What are you listening to now?

[mark]

42 years later, we get the 2nd night performance. Listening to it now. Very nice, noise free pressing.

[George K]

I first saw Thomas Hampson in a performance of Verdi's "Macbeth" staged by the Chicago Lyric Opera. My second encounter with him was when he did a series of songs called "Letters from Lincoln" with the CSO.

I was thrilled - not only because I'm not a huge fan of vocal music - and this really moved me, particularly the "Letter to Mrs. Bixby."

The whole set deserved a listen.

"Abraham Lincoln is my name"

Link to video

"The Gettysburg Address"

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And, the letter to Mrs. Bixby...

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*Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.

Dear Madam,--

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln*

It opens with the theme from St. Matthew Passion and just goes on to break your heart.

If you listen to nothing else in this collection, take 5 minutes to listen to this wonderful setting.

[taiwan_girl]

@George-K That was really good. (And just shows what a very good letter writer was President Lincoln. Definitely that has gotten worse over the years. I am pretty sure he did not have speech writers doing this for him)

[mark]

Link to video

#billbruford

#earthworks

Ah, well now, I think this is something special. Written by the tenor horn player and keyboardist Django Bates it was inspired by the harrowing TV pictures of the Romanian orphanages discovered after the fall of the Romanian dictator Ceaușescu. As the Guardian newspaper put it: “They were the pictures that, for many across the world, were the defining image of the aftermath of Romania’s 1989 revolution: emaciated children clothed in rags, looking into the camera with desperate eyes amid the squalid decay of the country’s orphanages”. Still, the candles still flicker: there is hope even in a world as stratospherically cruel as the one we shared with Ceaușescu.

Being still and letting the music do the talking is not as easy as you’d think. The late 1980s were the early days of the drummer being able to trigger harmony and melody, so I get the opening chords, sounded by my Yamaha DX 21. (There didn’t seem to be a module, so I had to cart the whole instrument around with me as part of my drum kit). I love the arrangement; get the sparse unison tenor and bass backing for Django’s piano starting at 3’35”. These boys were, and remain, serious players.

[mark]

Wow! h/t Ken...

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[kluurs]

This one always killed me...

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[kluurs]

The one that launched her fame when played at the BBC one evening.

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[taiwan_girl]

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[Aqua Letifer]

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(Fun fact: they used Aerochrome film to make the cover.)

[Copper]

I had a vinyl copy of Hot Rats, it was a big deal in 1969. There were 3 guys from my neighborhood who worked for Zappa at the time, just some roadie type work. So his music was well known to us at the time.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Copper said in What are you listening to now?:

I had a vinyl copy of Hot Rats, it was a big deal in 1969. There were 3 guys from my neighborhood who worked for Zappa at the time, just some roadie type work. So his music was well known to us at the time.

Yeah, he was from Baltimore, so he's kind of a big deal in Maryland. His interviews are interesting. He always looks like he's being interrogated by a hostile enemy, which is probably exactly how he saw it.

[mark]

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[taiwan_girl]

My new favorite song. Kind of makes me a bit sad however. Growing up in a rural village, the loss of family farms is happening all over, so I can relate to this song.

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Driving through the Land of Lincoln always gets me thinking
Of the flatlands where I come from and the life I left behind
The corn grew high on Grandpa's farm
Now they boarded up the barn
That way of life from long ago just withered on the vine

You can take a girl out of the heartland
But you can't take the heartland from the heart
Of a flatland girl

You can plant your dreams in God's green acre
Send 'em to Heaven in a grain elevator
But prayers don't run a tractor
or promise a summer rain
And I found out when I was young
Thet a farmеr's day is never done
And whеn the hard times hit the heartland
And I had to move away

You can take a girl out of the heartland
But you can't take the heartland from the heart
Of a flatland girl

Then one day from the Windy City
In blew a man who could talk too pretty
Had a long look and Grandpa shook
That's been five years ago
Nowadays when I'm up in the Land of Lincoln
I ask myself, "What were they thinking?"
All that's left is a photograph of the flatland fields of home

You can take a girl out of the heartland
But you can't take the heartland from the heart
You can take a girl out of the heartland
But you can't take the heartland from the heart
Of a flatland girl

[George K]

Just released on Apple Music. I'm a huge fan of the the Handel keyboard suites. Just started listening to this now, so no opinion yet.

[George K]

@George-K said in What are you listening to now?:

Just released on Apple Music. I'm a huge fan of the the Handel keyboard suites. Just started listening to this now, so no opinion yet.

Meh.

Very dry. No passion or joy in it.

Gimme Ragna Schirmer's or Murray Perahia's performance any day.

[mark]

Link to video

[Horace]

This guy's WTC is very good IMO. He also has a WTC2 performance on youtube.

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[George K]

@Horace at 3:02, does he repeat the G in measure 9?

[kluurs]

@George-K said in What are you listening to now?:

@George-K said in What are you listening to now?:

Just released on Apple Music. I'm a huge fan of the the Handel keyboard suites. Just started listening to this now, so no opinion yet.

Meh.

Very dry. No passion or joy in it.

Gimme Ragna Schirmer's or Murray Perahia's performance any day.

That's disappointing to hear. I've liked Cho in some things I've heard though I've not heard him in Handel. I have both the Perahia and Schirmer recordings - and agree that they're excellent.

[George K]

@kluurs said in What are you listening to now?:

That's disappointing to hear. I've liked Cho in some things I've heard though I've not heard him in Handel

Yeah, it was, of course, technically very good, but didn't have the "soul" or "joy" that Perahia and Schirmer have. Jarrett's recordings of the suites are a bit on the dry side, but I still enjoy them.