The Classical Music Guide Forums

Haydnseek

I think that Stravinsky has been around a while. They may be clearing out the stock before bringing out re-mastered versions using the latest technology. They do seem to get better and better at this.

Haydnseek

I look forward to reading the Harry Potter series sometime. It's very encouraging to know that millions of children have the imaginations and attention spans to read long books. It's also good to know that books are still written that appeal to both young and old like many of the books we now consid...

Haydnseek

Recently I read Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises . Fitzgerald was, in my opinion, the more insightful writer, though this is probably his weakest novel, while The Sun was certainly one of Hemingway's very best efforts. I tried to reread For Whom the Bell Tolls...

Haydnseek

Let’s face it, it’s a threat to one’s self image as a person possessing superior taste and special knowledge when an artist becomes widely popular. That artist MUST be inferior if those sorts of people enjoy him, right? Best to declare him "shallow" or "superficial" and get that feeling of comfort b...

Haydnseek

I find that the minuette movements of classical symphonies invariably become tiresome and often punch the forward button to the next movement. I should program them out. Sometimes I listen to single movements - the first movement of Mahler's 9th, for example. String quartet recordings are problemati...

Haydnseek

I have a Senseo machine both at home and at work. Douwe Egberts Medium Roast is my favorite blend - really good coffee!

Haydnseek

In a manner of speaking. A young fellow came in April to tile my foyer. He was wired up to his Ipod so I asked what he was listening to. He replyed that he downloaded books on tape - all manner of books, but especially history, biography, science, and other non-fiction - and put them on his Ipod to...

Haydnseek

A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins. -Charles Lamb I buy a lot of used books, many are around 100 years old. Somehow, after a...

Haydnseek

I attended three concerts there (two by the house orchestra and one by the Netherlands Philharmonic) and was happy to confirm that the sound I was hearing on records was for real. Philips engineers captured that "golden" sound over and over again in analog recordings from the Sixties through the ear...

Haydnseek

Kirill Kondrashin conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam on Philips. Beautiful violin work by Herman Krebbers.

Haydnseek

Think the music of Fleetwood Mac with the occasional power riff, and lyrics that evoke an ethos of early pioneer days. Sorry, but I can't help thinking of that line from the movie spoken by Dick (played superbly by Todd Lousio): "She's kind of Sheryl Crow-ish crossed with a post-Partridge Family pr...

Haydnseek

Krazy Kat is an example of the comic strip rising to the level of art. It's not offensive but it can be unsettling and disturbing like other works of art. Great comedy is serious behind the laughter.

Haydnseek

Grand Canyon
Iguaçú Falls
Victoria Falls
Li River near Guilin, China
Crater Lake
Monument Valley
Scarlett Johansson

Haydnseek

Fugu wrote:I like the ... Goodman sets.

Was that before or after Harry James left?

I listen to Zinman's earlier set with the Baltimore Symphony on Telarc most often. I also have Haitink's which is very well played but suffers somewhat from the rather thin sound that many early digital recordings exhibited.

Haydnseek

Gilbert guest conducts in Baltimore. I heard him a few years ago and it was obvious that the musicians were very impressed with him. His name has come up with increasing frequency in the press when openings occur at orchestras. There has been "buzz" about this guy for years.

Haydnseek

However, and I have mentioned this before, there's seems to be a breath of fresh air in popular music lately. I have the same impression from listening to XM Radio's "Indie" pop channel several times recently. I wonder how many other middle-aged people are noticing this and if they are buying the m...

Haydnseek

Zoltan Kocsis's recording of the Debussy Preludes - 1998 I recently heard Claude Debussy's "Prelude a L'apres midi D'un faune" and I really loved it. Please excuse the spelling if it is not correct...I am very new to classical and have not learned French or Italian as of yet :-) I was wondering if ...

Haydnseek

We watched the movie comedy High Fidelity starring John Cusack yesterday evening for the first time. It's about the emotional maturation of young man who life is centered on his record collection and who owns a used record store specializing in pop music on vinyl. The staff and customers of the stor...

Haydnseek

The Tintner Bruckner cycle on Naxos began in 1995 and continued through 1998. All the discs are good and several sound truly outstanding to me. Zoltan Kocsis's recording of the Debussy Preludes - 1998 Gardiner's version of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress - 1999 Haitink made three discs of Ravel mus...

Haydnseek

In a very early episode of Doctor Who from around 1965 a girl from the far future who has come to contemporary England sees The Beatles on TV. When told who they are she remarks "Oh! I didn't know they played classical music.

Haydnseek

The Mendelssohn string quartets as played by the Talich Quartet on the Calliope label: 2000-2003. They were revelatory interpretations for me that caused me to hear all of Mendelssohn's music differently ever since.

Haydnseek

For some interesting speeches and essays on this subject by the novelist Michael Crichton visit his website:

http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speeches.html

In particular "The Case for Skepticism on Global Warming," "Environmentalism as Religion" and "Aliens Cause Global Warming"

Haydnseek

At UM's piano archives, Donald Manildi is man of note By Tim Smith Sun Music Critic July 8, 2007 At first glance, the nearly room-width, ceiling-high filing cabinets that fill an impossibly compact corner of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park suggest...

Haydnseek

Why do we still have pennies, anyway? To annoy the hell out of us. Taxes are not enough. They have to visit pennies upon us as well. Probably a conspiracy with the copper mine owners too. The penny is composed almost 98% of zinc. The nickel is made mainly of copper however. I think the last congres...

Haydnseek

Foster's "Ah, May the Red Rose Live Always" is a beautiful and poignant song. Ah, may the red rose live always, To smile upon earth and sky! Why should the beautiful ever weep? Why should the beautiful die? Lending a charm to ev'ry ray That falls on her cheeks of light, Giving the zephyr kiss for ki...

Haydnseek

I don't think the image above of Mrs. Pearl does her justice. Ms. Jolie isn't attractive enough for the role. Maybe if she undergoes lip-reduction surgery. Could the excess material be recycled into a new set of Firestones or something?

Haydnseek

Anthony Quinn must have been a nighmare for you: a Mexican of part Irish ancestry who was cast as a Greek, Arab, Jew, Russian, Spaniard, Italian, Polish-American and so on.

Haydnseek

"Newland never seems to look ahead," Mrs. Welland once ventured to complain to her daughter; and May answered serenely: "No; but you see it doesn't matter, because when there's nothing particular to do he reads a book." "Ah, yes--like his father!" Mrs. Welland agreed, as if allowing for an inherited...

Haydnseek

I suppose, in the short run, the fact that Russians are seeing their living standards rise rapidly diverts them from worrying about Putin's increasingly authoritarian rule. In the long run, however, a rising middle class tends to counter-balance the power of government. Lots of people end up holdin...

Haydnseek

This is an outstanding Rachmaninov album:

Haydnseek

Today I finished The Alhambra by Washington Irving which was first published in 1832. Irving served for a time as a diplomat in Spain and had an opportunity to reside in the Alhambra palace for several months. The book is travel literature intermingled with retellings (spiced with Irving's own brand...

Haydnseek

Maybe, but history is bunk. According to my history of the Fords (Lacey) it is not clear what Ford really said. He claimed The Chicago Tribune misquoted him (is it possible a newspaper would do such a thing? :roll:). It is clear that Ford did not like the way history was presented in school books b...

Haydnseek

XM to play BSO concerts in 2008 By Tim Smith sun music critic June 15, 2007 The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will return to the national airwaves for the first time in nearly a decade with a new series on XM satellite radio beginning Sept. 27, when Marin Alsop's first concert as music director will ...

Haydnseek

Political Correctness requires that Eskimos be allowed to continue their hunting tradition. This sort of thing is only bad if Icelanders, Norwegians and Japanese do it. I'll know Greenpeace is serious about stoping whaling the day they ram an Eskimo kayak with one of their ships.

Haydnseek

Successful school pranks should be humorous and fundamentally good-natured like the one at this high school. The greatest tradition of university pranks must be at Caltech. Here are a few examples: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/pranks/rosebowl.html http://www.globalprovince.com/caltech.htm A few yea...

Haydnseek

It was a pretty good old fashioned prank of the sort chronicled in Owen Johnson's "Lawrenceville Stories" such as The Prodigious Hickey, The Tennessee Shad, and The Varmint. I don't think they are in print anymore but they should be. Is anyone else here familiar with them? These stories written in t...

Haydnseek

It's a slippery slope when the audience become unruly. Remember those shocking images from last year's Mostly Mozart Festival:

Haydnseek

I'll sip coffee on my porch overlooking the water and read The Old Curiosity Shop, pausing now and then to watch the birdlife. Later in the morning I"ll drive to Washington to see an afternoon soccer match between DC and New York. I'll spend the rest of the day catching up on the old movies I've rec...

Haydnseek

Ms. Hilton is a full-time publicity seeker who has crafted an image for herself as a spoiled-rotten rich girl. Everything that is happening now is working in her favor. She is just getting all she can out of it.

Haydnseek

What a shame that we have to live with conditions supportive of exports, and thus manufacturing jobs, when there are so many needy record collectors.

Haydnseek

Well, forgive me for being a snob, but I cannot recall Nostalgia as one of the Nine Muses. The elevation of triva to replace high art and culture as being of central importance to our lives is not something I celebrate. The Rijksmuseum, now that is a museum! A brand of soap or its packaging and adv...

Haydnseek

I visited the old Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta a few years ago and enjoyed it. The displays showing the changes in advertising over the years were particularly fascinating. Museums about industry, civic and social history are more interesting to me than most fine arts museums. They provide a window l...

Haydnseek

46% Yankee. I'm originally from Michigan and my parents came from Ohio. I still call it a "Drinking Fountain."

Haydnseek

Many of the best actors have been character actors in supporting roles. The studios were full of them in Hollywood’s Golden Age and they could take a good movie to a higher level or save a mediocre one by creating a character of real interest. However, we usually mean leads when we discuss favorites...

Haydnseek

Don't forget this guy: 'Beatles split was a relief' By Rob Blackhurst Published: Apr 20, 2007 AIR Lyndhurst, the Hampstead church converted into a recording studio by Sir George Martin, hardly reeks of the spirit of rock 'n' roll. Inside the gloomy Victorian building are hanging baskets and a plaque...

Haydnseek

(Dawkins would argue we do, as only organization may have a hope of stemming fundamentalist religious fanaticism.) I can't imagine the organized spread of ideas like Intelligent Design having occurred without the previous efforts of organized and almost militant groups to ban religious expression w...

Haydnseek

As a believer, I can say you're full of it. The religious right, unfortunately, will continue as a group that seeks to oppress as it was destined to do when it first came into power. We have more to fear from religious zealots like you than anyone else. I'm confused, which one of you is the religio...

Haydnseek

Mermaid statue draped in Muslim dress Sun May 20, 4:16 PM ET The Little Mermaid statue in Denmark's capital was found draped in a Muslim dress and head scarf Sunday morning. Police removed the clothing after a telephone caller reported it, spokesman Jorgen Thomsen said. The statue sculpted in tribut...

Haydnseek

It’s always remarkable to hear religious believers of the more liberal sort condemn fundamentalists for their moral views and primitive ideas about things like the sources and significance of natural disasters and acts of violence. To those of us who are non-believers the gulf between the two camps ...

Haydnseek

Music critic Gary Giddins in his monthly column in the current issue of JazzTimes writes about his very positive experiences with an iPod given to him by his "persistent" daughter. He writes about the way shuffle play "has generated many small revelations" and that he is using earphones more frequen...

The Classical Music Guide Forums

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Re: How ridiculous is Harry Potter anyway?

High Fidelity - The Movie

International Piano Archive at Maryland

Re: The joy of being penniless

Baltimore Concerts on XM Radio

A Brilliant Act of Protest