This was part of a series of posts, that I never completed, devoted to a discussion of aesthetics from a philosophical point of view. The source for the discussion was the excellent book by Monroe C. Beardsley. I think that the only way to counter the post-modern project is by revisiting the basic concepts of aesthetic value. Otherwise all we have is identity politics and statistics--poor tools for aesthetic appreciation!
The second most popular post was one of my series of posts on Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring, for which I relied heavily on Richard Taruskin's magnificent book on Stravinsky.
The most popular post in October, by a huge margin, was this one about Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov:
I had just gotten a new CD with accompanying DVD documentary on Sokolov and was sharing. The problem of listening to Sokolov is that it tends to spoil you for all the other pianists. The post got so much traffic because a commentator linked it to a Facebook group devoted to Sokolov.
The second most popular post appeared just the day before and was talking about two well-known public intellectuals, Jordan Peterson and Camille Paglia. There was a new clip up of them in conversation. The post attracted quite a few comments:
The comments covered a lot of interesting territory and are more worth reading than the post itself. Let me take this opportunity to thank my commentators without whom this blog would be far duller!
Hmm, the correct envoi for this post would seem to be either something by Stravinsky or something by Sokolov. I know, why don't we have both! This is a 1992 performance of the three movements from Petrouchka by Stravinsky arranged for piano:
No comments:
Post a Comment