27 June 2012

In 2010 flamenco was declared an "intangible cultural heritage" of mankind. Today I am making it tangible.

Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:00am

Grands cantaores du flamenco Vol.2
Le chant du monde, LDX 274 830
49'
(El Niño de Almaden [1899-1968]: "A river meandering through the sunlight; passing through the darkest forests and coming out into the light again... What is special about Almaden is the way in which he can take the song to the limit, swoop and rise suddenly to break the tension, and slow down, to move the listener with notes which are only faintly discernible in the distance... holding back with a fragility that comes from the depths of the soul...")


Set #2 - 9:00am - 10:00am

Grands cantaores du flamenco Vol.4
Le chant du monde, LDX 274 860
40'
(Terremoto de Jerez [1934-1981]: "He's a force of nature, a soaring mountain peak, a turbulent cascade, a peninsula jutting out to sea, a raging volcano. He's a tidal wave breaking over a rocky promontory and bearing everything away in its wake.... For once we have a cantaor whose name reflects his vocation: terremoto means 'earthquake.'")

Set #3 - 10:00am - 11:00am

Grands cantaores du flamenco Vol.5
Le chant du monde, LDX 274 879
55'
(Ramón Montoya [1879-1949]:  "He frequented the Café de la Marina as a child, endlessly watching the fingers of the great fin de siècle guitarists and little by little receiving advice from them. But the great revelation came when the young Montoya met the most important classical guitarist of that time: Miguel Llobet... Thus Ramón, who never learned how to read  music, 'created his own technique, using his creative genius to synthesize all that he saw and heard.'")

4. Miguel Llobet: 13 Catalan Folksongs (1899-1920)
Lorenzo Micheli - guitar
Naxos, 8.557351
23:32

20 June 2012

In 2010 flamenco was declared an "intangible cultural heritage" of mankind. Today I am making it tangible.

Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:00am

1. Pepe de la Matrona
Grands cantaores du flamenco Vol.1
Le chant du monde, LDX 274 829
46'
(Pepe de la Matrona [1887-1980]: "A master of the purest form of cante, a rigorous observer of the old style, never once giving in to commercial pressures." and "A voice of torrent cascading through the rocks, through the whirlpools, through the rapids, through the falls coming to rest in the stillness below.")

Set #2 - 9:00am - 10:00am

2. Carmen Amaya
Grands cantaores du flamenco Vol.6
Le chant du monde, LDX 274 880
55'
(Carmen Amaya [1913-1963]: "Amaya was a dancer of genius whose body burned with passion from head to toe, and we can hear the fire in her voice on this record, along with her amazing, almost inhuman zapateados.")


Set #3 - 10:00am - 11:00am

3. Manolo Caracol
Grands cantaores du flamenco Vol.7
Le chant du monde, LDX 274 899
60'
(Manolo Caracol [1909-1973]: The quality of his body of work apparently ranges widely. "When he forgot the light, trivial song, when he sat down one night on a chair next to a guitarist, then he gave the full measure of his greatness.")

4. Soleares, Sevillanas, Ritmos de Cádiz
Carlos Montoya - guitar
Allegretto, ACD 8063
10:43

13 June 2012

Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:00am

1. Anton Bruckner: Symphony No.3 in D minor (1873, rev. 1890)
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky - conductor, Grand Symphony Orchestra of Radio & Television
Revelation, RV 10007
54:40
(As I grow older, I warm up to Bruckner more, from the passages of sublime beauty to the bull-in-a-china-shop clumsiness.)

Set #2 - 9:00am - 10:00am

2. Robert Pussecker: First Meeting
7:36

3. Wolfgang Puschnig: Root March
9:14

4. Wolfgang Puschnig: Little Stars Dancing & Jumping
8:41

Tracks 2-4 (rec. 11-12 May 1991)
Wolfgang Puschnig, Die Amstettner Musikanten
Alpine Aspects
Amadeo, 511 204-2
(The village band meets the big band.)

5. Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling: Sinfonia diatonica (1957)
José Serebrier - conductor, Staatskapelle Weimar
Naxos, 8.570435
27:05
(Why bother with all those sharps and flats?)

Set #3 - 10:00am - 11:00am

6. Richard Strauss: Josephs Legende (1914)
Hiroshi Wakasugi - conductor, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra
Denon, 33CO-2050
66:30