Friday Miscellanea

Alpine flowers in Austria

I took that photo when we visited the Untersberg--tiny Alpine flowers. Kicking off with a review of a new album by a young British guitarist of note: Sean Shibe: Camino review – spellbinding and intimate, this will make you rethink Spanish guitar music. Interesting that they think playing Spanish music on guitar is a bit of a cliché:

You might think you know what Spanish guitar music sounds like, and you might think it an unexpectedly middle-of-the-road choice for Sean Shibe, who has always appeared more at home in programmes that set your ears slightly off-kilter ... But there’s nothing hackneyed about Camino. It’s a beautifully intimate recording, full of playing that is as far from classical-guitar cliche as a real flamenco dancer is from a postcard of a donkey in a sombrero.

I guess that's just journalism for you. Here is a sample from the album: Pavana triste from the Sonata by Antonio José:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBcrfV9SxdQ

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If you want to hear something, uh, unusual, head over to Slipped Disc: RUIN YOUR DAY: JENNIFER HUDSON SINGS NESSUN DORMA. As always, the comments are especially enjoyable.

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Alex Ross headed up to Tanglewood this summer and writes an article on Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt: The Most Vital Conductor of Beethoven Is Ninety-four. I don't know that this is actually true, but it could be and it certainly makes a great headline.

The assumption that conductors of great age radiate incalculable wisdom is a dubious one, smacking of musty personality worship. Then again, the classical-music world makes an equally dubious cult of fresh-faced youth. The esteem in which orchestras and audiences now hold Blomstedt is a belated reward for a resolutely unshowy musician who has gone about his business decade after decade. What he offers, above all, is a kind of preternatural rightness: no gesture feels out of place, no gesture feels routine.

Excellent piece, read the whole thing.

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Economist Tyler Cohen asks, who died too soon that we should give extra years to? The cultural life extension query. And the very plausible answer is: Schubert.

Schubert was just starting to peak, but we already have a significant amount of top-tier Mozart.  And I take Mozart to be the number one contender for the designation.  Schubert composed nine symphonies, and number seven still wasn’t that great.  Some people think number eight was unfinished.  Number nine is incredible.  Furthermore, I believe the nature of his genius would have aged well with the man.

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The Emerson Quartet are disbanding: Celebrated String Quartet Will Disband, Ending 47-Year Run

The quartet, which began as a student group at the Juilliard School before turning professional in 1976, is one of best-known in the world. Its members have made more than 30 recordings together and have won nine Grammy Awards.

In addition to Setzer, the ensemble includes Eugene Drucker, 69, a violinist who is another founding member; the violist Lawrence Dutton, 67, joined in 1977, and the cellist Paul Watkins, 51, in 2013.

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 And that brings us to our envois. First is Herbert Blomstedt conducting the Beethoven Symphony No. 7 with the NDR Symphony:

Next, here he is conducting the Bamberg Symphony in the Unfinished Symphony by Schubert:

Finally, here is one of my favorite clips of the Emerson Quartet playing one of the composers they specialized in, Shostakovich.