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Showing posts from December, 2010

Sounds ancient and modern

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What is the link between the CD above and the monitor speaker below? Well, the obvious one is that the Bowers & Wilkins 803 speaker in the photo is one of a pair used for most of my listening. But there is a more interesting link and it involves a subject close to the heart of this blog, sound quality . On the CD, which is performed a cappella , the Lebanese singer and musicologist Ghada Shbeir sings ancient ancient Maronite texts that she has set to traditional Syriac melodies. After just a few minutes auditioning the disc two things become very clear. First, this is music making of the highest order, and secondly, it is captured in sound that is astonishingly clear and life-like. The link between the two photos is an acoustic phenomenon that is responsible for the exceptional sound of both the CD and the speakers. And if that is all somewhat opaque let me explain. A previous post about the Castel del Monte in Italy discussed how reflections generated by parallel surfaces are th

Instant karma

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In 2010 the devastation of the UK music and arts funding infrastructure was met with howls of outrage from the media. The parallel devastation of the UK music and arts broadcasting infrastructure was met with a compliant silence . More instant karma here . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The sound of no hands clapping

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Social media is hot, metaphysical media is not. Which means Facebook has replaced zazen in the search for enlightenment and silence is divorced from its metaphysical companions of chance and impermanence to make it social media friendly . Zen Buddhism has attracted many musicians including John Cage . Enlightenment, silence and impermanence are central to Zen, as is the concept of transmission. The role of a Zen master is to transmit the dharma , these are the teachings of the Buddha that lead to enlightenment. Transmission is the ritual process by which the dharma is transmitted from teacher to student and it has been likened to an electric current arcing from one conductor to another. Let us accept for a moment that analogies between classical music and metaphysical media are valid. This is unproven, but previous paths such as the Tao of music , Music exists only in constant flow and flux and Classical music as ritual suggest the analogy is at least worth considering. Accepting pa

The sheer accessibility of Western culture

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What seemed to threaten the fundamentalists most, reading between the lines of their rhetoric and behavior, was the sheer accessibility of western culture: the fact that everything a person could want, from consumer goods to emotional highs to sex to spirituality, was public and available to anyone. Nothing was hidden, nothing required serious effort to attain. In the West, anything that must be hidden is suspect; availability and honesty are interlinked. This clashes irreconcilably with Islam as it is practiced in the Middle East, where the things that are most precious, most perfect, and most holy are always hidden: the Kaaba, the faces of prophets and angels, a woman's body, Heaven. The fundamentalists, in their own way, were mourning the loss of legitimately beautiful ideas. They knew they could not make the ritualized, morally appraising culture of traditional Arab Islam - in which one must be worthy of truth, love and God to attain them - more attractive than the lifestyle e

A powerful reminder of what we have lost

When Grammy winner John McLaughlin Williams recommends music it is worth listening. So I was intrigued to see John recommending on Facebook Paul Constantinescu's Byzantine oratorio 'The Nativity' which he describes as a "beautiful, mystical work". This is not a work or composer I know and my search could find no current recording in the catalogue. But the piecemeal excerpts on YouTube , see above, suggest 'The Nativity' is a strong candidate for re-release or re-recording. At this time of the year sacred music from the Orthodox tradition is a powerful reminder of the mystery that our consumer culture has leached out of the nativity. More Eastern Orthodox music here . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpat

Lightning conductor

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It is suggested elsewhere that Jiri Belohlavek will leave his position as the BBC Symphony Orchestra's chief conductor after the 2012 Proms to join the Czech Philharmonic . I was going to ask whether anyone will notice that he has left London. But then I realised that the check in desk at Heathrow will . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The shock of the old

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Record companies rely on new releases to boost sales. Which means complimentary copies of new releases flow to reviewers. Which in turn means lists of 'best of 2010 releases' appear at this time of year. Which keeps the record companies happy. Which keeps the review copies flowing for another year. All of which overlooks two points. First, newness is not a guarantee of quality. And secondly the discovery of an album recorded twenty-eight years ago can be just as rewarding as one released in the last twelve months. So a chance comment from a reader prompts me to post again about the Norwegian singer Radka Toneff's 1982 album Fairytales . When I first wrote about Fairytales in 2006 it could only be bought in an expensive Japanese pressing. But today it is available as a standard full priced CD or as a bargain download . This is one of the most entrancing albums you are ever likely to hear. If any more convincing is needed risk a few pence on the download of track 3 , Kurt

O Magnum Mysterium

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'You know that the success of all religions lies in their mysteries. Once everything has been explained didactically, there are no longer any mysteries, and therefore no reason to return' - Salvador Dali O Magnum Mysterium (O Great Mystery) is a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas that has been set by composers ranging from William Byrd to Morten Lauridsen . My header photo was taken a few weeks ago from the tiny village of Suzette in Provence. Le Barroux is in the foreground and the Gregorian chant from the two monasteries there featured in posts several times this year . In the background is Mont Ventoux and Petrarch wrote about his ascent of the mountain in 1336 in one of his Epistolae familiares . Franz Liszt, a composer we will be hearing often in 2011 , set three of Petrarch's Sonnets in his Années de pèlerinage . The elusive Laura prompted Petrarch to give up the priesthood and inspired some of his most celebrated poetry. Petrarch first sighted Laur

A Christmas delight that avoids the high Cs

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Howard Skempton's music has developed without regard for contemporary fashionable 'isms'. He studied composition with Cornelius Cardew and was a founder member Cardew's Scratch Orchestra in 1969. Skempton's music is characterised by its extreme economy and he has writen a large number of pieces for solo piano or accordion. Bolt from the Blue is a new CD from the New York based Mode label which was Alex Ross' 2009 label of the year . It brings together Howard Skempton's piano miniatures and music for voices in an intelligently planned and beautifully executed programme. The pianist is contemporary music specialist Daniel Becker whose contribution, which includes the title track, is captured in the piano-friendly acoustic of Potton Hall here in East Anglia. Exaudi directed by James Weeks provide the choral contribution which was recorded in St Silas, Chalk Farm . This is an outstanding disc of genuinely original and beautiful music. It comes from an im

The orchestra did not particularly like his music

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'Mahler was not often played in Berlin and the orchestra frankly confess that they did not particularly like his music - "but," said one of the principals, "Sir John made us love it as much as he did himself..."' That quote from Michael Kennedy's biography of Sir John Barbirolli dates from Glorious John's 1963 performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic. I was reminded of it hearing Claudio Abbado conducting the BPO in the same symphony on BBC Radio 3 this afternoon . The recording that resulted from Barbirolli's 1963 Berlin visit features here . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Decca launches classical godcasts

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Decca has taken social media to new heights with an online prayer facility on their website for the Christmas CD from the nuns of Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation. Sadly divine petition seems to have failed* as Voices - Chant from Avignon was beaten to the UK Christmas number one spot by André Rieu's Forever Vienna . Will we see Chant Against the Machine released for Christmas 2011? More on the backstory of the nuns' CD here . * As happens many times, this light-hearted post led to more serious matters. When I started writing it on Dec 21 I spent a lot of time trying to find out which CD was number one in the UK classical specialist chart for the week ending December 18. First I listened to the BBC Radio 3 chart programme on iPlayer , for which I expect many accumulated merits. But to no avail, just a few specific chart CDs were featured and overall chart positions were not given. I then followed the Radio 3 link to the Gramophone chart page which was a week out of date,

Blues on Bach

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Bob: Sometimes New York City still gets it right and ceases to be a city for the privileged alone and resembles something close to the five boroughs I was born and raised in: WKCR 89.9 FM is broadcasting 24 hours of Bach each day for the next two weeks. You can listen on the net at: http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/wkcr/ The undergrads are far better than the pros at WQXR 105.9 FM by letting the music speak for itself. (Plus, they play mostly original vinyl!) Your blog helped me to discover and appreciate Bach; I will always be in its debt. Thanks. Merry Christmas, TMcC Yes, I have written critically about BBC Radio 3's Mozart fest , but no apologies for sharing that email from an American reader. Back in 2005 I posted about the classical music orgies at Harvard's WHRB and Alex Ross added this comment: The glories of WHRB's orgies are no secret at www.therestisnoise.com and vilainefille.blogs.com, both curated by former WHRB DJs. I wouldn't be a music critic

Of mice and music

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Relax, it's not yet another post about the Nutcracker . If this blogs celebrates anything it celebrates chance . And it was by chance that I learnt from the WQXR website that the Arpeggio Food & Wine restaurant at Avery Fisher Hall in New York scored eleven violation points in an inspection by the city’s health department in February and is officially listed as 'not yet graded' . This is an improvement over the previous fifty-nine violations of the concert hall's restaurant. But as the WQXR website explains "the violations are still alarming, particularly since they indicate the presence of mice and roaches". Back in 2005 I essayed a post that connected food and music, here is the link . Also on Facebook and Twitter . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and err

Classical music - what is hot and what is not

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In a few days Google zeitgeist will be telling us what was hot and what was not in 2010. Google's entertaining Christmas PR exercise uses a tool called Google Trends which measures the number of web searches for a specified term. So, ' Twitter ' is hot: While ' Napster ' is not: Before proceeding further let us understand the ground rules. Goggle Trends is an automated tool and some of its limitations are explained in a footnote to this post. But at the best Google Trends provides food for thought and at worst offers a much needed alternative to the shockingly bad Christmas TV and radio schedules here in the UK. To play the what is hot classical music game simply go to the Google Trends homepage and type in your search term. And hey presto! If the trend is uphill it is hot, if it is downhill that says it all. Here are some examples for starters. Sadly, as measured by Google Trends, ' classical music ' is going downhill quickly: While, by contrast, ' An

Musique concrete

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Our route to a concert by early music ensemble La Simphonie du Marais on l'ile de Noirmoutier in western France took us via Saint Nazaire. I knew that the town was infamous as the base for the notorious Nazi U-boats that sunk so many ships in the Atlantic during World War II. But I had no idea what Saint Nazaire was like today. We parked in the unremarkable town centre and walked towards the docks area through a modern shopping mall. Suddenly the chilling remnants of Hitler's thousand year Reich seen in my photos came into view. Allied bombs destroyed 85% of the surrounding town and killed almost five hundred French civilians. But the U-boat pens, with their seventeen foot thick roofs, survived all the bombing and a commando raid. They stand today across the road from the new shopping mall, exactly as they were built in 1941. They were constructed to withstand a direct hit from a 3.5 ton bomb and are literally indestructible. They will still stand thousands of years from now.

The best kind of foreigner

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Most returned, of course, alive and moderately fit from the hippy trail. They may have failed to change the world, but they certainly changed Mykonos. The violinist Yehudi Menuhin had a holiday home on that island which he visited in 1976 after an absence of nine years (he had honourably refused to enter Greece during the military dictatorship). Menuhin was stunned to find Mykonos overrun by 'naked Beatniks of all sexes' . He wrote to the mayor, explaining why he would no longer be holidaying in the fallen idyll, and his letter found its way into the Athenian national newspaper Kathimerini . He spoke of the 'locusts ' invading Greece and of Mykonos in particular becoming 'an island of ill fame' . In less than a decade, Menuhin lamented, 'your noble Mykonos, where the visitiors came for its own uniqueness and its proximity to the sacred island of Delos, has acquired the reputation of a place for all and every kind of decadence' , a decadence which was &#

Lebrecht weakly

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A few days ago I quoted Norman Lebrecht as saying that the late Peter Andry was: ...part of a golden generation of gifted Australians who enriched British life and world culture. A reader has reminded me that in 2005 Norman wrote : Little in their [Australians] sunkissed insularity has equipped them for the ethnic and economic diversity of British arts and their focus is so short-term that only the most desperate of boards would, it seems to me, choose a second-string Aussie above a locally experienced, lifelong committed Brit. It makes no sense at all... The arts thrive on merit, and if an Aussie is the best candidate for any top job I'll be the first to put a chilled Chardy in their fist. But the Aussies are currently here mob-handed and mostly for the wrong reasons. Their country needs them more than we ever will. The message to these misfits is: Aussies, go home. From which we must assume Norman Lebrecht will play a central role in the forthcoming twelve day BBC Radio 3 Mozar

These musicians play their very own music

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In this session, jazz is not adulterated to Indian music, and neither is the Indian element "jazzed up". Nor do both partners meet halfway in an abstract inhospitable no man's land where they would relinquish their respective characteristics. Each of these musical areas remain respected in their individualities, their purity is left untouched. Everyone of these musicians plays his very own music. Yet, this is really why it is so revealing to hear how musicians of two very widely separated cultures are able to communicate intelligently, how they can play together with superb sensitiveness. That perceptive quote comes from the sleeve notes of the 1967 MPS LP Jazz Meets India on which a duo of horn players provide the improvisatory thread that ties together a jazz trio and three Indian musicians. And the result is precisely what it says on the packet, or rather sleeve note. Jazz Meets India has just been re-released on CD and is not to be missed. Heading the Indian trio

Towards silence this Christmas

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Those who find the prospect of 4' 33" of Christmas silence too much to bear should try the CD seen above. Independent label Signum Classics has just released the world premiere recording of John Tavener's Towards Silence as a 34 minute budget priced (£5.99 UK) CD . Towards Silence was composed in 2007 to a joint commission from The Rubin Museum , New York and The Music Mind Spirit Trust . The latter is a charity dedicated to 'enriching lives through music' and their website is a rich resource for the new work . John Tavener's spiritual path has taken him from the Russian Orthodox Church via Greece towards the East. His recent compositions are influenced by the controversial Swiss metaphysician Fritjhof Schuon (1907–98) who proposed that all the authentic spiritual traditions present in the world today share the same origin and the same metaphysical principles . Towards Silence, which is scored for four string quartets and a large Tibetan singing bowl, use

A legacy that impoverished classical music

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In a belated Slipped Disc tribute to Peter Andry the record company executive and producer is quite rightly described by Norman Lebrecht as "part of a golden generation of gifted Australians who enriched British life and world culture." Herbert von Karajan's many great recordings for EMI , which included Salome and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , are probably Peter Andry's greatest contribution to world culture. Or as Norman Lebrecht described them in the Independent in April 2008 - "The clapped-out legacy of Karajan that impoverished classical music" . On An Overgrown Path's tribute to Peter Andry is here . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Also on Facebook and Twitter .

Range against the machine

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X Factor excess or a Facebook fuelled silent night are, thankfully, not the only choices for Christmas listening. Despite the best efforts of the social media, range still rules over the music machine and over the next ten days I will be featuring some left field party sounds that have caught my ear during the past months. If gypsy meets jazz meets Yiddish hits your hot buttons my first party disc should be one for you. Tiganeasca comes from long established French ensemble Les Yeux Noirs who take their name, which translates as "Dark Eyes", from the gypsy tune made famous by Django Reinhardt . The line-up for Les Yeux Noirs is brothers Eric and Olivier Slabiak out front on violin and vocals backed by swing guitar, Romanian gypsy cymbalom, drums, bass guitar, clarinet and Serbian and jazz accordion, and there is even a bonus remix from Tunisian mix master Jean-Pierre Smadja . Traditional Judeo-gypsy manouche flavoured with sampling and dance results in some serious fun