In his world Frederic Chopin and Professor Longhair are neighbors.
James Booker, December 17, 1939-November 8, 1983
“Classified,” live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 1978
Vodpod videos no longer available.***
Playing for friends (home video), Europe, 1978
Vodpod videos no longer available.**********
lagniappe
art beat
Lucian Freud, December 8, 1922-July 20, 2011
Self-Portrait: Reflection (2002)
Time for just one?
I’d go with Alfred Cortot.
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favorites
(an occasional series)
Of beauty you cannot have too much.
Frederic Chopin, Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 (1835-36)
Take 1: Vladimir Horowitz, live, New York (Carnegie Hall)
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Take 2: Krystian Zimerman, live
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Take 3: Claudio Arrau
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Take 4: Alfred Cortot
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Take 5: Sviatoslav Richter, live (Kiev)
Vodpod videos no longer available.More Chopin? Here. And here. And here.
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
[T]he things we feel in life are not experienced in the form of ideas, and so their translation into literature, an intellectual process, may give an account of them, explain them, analyse them, but cannot recreate them as music does, its sounds seeming to take on the inflections of our being, to reproduce that inner, extreme point of sensation which is that thing that causes us the specific ecstasy we feel from time to time and which, when we say ‘What a beautiful day! What beautiful sunshine!’, is not conveyed at all to our neighbour, in whom the same sun and the same weather set off quite different vibrations.
—Marcel Proust, The Prisoner (1925), trans. Carol Clark
(Originally posted 12/27/10.)
replay: clips too good for just one day
I’ve tried listening to his recordings while doing something else, but that hasn’t worked. Whatever else I was doing, I just put aside. If it was nighttime, I turned off the light. Some music occupies every available inch of space—there isn’t room for anything else.
Alfred Cortot: Frederic Chopin, “Farewell” (Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 69, No. 1 [excerpt]); Robert Schumann, “Der Dichter Spricht” (Op. 15, No. 13 in G major [excerpt])
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lagniappe
Cortot looked for the opium in music.
—Daniel Barenboim
(Originally posted 7/13/10.)
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If you want to stay right where you are, don’t even bother with this clip. But if, instead, you’d like to go somewhere you may never have been before, well, this might be just the ticket.
Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006), Three Etudes, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
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lagniappe
I listen to all kinds of music—new music, old music, music of my colleagues, everything.
—Gyorgy Ligeti (whose influences included not only the usual suspects [Chopin, Debussy, et al.] but also Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans and the Rainforest Pygmies and fractal geometry)
(Originally posted 10/6/09.)
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Want a break from music that’s busy, busy, busy, busy, busy?
Try this.
Here, it seems, almost nothing happens at all.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987), Intermission 6 (1953)/Clint Davis, piano, live, Lexington, Kentucky, 2009
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lagniappe
To almost everyone’s surprise but his own, he [Morton Feldman] turned out to be one of the major composers of the twentieth century, a sovereign artist who opened up vast, quiet, agonizingly beautiful worlds of sound . . . . In the noisiest century in history, Feldman chose to be glacially slow and snowily soft.—Alex Ross
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Earlier in my life there seemed to be unlimited possibilities, but my mind was closed. Now, years later and with an open mind, possibilities no longer interest me. I seem content to be continually rearranging the same furniture in the same room.—Morton Feldman
(Originally posted 11/7/09.)
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mail, etc.
Congratulations on your 500th post. I don’t know how you do it but I’m definitely looking forward to receiving your next 500 posts. Thanks for exposing me to so many great artists. Keep the music coming and thanks for what you do.
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Lovely [Gulda/Mozart clip].
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The Sonny Rollins clip was amazing and amazing doesn’t do it justice!
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Oh, my goodness—and in such distinguished company as well! Thank you so much, Richard.
All best,
David [Kirby]
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Richard McLeese checked in with some nice memories about Son Seals. Click here to enjoy them yourself, including a couple of great videos.
Of beauty you cannot have too much.
Frederic Chopin, Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 (1835-36)
Take 1: Vladimir Horowitz, live, New York (Carnegie Hall)
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Take 2: Krystian Zimerman, live
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Take 3: Claudio Arrau
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Take 4: Alfred Cortot
Vodpod videos no longer available.*****
Take 5: Sviatoslav Richter, live (Kiev)
Vodpod videos no longer available.More Chopin? Here. And here. And here.
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
[T]he things we feel in life are not experienced in the form of ideas, and so their translation into literature, an intellectual process, may give an account of them, explain them, analyse them, but cannot recreate them as music does, its sounds seeming to take on the inflections of our being, to reproduce that inner, extreme point of sensation which is that thing that causes us the specific ecstasy we feel from time to time and which, when we say ‘What a beautiful day! What beautiful sunshine!’, is not conveyed at all to our neighbour, in whom the same sun and the same weather set off quite different vibrations.
—Marcel Proust, The Prisoner (1925) (trans. Carol Clark [2002])
I’ve tried listening to his recordings while doing something else, but that hasn’t worked. Whatever else I was doing, I just put aside. If it was nighttime, I turned off the light. Some music occupies every available inch of space—there isn’t room for anything else.
Alfred Cortot: Frederic Chopin, “Farewell” (Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 69, No. 1 [excerpt]); Robert Schumann, “Der Dichter Spricht” (Op. 15, No. 13 in G major [excerpt])
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lagniappe
Cortot looked for the opium in music.
—Daniel Barenboim
YouTube giveth, and YouTube taketh away.
I’ve posted other clips that were subsequently removed by YouTube. But this is the first time where I’ve posted something that was removed the very same day.
Oh, well—more tomorrow.
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When the tempo is perfect, the music unfolds in what seems to be the only way it could. “Fast” and “slow” lose their meaning. Time disappears.
Frederic Chopin, 24 Preludes for Solo Piano, Op. 28/Friedrich Gulda, piano
Nos. 15, 10, 9, 3, 4
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Nos. 7, 13, 21, 24
Want more? Here.
When it comes to saying a lot with a little, Chopin’s 24 Preludes for solo piano—most of which last no more than a minute or two—have few equals. This one was played at his funeral.
Frederic Chopin, Prelude No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 28
Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997)
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Alfred Cortot (1877-1962)
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Martha Argerich (1941-)
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lagniappe
Today isn’t just any old day; it’s Record Store Day 2010.
Chris Brown, Bull Moose (New England record stores)
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reading table
an old man’s ways—
my backside warmed
by the wood fire
—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828; Trans. David G. Lanoue)
music clip of the day 
