This is Schubert’s last piano sonata, and given the reputation of his late piano work I don’t know why it took so long for me to listen to it. But it hasn’t been a good time for me to listen to something like this (too much distraction and angst), so I haven’t come away with much more than the obviously banal conclusion that it is great music, and I need to listen to it again soon.
Great it is, though, because in a very stressful week it has at least made me feel human again.
I found myself wondering how I could tell that this was Schubert and not Beethoven, since they inhabit roughly similar sound worlds. My answer (banal again) is something like this. Schubert says “it is like this, but I very much wish it were different” (yearning, Sehnsucht if you want to be pretentious). Beethoven just says “it is like this”. (I wrote this, and then I remembered the “es muss sein” rubric from Beethoven’s last quartet, so I might be less wrong than I thought).
Friday, 5 June 2009
Downloads from All About Jazz
The last downloads I got from AAJ were a bit disappointing, with the exception of Sam Sadigursky’s brilliant “Such Fruit” (with Becca Stevens) – see http://terrapinlistens2.blogspot.com/2008/09/downloads-from-all-about-jazz-itmos.html. These are far better.
The best tracks is Bethany & Rufus’s blues/gospel “Linin’ Track” (is it my imagination, or is the bassline like the Chemical Brothers’ “Block Rockin’ Beat”?) and Eric Astor’s effervescent guitar piece “Brooklyn” (a bit Santana-esque, I thought. Fusion usually NMCOT but this is an exception). Also good were “My Gun’s Empty” by Machinegun (free jazz, building up as the sax gets more and more agitated. Hardly unique, but still pretty interesting) and “Metamorphing” by Plunge (a bit of austere “classic” modern jazz). Bill Hartzell’s “Tainted Rose” (more fusion electric guitar) was OK, but a bit repetitive. The only track I didn’t like out of this bunch was “Redux” by Tamandua – atmospheric, brooding but rather dull. But overall, very good.
Download (free) at http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php.
The best tracks is Bethany & Rufus’s blues/gospel “Linin’ Track” (is it my imagination, or is the bassline like the Chemical Brothers’ “Block Rockin’ Beat”?) and Eric Astor’s effervescent guitar piece “Brooklyn” (a bit Santana-esque, I thought. Fusion usually NMCOT but this is an exception). Also good were “My Gun’s Empty” by Machinegun (free jazz, building up as the sax gets more and more agitated. Hardly unique, but still pretty interesting) and “Metamorphing” by Plunge (a bit of austere “classic” modern jazz). Bill Hartzell’s “Tainted Rose” (more fusion electric guitar) was OK, but a bit repetitive. The only track I didn’t like out of this bunch was “Redux” by Tamandua – atmospheric, brooding but rather dull. But overall, very good.
Download (free) at http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php.
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