Mostly Music
quinta-feira, janeiro 31
Hmmm.... weeellll, I can explain, really... it's like, well, y'know... hmmm.... oh, heck, I was just too plain bored with the old template, that's what!
(I saved a copy of the old one, though, and will e-mail it to you guys in case you miss it too much...)
segunda-feira, janeiro 28
Que seja eterno enquanto dure:
LOVE AND LIFE: A SONG
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680)
All my past life is mine no more,
The flying hours are gone,
Like transitory dreams giv'n o'er,
Whose images are kept in store
By memory alone.
The time that is to come is not;
How can it then be mine?
The present moment's all my lot;
And that, as fast as it is got,
Phyllis, is only thine.
Then talk not of inconstancy,
False hearts, and broken vows;
If I, by miracle, can be
This live-long minute true to thee,
'Tis all that Heav'n allows
THE AMADEUS QUARTET, revisited
When I was a teenager I had the strange habit of spending my whole allowance in records. The Amadeus quartet (Norbert Brainin and Siegmund Nissel, violin; Peter Schidlof, viola; Martin Lovett, cello) was then one of the ensembles most frequently found in my shopping bag, and I have the fondest memory of deep emotions raised by their performances.Since then, a lot of water went under the bridge, and for a long time I hadn’t heard their recordings. So my heart skipped a beat when I received this CD to review. Hélàs, this time the emotion was a bit dimmed. Still perfectly noticeable are the impeccable chamber playing, the coherent musical conception, the seemingly effortless technique. And it is refreshing to hear a real live performance, with all the coughing and chair shuffling, in these days of perfect, aseptic recordings. These pieces were recorded between 1960 and 1971, and they provide a very good sampling of the Amadeus Quartet, joined by some of their more habitual partners.
There is true grit here, overflowing emotion and very fine musicianship. What is lacking is perhaps a rounder tone quality, but mainly a more relaxed, fun approach to music. Yes, these are very serious pieces, one does not expect any comical relief. But there is a general terseness which appears in all the levels, from the rather tight violin sound, with a very intense vibrato, to the almost oppressive sensation that there is very little “space” between each of the instruments of the quartet - a way of achieving cohesion, no doubt. This was often hailed as one of the Amadeus Quartet trademarks, a homogeneity of tone that made the group sound as one finely tuned instrument. And in Franck and Strauss the constant tension and even some of the timbric harshness don’t seem out of place.
But the clarinet quintet by Mozart, one of the most inspired chamber pieces ever composed, suffers. Maybe because of the incredible emotional scope of this work, which goes from the most soulful melancholy to the most light-hearted whimsy. One yearns for bigger, rounder gestures, for a more bouncing interpretation, for a Mozart that feels less like Brahms and more like… well, Mozart! The music sounds trapped inside a slightly stifling, humid, grandiose place, and one aspires to the open air, to an atmosphere where all details can be clearly perceived and enjoyed.
The thirty years or more that separate us from these performances have witnessed many changes in performance practices as well as in the taste of audiences. And, sadly enough, castles visited in the past always seem more enchanted in our memory. Still, if you never heard the Amadeus Quartet, this is a golden opportunity to get to know what is perhaps the most famous string quartet ever.
CORA AND TOM
I promise that I will post something - soon. Now I am going to the hospital, to visit Cora. I'll be back, with news of her surgery....PS: I was looking for a picture of Cora to post here, and this is what I found in my google image search, under the heading "Cora and Tom":
Nothing could be more appropriate, don't you think?
PS2: I just came back from the hospital. Cora is well, a bit drowsy but her personality is all there. The doctor said she could not eat or drink anything till tonight. While I was there she started a long diatribe against doctors and how they know nothing at all about humans, and how if her body was asking for something, her body knew best... etc, etc... AND managed to convince us to give her a sip of chocolate milk (no less!)
sábado, janeiro 26
my momy!!!!!
quarta-feira, janeiro 23
Back home
Yes, I am still alive. Barely. And thanks to a ridiculously LARGE cup of coffee.I got home just in time to run to school and teach hours of classes. I haven't had time to feel how hot and muggy it is here, or to make the usual observations about cultural differences. And right now it is too late to post anything that will make any sense. But here is a question for you: speaking about coffee, did you know that American Airlines does not serve coffee with sweetener anymore, only with sugar (even if you have diabetes...)? And do you know why?
Answer to this one, tomorrow!
segunda-feira, janeiro 14
Americans
Your bloggers spent a fabulous evening on the town, beginning with a really incredibly good dinner at a local restaurant, the Big Fish Bistro.Laura says: This is a restaurant that would attract a crowd of 25 year olds in Brazil - bright colors, huge spaces, no tablecloths, cute waiters (young, male - ours was a professional baseball player - catcher - for the Allentown Ambassadors - Jason McDonald). The food, however, would attract a much older and more affluent crowd - sophisticated nouvelle cuisine, deliciously prepared, tastefully presented. The prices were quite affordable. The bread that began the repast was so good as to be a satisfying meal in itself.
We shared a pecan-encrusted mahi-mahi, perfectly prepared, served on a bed of wild rice with al dente green beans, baby limas, mushrooms. On the side we each had a Cape-Codder salad with mesculun, red lettuce, pine nuts, bleu cheese, and a raspberry vinaigrette. Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then we ran off to the weekly rehearsal for the Blawenburg Band (est. 1890),
where Laura sat in with the flute section - the first time in her life that she had played in a band. Laura: It's very educational to play where you cannot hear what you play, and can't tell whether you are playing the right note or not...Afterwards we joined eight or so people from the band for a post-rehearsal chopp at a bar on Quakerbridge Road.
As we drove home afterwards Laura remarked on how different our gathering was from a similar group in Brazil. Starting a conversation is laborious, the group tends to fragment into three or even four separate conversations, but yet each conversation takes place across the others, rather than people moving to be next to the people they are talking to. People at the edges tend to be cut out. Two of the younger women were discussing "Pampered Chef" parties, where the party thrown is an opportunity to sell culinary equipment to the guests, a long-standing pratice in the US, also used to sell Tupperware (plastic storage containers), lingerie, and even sex toys. For Laura, the notion of "party" excludes the notion of "selling", but for Americans it doesn't seem to be bizarre.
quinta-feira, janeiro 10
AMERICA
What is the States? It is a country where:
1- Pretzels don't get stale, even if you forget to close the package.
2. People stop at red lights, even when there is no cop around.
3. A "Sale" sign in a shop window actually means that the prices inside the store are significantly reduced.
4. Cherries are delicious.
5. Christmas decorations are fabulous.
6. A group of people who know each other get together. One of them brings his girlfriend. He doesn't bother to introduce her to the others, and they don't introduce themselves either.
7. Ice cream is wonderful, even inexpensive ice cream.
8. You buy a shirt at the Gap. The salesgirl just crumples it and throws it in the bag, instead of folding it nicely as you expect. And there is only one salesgirl. And she is unfriendly. And doesn't bother to try selling you anything.
9. Shopping malls are always empty (how do they survive?)
10. Public bathrooms (yes, in cinemas, stores, restaurants, even train stations!) are surprisingly clean.
11. Everybody's car is a total pigsty - trash, old newspapers, maps, etc.
12. There is no pão de queijo. Sniff.
13. The newspaper is delivered inside a plastic bag.
terça-feira, janeiro 1
Reveillon and after
Today is the first day of 2002. It's a nice warm summer day, some high clouds, lots of blue, no rain in sight.We saw the new year in at Cora's apartment in Lagoa,
having arrived there in separate cabs, the first with Dona Nora, Tia Eva, and Tio Imre, the second with Laura, Tom, Ju, and the food at Laura had spent all day cooking - a delicious pernil (leg of pork), filet mignon, potatoes, carrots, salad, plus a cake Ju had made the night before, and the farofa that this gringo cooked. Our taxi driver was a star among Rio cabbies, friendly, interesting, articulate, and the traffic along the Lagoa was not bad. Upon arrival all but your blogger decamped to the kitchen to decant the food, and I had a long conversation with Tia Eva about life in Budapest in her youth. Tia Eva is the last survivor of the six siblings that included Paulo Rónai, Dona Nora's husband, and the father of Cora and Laura.I wish that I had had the chance to meet him. I heard about manners and courting in her youth, and the gap between the three older children (Paulo was the oldest, born in 1907), and the three younger, who included Tia Eva. Tia Eva makes wonderful Hungarian desserts, speaks with a strong Hungarian accent in Portuguese (I am always amazed to hear Dona Nora speaking fluent Hungarian with her, as Nora also speaks Italian and English), and makes some of the same mistakes in Portuguese that I do (thank you, Nora, Cora, and Laura, for correcting me).
Tio Imre is in his nineties, the widower of Clara, one of the six Rónai's. The dinner was marvelous,and before the desserts the fireworks began to burst outside, and it was already 2002. A beautiful night, a bright moon, a film of cloud over Cristo Redentor, some substantial fireworks at our end of the Lagoa, and some private ones at other spots around Jardim Botanico and Gavea that we could see. After a while Bia returned from covering the rich and famous partying at the Copacabana Palace. Cora, of course, was capturing it all to disc with her camera. At four or so we taxied back through the quiet streets to Botafogo.
A PLEASURE
This morning Tom put on Paolo Pandolfo's recording of Bach's suites. His very first comment was "it sounds so much easier than on the cello!" (this is a gamba recording...) . Yes, it does. But the wonderful thing is how musically easy it sounds. It never - NEVER - sounds like a transcription, the music flows seamlessly. This is trully a fabulous CD, and hearing it again only confirms my previous impressions... (aí, Meg, uma bela sugestão para você. Que tal este disco como trillha sonora de 2002?).
This is the review I wrote for Fanfare:
When I first looked at this CD, my initial reaction was not the most enthusiastic, I must say. Good Lord, one more arrangement of these poor mistreated works! And to boot, a rather weird one. After all, in most minds, the baroque cello and the gamba are very similar instruments. In fact, many people think of the gamba as a second-class instrument, some sort of watered-down cello, a ghost of ancient times. So why bother? Transposing the cello suites to the gamba might seem as extravagant and ineffective as playing the Chopin études on a virginal.
But on the other hand these works have been played by every possible (and even impossible!) instrument, including the recorder. So why not the gamba? And the truth is that the gamba and cello are quite different, really. Still, it is hard to imagine that a gamba could convincingly replace a cello. The surprising thing is that this is a remarkable CD, although it is very likely that it will not please everyone. I began listening with a certitude that I knew how these works were supposed to sound. But after a few minutes, I had forgotten my initial expectations regarding timbre, volume or musical gestures. Moreover, I did not find myself pining for the cello at all. The performance swept me into its own world, and managed to keep me there, track after track.
Paolo Pandolfo is an outstanding gambist, with enviable technical skills. More important than that, though, is the fact that he is an extremely intelligent musician, full of ideas and displaying a unique musical personality. He plays with elegance and vigor, and shapes his phrases with gentle expressiveness. He is also smart enough not to try to mimic the heavier, more solemn instrument. He opts instead for an interpretation that forgets some of the original vocabulary, but incorporates the language of the gamba – and so the pieces sound a lot more French than it would seem imaginable, reminding one in places of Marin Marais. At the same time, paradoxically, the music leans towards the galant style. However, if the suites lose some important characteristics, they also gain a few.
The sound of the gamba is in general less assertive than that of the cello, more ethereal and much less ponderous. Some of the harmonies seem more resonant than in the original, some of the melodic passages seem sparer. In this new guise, the suites disclose some unsuspected glimpses of Spain, distant hints of harps and lutes, buried melodies. These changes could certainly upset the more diehard fans of the cello suites, or the purists who loathe any kind of transposition or arrangement. Granted, they radically transform these works. Someone looking for the cuisine to which they are accustomed might take a while to get used to this exotic fare.
The present CD is, musically speaking, the equivalent of a diet version of some traditionally filling dessert, prepared by a very good Chef. Although not as satisfying (in the heavy cream sense!) as the cello version, I find it intellectually challenging and emotionally engaging, and it is certainly easier to digest. Sometimes the notes fail to touch the right chord (oops!) in one’s memory, and one feels as if the ground were lacking under one’s feet. Pandolfo’s phrasing is occasionally so free as to seem excessively fanciful, too fluffy or too weird. However, that is a fleeting impression. This is an utterly convincing and accomplished performance.
For soul searching, moving pathos, the cello is still the winner. But if you love these works enough to buy more than one version, you should consider these CDs. They reveal a sensitive, original performer, unafraid to experiment and with a healthy penchant towards the unconventional. On second thought, you should consider them anyway, even if you already have many recordings of these works. Since I got them, I find myself enjoying them more and more. Each time I discover some new magical twist of interpretation, some treasure that was hidden in the score, and which Pandolfo’s playing seems to expose in a flattering, spontaneous light.
The double CD case includes excellent liner notes (by Pandolfo himself) and a little booklet containing a rather curious imaginary dialogue between gamba and cello, again written by the artist. An eccentric idea, but he manages to pull it off. The recorded sound is very nice, round and present, with a natural bounce to it. In these days of technological wizardry, it has the further advantage of allowing us to hear the little extraneous sounds that are frequently erased from recordings – such as the noise of fingers hitting the strings, or the breathing of the artist. This adds to it a human dimension, which is part of the music and makes it even more exciting. It is too bad that such a careful production did not include an equally creative graphic artist. The cover art (??) is completely lacking in imagination, and the unhappy choice of colors hampers legibility. Considering how well Pandolfo fulfills the many tasks he undertakes, maybe he should have designed the cover as well…
BACH Six suites: No. 1, BWV 1007; No. 2, BWV 1008; No. 3, BWV 1009; No. 4, BWV 1010; No. 5, BWV 1011; No. 6, BWV 1012. Paolo Pandolfo (vdg and adaptation). GLOSSA CDs 920405 (2 CDs: 144:07)
