From: "Steve Smith" <ssmith36@sprynet.com>
(Here's a tip - NO orchestra is infallible, no matter what anyone says... but the Cleveland Orchestra is the closest thing to perfection I ever expect to hear.)
Until I was about 20, my background was nothing but pop and rock, rock and pop. My parents had a small stack of vinyl, but it was all Mitch Miller, Eddy Arnold, the Longines Symphonette, etc. But there was one classical album that completely laid me out flat: Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, Szell conducting Cleveland, Rudolf Serkin at the pianner. I never understood, and still don't, why that recording made my blood sing like it did and no other piece of the standard classical literature ever has since. The vinyl is long since gone, but I listen to snippets of it in my head to this day. (I wonder if it's in print somewhere.) William Crump
-----Original Message----- From: zorn-list-admin@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:zorn-list-admin@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of William Crump Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 3:19 PM
My parents had a small stack of vinyl, but it was all Mitch Miller, Eddy Arnold, the Longines Symphonette, etc. But there was one classical album that completely laid me out flat: Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, Szell conducting Cleveland, Rudolf Serkin at the pianner.
That's interesting -- my folks had a lot of vinyl as well (lots of Sinatra, thank goodness, but also Ray Conniff, Mitch Miller, etc., which started me on my road to exotica, and a two-album set of "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" with Uta Hagen that simply rocked), but I was never very attuned to the classical music they owned (lots of Tchaikovsky). But, as William writes, there was one classical album that also "completely laid me out flat:" a recording of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, with Szell at the helm, and Emil Gilels playing the piano. Now I gotta go see if it's in print, Ben np: merzbow, "space metalizer" http://www.thewilyfilipino.com
If I remember correctly, this is one of those all-time sacred, untouchable recordings that's practically never been out of print. Right now it's in print in the Great Performers of the Century series (the beige, newspaper-headlines series) for $9.99. Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com NP - rlw, 'Tulpas' disc 4 (Selektion) -----Original Message----- From: zorn-list-admin@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:zorn-list-admin@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of William Crump Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 6:19 PM To: Zorn List Subject: Re: classical orchestras (Cleveland)
From: "Steve Smith" <ssmith36@sprynet.com>
(Here's a tip - NO orchestra is infallible, no matter what anyone says... but the Cleveland Orchestra is the closest thing to perfection I ever expect to hear.)
Until I was about 20, my background was nothing but pop and rock, rock and pop. My parents had a small stack of vinyl, but it was all Mitch Miller, Eddy Arnold, the Longines Symphonette, etc. But there was one classical album that completely laid me out flat: Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, Szell conducting Cleveland, Rudolf Serkin at the pianner. I never understood, and still don't, why that recording made my blood sing like it did and no other piece of the standard classical literature ever has since. The vinyl is long since gone, but I listen to snippets of it in my head to this day. (I wonder if it's in print somewhere.)
participants (3)
-
Benito Vergara -
Steve Smith -
William Crump