This post is just to point out that you can download a free mp3 of St. Etienne's catchy "Lose That Girl" from Sub Pop here. (The link is under "Listen", 2nd column from the left.) I am not familiar with this band's oeuvre in detail but I like this tune. They do have an official Youtube channel, where you can investigate cheery proto-britpop (with various amounts of electronic dance beats admixed) from the early 90s like 1992's Avenue:
or check out their more recent doings (that seem to involve more insistent, but lightfooted, electronic dance beats), like Tonight
Alicia de Larrocha plays Enrique Granados' piano music on RCA Red Seal (BMG) CD 09026-6814-2. Music and performance are perfection. Can't imagine it done better. Truly essential listening. The musical equivalent of a Catalonian monastery, a Tuscan hilltop town, a Campanian fishing village. Understated, picturesque, quotidian, unforgettable.
On a 1998 Philips CD, number 456 574-2, the Guarneri quartet plays both of Leoš Janácek's string quartets: the 1923 "Kreutzer Sonata" and the 1928 "Intimate Letters". This is wonderful music, tonal but not staidly so, beautifully played (in 1996) by the Guarneri. Plenty of melodic and harmonic beauty, deeply felt but not sloppy or over-the-top. Excellent recording captures the rosiny, woody aspects of string tone, and a bit of astringence but not too much. Good acoustic ambience...fairly reverberant, but the sound is very clear. Possibly more closely-miked than is completely realistic, but that gives a clear insight into the separate lines without sounding glaringly close up. I don't know the other recordings of this piece, so can't comment on which others one might entertain in addition to, or instead of, this one. Doesn't really matter: this is essential music, beautifully rendered. I will say no more except that every music lover would be well-advised to listen to these pieces, in this or some equally good recording if one exists, and to go hear them live if the opportunity arises.
Sorry for the lack of correct Czech diacritical marks. A computing issue I will work on.
I recently read the autobiography of Titta Ruffo, an operatic baritone who was one of the greatest singers of all time. Fascinating reading, very evocative of the atmosphere of Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A tough childhood, deeply in conflict with his father, in whose metalworking shop he was apprenticed. Apparently quite forthcoming about some aspects of his life, such as this conflict, an early affair with a married woman (he claims to have resisted on moral grounds until she assures him it is a loveless marriage that she never wanted), and very reticent on other matters, such as his own marriage, the identity of the female singer who was his muse and professional advisor for many years, and the nature of the news that required his abrupt return from a triumphal tour in South America, with which the book abruptly ends. This news was the murder of his brother in-law, the antifascist Italian politician Giacomo Matteotti, by fascists. The book seems a bit self-absorbed at times, but I don't find it as self-aggrandizing as some have: the wonderful voice and worldwide triumphs are, after all, just the facts. Besides a fascinating portrait of Italian life at the time, interesting insight into the life of a world-traveling musician at the time, and into worldwide musical culture.
As just one sample of why Ruffo is so important, I'll embed his performance of Iago's aria, "Credo in un Dio crudel" ("I believe in a cruel God") from Verdi's Otello. I will admit to not being very familiar with this opera (I know, I know, how can I claim to love music and Verdi, etc...), and this aria. I had listened to a few versions of this on Youtube, as it's considered one of the major baritone arias, but although I could imagine it could be powerful, it had never quite gelled. With Ruffo it does. Interpretive power and vocal beauty...some of the long-held notes are amazing in their sustained, consistent sound that perfectly combines darkness, brilliance, and richness. But even more significant is his characterization of Iago, whose implacable hatred of the world and determination to sow evil are audible.
My attention was drawn to Canadian-born baritone Gerald Finley by hearing (on CBC radio while visiting Kitchener-Waterloo for the Quantum Landscape conference at PI) his rendition of the aria "Batter my heart...", a setting of the John Donne poem, "Batter my heart, three-person'd God," as J. Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams' opera Doctor Atomic, about the creation of the atomic bomb. A few years back I found the opera, on DVD, to be pretty good, though with some weak points. Hearing Finley sing it reminds me that this aria was one of the strong points. He has a wonderful voice, clear, ringing at times, flexible but still with plenty of power when needed, and he gives meaning and drama to the words he sings.
