rush job

[calimac]

On Saturday morning I got a delayed message from my editor telling me I was on to review a concert that very evening that we hadn't even specifically discussed: three string quartets playing, between them, a surfeit: all six of Beethoven's Op. 18 quartets.

Yikes, rush, rush. I like to prepare for concerts with recordings and a score, especially if I'm reviewing it, and even more especially if I don't know the works well enough off the top of my head to satisfy my own requisites for a good reviewer. And, embarrassingly, I don't even have recordings of all of Op. 18. So, off to the score-poor but CD-rich county public library for a CD (found a good one, the Takacs Quartet, who play like all Hell was on fire: recommended!) and to the CD-poor but score-rich state university library for the other thing. Which meant trouble in itself, because the university is downtown, and this was the weekend that, in a decision of absolute insanity, the city had blocked off half of downtown for an auto race. (Even the racing fans weren't happy, it turned out, because the streets were too narrow for the race cars to pass each other, which kind of takes away the point of auto racing.) It didn't block off the library, but it did restrict access and parking.

Did all of that, got my listening done, had a great time at the concert, got the review written on Sunday, and it's now published here. (What mental glitch caused me to say the concert was on Thursday I can't imagine. This is gonna be one of those embarrassments that cause me to wince for decades to come, I can tell already.)

On Wednesday (I think it's Wednesday), I am to return for the same festival's next installment: Op. 59. There's only three of those, but they're a lot longer.

While working on the review Sunday morning, I got an e-mail from the editors of the forthcoming Tolkien Encyclopedia, for which I've already written ten entries. They want me to do another entry: Parodies. As in Bored of the Rings and like that. OK, I said - I liked that book, it's funnier than Peter Jackson - and decided not to think about it until I get back from England in a month. Instead, I drafted the entire entry in my head that afternoon, and then figured I should get it down while I still had it. It's a start, though of course it'll need work - for one thing I haven't actually read either of the Adam Roberts parodies. (Now I have to: it's research!) The web will not be forgotten, don't worry: I'm mentioning The Very Secret Diaries and the Houseful of Lords (as tnh dubbed it), and the good old Tolkien Sarcasm Page.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I'd been there, for exactly that purpose. What I hadn't done was heard a concert there.

I stopped subscribing to Fanfare not because I couldn't afford Fanfare but because I couldn't afford the CDs it was persuading me to buy. This site is trying to persuade me to buy Joseph Tal and Robert Kurka. Fortunately I've heard them both before and know better. Still, I'm glad to know about Nagano's 1873 Bruckner Third. I have the Inbal version which I do not find satisfactory, so I've been waiting for years for some other conductor to convince me that Robert Simpson was right about this work.

[divertimento.livejournal.com]

No, Bruckner's Third hasn't clicked with me, either, but I haven't heard
Kent Nagano's well-received version yet. I'm glad to see he's starting to
record Bruckner. I remember about 25 years ago a party where Kent
was wishing he'd ever have a chance to conduct Bruckner's Sixth (my favorite as well).
His girlfriend patted his hand and said, "Someday you will."

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Ah, Bruckner's Sixth is also my favorite. I thought nobody else paid any attention to it. (Since Nagano became music director at Berkeley about that time, I'd think he could make his own opportunity to conduct the Sixth.)

Which version(s) of the Third have you been listening to? Simpson's argument is that only the 1873 finale is coherent.

[divertimento.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Nagano has programmed that symphony
with the Berkeley symphony, because I have recollections
of kicking myself for missing the opportunity to attend.
But I think this recording the Third is his first recording
of Bruckner, so I hope he'll have the chance to make a
good recording of the Sixth as well.

As to Bruckner's Third, I've not heard it that much or
sought it out. The recording I have of an earlier version
(I'm not sure if it's as free of revision as 1873)
is Barenboim's in a complete cycle I got cheaply.
I'll have to listen again, with or without refreshing
my memory of what Simpson had to say.

Yes, Fanfare magazine is dangerous. Especially so, since
I've refrained from subscribing, thus providing me with
an excuse, every two months, to stop by Tower Records to
see if the new issue has arrived yet. And while I'm there,
anyway...

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

What you have is almost certainly the 1877/8. Nobody plays the 1889 any more, and if it were the 1873, the package would say so. Simpson's position is that Bruckner lost the courage of his convictions, and that the 1877 version is already malhandled. I can hear what he means; what I haven't convinced myself is that 1873 is successful.