Mendelssohn on Music

I love this quote:

People often complain that music is too ambiguous, that what they should think when they hear it is so unclear, whereas everyone understands words. With me, it is exactly the opposite, and not only with regard to an entire speech but also with individual words. These, too, seem to me so ambiguous, so vague, so easily misunderstood in comparison to genuine music, which fills the soul with a thousand things better than words. The thoughts which are expressed to me by music that I love are not too indefinite to be put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.

The full quote is below.

Carlos Ibay

I went to hear a concert yesterday at the Rubinstein International Piano Competition. Among the pianists is Carlos Ibay, who's been playing since the age of 2 and developed an international career including concerts in Carnagee Hall - and he's blind since birth. He doesn't learn the notes by Braille, but rather by listening to the music repeatedly. Oh, and he sings as well, from Opera to Gershwin standards to Filipino folk music. And speaks 7 languages fluently.

It's quite a sight - you can see it online at http://www.arims.org.il/competition2008/pages/english/competitors-list.php?competitor_id=18

You can also read about him at http://www.carlosibay.com/nwprofile.html

Relax, I order you to relax!

In an interview, Amy Sedaris, also known as Jerri Blank, said she invented a new style of acting, where you say how you feel instead of acting it. In every episode of Strangers with Candy she would look at the camera and tell us what's going on deep inside: "Sad", "Humiliated", or, my all time favorite, "Shame, it's just more shame".

My least favorite radio station, the classical top-40 WCRB, decided to adopt the same approach. Instead of playing quality music, they pause every 10 min to tell you (in a deep baritone) that they are "the best classical music station". Listen, morons. There's nothing less relaxing than someone hammering into your head "W-C-R-B, the most relaxing music on radio". And you cannot make up for a minuscule collection of music, dominated by fringe boring baroque composers (William Boise? Who the hell is he?) by repeating the mantra "best music on radio". And, by the way, interrupting the music every 5 minutes to tell us you're continuing with your long sets of uninterrupted music is, how shall we say it, kind of dumb.

WCRB, I hate you.

A Year of Bach

As much as I love modern and contemporary music, I always go back to the basics, and for it is the music of Bach. Many "top 10" lists of classical music include his B minor Mass at the top of the list, and having listened to it last week in a concert in Jordan Hall (with the Cantata Singers), I would concur. After the concert I went to the web to take another look at that complete Bach edition I always coveted, a $2,400 172 CD box from Hanssler. Good performances by well known artists, but a bit pricey. And then, I found another complete edition, with lesser known performers but good reviews. At $107 it was too tempting to pass on, and 2 days later I got it in the mail.

And I've been listening to Bach ever since. 5 CDs a week, or one CD every day on the way to work and back (and a bit over the weekend) - it should just be a year before I finish listening to all of it. I'm so excited! It is an amazing deal, and I never expected to be able to listen to all of Bach's music, but it's going to happen this year.

The performances are pretty good so far. The box is sorted by genre: orchestral music, harpsichord, chamber music, cantatas, organ music, etc. I decided not to listen to them in order - I don't think I would be able to survive 60 CD's or religious cantatas. Instead, I've started with every 10th disk (1, 11, 21, etc.), and when I finish these I'll move to 2, 12, 22, etc. Surprisingly, the first batch of 5 CDs included some of the most amazing music ever written (IMHO): the Well-Tempered Klavier, Goldberg Variations, Brandenburg Concertos, "Ich Habe Genug" cantata, Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin... and this is just a random sample! I can't wait to see what surprises I'll find along the way.



And when I'm done, there's always the $110 complete Mozart edition!