Category Archives: CF – Listening 2016

First-time listening for December 2016

Posted by on December 31, 2016 No comments

24062. (anon.) Per­son­al Mes­sage from a Grand­fa­ther to his Grand­child [1894 wax cylinder]
24063. (Dan W. Quinn) “Down in Pover­ty Row” [1997 wax cylinder]
24064. (Will F. Den­ny) “Change Will Do You Good” [1897 wax cylinder]
24065. (John Philip Sousa Band) “Dark­ies Temp­ta­tion” [1897 wax cylinder]
24066. (Len Spencer) “Sleigh Ride Par­ty” [1897 wax cylinder]
 Read more »

First-time listening for November 2016

Posted by on November 30, 2016 No comments

23999. (Duke Elling­ton) After All
(Anony­mous 4) Dark­ness into Light: The Bride­groom & oth­er works by John Tavener:
. . . . 24000. (John Taven­er) Ves­pers hymn: O lux bea­ta trinitas
. . . . 24001. (John Taven­er) Jube domine/Lection: In prin­ci­pio erat verbum
. . . . 24002. (John Taven­er) Come and do Your will in me [arr. Tavener] 
Read more »

First-time listening for October 2016

Posted by on October 31, 2016 No comments

23854. (Rabih Abou-Khalil) Roots & Sprouts
23855. (Hen­ry Pur­cell) The Indi­an Queen [com­plete opera; d. Hog­wood; Kirk­by, Bott, Ainsley]
23856. (Last Shad­ow Pup­pets) Every­thing You’ve Come To Expect
23857. (Alessan­dro Scar­lat­ti) Telema­co [com­plete opera; d. Hen­gel­brock; Ham­vasi, Kulman]
Music of the Ancient Sume­ri­ans, Egyp­tians and Greeks:
Read more »

First-time listening for September 2016

Posted by on September 30, 2016 No comments

23787. (Skep­ta) Konnichiwa
23788. (Anon.) Hur­ri­an Hymn #6 [old­est known melody, c.1400 BC] [Michael Levy, lyre]
23789. (Anon.) Ancient Assyr­i­an Music of North­ern Iraq
23790. (Burn­ing Spear) The Best of Burn­ing Spear [Jus­tice Sound compilation]
23791. (Anon.) Old Iran­ic Luri Folk Music
23792. (Doo­bie Broth­ers) The Doo­bie Brothers
Read more »

First-time listening for August 2016

Posted by on August 31, 2016 No comments

23738. (Leon Scott [Édouard-Léon Scott de Mar­t­inville]) Au claire de la lune [first song 
. . . . . record­ed, April 9 1860 and reconstructed]
23739. (Leon Scott [Édouard-Léon Scott de Mar­t­inville]) Chi cred­e­ria sot­to forme umane e 
. . . . . sot­to queste pas­torali spoglie fos­se nascos­to un Dio? Non mica un… from Tasso’s
. . . . . Aminta [first record­ed spo­ken words, April or May 1860, reconstructed]
23740. (Leon Scott [Édouard-Léon Scott de Mar­t­inville]) Com­plete sound recording 
. . . . . exper­i­ments, 1853–1860 [recon­struct­ed by Lawrence Berke­ley Nation­al Labor-atory]
23741. (Con­stant Lam­bert) Con­cer­to for Piano and Nine Instruments
Read more »

Young Winwood

Posted by on August 18, 2016 No comments

16-08-18 LISTENING Stevie WonderSome of my ear­li­est expe­ri­ences of lis­ten­ing to the blues came from the blues-rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s, which unob­tru­sive­ly shared the record bins with the chart-top­ping bands, but were not house­hold words. I heard them long before I learned any­thing about clas­sic blues. Among my favourites were Traf­fic, Blind Faith and the Spencer Davis Group. What these three bands shared was the amaz­ing vocal­ist and mul­ti-instru­men­tal­ist Steve Winwood.

Win­wood is Eng­lish, but he learned his trade from the Amer­i­can mas­ters. The old­er blues singers toured in Eng­land alone, rely­ing on local pick­up bands for back­ing wher­ev­er they went, and the teenage Win­wood, active since the age of 8 in Birm­ing­ham’s club scene, played with B.B. King, John Lee Hook­er, Mud­dy Waters, T‑Bone Walk­er, Chuck Berry, Howl­in’ Wolf, Son­ny Boy Williamson, and even Bo Did­dley! Just how much he learned, and how quick­ly he learned it is demon­strat­ed by this per­for­mance of the 1920s clas­sic “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”, at the age of fifteen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwqsmNR_Q1M

First-time listening for July 2016

Posted by on July 31, 2016 No comments

23706. (Wolf­gang Amadeus Mozart) La clemen­za di Tito [com­plete opera; d. Davis; 
. . . . . w. Con­sta­ble, Bur­rows, Bak­er, Popp]
23707. (Court­ney Bar­nett) Some­times I Sit And Think, And Some­times I Just Sit
23708. (The 1975) The 1975 [2 cd version]
Read more »

First-time listening for June 2016

Posted by on June 30, 2016 No comments

23686. (Junko Ueda) The Epic of Heike [L’épopée des Heike]
23687. (Mr. Oizo & Sebastien Tel­li­er) Steak
23688. (Maroon 5) Hands All Over
23689. (Incred­i­ble Fred Banana Com­bo) FBS
23690. (Alan Hov­haness) Sat­urn for Sopra­no, Clar­inet & Piano, Op.243
Read more »

First-time listening for May 2016

Posted by on May 31, 2016 No comments

23670. (Pierre de Manchicourt) Mis­sa Veni Sancte Spiritus
23671. (Pierre de Manchicourt) Motet: Reges terrae
23672. (Pierre de Manchicourt) Motet: O vir­go virginum
23673. (Pierre de Manchicourt) Chan­son: Long temps mon coeur languissoit
 Read more »

Handel’s Fireworks

Posted by on May 30, 2016 No comments

16-05-31 MUS Fireworks

Well, I have no short­age of record­ings of this, one of the most pop­u­lar works of baroque music. I have per­for­mances con­duct­ed by Fen­nell, Gar­diner, Hog­wood, Mar­riner, Maier, Pin­nock, Savall, Stokows­ki, and War­chal, and I’ve prob­a­bly heard a dozen oth­ers. Most lis­ten­ers divide them into two cat­e­gories: 1) record­ings using orig­i­nal peri­od instru­ments, or an approx­i­ma­tion there­of; 2) record­ings using twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry instru­ments in a stan­dard con­cert for­mat. I’m not going to sneer at the lat­ter group. Han­del was as prag­mat­ic a show­man as music ever pro­duced, and he would have been per­fect­ly hap­py hear­ing Stokowski’s won­der­ful and total­ly inau­then­tic ver­sion, though he might have told Mar­riner to give his per­for­mance a lit­tle more zetz. But on the whole, I pre­fer the peri­od instru­ment ver­sions, and of those, I’d pick Jor­di Saval­l’s for my desert island music col­lec­tion. This ver­sion has zetz-aplen­ty. Read more »