I have posted on Random on many occasions about my love of opera, choral singing, going to the Proms, listening and seeing Wagner and how I love huge orchestras playing their socks off and how much I enjoy a big sound. When I go to a concert I like to get my money's worth, all the players sawing away like mad on the strings, brass blowing, drums drumming, great stuff. As I am very fond of Berlioz, this more or less comes with the territory, Wagner operas, though they have quiet passages of exquisite music, have more grand and stirring music than any other composer I know. Ok Beethoven is different altogether and will never be compared to anybody else as I think, for me anyway, he is the supreme composer.
However, over the last year or so, in between all this opera going and listening to choral music and attending proms, I have found that I am turning to quieter, smaller, music. I think this has a lot to do with my acquiring an iPod which has revolutionised my travel and commute time. No longer need I listen to the inanities of Oh I am on the Train, or Where are you? I am in the second carriage down...oooh I can see you...I am waving blah blah blah. I can now plug in my litte blue slender slim line elegant little piece of modern design (thank you Apple) and shut all this out.
And yes, I listen to a lot of my beloved Beethoven on the commute in and Mozart and Schubert and I also have downloaded some opera and choral pieces and yet, I am finding increasingly over the last few months that I am turning to chamber music. This is where an iPod comes into its own. With decent ear phones, I abandoned those given with the iPod as they do not block out sound enough and are pretty poor quality, and bought a more expensive pair which fit very closely into ones ears and it is a revelation. Listening to a Schubert octet or the Trout quintet you can hear each note on each instrument as clear as a bell and appreciate all the subtleties and nuances that have hitherto passed me by. And also, what I have noticed but never did before, what wonderful tunes are weaving in and out and as each instrument is so exposed, you have to be a master of your violin or 'cello or piano, nobody to hide behind, no huge orchestra to lose yourself in. I am really loving this discovery.
I now have a new iPod with more space and have been busy downloading extra music over the last month and have three new CDs which are proving to be gems. First up is a recording of Brahms String Quartet No 2 and a piano quintet, a Christmas present from my son in law and this takes some listening to as I have always found Brahms a composer who has to be really concentrated on as I, personally, find him difficult to grasp. So to have this available to listen to every day on one of my train journeys is brilliant and I am able to concentrate. Taking me a while to get hold of this one, but will get there.
Then I decided it was time I got to know the Beethoven String quartets and have started with Nos 4 and 5 and as Beethoven is THE composer as far as I am concerned, these are proving to be totally wonderful and the more I listen the more there is to discover in them.
However, my find of the last few months, a CD I picked up in Cambridge and have not stopped listening to since, is Schubert for Two. This CD has arrangements of Schubert's Sonatas, German dances, Landlers and the Ave Maria, for violin and guitar. Sounds weird but I tell you it is sheer magic and ravishing to listen to. I do not know the guitarist at all, Goran Sollscher but he plays with such beauty and delicacy, but I certainly knew of the violinist, Gil Shaham. Several years ago when my daughter and her boyfriend (now her husband) were at Harvard, I visited and for my birthday which fell during my stay, they took me to Symphony Hall in Boston to hear Andre Previn conduct the Boston SO in a Vaughan Williams symphony and in the first half, Gil Shaham played the Sibelius violin concerto. I like my violinists to have a big, full bodied sound, and sometimes this can come with a lack of sweetness of tone, but not in this case and I remember that evening with great fondness. Now on this CD I listen to him again and I am just blown away by his playing.
It is odd is it not that it has taken modern technology to show to me just how wonderful this style of music can be. I have also started listening to more early music and am even finding myself with a growing affection for Bach which I never thought I would live to say, but once again, it is easier to listen to the contrapuntal melodies and intricacies of Johann Sebastian on my little iPod. There is hope for me yet.
Mark you, I still think that I will never ever learn to love a Bach cantata. Musical mogadon as far as I am concerned and No you need not write and tell me I Am a Philistine. Others have already done so.
But just think of all the wonderful music I have yet to discover. This is why loving books and music is such a wonder and a joy. One will never get to the end of it, there is always something new and maravellous to discover.
What larks!
