness of Tchaikovsky's beautiful melodies. Those whispery low passages. Those high notes! My brother George said
later: "He could get music out of fishing wire or a string of dental
floss." Funny! But true.<br /></p><p>Shaham matched Falletta's great sense of timing. And he moves about more than your usual soloist. Sometimes he stamps his feet in time with the music -- thanks to Kleinhans' famous acoustics, you can hear his shoes hitting the floor. Turning this way and that, he sometimes veered perilously close to Falletta. At one point it looked, seriously, as if they were going to collide. </p><p>There was real drama. In the last movement, Tchaikovsky gives you that troika melody, so Russian, so contagious. Shaham threw himself into it, bringing out the rhythm, which could make you think of "The Nutcracker." Glancing from my balcony seat into a stairwell, I glimpsed the ushers on the steps, two young ladies, completely absorbed, bobbing their heads in time to the troika. That says a lot. Ushers are a tough crowd. </p><p>Shaham played no encore. I couldn't believe it. People applauded and applauded, and the violinist, beaming, acknowledged the applause happily. However, no encore.<br /></p><p>This was a first, as far as I could recall, for a season-opening gala. The soloist always did an encore, always. This time, though, no. <br /></p><p>It was not the only unusual thing about the evening. The format was experimental, as opening galas go.<br /></p><p>The concert began at 7 p.m., timed to end around 8:30. There was no intermission. Before the concert, a festive crowd was gathered outside, enjoying a reception by the reflecting pool. It was beautiful to see. A gala dinner for donors, which used to take place before the opening concert, had been moved until after the concert.</p><p></p><p>The timing seemed to give the concert a less formal vibe. With no intermission, there was less chance to see and be seen (and Kleinhans, with its balconies overlooking the main lobby, is an epic place to do that).People want to greet other concertgoers, see who is there, celebrate.</p><p></p><p>My brother George was the only gentleman I saw wearing a tie.I am guessing, too, that the absence of an intermission also threw off people's sense of timing. After the first movement of the Tchaikovsky, there was a torrent of applause, and listeners began making moves to leave. It's nice to see newcomers -- however having already listened to "Pictures at an Exhibition," and with only a few minutes' break between the pieces, they thought the concert was over. </p><p>Even Shaham seemed to stand less on ceremony. Since long before any of us was born, soloists have emerged dramatically from the wings, as the audience applauds. He did not do that. He just sort of appeared when no one was looking, and the Tchaikovsky concerto began without fanfare. He is a modest sort, and he did launch the piece with tremendous poetry. However I prefer to stand by tradition. We get so little pageantry in life these days. Plus, a formal entrance adds to the showmanship, and helps you settle in for what you are about to hear.<br /></p><p>Which, in this case, was wonderful throughout. "Pictures at an Exhibition" made the case for live concerts. Heard on a record, it might not grab you. In person, you can't look away. </p><p>It was a tour de force for the winds and the brass. There were percussion sounds I do not think I have ever heard. The growling trombones, the fluttering flutes, the glitter and pizzazz -- it was like watching a circus parade.</p><p>Falletta and the musicians paced it with supreme finesse, saving their thunder. At the end, we got that thunder, with timpani and other percussion going full blast. It felt as if you could hear "The Great Gates of Kiev" in, well, Kiev. No wonder the crowd cheered.</p><p><i>Mary Kunz Goldman was the longtime classical music critic for The Buffalo News, the daily paper of Buffalo, N.Y.</i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p> <br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-15139381955412462892023-06-05T04:35:00.006-07:002023-06-05T04:43:13.610-07:00Pomp and Circumstance<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UrzApHZUUF0" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p>Friday morning I was walking in Delaware Park and horsing with my Seek app when all of a sudden I heard this blare of music -- music that could not be ignored.</p><p>It was Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1.</p><p>You know, the famous graduation theme. What a march, when you stop and listen to it, which I did.</p><p>It was coming from nearby Nichols School. Nichols School is a few doors from my house and it is the premier august prep school in Buffalo. They were holding graduation in the courtyard. I walked around a bunch of trees and saw a big crowd gathered, many dressed in light colors on this 90 degree day. I am guessing it was the school band playing the march. </p><p>Then the band took it up a notch, switching to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 2. Then back again.</p><p>I actually got shivers! Good on Nichols.<br /></p><p>This is how graduation should be done.</p><p>We did not do it that way when I graduated from the, ahem, Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart. Our graduation was at Kleinhans Music Hall and we drifted down the aisles in our white gowns to the tune of Diana Ross singing the theme from "Mahogany." This was in 1979.</p><p>Whose bright idea this was, and why the Sacred Heart authorities said yes to it, who knows. Sacred Heart is no school to be sneezed at -- it goes back to 1879. I can tell you the year because we were the 100th graduating class. And to top things off there were exactly 100 girls in our class. How about that? It is like the "Madeleine" books.</p><p>However as Miss Clavell would put it, something was just not right.</p><p></p><p>I do not have the satisfaction of remembering graduating to the theme of Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" march. That is just wrong.</p><p>The theme from "Mahogany," I literally never heard it before or since that one occasion. It was pretty enough, nothing against that. It was just not an important piece of music. And in retrospect my graduation looks kind of trivial. I was cheated out of a proper graduation.<br /></p><p>As the saying goes, paint a Model T any color as long as it's black.</p><p>Play any music for graduation as long as it's Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March. </p><p>At the top of this post is a video I love. It is Sir Edward Elgar himself conducting his Pomp and Circumstance March on Nov. 12, 1931 for the opening of the Abbey Road Studios When marches were marches, and knights were knights.</p><p>"Good morning, gentlemen. ... Please play this tune as though you have never played it before."</p><p></p><p>Classic.<br /></p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-44995950091686145332023-05-06T11:39:00.002-07:002023-09-24T03:14:37.381-07:00Mozart and the Chevalier de Saint George<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-LtCIImfSCk" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p>The Internet has caught on to that I love classical music. And so I have happened upon things related to the 18th century musician who had the beautiful name of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint George. </p><p>One of these things is the movie preview up above. </p><p>It makes me want to scream.<br /></p><p>I do admire the Chevalier as an exemplary man of his age. He was a fencer, a marksman, a violinist, a composer, a dancer, a glamorous figure.<br /></p><p>However as the movie preview shows, there is this agenda attached to him, to tear down Mozart, to blame Mozart for various things that never happened. As if history is a zero sum game.<br /></p><p>It is said that the Chevalier de Saint-George taught Mozart, that Mozart was his student. That is not true.</p><p>In the preview up above, you see Mozart screaming "Who the f--- is that?" after hearing Saint-George play. That never happened.</p><p>Also in the movie preview, you notice that the filmmakers have Saint-George playing in a modern 21st century style, nothing like the 18th century. Even without knowing anything about the particulars that would clue you in that this story has more than a touch of fiction.<br /></p><p>This is all a shame and does dishonor to the real Chevalier.</p><p>He was, by all accounts, a noble figure of his era. He lived an epic life which included royal honors. And he was an accomplished musician. </p><p>If his compositions are not as well known as Mozart's, there is a reason for that, and it is the same reason we hear little of most of the music written by Mozart's contemporaries. They are not the equal of Mozart's. It has nothing to do with race. Mozart was a freak of nature.</p><p>Music, furthermore, was not the Cavalier's only goal. Joseph Bologne put time and talent into becoming a champion fencer and marksman, along with mastering other pursuits. All Mozart did was music. Mozart's only teacher was his father -- he grew up living and breathing music. There was no fencing or -- well, Mozart did some target shooting, which was popular in Salzburg, but there is no evidence that he distinguished himself in that sport.</p><p>Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint George, had a difference balance to his life. He had different and more diversified goals. He soared like an eagle and achieved those goals -- and then some, as we say here in Buffalo. He became a kind of Renaissance man. He was a lot of things that Mozart was not.<br /></p><p>There is a lot to admire in the Chevalier de Saint George, and as we marvel at his full and trailblazing life, we should never do that at Mozart's expense. Something tells me that the Chevalier would hate that. </p><p>A musician himself, Joseph Bologne knew quality. A gentleman, he valued justice, fairness, and truth. I would love to think that he and Mozart sat down and had a glass of wine as friends. </p><p>I can imagine both these fine gentlemen looking down on us now, shaking their heads. </p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-50960286323035613542023-01-02T21:26:00.004-08:002023-01-02T21:42:12.959-08:00Octaves of Christmas<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8LCKzBIDF0c" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p>New Year's Day this year was the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas. That is a phrase I love, the Octave of Christmas.</p><p>I think of the first line of "Joy to the World." That is an octave! Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Handel just goes down that scale. It is an octave.</p><p>Also in "The Nutcracker," Tchaikovsky goes down the scale in the great Pas de Deux.</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qy6dlGpC3Ns" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
</p><p>There must be other octaves of Christmas however I will have to think of them.</p><p>For now I am thinking of the 1,000-year-old carol we got to sing at church on the occasion of the Octave of Christmas, which was Sunday, New Year's Day.</p><p>That is it at the top! In English it is "Of the Father's Love Begotten." In Latin it is "Corde Natus Ex Parentis." That is what we sang.</p><p>That melody!</p><p>As someone wrote in the comment section of the above video: "Magical song!"</p><p>The melody just gets better and better as the song goes on and it has a haunting feel. The words lare beautiful. When I was singing it I thought about that.</p><p>"Psallat altitudo caeli, psallite omnes angeli..." My Latin is not great -- my Latin teacher father would be horrified! -- however I believe that says, "Sing heights of heaven, sing all angels..."</p><p>Sure enough! I just did Google translate: "Let the height of heaven sing, let all the angels sing."</p><p>Someone writes in the comment section:</p><p><i>Created: circa 4th century AD (between 348 and 413). </i></p><p><i>Written by: Aurelius Prudentius Clemens</i></p><p><i>Country of Origin: Roman province of Tarraconensis (modern-day northern Spain).</i></p><p>Everything I know in life I learned from comment sections! This song is older than I thought. Our church song book said it was around 1000.</p><p>Who knows. It seems Aurelius Prudentius Clemens was a poet, so perhaps he wrote only the words. The melody likely came later. Aurelius Prudentius was not only a poet, he was a lawyer, and apparently a good one. Also he was the provincial governor for a while.<a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12517c.htm"> Later in life he renounced the vanities of this world, I am reading</a>, and fasted and became a vegetarian. He wrote his Christian poems during this time of his life.</p><p>You know who that reminds me of, Clemens Brentano. Brentano was one of the most famous Romantic poets however he dropped all that and devoted the second half of his life to promoting the Catholic faith. That is a coincidence, another Clemens.</p><p>Now that we have covered all this ground, it is time just to listen. The recording above, it seems just to be a husband and wife recording it in an attic. That is also in the comments. I like how the singer just sticks to the melody. I also like how they show the music and the translation.</p><p>Here is the schola of St. John Cantius where I virtually attended Christmas Day mass this year.</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FQhuW70IGls" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe></p><p>You feel you can hear all the centuries echoing in this song.</p><p>One thousand six hundred years!</p><p>Just listen...</p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-55150264423470481762022-12-31T15:36:00.003-08:002022-12-31T15:41:32.135-08:00'What are you doing New Year's Eve?'<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UFdfzNMV52Q" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<p> We all love that wistful song "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve"? Today I began thinking about it. I was wondering who wrote it. I did not know.</p><p>It turns out it was Frank Loesser, who wrote "Guys and Dolls."</p><p>Loesser apparently wrote the words and the music, as was his wont. He was a genius, you know? His songs were wonderful and he wrote them all on his own.</p><p>On Wikipedia I read that Loesser did not intend the song as a holiday song. He imagined it being sung by someone madly in love who wanted to nail down New Year's Eve early.</p><p>The lyric does go, "Maybe it's much too early in the game."</p><p>And: "Here comes the jackpot question in advance."</p><p>So you could imagine the person singing this song in, say, April or May. I met my husband in March or April, thereabouts, so I think of that. It would be as if I asked Howard when I met him what he was doing New Year's Eve.</p><p>Wikipedia said that Loesser would get mad if someone sang the song at holiday time.</p><p>Whatever, I like the song in December.</p><p>Who doesn't?</p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-57343971966527163742022-12-11T15:21:00.001-08:002022-12-11T15:21:05.522-08:00The ghost of Christmas past<p> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ypnNQLgFOJI" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> </p><p> I am leaning toward the old 1950s Christmas records. Like my old Carmen Dragon Capitol Records Christmas.</p><p>And this one!</p><p>This 1956 album is not like Carmen Dragon. Carmen Dragon was pretty adventurous. These arrangements by an outfit called the National Concert Orchestra are pretty straightforward. It is not like Carmen Dragon's "O Tannenbaum" that sounds like something out of the 1939 "Wuthering Heights."</p><p>However this album has a nobility about it as great Christmas albums do. There is nothing wrong with not reinventing the wheel. Just play the song.</p><p>OK, wait, "The First Noel" kind of goes off the tracks. They are messing with the harmonization. However they got back on track.</p><p>It is so soothing!</p><p>Speaking of which, a lot of people in the comments love the old Christmas cards on the record jacket cover. They miss those old-fashioned Christmas cards.</p><p>You know what, just start sending them again.</p><p>Let's turn back the clock!</p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-18266386775011591872022-12-09T11:20:00.002-08:002023-09-24T03:25:27.738-07:00A Mantovani Christmas<div><br /></div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WmJJGtkXKto" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p> There is this really enjoyable YouTube channel I came across and immediately subscribed to.</p><p>It is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@christmasrecords1225/videos" target="_blank">"Christmas Records"!</a></p><p>I was listening to one record on that channel and way led on to way and I ended up with this one by the Mantovani orchestra.</p><p>This is funny, originally the video I listened to was the entire album. Now I can only find this snip, at least on this channel. It does not even sound very Christmas! However you do get that wheezy old Organ and Chimes sound. Although I did not grow up with that I have grown affectionate toward it.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sHyvUooV2YM" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>There, that's better. Scratches and skips, but still ... Mantovani, Christmas carols!</div><div><br /></div><div>People back in the day, I mean the 1940s and 1950s, they would sneer at Mantovani. I know that from my research on Leonard Pennario. I learned a lot about attitudes of that era. Josef Krips, when he was the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, he would sneer at Mantovani. Everyone did.</div><div><br /></div><div>However now I will tell you this: I adore it!</div><div><br /></div><div>The "Hark the Herald," the second song on this album, it sounds like out of an old movie. A wonderful burnished nostalgic sound!</div><div><br /></div><div>Mantovani was classified as Easy Listening. This music is more subdued than the beautiful Carmen Dragon Christmas album I refer to often on this Web log. </div><div><br /></div><div>However the arrangements are creative and well done. Plus we could use more easy listening these days. At the Hyatt on Friday as Howard is setting up to play happy hour, I am subjected to the kind of "holiday" music on the sound system that, I do not even know how to describe it. I guess it is modern, I mean "artists" who are active this year. I hate to complain however after the fourth or fifth number it gets to me -- I mean, you have no hope at all that the next so-called song will be better, and it just goes on and on.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Christmas .... Christmas ...." These awful songs. You just want to hit these people!</div><div><br /></div><div>Everyone talks about the predictions of the book "1984" but nobody ever mentions the tinny horrible music. Orwell specifically mentioned that. That particular prediction has come true, that is for sure.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think it was actually designed to ruin Christmas, to make us hate it and want it to be over. But anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>At least we have these old records! And they are all over the Internet.</div><div><br /></div><div>It would be fun to go through some of these old Christmas records and listen to them and talk about them. I think I will do that now and then. Even though right now does seem early to me. Because I run Etsy shops and they are busy at this time of year, also because I go to the Latin Mass where we follow a medieval calendar, I think it has finally gotten into my bones that Christmas does not start until Dec. 25. However that horse is out of the barn. Christmas music is all around us. If you cannot beat them join them. </div><div><br /></div><div>We have bigger problems, you know?</div><div><br /></div><div> </div>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-10640733638077295972022-06-19T10:07:00.002-07:002022-06-19T10:07:50.036-07:00The most amazing Mozart<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hvYYU2V6-Is" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p>In pursuit of mental health, while I am driving in the car I have gone to a new format.</p><p>It is All Mozart, All the Time!</p><p>I have a huge collection of Mozart CDs and I just grab one and go. That is the game. I have not turned on the radio for weeks. Not for one second. You get used to the radio, you know, these talk shows and stuff. No more. No more classical station either. No radio.</p><p>This rule will not be violated!</p><p>The Mozart is proving an adventure. You have to be choosy about what you listen to in the car because you do not want to get into an accident such as could happen if you are listening to something you love too much, or something too intense. I listen to serenades, cassations.</p><p>However. The other day I wound up with a Piano Variations disc.</p><p>It is funny, here I have been listening to Mozart my whole life and yet here is some music I do not know. This one set of variations especially captured me. Well, I love everything on the whole disc. But the first one, that set amazed me. It sounded like Beethoven. Then it sounded like Schubert. At the end of it I just sat there in the car and I said out loud, "That was the most insane piece."</p><p>I had an idea what piece it could be, and I was hoping it wasn't because the title is ungainly. However sure enough, I was right. It was the variations on a Gluck aria called, ahem, "Unser dummer Pobel Meint."</p><p>That piece needs rebranding!</p><p>Can't we call it "Variations on a Theme By Gluck"?</p><p>The disc I was listening to in the car, Daniel Barenboim played it. There is this one variation that, I love how Barenboim plays it. It is ethereal and so beautiful. </p><p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/boeFCHRgFBE" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe></p><p>No other pianist does it justice that I can find. The Wilhelm Kempff at the top of this post, it's good, but he gallops through it. As does Andras Schiff. I'm not saying anybody is right or wrong, however I go with the Barenboim version hands down. Nice job, Mr. Barenboim, sir!</p><p>Mozart, he just never disappoints you, you know? It makes me think of a big house. You think you have seen it all and then you open a door and there is a whole new wing you never knew existed.</p><p>I was right about him when I was a kid. Did I recognize quality or what?</p><p>He brightens every day of my life!</p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-17962413463341439712022-05-17T18:28:00.002-07:002022-05-17T18:28:29.731-07:00The Seduction Aria From Mozart's "Don Giovanni"<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RpiySJSrjKA" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p> One can while away hours watching performances of Mozart's aria "La Ci Darem La Mano," from "Don Giovanni."</p><p>The opera of operas! I have seen "Don Giovanni referred to that way and I cannot say I disagree.</p><p>What is fun about "La Ci Darem La Mano" is that it is plain and simple a seduction aria. Don Juan is out to seduce this peasant girl who is getting married. And you really don't need a translation of the words, you can tell darn well what is going on. It is the international language of love, as the old joke goes. And you know the exact moment when she makes her decision that yes, she will go with him. This is the kind of aria only Mozart could write because he knew his stuff. Beethoven, for all his genius, could not have written this. And actually he was kind of shocked by it.</p><p>There are a million performances I want to feature. They get like salt peanuts, you cannot stop with just one. It is a simple aria however there are so many ways you can go with it. Invariably, at least if you are going to do it right, it involves a certain amount of manhandling. On occasion I have gotten into it with someone in the comments section about that. Some high-minded person objects to what is going on and it falls to me to point out that I am sorry however it has to be that way.</p><p>The above performance is an absolute classic. The good old '80s, you cannot beat them, you know? Beautiful Kathleen Battle in her hot pink, and handsome Thomas Hampson who demonstrates many times on YouTube that he knows what to do with this aria.</p><p>The acting is wonderful on both sides. Miss Battle, her face says it all, how she's struggling, and when she finally gives in. A tremendous moment -- she leans back against Hampson. He's so much bigger than she is, and he uses his size to his advantage -- just stands there, sure of victory. I mean who could resist him. His hand gestures throughout are amazing, too. I have never seen a complete "Don Giovanni" with him as the Don and now I have to look one up.</p><p>Much praise to both of them for the ending! I will not give it away but my guess is you could not get away with it now. The audience goes wild.</p><p>I will have to post other performances. I limit myself today to one because otherwise it would become overwhelming and I would never write the post.</p><p>Such fun!</p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-39858722884393977602022-05-10T18:05:00.007-07:002022-05-10T18:07:02.363-07:00Beethoven Playing For Mozart<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTXSORUMr1hS9x6WscyW9Wh1tG64xD5Mc_xlZ1ka21Fwcy6RvitvERe8tbkcvovvq_HQqTqG1V291PKxLWu5HiFDR4eHVN-7Hi6eyk69qCX_pA4vaYCqsehMnxAlmaoO8n_oojvzIQqtrca8MENvFqL9AgR2iYC2eFAy86leLYghT2fxsgyiCldg-/s980/Mozart_and_Beethoven.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="980" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTXSORUMr1hS9x6WscyW9Wh1tG64xD5Mc_xlZ1ka21Fwcy6RvitvERe8tbkcvovvq_HQqTqG1V291PKxLWu5HiFDR4eHVN-7Hi6eyk69qCX_pA4vaYCqsehMnxAlmaoO8n_oojvzIQqtrca8MENvFqL9AgR2iYC2eFAy86leLYghT2fxsgyiCldg-/w400-h281/Mozart_and_Beethoven.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />I love this old picture. I remember seeing it when I was a kid and today I ran across it on the Internet.<p></p><p>It shows Beethoven playing for Mozart. You have to click on the picture to see it bigger to get the look on Mozart's face. That artist did a good job! Mozart looks alert and interested but not threatened. He looks kind of cocky, the way he was in real life.</p><p>Then all the ladies. Artists love to draw ladies with their pretty hair and dresses. Especially if the artist is a woman. Women love to draw women.</p><p>It is fun how there is a crowd present.</p><p>Underlying it all is the mystery of whether Beethoven did in fact meet Mozart, or if he did not. He was hoping to study with Mozart. However then his mother died and his plans were undone. And when he got around to pursuing those plans again, Mozart was gone.</p><p>There is a chance however that Beethoven did meet Mozart. You have to doubt it, however, because you would think Beethoven would have mentioned it to someone at some point if it had happened. Or Mozart might have mentioned it. Especially Beethoven, though, you would think it would come up.</p><p>I have written a lot about this I know, but I think about it a lot... Those two.</p><p>In a book about Mozart -- I will have to link to it -- the Englishman Paul Johnson goes into great detail about that. I like how I am not the only one thinking about it. Johnson said that Mozart and Beethoven would go into eternity together, both magnifying the other. He said it better than that. I will have to look it up.</p><p>You almost have to think of them together, to compare and contrast. And you can say whatever about Beethoven admiring Handel more, or Cherubini more, or whoever more than he admired Mozart. He did not.</p><p>There was no way he admired anyone more than he admired Mozart. You can hear it in his music. There would have been no Beethoven without Mozart. Well, he would have written music, but he would have been different.</p><p>So that question is settled. Only one remains...</p><p>Did they ever meet?</p><p>If they did, it would be like the picture.</p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-74917497289116187602022-03-22T17:45:00.005-07:002022-03-22T17:47:31.527-07:00We Critique Etsy's Mozart Commercial<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kE7pvGmDC1s" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p>Today I was looking over my Etsy statistics and saw a notice from Etsy telling me how they are working to find us as many customers as possible. There was a button you could click that said, "See what we've done."</p><p>I clicked it. Ask not what you can do for Etsy, ask what Etsy can do for you!</p><p>One thing they did was list commercials they ran, along with links so you could watch them. One of them, a commercial that ran in Germany, was titled "Mozart."</p><p>How could I resist?</p><p>That is the commercial up above. It's kind of fun. There is this kid who is playing the Andante from K. 545, the C major sonata for beginners that all kids play. Let me tell you this, I loved that sonata when I was little and I love it now, just as much, if not more. That Andante -- so beautiful!!</p><p>Keep in mind however, this is the, ahem, Music Critic web log. So I must criticize this commercial.</p><p>One, they go through all the trouble to let you glimpse the piano score, they should show us the right sonata. Instead they show us another Mozart sonata, in F. I forget the Kochel number but I played that as a kid too. I love that as much as I love K. 545. But show us the sonata the kid is supposed to be playing. Lots of people read music and they can tell.</p><p>Another criticism, they can't really give us the music Mozart wrote. You get a few bars over and over and eventually it lapses into this New Age-y thing.</p><p>Also in the commercial, maybe there is a language barrier -- it seems <a href="https://goldmanmusic.blogspot.com/2022/03/we-critique-etsys-mozart-commercial.html" target="_blank">I understand German only when Thomas Hampson is speaking it</a>. However I cannot quite grasp what makes this kid in the commercial so addled. He looks through the whole ad as if something is not quite right. You can play the piano, you're playing Mozart, life cannot be that bad.</p><p>Whatever, at the end you get the payoff -- he gets a Mozart gift! </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-66290425693153228592022-03-16T18:41:00.002-07:002022-03-16T18:41:11.491-07:00Close Encounter with Schubert Week<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eeCs1k0GnO8" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p>Every morning I put myself through Pilates and recently the Pilates routine has become easier.</p><p>That is because I watch these singing master classes. It is amazing, the stuff you can find on YouTube. You do not have to be a singer or a pianist to appreciate them, either. It is a wonderful way to learn your way around a Schubert song. Or whatever it is they are discussing.</p><p>The video above, all it is is Schubert. It is like being in heaven!</p><p>There is this thing called Schubert Week. It takes place in Heidelberg, as far as I can figure out. There is a hall oddly named the Pierre Boulez Hall and that is where this takes place. Thomas Hampson presides over it and he talks, at least in the above video, mostly in German.</p><p>I cannot always understand German in movies or when actual Germans are talking it. But I notice that when Thomas Hampson is talking German I can usually understand him. It must be because he is American and talks just a little more slowly and clearly. </p><p>There are a lot of things I love about this video. I will get into a lot more detail about this in some future point, but for now I just want to say one thing I appreciate about this Thomas Hampson Schubert Week master class.</p><p>It is recent!</p><p>This video streamed live on Jan. 28, 2022. I am guessing the Schubert Week is tied to Schubert's birthday which is Jan. 31. So many things were canceled because of Covid however Hampson seems to have observed Schubert Week come hell or high water. </p><p>Not virtual. In person!</p><p>I love that!</p><p>I am so sick of virtual this and virtual that. Not only that but these other master classes I am watching, they are usually eight or 10 years ago. That can preoccupy me. I start wondering what happened to these students who are singing in the master class. I think of them being older now. I think of the singer leading the master class. What is that singer doing now?</p><p>In contrast the Schubert Week is in the here and now. That Korean singer -- I think he is Korean -- singing the first of the "Gesange des Harfners," he was singing that only a month ago. That is a song I love, by the way. It takes me back to when I was a teenager. However this is funny, I was thinking today, I know it by heart but I never took it into my head to learn anything about it. The song's poem is from Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister"; I knew that, but I never knew what that story was, or anything about it. </p><p>I find all this fascinating. I kept leaving the mat so I could rewind the video a few minutes and pick up something I missed. I would be drawn into a discussion about the difference between "allein" and "Einsamkeit."</p><p>"It is remarkable how many people are watching," Hampson says at some point, introducing the class.</p><p>I am late to the party, but I am one!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-84706986783226692612022-03-08T17:49:00.000-08:002022-03-08T17:49:00.166-08:00A Mozart Manuscript For Sale<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQbaFPzPXANue7CzWfMJiJsxCuFizGYfHwCVax65GfFVAARoG1Qv2hehNDhKPvf7VgxaiBPraUzD42iNoaoGQBVTe8kdBH6J1dPRpv_Gq9PpfbUv5hN_AFQuU5fOclBr4LA9dSa8WtH5PB8vE3zJyf9rtcc8x7uoNrUFRBNZtHduig9xO5XxPQHxTE=s2078" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2078" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhQbaFPzPXANue7CzWfMJiJsxCuFizGYfHwCVax65GfFVAARoG1Qv2hehNDhKPvf7VgxaiBPraUzD42iNoaoGQBVTe8kdBH6J1dPRpv_Gq9PpfbUv5hN_AFQuU5fOclBr4LA9dSa8WtH5PB8vE3zJyf9rtcc8x7uoNrUFRBNZtHduig9xO5XxPQHxTE=w400-h289" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />Online shopping is the greatest! I get on Abe Books looking for a score for Gustav Mahler's songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn." I have a few I want to try now that I, ahem, have this voice I never knew I had.<p></p><p>I end up wandering around the site for a few minutes and what do I see but a Mozart manuscript!</p><p><a href="https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30595195049&cm_sp=SEARCHREC-_-WIDGET-L-_-BDP-H&searchurl=kn%3Dmozart%26sortby%3D17" target="_blank">I mean a real one</a>!</p><p>I cannot make out all the German right now but it appears to be to one of his canons. That is it up above. When I get a minute I am going to figure out exactly what this thing is because this is something we should know.</p><p>The price? <span style="background-color: white; color: #c7002c; font-family: "Amazon Ember", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px;">US$ 391,686.64.</span></p><p>I love the 64 cents. Plus $21.73 shipping! Got to love that. It is coming from Germany.</p><p>Where's my checkbook?</p><p>You start thinking: I could sell my house, scrounge around, buy this thing. Imagine that. It would be just you and this Mozart manuscript. Your one possession.</p><p>You could take it out and look at it. Feel it. Your hands could touch this paper that Mozart touched. You would own this little piece of Mozart's life. </p><p>You would not have to tell anyone you had it and so you would not have to guard it. No thief who broke into your house would recognize it as being of value. Oh wait, you would have sold your house, so that solves that problem anyway. There would be no house for anyone to break into.</p><p>$391,686.64. Plus $21.73 shipping.</p><p>It would almost be worth it!</p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-32621256896484428902022-03-03T09:05:00.005-08:002022-03-03T09:08:32.063-08:00Me and My New Voice<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KmsIzs3_WWI" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p>I have a new hobby, classical singing. I try to get in some practice every day in addition to the piano.</p><p>Before we get any further: That is not me in the video! I just lifted this video off YouTube. I will get to that in a minute. First I have to start with what happened. What happened was, I have been singing in choir at church for some time, and two or three weeks ago, I asked Howard for some coaching. Howard is evolving into quite the fine tenor thanks to lessons he took with the great Andy Anselmo.</p><p>To be honest I did not expect anything to come of this coaching. I had always sort of assumed in my life that I was a pianist and not a singer, that I could not sing. My sisters sang. I would beg my sister Katie to learn Schubert songs so I could accompany her. She was not as motivated as I was but she did learn a few songs. We did "Der Musensohn" -- that is fun to play on the piano! -- as well as "Lachen und Weinen"; "Wohin?", a bunch of others. A few times I tried to sing them along with myself. But I always had this problem, I had this small range. Even in the alto book, the song would go up to an E above middle C, and I would be stuck, I just couldn't sing that. </p><p>Speaking of which I think that is the case with most women. I am thinking that few people have much of a range. Howard sings on the app Smule, and I am unimpressed with most of the people he sings with. The women, especially, they sing songs that are good and low, with a range of only about five notes. If I were smart I would just do that. </p><p>But now it is too late. To my astonishment Howard's coaching took exactly five minutes to work this magic on me. All of a sudden I could hit all these notes comfortably that I had ever hit in my life. That elusive E came into play, and E is for easy. The F above it is there too. And the G above that. It was something about the way I had held my mouth all these years. I had not been going at the note right. Suddenly singing these notes -- and the ones leading up to them -- is as easy as striking a note on the piano. You order them up and they are there.</p><p>What in the world, you know?</p><p>Anyway, it is like this new toy. I just have never sung these notes and now I just want to sing them! I went to choir practice and sailed up and down the warmup arpeggios. I sang this chant I could never sing before and I got tears in my eyes. I actually texted Howard from the choir loft before Mass and I told him that. I told him thank you. It has honestly changed my life.</p><p>So now I have this new voice and I have to work on it. I started singing a few songs. I do Schubert's "An Die Musik" and Schumann's "Widmung." Those are kind of my two. I know hundreds of songs by heart so I often try others as well.</p><p>Times have sure changed since I was singing these songs with my sister!</p><p>Number one, you can look on Youtube and find accompaniments. You have your choice of keys. It's not as easy as playing the accompaniment for yourself because you have to adjust to the pianist's tempo which can be strange, but you can stand and concentrate on your singing.</p><p>Another thing, you can find master classes! I looked for "Master Class Widmung" and immediately found two great ones, one featuring Sir Thomas Allen -- that is it at the top of this post -- and the other one the pianist Graham Johnson. I have listened to Graham Johnson's Schubert recordings millions of times. </p><p>It was like heaven! This really good singer taking the stage, singing "Widmung," and right next to her you've got Thomas Allen, ready to give his insights. Howard came in to talk to me right as the singer was finishing the song, and I had to pause the video. It was torture, having to do that!</p><p>Anyway. I thought it would be fun to write about some of these online master classes. I certainly am coming at them from a unique angle. And this music I have been listening to all my life, I am learning it in a new way. So look for more of this in the future.</p><p>So much fun!</p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-24987107212081720652021-12-15T18:01:00.006-08:002021-12-15T18:15:32.562-08:00A Deep Dive into Firestone Christmas, Vol. 2<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v0Mz_1IjVxs" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p>Let's discuss Christmas albums! I will start our discussion off with Vol 2 in the iconic Firestone series.</p><p>I listened to it by mistake while I was <a href="http://marykunzgoldman.com/2021/12/the-christmas-tree-struggle.html" target="_blank">putting the lights on my Christmas tree</a>!</p><p>The mistake was that it was in the wrong jacket. I thought I was listening to Vol. 4 ...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmSSQR_USxgvuCnBx3FFCwOeCLacHcHiHppn2_oHB47ad2hxgJMVT8at6JFmQso-2fLMRGGD-Dt2oHmq7KKW4w0T3Kny5_ByTj6ZQs8ENP91wyoWlZrSDb3hvaT0Vfuv8ffLTcwsRmW0wMEFMHLldrHukMa2fQIGHXLpFjmujK1NNfC1B9Cmi0Y62m=s4618" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3464" data-original-width="4618" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmSSQR_USxgvuCnBx3FFCwOeCLacHcHiHppn2_oHB47ad2hxgJMVT8at6JFmQso-2fLMRGGD-Dt2oHmq7KKW4w0T3Kny5_ByTj6ZQs8ENP91wyoWlZrSDb3hvaT0Vfuv8ffLTcwsRmW0wMEFMHLldrHukMa2fQIGHXLpFjmujK1NNfC1B9Cmi0Y62m=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></div><p>... but it ended up I was listening to Vol. 2.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSHWu9W6IMylq_x6yx_tZScul-51qXw4-9YgV6-WnKzTRH89ith3kK87sWszZ83cxR8VFwCrvOXUYu-wzOOllm7u5kOWTFwStCn3FWJVr35Gq7MDEyxIevrstwwKcTRIy55KtBp8ojUGj3WS6r_Tjlw6iLtU542gxoyk3uSfKx9bzNK17_uLTNL6hP=s764" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="760" data-original-width="764" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSHWu9W6IMylq_x6yx_tZScul-51qXw4-9YgV6-WnKzTRH89ith3kK87sWszZ83cxR8VFwCrvOXUYu-wzOOllm7u5kOWTFwStCn3FWJVr35Gq7MDEyxIevrstwwKcTRIy55KtBp8ojUGj3WS6r_Tjlw6iLtU542gxoyk3uSfKx9bzNK17_uLTNL6hP=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />When it ended I was thinking that's funny, I do not remember hearing Julie Andrews. But my Christmas tree lights were giving me grief so I forgot about it. Until just now. Now I have it all figured out.<p></p><p>So. All of us fans of Christmas music, we can all agree that the Firestone albums are without parallel. They featured these wonderful arrangements. They starred opera singers. Julie Andrews was a regular, and so was the great Jack Jones. They also had a certain sheen about them, these albums. They were bright and fun but at the same time they were reverent.</p><p>The Firestone album I remember most vividly from being a kid was the one featuring Julie Andrews and Jack Jones and these Richard Strauss-like arrangements by Andre Previn. This one that I listened to tonight, I do not remember. We must not have had it. </p><p>But I had a great time with it!</p><p>One highlight was Brian Sullivan singing "Deck the Halls." Brian Sullivan has kind of fallen off the merry-go-round of history, but he was a great tenor in his day. An Irish Wagnerian tenor, you do not get better than that. The arrangement is creative and Sullivan just throws himself into it. Bravo to him. Tenors have to take it to the wall or it is no fun. </p><p>He also sings a "We Three Kings" that is to be reckoned with. And "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." "To save us all from Satan's power when we had gone astray!" And "O tidings of comfort and joy!" Even the chorus is no match for him. Bravo, maestro!</p><p>"Adeste Fideles" ends with an orchestral flourish that made me think of Respighi's "The Pines of Rome."</p><p>The "Hallelujah Chorus" sounds a little off -- I think it is top-heavy, too many women and not enough men. That is just my guess. But still, all good. The performance of "Jingle Bells" cracked me up. The arrangement is so saucy, and you hear a chorus of laughing you can only assume is the Columbus Boys Choir. It really is a lot of fun.</p><p>The great mezzo soprano Rise Stevens sings a haunting "O Come O Come Emmanuel." This song is beautiful for a mezzo. It needs that kind of mood. She sings "Away in a Manger" too, accompanied by a wordless choir. Bring on those wordless choirs! And she joins Brian Sullivan in "Angels We Have Heard on High." Is this heaven?</p><p>Beautiful Rise Stevens -- </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1_SA9kx8GSeIZnXikV9hPxnjdREn9_ZPrNMZuHehljuvkBJ3DBsYpzngSK8trmMhdkvXduoVhRapW_5dEmReMJQCzzkVPAWX0TQz2DybooENKBuT-NW10KTSWgo9sCZpQ9qvrSUfdPndnV1kA-VrBPpbl7SQBfPhjtijPI2vgB6qg8a8k5dyqqc_I=s895" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="895" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1_SA9kx8GSeIZnXikV9hPxnjdREn9_ZPrNMZuHehljuvkBJ3DBsYpzngSK8trmMhdkvXduoVhRapW_5dEmReMJQCzzkVPAWX0TQz2DybooENKBuT-NW10KTSWgo9sCZpQ9qvrSUfdPndnV1kA-VrBPpbl7SQBfPhjtijPI2vgB6qg8a8k5dyqqc_I=s320" width="286" /></a></div><br />-- her real name was Rise Gus Steenberg -- sang with the Metropolitan Opera for about 20 years beginning in 1938. She was 99 when she died, in 2013. How did she get a middle name like Gus? We will have to explore this question at some later date.<p></p><p>The opera singers and the chorus join in an overblown "Partridge in a Pear Tree." I do not mean to sound critical when calling it overblown. That song is allowed to be overblown. It's fun at the end when the orchestra suggests the lords a-leaping, the ladies dancing, and the drummers drumming.</p><p>There is an atmospheric "Carol of the Bells" that I thought was excellent. It starts and ends with churchbells and the bells chime along with the chorus. It is not overdone, just very pretty. Church bells actually have a supernatural power. They keep away evil. Knowing that adds to the my feeling for this song and this particular recording of it.</p><p>I mentioned that I did not grow up with this album. I did not remember it. However listening to it I found myself homesick for something I never knew. That era, when Christmas albums would feature Metropolitan Opera stars. When you heard those beautiful old religious carols from around the world. Before you went into a store, as I went into Big Lots a couple of weeks ago, and heard all these tuneless pop Christmas tunes you do not recognize or like.</p><p>It is great that these albums are on YouTube and we can listen to them there. But still. I think it is time tire stores began doing this kind of thing again, you know? We should go into Firestone and Goodyear and ask them to begin again to issue Christmas albums.</p><p>We should demand it!</p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-20641848525726335042021-10-03T18:18:00.002-07:002021-10-03T18:18:26.834-07:00Hugo Wolf and the road to Bethlehem<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E3GZXH8jJlE" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe>
<p>Today at church we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. We did the Gospel reading you hear in Advent, about the angel Gabriel being sent to Nazareth to meet with Mary. I loved this because it is like jumping the gun on Christmas, and you know me, I am always up for that!</p><p>Back home, I found myself drawn back to my old obsession, Hugo Wolf's song "Nun wandre, Maria." It is about Mary and Joseph on the way to Bethlehem. It is from Wolf's "Spanish Song Book."</p><p>As I love to repeat at great length, you can tell from the piano accompaniment how tired everyone is -- Mary, Joseph, and the donkey, all of them stumbling along toward Bethlehem.</p><p>There is this video I found that I do not believe I ever got to share. That is it at the top of this post.</p><p>I always wish that videos had translations, however if there were text it might have ruined this video. The artwork is just so lovely. A little primitive, a little grotesque, starting with that unusual angel. The face of the cow peering out of the darkness, that gets me. Whoever posted the video did not say what the artwork was. It appears to have been painted on wood. I would guess it was German or Dutch.</p><p>And the performance! I have never heard this song sung this slow. The tenor who is singing, too, he is startling. His name is Peter Anders.</p><p>I have never heard a singer sound like him!</p><p>He has such a beautiful voice and such control. I had never heard of him when I first heard this video -- which I did two years ago, because I see I left a comment. I still know nothing about him. In the description I was surprised to see he died a long time ago. The recording has been remastered very well, I am guessing, because it sounds so clear and not old.</p><p>One of these days I will have to go down the Internet rabbit hole and find out about Maestro Anders and discuss what I find out. But for now I just want to watch and listen to this. </p><p>The painting, the music, the slow stumbling pace -- I was honestly tearing up.</p><p>So beautiful!!</p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-3310603465689237772021-08-16T19:02:00.004-07:002021-08-16T19:02:43.615-07:00Hail "Hail, Holy Queen"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrmYqZW0p-TbX-_9Qk8fbApstjG3VO_eddsGWHSTVTO2d2fqPXY1YIwcAA701bLG8zEenSPHQt94OJBB5sKelPCd5pSNJKf6ZNT6txLwq7gFIF8vzC6zYxT_ANVlDUdTMVLotatkVkZ-E/s1119/Hermann.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1119" data-original-width="791" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrmYqZW0p-TbX-_9Qk8fbApstjG3VO_eddsGWHSTVTO2d2fqPXY1YIwcAA701bLG8zEenSPHQt94OJBB5sKelPCd5pSNJKf6ZNT6txLwq7gFIF8vzC6zYxT_ANVlDUdTMVLotatkVkZ-E/s320/Hermann.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><br />Yesterday being the Feast of the Assumption, we got to end Mass with the great hymn "Hail, Holy Queen."<p></p><p>That was a thrill! This is one of the great Catholic melodies, up there with "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name" and "Adeste Fideles." I should come up with a list and one of these days I will.</p><p>Meanwhile let us shine the spotlight on "Hail Holy Queen."</p><p>The text is attributed to Hermannus Contractus, better known as Blessed Hermann von Reichenau. He is the gentleman in the picture up above. And if you think his name was something, his father was Count Wolverad II von Altshausen.</p><p>About the melody, it is always referred to as German, but as I was just writing on my other Web log, you would almost think it was Irish. This hymn is a challenge. It starts low and then suddenly the chorus is about an octave higher. You have to be all in if you are going to get through it.</p><p>"Hail Holy Queen" had its moment of fame in pop culture for its treatment in "Sister Act." Wow, that is suddenly a long time ago! </p><p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ctjG4MjJwEA" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe> </p><p>I personally like how the hymn was sounding before they ragged it, LOL. But I get a little nostalgic when they give the gospel treatment to these Latin phrases. Unless you go to a Latin Mass, you would never get the jokes now.</p><p>It is hard to find good renditions online of traditional Catholic hymns. A lot of the time you see something promising and you click on it, but then you hear that electric piano, and you go, Oh, no. Well, I am going to see what I can find.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8EDYPKxhkss" title="YouTube video player" width="400"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>
That is a group called the Cathedral Singers. I personally prefer the hymn more rousing but that is me. Sometimes you have a piece of music that is just a sacred cow to you, you know? Pardon the Hindu reference, in this context. What I mean is when you have one of these sacred cows, it is hard to find a recording that is just right.</div><div><br /></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vST--E8suls" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>
<div><br /></div><div>That is Mary, Queen of the Universe Shrine Choir. I like the intro.</div><div><br /></div><div>One thing I am seeing online is that it has apparently become a thing for school choir directors to have their choirs perform beautiful "Hail Holy Queen" in the "Sister Act" version. That is kind of a pain! Nothing against gospel music. I love gospel music. I have a lot of records and I was personal friends with Aretha Franklin, I will have you know. She was from Buffalo. The truth is thought that musical traditions are different. And people go out of their way to make this magnificent hymn sound stodgy and boring, in need of this intervention. </div><div><br /></div><div>They do not get it!</div><div><br /></div><div>Singing this hymn at church is always a joy. I wish we had recorded our version from yesterday. This one gal in the choir, Philomena, she sang a descant at the end. It was so beautiful that I almost started to cry. But I could not because there were only a couple of us holding down the normal soprano line and the hymn was going full blast and it was all hands on deck.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Triumph, all ye cherubim!</i></div><div><i>Sing with us, ye Seraphim!</i></div><div><i>Heaven and earth resound the hymn!</i></div><div><i>Salve, salve, salve Regina!</i></div><div><br /></div><div>What lyrics.</div><div><br /></div><div>What a melody!</div><div><br /></div><div>The greatest!!</div><div><br /></div><div>"</div>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-36080605544924220072021-03-05T15:47:00.001-08:002021-03-05T15:47:31.898-08:00The Tallis tune that sparked a fantasy<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kwhk9K0nFHg" width="400"></iframe> </p><p> Of course I love Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Fantasy on a Theme of Thomas Tallis"... who doesn't? But I never really thought about it. It is this ethereal music and whenever I have heard it I have concentrated on it, cleared away other distractions, paused to enjoy. But I never wondered where it came from, what melody inspired him.</p><p>I am sure this is not a state secret. CD notes I am sure explain it, and I probably have an LP or two in the house that tell you everything you need to know and then some, as we say here in Buffalo. </p><p>But now I am kind of glad I did not find out that way. It is more fun to find it out backwards!</p><p>And I found out one day singing in the choir. We were working up some of the tunes Tallis wrote for Archbishop Parker's Psalter. Archbishop Parker was the Archbishop of Canterbury. And I am not being disrespectful writing "tune." I am being accurate. We were on the third tune and that was how it was identified, "Third Tune."</p><p>All of a sudden I heard this theme, this gently rocking melody you hear in the "Fantasy on a Theme of Thomas Tallis." Now I am going to sound jaded but I have to admit: my thought as I sang on was: I have heard this before. Someone ripped off Thomas Tallis.</p><p>Ha, ha! I could not explore the thought much because the lyrics took all my attention. It is not easy to sing the greatest hits of 1587. The words do not come naturally -- "Why fum'th in sight, the Gentiles' plight" begins this number, and it goes from there. It took until the next verse for it to come into focus .... a British composer, a British piece... Oh my goodness, "Fantasy on a Theme of Thomas Tallis"!</p><p>This was the theme!</p><p>Or the tune, to put it more accurately. It is the third in the set in the above video because that is what it is. And you will notice they are here performed by the Tallis Scholars. One day that will be me. I will be a Tallis scholar.</p><p>Until then I will rejoice in this bit of knowledge.</p><p>In this fantasy. In this .... tune. <br /></p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IbzxhZT6akk" width="400"></iframe>
</p><p></p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-78475862037609552592021-02-06T18:25:00.001-08:002021-02-06T18:26:05.306-08:00Nightmare in the Library<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxHfdTumBRhe9cnhX8hHfP_MSgGVKtNOv1dd1nSDIwxmkO4ZRkBnDknU1cZtwrqtmWLllVezW-8Ub55b6De1H5i5m0mPLXS25h7P2oJ2E9RYMFfP9UMctSkTn28f-0WMA99m51P0aHdo/s1600/previnjacket.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxHfdTumBRhe9cnhX8hHfP_MSgGVKtNOv1dd1nSDIwxmkO4ZRkBnDknU1cZtwrqtmWLllVezW-8Ub55b6De1H5i5m0mPLXS25h7P2oJ2E9RYMFfP9UMctSkTn28f-0WMA99m51P0aHdo/s320/previnjacket.JPG" width="320" /></a> I have been wanting to get my Music Critic web log going again but it is hard to break a long silence, you know? You are always looking for something of Great Import.</p><p>Well. Yesterday I was working on my other blog and I found this post I had never published.</p><p>I had written it up several years ago one day and I kind of remember it, the way I remember everything I write. I think I published it for about two minutes and then pulled it down. I thought it would sound too negative or something. I thought it would hurt Andre Previn's feelings. He was -- is -- still among us. </p><p>Isn't it odd, the last post I wrote, a few weeks ago, was about Andre Previn. Hmm. Well, back to this old post. In any case I thought better of it, for whatever reason.</p><p>Not now.</p><p>Now I just think it is funny!</p><p>Anyway, without further ado as we say in the music biz, here it is. I titled it "Nightmare in the Library." Take it away, Mary:</p><p>I was at the downtown library with my friend Melinda and she was checking out videos. So one thing I do when I have a few minutes to kill is, I go to the music section and wander around. As I wander I scan the shelves and periodically I pull out this book or that and check to see if Leonard Pennario is in it.</p>He almost never is. I do not hold my breath. It is a funny thing about Pennario, he is so forgotten and overlooked and under-appreciated. I have a kind of joke going with myself about that. I mean, when I pull out these books I never expect to find him in them. Once I was startled to find an interesting few paragraphs about him in a book about child prodigies. That will actually make it into my book. But I am so used to disappointment.<br /><br />Yesterday I happened to see this moldy old biography of pianist and conductor Andre Previn.<br /><br />I stopped. Pennario had made this record with Previn in the early '60s. It was Previn's first record and the record company set him up with Pennario to record Rachmaninoff's First and Fourth Piano Concertos. Record companies used to like to have new conductors record with Pennario because Pennario was so reliably great, plus he was such a pro. He would give the conductor no problems and make the conductor look good and the record would be beautiful and sell well.<br /><br />Perhaps Previn would mention this episode, considering it was his first record and all. Were it not his first record I would figure he would not bother mentioning it because, as I said, no one mentions Pennario. But it was his first record. Anyway, I took the book off the shelf and opened it to check.<br /><br />To my astonishment there he was, in the index. "Pennario, Leonard."<br /><br />Wow! This was nice. I was getting over my cold and I still had that kind of wobbly feeling you get before you are quite healthy again. I needed a pick me-upper. I turned to the page. And you know what, I could not believe what I found.<br /><br />This book was so snotty! <div><br /></div><div>The writer, who, I did not notice his name, sort of sniffed that Previn's first two records had been with pianists Leonard Pennario and Lorin Hollander. Annoyingly the book lumped them together, as if there were no difference. Then the writer went and described the Pennario recording sessions as "uneventful."<br /><br />I mean, I am sorry that Pennario did not need his own special stool, you know?<br /><br />Sorry that he was not drunk or zoned out on pills or wearing a big heavy overcoat or threatening to quit the concert stage. Sorry that he simply walked out and played incredibly. Sorry that he was courteous and easy to work with and did not give Previn a hard time or look like a bum or do anything else that would have given him worth in a journalist's eyes.<br /><br />Well, maybe I had imagined the negative overtone. Perhaps this stupid writer had not realized that "uneventful" had a negative timbre. But no! The writer went on to quote Previn as saying that he did not think either of those first two records was any good. Previn said, "They showed that I could conduct and that soloists enjoyed working with me."<br /><br />The nerve. The nerve!! The ego!! The nerve!!<br /><br />Here by the grace of God you are teamed up with this magnificent musician, and that is what you have to say. Thanks a heap, Andre. Thanks a heap.<br /><br />Here is a picture of Andre Previn who threw Leonard Pennario under the bus.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib-cxDEg3tDaKKe5Kot2sLIM2uScHA1Crn1dooIwtzw1wDmMjmQP_GVyPTlLjVNbXGKCEuLfND96ZjemSfQinI8fclF1FkIQ11ItSpQ6hyphenhyphenEfo_cm87lPkiqUHjtfShFq3gFSsWO4cAqHE/s1600/previn.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib-cxDEg3tDaKKe5Kot2sLIM2uScHA1Crn1dooIwtzw1wDmMjmQP_GVyPTlLjVNbXGKCEuLfND96ZjemSfQinI8fclF1FkIQ11ItSpQ6hyphenhyphenEfo_cm87lPkiqUHjtfShFq3gFSsWO4cAqHE/s320/previn.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I do not normally rant like this but once in a while I allow myself the luxury. This is the kind of stuff I am up against.<br /><br />The writer also dismissed the record as "standard repertoire." Actually, you know what, it was not. This record was, in its way, historic. This was the record that made Pennario the first pianist after Rachmaninoff to record all four concertos, in addition to the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Because the Second and the Third Concertos and the Rhapsody have always been big hits, but no, the First and the Fourth were not in the standard repertoire. They were not performed very often. They are beginning to gain ground now but even now, they are off the beaten track.<br /><br />Oh, what am I carrying on for. Previn, Schmevin.<br /><br />I have real work to do.</div>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-5149052259693602152020-12-20T16:11:00.000-08:002020-12-20T16:11:00.679-08:00Julie Andrews, Andre Previn, and one wild Firestone album<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXCSVih0EUkfYL0laodQwiLefgjQ4n4GKsQDhb7h0sZLpZen5rTDtXtpU7wpUYqNpVOINGhEaQfGkPUwzRl-sEfOXsPh7Qi-fcXV1-f3FCm1cAT6G7zLWIKNbvTUhwv4B_xs1fTdoOF5c/s3078/IMG_20201220_133251_596.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3078" data-original-width="3067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXCSVih0EUkfYL0laodQwiLefgjQ4n4GKsQDhb7h0sZLpZen5rTDtXtpU7wpUYqNpVOINGhEaQfGkPUwzRl-sEfOXsPh7Qi-fcXV1-f3FCm1cAT6G7zLWIKNbvTUhwv4B_xs1fTdoOF5c/s320/IMG_20201220_133251_596.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>Today I put up my Christmas tree and I am going to kick off an exploration of Christmas music.</p><p>Our pick today is Julie Andrews and Andre Previn teaming up for a Firestone classic!</p><p>Christmas is really a magical time of year when you listen to anything from the 1950s and '60s. This album, I know it inside out, from when I was a little kid. My brothers and sisters and I listened to it ALL THE TIME over the holiday season. This, and other Firestone records. They are all great. But I want to zero in today on this one.</p><p>Of course as kids we loved Julie Andrews. And we loved this record. I listened to it today as I assembled my, ahem, Kmart artificial tree, and put lights on it. It all came back to me. "Joy to the... joy to the .... Joy to the ... joy to the..." sang the Firestone Chorus at the beginning of "Joy To The World." We used to laugh ourselves silly over that.</p><p> And we used to love Julie Andrews doing her number on "Deck the Halls" with harpsichord backing her up, and who knows what else.</p><p>These arrangements by Andre Previn!</p><p>That is what I am appreciating now!</p><p>As a kid, I do remember we liked this album. But his arrangements were over our head. Now I listen to them and I see what he is doing, and I love them. I know a little bit about Previn because Leonard Pennario worked with him. They did a great album of Rachmaninoff concertos. Here is the cover. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3tqag6pjldBsHbwgcsO_xo3-06wnPX2YhrP9lbsMuVVMr3104b8WQ-jymwkhytUDAP7Da16BDS2j-F6vlddKWjcMkiMj3XSntaD9XCIZbc0-BWWurn3564wKq-8YI01fy7pi31Zn7OS0/s498/pennario+previn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="497" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3tqag6pjldBsHbwgcsO_xo3-06wnPX2YhrP9lbsMuVVMr3104b8WQ-jymwkhytUDAP7Da16BDS2j-F6vlddKWjcMkiMj3XSntaD9XCIZbc0-BWWurn3564wKq-8YI01fy7pi31Zn7OS0/s320/pennario+previn.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p>A couple of nice looking gentlemen there.</p><p>What do you know, that album dates to 1965, the same year as this Firestone album. That was a good year for Previn!</p><p>You can tell just by listening to his Christmas creations that Previn loved the heck out of Richard Strauss, who at the time was only recently deceased. He lifted stuff from "Rosenkavalier" for half the album. You hear the Presentation of the Rose in "Away in a Manger." And later you hear the famous waltzes. It might have been in "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" but I did not take notes, I was too tangled up in my Christmas lights. The point is, he does it so well. You would think it would be annoying but it is not.</p><p>He also gives you a lot of Handel. Even as kids we could recognize that. And he just throws in a lot of surprises and boldness and fun. As Julie Andrews is singing "Jingle Bells," the orchestra just breaks out in squalls all over the place. It is like unpredictable wild Buffalo weather. "Jingle Bells" ends the album. Julie Andrews soars up to some incredible high note on the last "sleigh." And then the orchestra blasts in with this big honk.</p><p>So much fun! Too sophisticated for kids maybe, but great for grown-ups, people into jazz and Handel and Richard Strauss. Previn is a great jazz pianist and we will have to get to that another day.</p><p>For now, grab this album and put it on your stereo, whether you are isolated or not. What a great mid-century creation it is.<br /></p><p>It is a classic!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-36575407815573994932020-12-16T19:33:00.002-08:002020-12-16T19:33:16.972-08:00Beethoven turns 250<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrJbq2GvdF9Rp7VE-UeFVhgv4poNsfs8nNP2wNiEYv1erPey94dJTTE_Vbb-67UUNFebm-LK-z8z-o7RU-EOuupIlLy4eGM6HDk1OIssk9KatzuuQ0zJjRslfc3DElJleBIJuJAQSEmRo/s1600/beethoven.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1252" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrJbq2GvdF9Rp7VE-UeFVhgv4poNsfs8nNP2wNiEYv1erPey94dJTTE_Vbb-67UUNFebm-LK-z8z-o7RU-EOuupIlLy4eGM6HDk1OIssk9KatzuuQ0zJjRslfc3DElJleBIJuJAQSEmRo/s320/beethoven.jpg" /></a></div><br /> Today being Beethoven's 250th birthday, people are calling on me to make a statement.<p></p><p><b> What do you say</b> on such a momentous occasion?</p><p>Two hundred fifty years!!</p><p>Maybe what I will say as a statement is, I can name a few of the Beethoven creations that I love the best. I do love a lot of them. I have always had a kind of funny relationship with Beethoven. All my life I have loved Mozart -- Mozart is my top guy, but then I got more into piano, and I began playing Beethoven sonatas, and I could not stop. I just love them so much. And it brought me closer to Beethoven.</p><p>It is funny, thinking of Beethoven vs. Mozart. I read this beautiful book on Mozart several years ago by the British musicologist Paul Johnson. He spent some time dwelling on this topic, Mozart vs. Beethoven, which I liked about him. He said that they would go through history together, both magnifying the other.</p><p>That is true, I think!</p><p>They were so different. But I do not think you would have had Beethoven without Mozart. Imagine Beethoven going through life always up against this superman. I wrote about that once. It had to have made him who he was. Not Haydn, not Cherubini, not even Handel. Mozart. Imagine having to follow that act. Lucky you, Beethoven, to have been born when you were, on Dec. 16, 1770.</p><p>Things Beethoven wrote that I love:</p><p>The slow movement of the "Archduke" Trio.</p><p>The "Eroica Variations." They are better than the Diabelli variations, I think because they have a better theme to start with. The theme matters. I was lucky enough to learn to play these.</p><p>The Sonata in E, Op. 109. This was Leonard Pennario's favorite Beethoven sonata and it is mine too. That last movement! But the whole thing, really, is great. I love the first movement. There are moments that just get to me. There is this measure that sounds like jingling sleigh bells -- just haunting.</p><p>The "Appassionata" sonata, especially the slow movement. The second variation gets me. It sounds like a guitar accompaniment.</p><p>Of course the slow movements of the "Emperor" concerto and the Allegretto from the Seventh Symphony. My dad said how he loved that Allegretto when he was a kid. I did too, and you know what, it grows up with you. You never have to shove it under the bed in shame the way you would have to shove away some pop album or other.</p><p>Of course I love the finale of the Ninth Symphony. My friend Margaret at church, she and I have a joke about it. At moments of stress we will say, "Freude schoener Gotterfunken, Tochter aus Jerusalem." As I write this there is a note from Margaret in my email inbox with that in the subject line. But really, I love it, how can you not.</p><p>Back to my list. The slow movement of the last string quartet. I got to know the quartets pretty intimately while working for The Buffalo News and covering the Slee Beethoven Quartet Cycle. I got the scores and I studied them. And I love a lot of them. Some of them sound kind of studied and overengineered to me, to tell you the truth. But that must be me, not Beethoven. That last quartet is breathtaking. And the Razumovsky quartets with their Russian folk tunes, I love those. I love Russian music.</p><p>The song "The Flea." What, you don't know that? You should!</p><p>Lots of other piano sonatas. I should write a book, you know?</p><p>I think over the next week I will go out of my way to listen to Beethoven, celebrate his 250th.</p><p>He is looking good for his age!</p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-16422569535767340482020-10-21T12:14:00.002-07:002020-10-21T12:33:15.198-07:00Dreaming of Brahms<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF-nG5qn1wxG4QbmLvcfqhxajLlnQzFh36VRhPZm_sWqZ3LB9yuiUXhq6UutzN6rGNGCKHXFNY1NVguM7mXyTm6Z1P3u_c2X6dBr266VXb_A_oZJzHKS0X86mcw2ZuZTAlj-W1tpw_hoU/s640/brahms+clint.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="464" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF-nG5qn1wxG4QbmLvcfqhxajLlnQzFh36VRhPZm_sWqZ3LB9yuiUXhq6UutzN6rGNGCKHXFNY1NVguM7mXyTm6Z1P3u_c2X6dBr266VXb_A_oZJzHKS0X86mcw2ZuZTAlj-W1tpw_hoU/s320/brahms+clint.jpg" /></a></div><br />I have been joking with my friends about this dream I had about one of my favorite musicians of all time, Johannes Brahms.<p></p>For better or worse this was the older, bearded Brahms ... <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhCwLMKcSvKCaJ_DEVhP-XIgNhZfL6nrDuDxXy9M20TEfqCUNYxOcse0KD5VuvggvzLbt9zCAaxDQuC1iDtxXMg4Nm-yjd4VHpl6OupmdLy7NexBNggUiDgn9Fn8jut6TIrwmkzr16mbs/s1600/brahms+beard.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1228" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhCwLMKcSvKCaJ_DEVhP-XIgNhZfL6nrDuDxXy9M20TEfqCUNYxOcse0KD5VuvggvzLbt9zCAaxDQuC1iDtxXMg4Nm-yjd4VHpl6OupmdLy7NexBNggUiDgn9Fn8jut6TIrwmkzr16mbs/s320/brahms+beard.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>... not the young version that Howard, the guy I married, always says somewhat snarkily looks like Clint Eastwood. That is the Clint Eastwood Brahms at the top of this post. I used him as click bait.<br /></p><p>Anyway, I approached this older, bearded Brahms, and I asked him, "Herr Doktor Brahms, do you like to go out and hear live music?"</p><p>Herr Doktor Brahms said ja, jawohl.</p><p>I said, "Because my friends and I, we like to go out and hear music. If this Covid craziness ever ends and we are allowed to go out and hear live music again, would you like to go with us?"</p><p>And he said he would!</p><p>So I was really happy about that.</p><p>Of course then I awoke, and ... no Johannes Brahms, no plans to go out with him to hear live music.</p><p>I consoled myself by finding on YouTube that wonderful little recording we have of Brahms speaking.</p><p> </p><p> <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yRcMPxbaDAY" width="400"></iframe> </p><p>Then he plays the piano. But you know what, I have never really heard the piano part. I just keep rewinding the speaking part. </p><p>One day maybe I will get to the piano. But meanwhile, I listened to Brahms speak a few times. He says something to the effect of this is Herr Doktor Brahms, Johannes Brahms. I used to think it was in English but it is not.</p><p>It is so cool, the things you can find on YouTube.</p><p>So cool!<br /></p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-65174500356917135072020-10-02T17:52:00.004-07:002020-10-02T17:52:54.537-07:00Introducing The Mozart Bookshelf<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCKzSj3W1gttdiSSwjQ1xzyQ8htIbgXKjwsx8gj0fhmvPpIIMAi-uSn3sFWLuEUuDChJpwdHHC8ezA9zFsyvll3QFt5ausCWAi4LKsEYD4P8Q2yepzRRwhEuBOT9vqYD3JLp3Hbiapgw/s640/sacred2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCKzSj3W1gttdiSSwjQ1xzyQ8htIbgXKjwsx8gj0fhmvPpIIMAi-uSn3sFWLuEUuDChJpwdHHC8ezA9zFsyvll3QFt5ausCWAi4LKsEYD4P8Q2yepzRRwhEuBOT9vqYD3JLp3Hbiapgw/s320/sacred2.jpg" /></a></div>I got on AbeBooks and I ordered this novel about Mozart. It is called "Sacred and Profane" and it is by an author called David Weiss. I remembered this book from when I was a teenager. I know I read it though I have forgotten most of the details.<br /><p></p><p>"Sacred and Profane" is a terrible title because it does not make you think of Mozart. You could write pretty much any book and call it "Sacred and Profane." Perhaps I will title my biography of Leonard Pennario that! On the other hand look, I remembered it after all these years. So what do I know.</p><p>I paid something like $5 for "Sacred and Profane" on AbeBooks shipping included. I am excited about getting it. When I was a kid I got it out of the library. I am sure the library has de-accessioned it long ago.</p><p>After a few decades at it, I have amassed a pretty good collection of books about Mozart. I have a few children's books and an ancient copy of the biography of Mozart by Edward Holmes, who I recently learned was a friend of John Keats. Get out, who was a friend of John Keats? But Holmes was. I put it together and figured out they knew each other through Vincent Novello, who with his wife Mary wrote "A Mozart Pilgrimage."</p><p>I have that book too. The library de-accessioned it, surprise, surprise. But that book is another story for another day!</p><p>I also own several novels about Mozart. All of them are kind of weird -- the authors do not seem to get Mozart, they don't get the Catholic Church, they don't get music, they just don't get it. You know what I should do? I should start writing about all the Mozart books I have. I will title my miniseries "The Mozart Bookshelf." </p><p>Haha.. I should actually call it "The Mozart Bookcase," or, "The Spare Room That Has Been Eaten Up By All My Mozart Stuff." That would be more accurate!<br /></p><p> Back to "Sacred and Profane." I just looked it up on Amazon and cannot believe the reviews. Five stars, from reader after reader!</p><p>One gentleman who describes himself as a musician and a Mozartian writes, "It's one of the greatest books I ever read!" <br /></p><p>It looks as if it has been reprinted several times.</p><p>Well, there goes this plan I had. I was thinking that in the week or so before this book gets here, I should write my own novel about Mozart. Just a mini-novel, see how it goes. I know enough about him, that is for sure.</p><p>But now I wonder what is the point. <br /></p><p></p><p>I am looking too forward to this one!<br /></p><p></p><p><br /></p>Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6717274106260594383.post-80832679332905230172020-08-01T16:45:00.000-07:002020-08-01T16:46:20.816-07:00Opera-tunity knocks: This week at the Met<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXDAZYtrsdC06QruqMaDpYBYIKIIeGunCEjJSxr469bKJYDnkDmxc9iGa4dLMWjn2RCv9wjAw1gXcLBVY0t3tHP9t4GqQab6t-2wxRWWLhluoIPRvP950NS2NPO906jBlO1EzG5rVXww/s1600/dongiovanni.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXDAZYtrsdC06QruqMaDpYBYIKIIeGunCEjJSxr469bKJYDnkDmxc9iGa4dLMWjn2RCv9wjAw1gXcLBVY0t3tHP9t4GqQab6t-2wxRWWLhluoIPRvP950NS2NPO906jBlO1EzG5rVXww/s320/dongiovanni.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Don Giovanni" at the Met this week.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I want to go back to watching the MetOpera's opera stream.<br />
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Remember, I was going great guns with it back in April, when we were in the depths of the lockdown. I quickly fell behind with it because I got hooked on Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" and began watching it over and looking for different versions. Then there was Wagner week and I caught a few of the Wagner operas as I recall. And then .... and then ...<br />
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And then I guess what happened to me was like what happened to everyone else as we went through the Coronavirus craziness. The weeks began passing faster and faster and running into each other and now suddenly it is months later and I have not watched one single other Metropolitan Opera opera.<br />
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But now I do believe I will start again. I was just looking at what is coming up.<br />
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In the next week -- <a href="https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/week-21/opera-streams-weekly-guide/" target="_blank">the week beginning August 2 </a>we are talking -- they have two Mozart operas coming up, "The Magic Flute" and "Don Giovanni." There is also a "Madame Butterfly" with Roberto Alagna and a "Parsifal" with Siegfried Jerusalem.<br />
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"Parsifal" is a little heavy for me though Leonard Pennario liked it a lot. I might watch it to try to see what he saw.<br />
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<a href="https://www.metopera.org/discover/education/illustrated-synopses/magic-flute/" target="_blank">There is an illustrated synopsis for "The Magic Flute."</a> Cute!<br />
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<a href="https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/articles/crime-and-punishment/week-21/" target="_blank">There is also an interesting essay about "Don Giovanni"</a> which I have been enjoying picking over. There is a trend these days, say I, to see Don Giovanni as not a bad man but as a rather attractive rebel, a man who insists on his own happiness. I am saying it is a trend because when I saw the opera in Toronto a few years ago, they took that tack.<br />
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I admire this essay for acknowledging the Catholic background to the opera, and the literal nature of hell. The director, Michael Grandage, suggests that literal interpretation is something quaint, something the public in general might have trouble understanding. I do not have that trouble, I will tell you that. I believe hell exists. But Grandage has a point, I do not think a lot of people would agree with me. It is nice that he would even explore this topic because Mozart's Catholicism informs so much of his work and few musicologists acknowledge that.<br />
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What else is on tap this week? Handel's "Agrippina." They keep giving us this Handel in modern dress and pointing out political parallels to modern times ....<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhMQ-4sz9z1vR_2nTf5bmD_wM4xxlo0pGrL8BnERykqjP8u_FA4B3W6wfUIFjFWOxLoEtBZ0RExycOsH23nyKM1gXmFSWue2PtaeNpBGVnyQ9252c2Q7eWHFjdCyZkS6lsFezxS45Lg6E/s1600/agrippina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="1600" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhMQ-4sz9z1vR_2nTf5bmD_wM4xxlo0pGrL8BnERykqjP8u_FA4B3W6wfUIFjFWOxLoEtBZ0RExycOsH23nyKM1gXmFSWue2PtaeNpBGVnyQ9252c2Q7eWHFjdCyZkS6lsFezxS45Lg6E/s400/agrippina.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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... I don't know, not to use the language of Don Giovanni but are people seduced by this? Have these operas drawn audiences and gained fans? They seem to me tough to swallow.<br />
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But anyway ....<br />
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A lot to look forward to this week, if I get back into the opera saddle!<br />
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<br />Mary Kunz Goldmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02691118577179541037noreply@blogger.com0