Dvorak – Symphony No 8

When I listened to Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony (New World) a few months ago, I didn’t get on with it at all (see http://terrapinlistens2.blogspot.com/2008/09/dvorak-symphony-no-9-from-new-world-or.html). Part of the problem was that it sounded very shouty. The Eighth is not without its shouty bits, but I loved it, more light and shade, especially in the second and third movements.

Worth mentioning also is the performance, a free download by the Peabody Concert Orchestra, from the conservatoire at John Hopkins University (go to http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/pcorecordings, 2001/02 season). A lot of free classical downloads I’ve listened to have frankly been rather mediocre, but this performance is really good. (Why the tuning up at the start of the third movement?)

Miles Davis – Birth Of The Cool

I enjoyed this a lot, especially the opening track “Move”. But I prefer my jazz a bit less relaxed, a bit less cool. I wondered if this was a bit unfair, but after listening to a few minutes of Charlie Parker I was right.

Some pre-war blues

I read about the Pre-War Blues blog, aka “Honey Where You Been So Long”, http://prewarblues.org/ a long time ago, but only just got around to downloading a few tracks at random. I am never going to be a hardcore blues fanatic, and this is the first time I have heard any really old, acoustic blues, but the tracks by Kid Bailey (“Mississippi Bottom” and “Rowdy Blues”) are great, and Willie Brown’s “M&O Blues” thrilling in its austerity. By accident (it was posted instead of another track by Brown) there is an amazing song “Make Me Know It” by Evelyn Preer, better known as a film actress. Less sure of Blind Will Dukes’ “Dead Shrimp Blues”, apparently recorded in the 1970s, sounds a bit contrived.

Haydn – Piano Sonatas

Haydn - Piano Sonatas Nos 48-52, Hob XVI: 35-39
Due to pressures elsewhere these are getting more like tweets than proper blog entries but ploughing on regardless. I expected these pieces to be vaguely pleasant, but they were amazing. There is a depth of expressiveness here, almost Romantic, which I have never noticed in Haydn before. There seem to be three Haydns – the sensitive Haydn who wrote these sonatas, the urbane Haydn who wrote the string quartets, and the clodhopping moron who wrote the symphonies (as to which see http://terrapinlistens2.blogspot.com/2008/12/haydn-symphonies-nos-100-military-and.html).

Killing Joke - Killing Joke

Despite the ostensible nastiness of punk and post-punk acts, there were only three bands I found genuinely unsettling. Those were the Stranglers, the Birthday Party - and Jaz Coleman (who, I recently discovered, was later described as "the new Mahler" by conductor Klaus Tennstedt) and his unmerry men. Listening to this nearly 30 years after it was first released, I found it rather disappointing. Worse, bits of it made me laugh, for example the distorted vocals on "Wardance", which sound like a baddie out of "Doctor Who". It's not all bad - "Requiem" is a genuine classic, and "The Wait" is quite good - but it's nowhere near as good as it is cracked up to be. Most revealing, perhaps, is "Primitive" - wonderful, crunching, syncopated bass, then a majestic guitar riff, then - rubbish vocals and lyrics. Maybe I just don't scare as easily these days. It's a shame that the reissue didn't include "Psyche": that really was terrifying.

REM – Accelerate

REM have been my second favourite band for 20 years now (favourite being The Fall). I had lost touch with them after 2000, so that until now the most recent record of theirs I had heard was “Up” from 1998. I wasn’t expecting to be impressed – I sort of assumed that having been at the top for so long they would have lost their edge – but this is a damn fine album. Not quite in the same league as “New Adventures In Hi-Fi”, which is probably unsurpassable anyway, but still excellent. If it takes eight years of George W Bush to produce songs of the quality of “Living Well Is The Best Revenge”, then (sorry Barack) roll on President Palin.

Sibelius – Symphony No 5

This (or another recording of this, to be accurate) was one of the first classical records I had. It’s hard to listen objectively to something as well-loved as this, and in fact I found the first and third movements a bit disappointing. The slow second movement was the one I appreciated most – not just pretty, there are some moments of absolute peace that feel almost Mahlerian.