A blog rec: Eighty Days Of Toscanini

[fpb]

For anyone who loves classical music (except Norman Lebrecht), this is by a professional player in a minor American band, who, unlike many of his fellow professional musicians, has not been embittered and has not forgotten why he got into music in the first place. An enthusiast about music and a pleasant, amusing personality, not afraid of forthright opinions, but also with the ear and insight of a professional orchestral player, this comes pretty close to being the last word on the musical side of one of my heroes.

Comments

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Linkety-link?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Didn't think you were that much into old AT. Here: http://stephenswanson.blogspot.co.uk/

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

Why is Mr. Lebrecht excluded?

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I am not but I never know when something will make me see the light.....

[fpb.livejournal.com]

For writing this kind of thing: http://standpointmag.co.uk/music-may-12-vinyl-revival-causes-discord-norman-lebrecht-lps-mp3s-valentina-lisitsa

Meddle not in the affairs of passionate music lovers...

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

I have no strong opinion on this, but, having physically separated close friends who got wired up on CD v. LP, I, er, choose to retire discreetly from the room.

OT but perhaps of interest

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

The Royal Mint has struck a series of coins to commemorate the 2012 London Olympics. Each depicts a sporting event and a Roman god. No, you have not misread that last sentence, nor have I mis­typed it. The Royal Mint doesn’t know its Mars from its Ares. The howler is cast in 22-karat gold for all to see. The Mint has not issued an apology or expressed embarrassment. There has been, however, a retrospective explanation: As the motto of the revived Greek Olympics is in the Latin language, it is right for the gods of those who spoke it to appear on Olympic coins.

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2012/07/20/synchronized-grinning/

Don't know enough about Brit sports or education to comment on the rest ofthe article, but that pargraph cracked me up.

Re: Meddle not in the affairs of passionate music lovers...

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It's not about the vinyl, it's about the passage where he says that Chailly is better than Toscanini. Why? Because he is more modern. Music and performance inevitably improve with time... a viewpoint which will endear itself to anyone who cares to compare, say, Paul McCartney or the Rolling Stones with a newer band.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

To be fair, the Romans were allowed to compete in the ancient Olympics because of their claim to be of Greek descent.

So was Virgil trying to have it both ways?

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

I mean, Aeneas and Co. were Trojans.

Re: OT but perhaps of interest

[fpb.livejournal.com]

The rest of the article is pretty much bang on target. The whole town is fed up with the Olympics even before they started, and when practically every new news item from them is an item of scandal or disgrace, I don't see how we are going to get an upside from all this. And I speak as a lover of sports.

Re: Meddle not in the affairs of passionate music lovers...

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

On that at least I can agree!

Re: So was Virgil trying to have it both ways?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

But did Virgil ever say that the Trojans were not Hellenes? I can't remember him doing so, and I read him from cover to cover. Anyway, the idea that Rome was a Greek colony was widespread and widely accepted, thanks in part to the fortunate agreement between the city's name and the Greek word "rhome", physical strength.

Re: So was Virgil trying to have it both ways?

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

I was not aware of 'rhome', thanks.

I just had the impression that the historical Hellenes sharply distinguished their Achean ancestors from the Trojan enemy, and that Virgil, as a student of the Greek
legends, would have absorbed this.

I don't think anyone has ever thought of the Trojan War as an intra-Hellenic squabble.

Of course I don't know what the Greeks knew about the Roman view of their own origins.

Do you know the date at which the Romans began to participate in the games?

Probably their commenmorative coins DID have Mars on them!

London Olympics Redux

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

London Olympics

I don't want to rag on your adopted country too much, but I have developed a grim fascination with this subject. 

Is it really this bad?


Last week a bus taking athletes from Heathrow Airport to the Olympics village got lost in central London for four hours. 

 I tried to embed the links but it didn't take. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/sports/olympics/olympics-leave-british-complaining-even-more-than-usual.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120720

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9403023/London-2012-Olympics-American-and-Australian-team-buses-get-lost-from-Heathrow-to-Olympic-Park.html