#16: Tom Waits: Bad As Me

Details: Tom Waits (b. 1949): Bad As Me. ANTI-, 2011. Total time: 44:36.

I'd love to know what would've happened had Tom Waits been dropped into,  say, the 1920s to see what kind of music he would've produced back then and how or if it would've been different. 

Waits is truly a unique musician with one of the oddest collection of vocal stylings in recorded history I would think.  His trademark low, raspy, growly, groaning singing has likely made more than a few listeners over the years a bit unsettled.

Like a good strong aged and somewhat rare whiskey,  though,  one warms to it after a few sips--or in this case, songs.

Waits has been on the scene for more than four decades now and is one hell of a songwriter as evidenced by this recent album which is another offering of saloon songs, rocking and raging blues, and other stuff that defies categorization. He plays a mean guitar on all of the songs and does piano and other instruments on various songs too.

His singular voice endures and sounds like some strange blend of bits of Louis Armstrong, Wolfman Jack, Christopher Lloyd as Rev. Jim Ignatowski on the old TV show Taxi, and maybe Willie Nelson and even a little Billie Holiday. Actually it's challenging to begin to describe his voice in any way other than indirectly.  You just have to listen to it yourself.

The album opens with not one but two knock-yer-socks-off songs,  the rollicking Chicago and a barnburning Raised Right Men, in which Waits declares emphatically and so truthfully,  "Heavens to Murgatroid...there ain't enough raised-right men."  A couple years ago he performed Chicago and Raised Right Men on the Letterman and Jimmy  Kimmel shows, I believe, in two rare and spectacular late night TV performances.

He could be offering a critique of social media such as Twitter when he sings in falsetto in the eerie third song,  "everybody's talking at the same time." It sounds like a song that could serve as the soundtrack for a scene in a David Lynch movie,  or an episode of the great old TV show,  "Twin Peaks." Waits' piano playing on this song sounds like it was done on an old upright and has the same quality as the piano on Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel."

Track 4, Get Lost, sounds a lot like The Big Bopper mixed with Buddy Holly. Track 5. Face to the Highway, is wistful and mournful.  Track 6, Pay Me -- an old fashioned waltz -- sounds like Waits recorded it sitting alone in a corner tavern at the bar reflecting,  "I gave up my life for the stage" and "all roads lead to the end of the world." 

And with that the first six songs form a truly classic first "side" of an album.  The remaining seven songs are good too but 1 to 6 are jaw-dropping good stuff.

#15: Rosalyn Tureck: Bach & Tureck at Home - A Birthday Offering

Details: Rosalyn Tureck (1913-2003): Bach & Tureck at  Home - a Birthday Offering. Classical Music, 1990. Total Time: 71:02.

All of the remarkable live performances on this album were recorded at the home of William F. Buckley in the 1970s and early 1980s. Buckley's wife first arranged for Tureck to perform a live recital for Buckley and about two dozen guests, as a surprise birthday present for her husband, at their home overlooking Long Island Sound. The annual tradition of such in-home live recitals continued for a number of years and this album (and however many others are out there) are the recordings of those performances.

Rosalyn Tureck was known as a serious Bach keyboard specialist -- even the legendary Glenn Gould cited her as his "only influence." She was known to have played Bach's keyboard music on both harpsichord and piano. Here, the present album includes her renditions on the piano of four sets of preludes and fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, one of the English suites, the D-minor sonata, and the Italian Concerto, all of which are fascinating and compelling. Although there were apparently 25 to 30 people present when these recordings were made, you can literally hear a pin drop. There is not one distracting noise from the audience during her playing.

Having heard my mother play the piece countless times, I found Tureck's version of the Italian Concerto to be quite curious. She plays in a very different style than I am used to hearing, with what sounds to me like a few extra ornamentations here and there, and a noticeably different opening of the first movement with the first chord played as an arpeggio.

If I recall correctly my father gave me this album as a gift. I also believe this is only one of several such albums of hers in a series under this title...in other words, there are other albums "out there" recorded at the Buckley home including the Goldberg Variations. It appears that these recordings are quite rare as nothing is available even on Amazon. So I'm lucky to have even this one...thanks to my dad.

These are wonderful recordings and truly can be called priceless gifts. It's a shame there was no videorecording made. Buckley and his birthday party guests were lucky to have been there to have heard and seen these annual performances, and Buckley's wife came up with a great, creative idea for the perfect gift. Someday I hope to get my hands on the other CDs in this series.

#14: Ella Fitzgerald: The Intimate Ella

Details: Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996): The Intimate Ella. Verve, 1990 (1960). Total time: 42:38.

Titling an Ella Fitzgerald album with the word "intimate" is practically redundant as just about everything she recorded was intimate simply because it was her singing.

A master vocalist whose song interpretations and phrasing are legendary, influential and instantly recognizable she makes it all sound as effortless as exhaling or talking. Frank Sinatra credited her for his own well-developed sense of vocal phrasing.

This reissue of a 1960 album is filled with standards for which she set the, well, standard. Songs like "Black Coffee," "My Melancholy Baby," and "One More For My Baby" are truly timeless and should really never go out of style as far as I'm concerned. 

 

Her expert rendition of "Misty" makes me wonder if it wasn't too good so that it led to that old Clint Eastwood movie, Play Misty for Me, in which he plays a radio DJ who is stalked by a crazed female fan who keeps demanding to hear the song.

Technically the CD version of this 1960 album sounds perfect. The clarity of sound is superb and helps create the intimacy. Much of this is due to all of these songs consisting of simply Ella's voice and subtle, thoughtful piano accompaniment by Paul Smith.  And really, isn't that all that is needed?

#13: U2: Boy (remastered deluxe edition)

Details: U2: Boy (remastered & bonus). Island, 2008. Total time (2 discs): 94:41.

Yes, this album was reviewed earlier this week. However, this is a different, later edition -- a remaster of the original 1980 album plus a bonus disc of alternate versions, different mixes, a couple instrumentals, and live performances of songs from that timeframe, both from the 1980 album as well as a few singles released prior to the debut '80 album in 1979 and earlier in 1980.

The bonus disc may be of interest only to longtime, serious U2 fans, particularly for both studio and live versions of "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" and "Boy-Girl" (both live versions from a London gig in September 1980) along with "Another Day" and a wild-sounding (and post-punk new wavish) live version of "Cartoon World" from a concert in Dublin performed in February 1980.  

Clearly the lads were in that liminal, or in-between, space from boyhood to manhood, as well as experimenting with musical sounds and styles early in their development as a band. It's a bit amusing to see the original album artwork including the back of the "Boy" album which lists the names of the band members as:

Bono:  Singer
Adam Clayton:  Bass Player
The Edge:  Guitar Player
Larry:  Drummer

Now here they are, 35 years later, in the same band, in the same roles.

#12: Cecilia Bartoli: Mozart Arias

Details: Cecilia Bartoli (b. 1966), Mozart Arias.  Decca, 1991. Total time: 58:01. 

Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli started on the road to superstardom in the late 1980s when she was in her early 20s. The daughter of two professional singers, and graduate of the historic Academy of Santa Cecilia in her native Rome, Bartoli began by singing roles in Mozart and Rossini operas before later moving on to a wide range of projects including Baroque research and revivals, and her current successful leadership and management of an annual music festival in Salzburg, Austria.

This album of Mozart arias shows off Bartoli early in her career in her mid-20s.  She delivers flawless and electrifying versions of arias from several of Mozart's operas including La Nozze di Figaro, Cossi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, and La Clemenza di Tito. If Mozart were alive to hear Bartoli sing these arias, I have to believe he would be pleased.

As with anything by Mozart, "it's all good" as the saying goes. Having said that, the real gems on this album are "Non so piu," "Alma grande e nobil core," "Parto, parto," and "Ch'io mi scordi di te?" In addition to all of her other talents, it helps to have an Italian native sing these songs, all of which are in Italian.

Bartoli's voice here is clear and clean, displaying amazing vocal technique while also being pleasing to listen to. In addition to her academy training, one of her longtime primary vocal teachers was her own mother. Her parents obviously made a wise choice when they named their daughter Cecilia, after the patron saint of music.

#11: Diana Krall: Wallflower

Details: Diana Krall (b. 1964), Wallflower (deluxe edition). Verve,  2015. Total time: 59:18.

This'll be the first of quite a few Diana Krall album blogs over the next year, but this one is rather unusual. Normally Krall records albums of jazz, standards, bossa nova, and the like. Then again, torch singer Julie London -- to whom Diana Krall has sometimes been compared vocally -- was known for cranking out albums every year in the 1960s containing remakes of contemporary pop songs, so this isn't without precedent. Plus, established as a jazz superstar since the mid-1990s, Krall can pretty much do whatever she wants now and people will buy her albums.

On this new album just out this year, she offers 12 remakes of mostly 1970s mellow ballads, produced by David Foster. Clearly the 1970s were an influential decade in Krall's youth and her interpretations here are not run-of-the-mill but in several instances quite thoughtful and fresh-sounding. Her rendition of California Dreamin' kicks things off and she does a great job with the song, slowing it down and putting some real aching in the vocals. 

The second track, I think, is the standout on the entire album. Her version of Desperado is brilliant -- she does an excellent job with a kind of old worn-out (in my opinion) song and brings a new, fresh perspective to it for the listener. I was really surprised by this one.

Another song she does a nice job with is I'm Not in Love, the song that made 10cc famous. In particular on the outro she does some interesting stuff with the piano (and the producer with other instruments) in place of the original 10cc outro.  The rest of the album is mostly 1970s stuff with the exception of Don't Dream It's Over by Crowded House from 1986.  There are a couple duets including one with Michael Buble' and another with Bryan Adams.

While I think her wheelhouse is jazz standards, her walk down Mellow Memory Lane in this new album is good stuff with several really outstanding moments. The deluxe version of this album features a few bonus songs including a heartbreaking version of Elton John's Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word. 

#10: Chants for Life

Details: Choir of the Vienna Hofsburgkappelle: Chants for Life. Director: Joseph Schabasser.  Excelsior, 1994. Total time: 63:37.

Not much to say about this one as not much detail is known beyond the above.

I've always found Gregorian chant,  an ancient church musical form, to be timeless and contemplative.  A few years ago while visiting relatives in California I somehow ended up attending Mass one Sunday morning at the cathedral in San Francisco (which is an amazing architectural piece,  incidentally) and much of the liturgical music at that Mass was Gregorian chant performed by the small choir. In such an acoustical environment it was perfect.

Chant has a healing effect and immediately causes a hush in the listener. The nearly two dozen chants on this hour-plus disc are designated for holy days including Easter and Christmas and include introits, offertories, communions and alleluias.

The sound always conjures for me images of monks in robes walking single file in an interior courtyard in a monastery, along a long corridor between and beneath columns and arches, at dusk or dawn.

Great music for early evening on Spirit Sunday.

#9: U2: Boy

Details: U2: Boy. Island,  1980. Total time: 42:15.

Four working-class high school boys answer a bulletin board notice seeking bandmates and meet after school in the kitchen of the notewriter. Sounds like a dime-a-dozen clichéd story but that's how U2 came to be.

Boy is their debut album and was recorded in 1980 and released later that year when the guys were about 19 or 20 years old. All of the material is their own.

By the time the album was recorded they had already put out a couple singles,  got some radio airplay and press attention for live shows,  and gained a fan following in their hometown of Dublin, Ireland and beyond.

Brash, self-assured and full of passion,  most of the album sounds outstanding today all these years later. It is a thematically and musically consistent album almost from start to finish, with maybe 1 or 2 clunkers while the rest is enjoyable to listen to. The album has a natural flow and has the foundation of their trademark sound which they developed throughout the rest of the 1980s.

Real standout songs are "I Will Follow," "Out of Control," "Stories for Boys" and a superb "Electric Co."  "Another Time,  Another Place" sounds really good too. The clunkers are probably "Shadows and Tall Trees" and "The Ocean."

35 years later and my favorite band is still active having put out in fall 2014 what is their best album in a long time and set to  embark on a huge concert tour later in 2015.

A bit dated in spots but still it is fun to listen again to their debut album and even with all that was to come they sound good from the outset, raring to go out into the world.  

#8: Glenn Gould: A State of Wonder - The Complete Goldberg Variations 1955 & 1981

Details: Glenn Gould (1932-1982): A State of Wonder - The Complete Goldberg Variations 1955 & 1981. Sony, 2002. Total time (3 discs): 153:07.

It is Epic Friday!  The Canadian pianist Glenn Gould announced himself to the world with his debut recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations which were first published in 1741 and originally played on harpsichord as the piano was not widely available at the time.  

Recorded in four days in New York City in June 1955, when Gould was just 22 years old, the album was released shortly after New Year's Day 1956 to great acclaim.  Both the musician and the formerly obscure musical composition he recorded became international sensations virtually overnight.

The piece consists of a lyrical aria theme and 30 variations thereof and finally the main aria theme again. In each part of this work -- no matter how intricate, complex, simple, fast or slow -- Gould makes the piano practically sing. Over the years I have heard stories of countless people who claim that this recording had a miraculous effect in their lives when they first heard it, even some folks saying it saved them from despair and hopelessness.

I frequently exclaim,  ARE YOU KIDDING ME,  when listening to the 1955 recording which is just stunning. Almost still a kid at age 22, Gould put this out as his first offering to the world.  Here I am! he seems to be declaring with certainty. It ain't bragging when you can do it, as the saying goes.

Disc 2, his 1981 recording of the same work, also recorded in NYC at the same studio as the original, is remarkable to listen to especially right after the 1955 debut. He is 48 here not 22 and the recording is considerably quieter, certainly nothing like the brashness of 1955. He plays the piece more slowly, intentionally and in places more contemplatively and with his staccato much more distinct. He includes repeats here unlike the shorter, faster 1955 version. The 1981 version was released in 1982, the same year of Gould's death from stroke at just age 50.

Both recordings are historic interpretations of a thoroughly complex set of Bach variations which richly explore keyboard possibilities through counterpoint, fugue and dance.

The third disc in this 2002 collection includes his final radio interview in Toronto in August 1982 just a few weeks before his death,  and outtakes from the 1955 original recording session. The radio interview with Tim Page is eerie to listen to knowing Gould had his fatal stroke a month later. Gould sounds so relaxed,  intelligent, authoritative, and energetic here.  He was known as a great conversationalist and displays an engaged interactive style with his interviewer along with a hilarious sense of humor and that trademark singing. 

The radio interview is nearly an hour long. He talks about growing older and his lifelong love for counterpoint, and discusses piano technique and favorite composers as well as comparing and critiquing his own 1955 and 1981 Goldberg recordings. Fascinating to hear this interview.

As for the music, along with the opening/closing aria theme I think my favorites are Variations 1, 5, 7, 19, 28 and 29. This album is likely in my top 5...just for the 1955 recording alone. The radio interview is a real bonus to have in addition.

"The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." 

- Glenn Gould

#7: Bon Iver: Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Details: Bon Iver: Bon Iver, Bon Iver. Jagjaguwar, 2011. Total time: 39:28. 

Justin Vernon (b. 1981) of Eau Claire, Wisconsin burst on the scene in the late 2000s and this is technically his band's second album (the first,  For Emma, Forever Ago,  was independently produced). No sophomore slump here as this is an outstanding offering of great symphonic sounding indie rock.

The band's and this album's name are derived of all places from the old great TV show,  "Northern Exposure;" whose characters greeted one another with the French phrase "bon hiver" (good winter). Vernon dropped the H which is silent anyway and...voila.

It's said that each song represents a place -- some are obvious from the titles such as "Perth"; "Minnesota, Wisconsin" (one of the best songs on the album); "Calgary"; and "Lisbon, Ohio." Musically the album is dense with strings,  guitars, horns, keyboards,  synths, woodwinds,  drums and so on. Lyrically,  too, this is a very dense album with poetic lyrics that are more word-sounds than anything really,  delivered in Vernon's familiar falsetto. 

While Vernon gets good assistance from other musicians he is the clear creative leader having written all the songs,  played numerous instruments and handled the vocals. 

All in all a moody, atmospheric, symphonic beauty of an album which is strange and soothing. For example, the consecutive songs "Hinnom, TX" and  "Wash." are hypnotic and brilliant. "Wash." has repeated piano chords at the beginning and midway point that sound like what gently falling snow looks like.  Perfect for a dark cold winter evening.  Bon (h)iver, bon (h)iver!

#6: John Browning: Chopin Etudes

 

Details: John Browning (1933-2003),  Chopin Etudes. RCA Victrola, 1969. Total time: 56:29.

Before I knew what they were called I heard -- and saw -- Chopin études played on the piano at home. My mother was a classically trained pianist with a conservatory master's degree who performed and taught piano.  I remember hearing and watching her play several of these études especially Op. 25 No.1 and Op. 25 No. 8 which are both so familiar.

John Browning recorded all 24 of these études in 1968 and in my book this is THE definitive version. Maurizio Pollini comes close but that's about it.  Browning delivers a superb, nearly perfect recording -- no idiosyncratic interpretations,  just straight up virtuoso in his prime,  faithful to the complicated brilliance of these pieces. Browning gives these works the kind of clarity (thin-slicing they call it these days) and majestic playing they deserve. All are fantastic but Op. 10 No. 8 really stands out along with the two openers (Op. 10 No. 1 and Op. 25 No. 1) and Op. 25 No. 7.

If I was forced to select only 12 albums I could keep,  this one probably makes the cut. Browning passed away last decade at his home in Sister Bay, Door County, Wisconsin.  He should have gotten more acclaim in his lifetime as this recording, I feel, does for the Chopin études what Glenn Gould did for Bach's Goldberg Variations. It's a shame the recording is not more widely known or available. But now you know about it.

#5: Bill Evans at Town Hall

Details: Bill Evans Trio, Bill Evans (1929-1980) at Town Hall, volume 1.  Recorded live Feb. 21, 1966 at Town Hall in New York City.  Verve, 1967. Total time: 53:00.

Here is the first of many Bill Evans albums to come provided I can keep this project going.  My dad's favorite musician by far, Evans was a wonderful,  thoughtful, incisive, precise jazz pianist whose technique and musicianship including melodious legato can almost be called classical.  In fact if I recall correctly he was classically trained.

My father had a zillion Bill Evans albums and I grew up hearing them when my dad would play them.  It's probably not true but I like to imagine my dad in the audience for this performance as he could've been in the area at that time.

Anyway this is only volume 1 of the gig which for some odd reason I never noticed till today.  Will have to look around for vol. 2.

Musically this is Evans at or near his best with wonderful songs including standards like "I Should Care" and "Who Can I Turn To," "Spring Is Here" and "Make Someone Happy," and Evans' own poignant composition in memory of his father who had recently passed away... It sounds almost like Debussy.  "My Foolish Heart" was one of my dad's favorites and that is on here as well.

Lastly will close this entry by recalling my dad taking my brother Michael to see an Evans gig at the old Bunky's nightclub, then located on Regent Street, shortly before Evans' death at just age 51.  Too bad no one recorded that gig; today it'd be all over YouTube and GrooveShark.

#4: Mavis Staples, We'll Never Turn Back

 
Details: Mavis Staples (b. 1939), "We'll Never Turn Back." ANTI-, 2007. Total time: 57:48.

One day the year this was released I picked this up in a store and I forget where and why.  But I'm glad I did because this is a really great album.

Mavis Staples was with the Staples Singers for many years (one of their many hits was "I'll Take You There"). Here she sings solo as a wise woman. The album was produced by the great Ry Cooder who also played guitar on the album.

These are songs of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.  Songs sung by people including children who were risking much while demanding rights and freedom.  They faced fire hoses, police dogs, police batons, angry whites,  the KKK, and the list goes on. They sang these songs to maintain morale and boost spirits while bodies were on the line.

Images come to mind while listening. A few are in the CD booklet.  MLK and Whitney Young.  Girls holding hands in the face of firehoses.  Liner notes by Rep. John Lewis who as a young man had his skull fractured by police batons in Selma 50 years ago this spring.

A few standout songs:

"Down In Mississippi" with the opening line,  "as far back as I can remember."

"99 1/2" -- "I'm running,  trying to make 100.  99 and a half just won't do."

"Turn Me Around" -- the song all those  children sang defiantly as they were arrested by the hundreds in Alabama. This is probably the best performance on this album.  Ry Cooder's mandolin playing helps make a special song even more so.

"I'll Be Rested" -- this one is incredibly moving with so many names of people struck down in their prime.  Medgar Evers. Emmitt Till. Michael Schwerner. James Chaney. Andrew Goodman.  The names of the 4 little girls in that church in Birmingham. Robert Kennedy.  Malcolm.  MLK.

"My Own Eyes" -- She was there in those days,  along with her family,  so it means a lot when she sings the line, "I saw it with my own eyes,  so I know it's true." It sounds like she is speaking to and teaching the listener not just singing.

#3: Kitaro, The Light of the Spirit

Details: Kitaro (b. 1953), "The Light of the Spirit." Geffen, 1987. Total time: 48:45.

Kitaro is a longtime composer,  musician and performer in the genre of new age technology music.

This is a good example of what I call 80sphere -- the atmospheric sound of the late 1980s. This is a good one for Spirit Sunday.

I was first introduced to this Japanese musician's great talents at University Hospital in Madison.  My brother Michael was given a copy of a radio program in the longrunning "Hearts of Space" weekly series that is still going today. A nurse gave it to him to help with pain management.

During one visit my brother (who was a remarkable musician on the piano, cello and voice) insisted I take his headphones to hear what he was listening to and enthralled with -- it was Kitaro, a track from a different album I think. Anyway, as the radio program title says, the music sounded like a heart of space...majestic, celestial.  

#2: Elvis Presley: Aloha From Hawaii

 
Details: Elvis Presley (1935-1977), Aloha From Hawaii. Recorded Jan. 14, 1973.  RCA,  1991 CD. Total time: 62:48.

Just after his 38th birthday the legend performed a concert in Hawaii that was broadcast via satellite to virtually every corner of the globe.  More than 1 billion TV viewers saw the performance.  Most of the songs on this album,  his last No. 1, are from that performance with a few tacked on that were recorded the same day without an audience.

Elvis is in great vocal form and displays his amazing singing versatility with everything from pop ballads to rock & roll, to country to blues and even some near operatic moments. There is not one bad song but the real standouts are:

-"See See Rider" which comes after the Strauss "Also Spake Zarathustra" opening

-an epic "American Trilogy"

-"My Way"

-very gritty "Steamroller Blues"

-fantastic "Suspicious Minds", his last No. 1 song

-"Fever" (the Peggy Lee hit) with superb vocal, upright bass, finger snaps,  and occasional buh-buh-bum drum and a few female shrieks.

-Beautiful version of Gordon Lightfoot's "In the Early Morning Rain"

He gets fantastic support throughout with great backup singers including The Sweet Inspirations and excellent musicians.  There are no wild special effects,  no smoke and mirrors, no lip-syncing, and no autotune.  Just flat out great musical performances.

The star of the show is humble, polite, relaxed, and focused.  The audience is attentive,  respectful,  and not filled with selfish screaming loudmouthed narcissists who distract or detract from the live recording--like is often seen today. Although there are a few typical Elvis fan shrieks on the recording.

This was a true megastar, professional and gifted, and the performance shows it clearly from start to finish. 

#1: The Magic Flute by Mozart

"If I were a dictator, I should make it compulsory for every member of the population between the ages of four and eighty to listen to Mozart for at least one-quarter of an hour daily for the coming five years."
-Sir Thomas Beecham, Daily Telegraph (London), 4 Sept 1937

Details: W.A. Mozart (1756-1791), "Die Zauberflote" (The Magic Flute), composed in 1791. Opera in two acts, in German. Recorded in Berlin, Germany in 1937, by Beecham and Berlin Philharmonic. Total time (2 discs): 131:40. Produced by Nimbus Records (U.K.) in 1991, with note that the two CDs are "digital transfers from 78 rpm discs."

This may be the oldest recording I own, in terms of when it was originally made. I'll find out at the end of the project if that is really the case but I think it is. It's also one of the longest at more than 2 hours.

What first struck me sonically was that this 1937 recording (that's 78 years ago this year) sounds a bit like the stereotypical sound from an old Victrola. And in some places I heard what sounded like a needle on a record. 78 years and 78 rpms...nice bookends. Also of immediate interest is the conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham, an Englishman, venturing into Nazi Germany to lead this performance by the Berlin Philarmonic. Although none of the names of the cast sound familiar to me, they all appear to be German names. Makes me wonder what became of the musicians and singers on this recording a few years later during WWII...

Anyway, as with most operas, the recording begins with a lively overture previewing musical themes for the work. And there are some classic "Mozart moments" including the repeated pattern of 4 notes over several measures that creates motion and a build-up of drama.

Is this one of the only operas in which an instrument in the orchestra is a "character" in the story? The flute whistles its presence throughout the opera, occasionally echoed by the singers. There are great Mozart melodies throughout along with great humor (the "humming" scene as well as the Papageno duet). The celeste solos are a great touch too. All in all, as with so many Mozart compositions, the entire ensemble of instruments and voices work together to create a rich, seamless whole.

This is an opera to see in person as the staging, visuals, props, costumes, lighting and background -- and particularly the translation of the lyrics -- obviously enhance one's understanding of the storyline. The Magic Flute is rich with symbolism (the number three, and Masonic imagery) and themes of heroism, myth, enlightenment, and the triumph of humanity -- ironic considering the era in which this recording was made. All in all, a high-quality performance of a classic Mozart work of art.

"Germany can never pay enough tribute to this work. Before it German opera hardly existed: this was its moment of creation."
-Richard Wagner

Mid-January is still time to start a "Year of..." project, right?

I sure hope so, because after organizing books, photos, documents, files, videos, and musical recordings -- and other "stuff" -- at home during the holidays, I had a flash idea last night to start this blog.

It occurs to me that I own around 300-some recordings, mostly music, mostly on CD but also a few on vinyl and cassette tape, plus several digital versions. I don't know if I own exactly 365 recorded albums, but I'll find out after this project is complete.

I decided since I listen to music anyway, 2015 will be the year I listen to one album a day and report on it daily. The report will include a basic description of the recording (e.g. title, artist, songs/compositions, year, label, etc.) along with my random and not-so-random observations with any lessons learned, plus any context such as history and culture, and maybe a few other random comments about the technology or quality of the recording.

Not unrelated, this project also dovetails with my goal of striving to be a better listener.

With that, here goes! And as they say...stay tuned.