3519. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Streichquintette Nr. 5 KV 593 & Nr. 6 KV 614
3520. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violinkonzert Nr. 5 A-dur KV 219 & Nr. 6 D-dur
KV 271a
3521. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violinkonzert G-dur KV 216 & A-dur KV 219
3522. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Klavierkonzerte Nr. 19 & 27
3523. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overtures
3524. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphonien Nr. 39 Es-dur & Nr. 40 G-moll
3525. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Vesperae Solennes de Confessore
3526. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concert voor fluit, harp en orkest in C KV 299
3527. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra No. 1 in G K313 &
No. 2 in D K314
3528. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Georg Friedrich Händel: "Idomeneo"/"Der Messias"
3529. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Antonín Dvorák: Serenade no. 11 in Es, K.V. 375/
Serenade in d, op. 44
3530. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Michael Haydn: Divertimento in B flat major K. 287/
Divertimento in G major
3531. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Ludwig van Beethoven: Pianoconcert nr 21 in C, KV 467/
Piano-concert nr 1 in C, op. 15
3532. Modest Mussorgsky/Maurice Ravel: Bilder einer Ausstellung/Ma Mère l'Oye
3533. Jacques Offenbach: Gaîté Parisienne
3534. Sergei Prokofiev/Cesar Franck: Sinfonietta in A Major, Op. 5-48/Psyché
3535. Maurice Ravel: The Complete Orchestral Works
3536. Maurice Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit/Sonatine/La Valse
3537. Ottorino Respighi: Pines of Rome/Fountains of Rome
3538. Ottorino Respighi/Franz Schubert: The Birds/Symphony No. 3 in D Major
Mixworthy: "Pavane pour une infante défunte," Maurice Ravel, #3535.
Report cards, then interviews. I want to get this thing over and done with by the
end of the holiday...One of the odder things I unofficially keep track of is what,
at any given moment, is the most famous film I haven't seen. For a long time it was
Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, then it was The African Queen, and for the last
couple of years it's probably been Amadeus. (There's a chance I'm overlooking some
obvious foreign-language film, though.) I don't think Forman's movie has any serious
critical standing to speak of, but just by virtue of having won an Academy Award for
best picture, it's famous. Its complete lack of appeal for me will see it retain its
unseen-status until I check out...I don't know why I singled out Bach earlier as the
classical composer I'm most likely to listen to. When not playing a specific piece
like the Ravel listed above, violin music by Mozart is my default choice for classi-
cal. I like one of the five sections of Ravel's "Mother Goose Suite" (#3532) just as
much as "Pavane pour une infante défunte," but I'm too lazy to go and check which one
it is right now. There are parts of Respighi's "Pines of Rome" I really like, too.
There's something that links all the classical pieces I like best--Ravel, Respighi,
DeBussy, Vaughan Williams--but I'd need a lot more know-how on the subject to attempt
any kind of a serious description of what that is. I'll probably try anyway when I
get to "The Lark Ascending"..."Pictures at an Exhibition" was Mussorgsky, which means
that the classical composer who most influenced Emerson, Lake & Palmer went by the
Christian name of "Modest." That seems about right.
________________________________________________________________________________
3539. Camille Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 3
3540. Camille Saint-Saëns/E. Lalo: Introduction et Rondo capriccioso op. 28/
Symphonie espagnole op. 21
3541. Erik Satie: Musique pour piano à quatre mains
3542. Erik Satie: 3 Gymnopédies
3543. Franz Schubert: The Trout and Other Songs
3544. Franz Schubert: Sonata in B-Flat Major
3545. Franz Schubert: Sonata in C Minor, D.958
3546. Franz Schubert: Symfonie Nr. 8 "Onvoltooide"
3547. Robert Schumann: Concerto pour piano et orchestre
3548. Robert Schumann: Sonate Nr. 2/Kreisleriana
3549. John Philip Sousa: Stars & Stripes Forever
3550. The World of Johann Strauss
3551. Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra
3552. Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs
3553. Igor Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps
3554. Igor Stravinsky/Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Konzert D-dur/Konzert B-dur KV 207
Mixworthy: "3 Gymnopédies," Erik Satie, #3542.
It's alive--it's alive! I'm going to make a concerted effort to finish this before I
return to school January 9th. Not finishing was never an issue--I'd never even con-
sider abandoning something that, going by the 3700-LP estimation, is already 95% com-
plete. I won't reiterate the usual array of factors slowing me down, but I'll mention
a new one: sitting down and keying in a list of 15 or 20 classical albums is actually
something of an ordeal...Satie's "3 Gymnopédies" is my single favourite piece of clas-
sical music--it's a close call between that and Vaughan Williams' "The Lark Ascending,"
but based solely on the number of times I've listened to each one over the years, it's
probably the Satie. It's such an over-familiar piece--I always have a few kids who rec-
ognize it, often from some commercial--that in terms of creativity, that's about as
startling as saying Kind of Blue is your favourite jazz record. I'm not even sure if
it's correct to categorize it as classical; I've never been clear on where "classical"
ends and "20th-century" art music begins, or if there's even any point in making such
a distinction. (As far as the latter goes, my knowledge begins and ends with the name
itself.) Anyway, as I once wrote in Jeff Pike's fanzine Tapeworm, I first got to know
"3 Gymnopédies" through its use in Don Shebib's Goin' Down the Road, a Canadian film
from 1970. The Satie piece plays as a transplanted Nova Scotianer stares dumbfounded
at a woman inside Toronto's flagship Sam the Record Man store on Yonge St., a woman
he has designs on meeting but will be prevented from doing so because the two of them
don't really inhabit the same universe. I've had something of an obsession with that
scene for years, one that was deepened when I learned (in a post-screening Q&A with
the director) that the woman died soon after the film's completion. Following an in-
comprehensible Boxing Day shooting outside Sam's this past Monday in which a 15-year-
old bystander out shopping was killed, the scene resonates even more today. I haven't
gone into Sam's on a Boxing Day for at least five years, and not in earnest for a lot
longer than that, but all through high school Sam's was the first, last, and only stop
on Boxing Day; the $1.99 and $2.99 LPs I loaded up on during those mid-70s Boxing Days
accounted for a not insignificant percentage of my early collection. Maybe this girl
was just getting started on building a CD collection of her own--the day, the location,
and her age hit very close to home.
________________________________________________________________________________
3555. Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
3556. Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique"
3557. Peter Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture
3558. Peter Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
3559. Peter Tchaikovsky: The Seasons
3560. Peter Tchaikovsky: Ballettsuiten
3561. The World of Tchaikovsky
3562. Georg Philipp Telemann: 12 Fantasies for Violin without Bass
3563. Sir Michael Tippett: Concerto for Orchestra
3564. Music of Sir Michael Tippett
3565. Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
3566. Antonio Vivaldi: Lute Concertos and Trios
3567. Oboe Concertos by Vivaldi, Albinoni, Telemann, Hummel & Handel
3568. Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
3569. Kurt Weill: Die Zwei Sinfonien
3570. Pastoral Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams
3571. Ralph Vaughan Williams Concert
3572. Ralph Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music
3573. Ralph Vaughan Williams/Sir Edward Elgar: Fantasia on Greensleeves/"Enigma"
Variations
Mixworthy: "The Lark Ascending," Ralph Vaughan Williams, #3570.
This finishes the "regular" classical section, leaving two more entries of classi-
cally-related odds and ends, then two more for box sets. As soon as I finish, I will
promptly begin an inventory of my 20,000 or so baseball cards ("17,251. Henry Cotto,
1991 Score, #282")...There's also a version of "The Lark Ascending" conducted by
Neville Marriner on #3571. I've listed Sir Adrian Boult's because that's the one I've
played far more often. I must have bought Marriner's much later; I wasn't even aware
I owned a second version--but they're extremely similar. I came to "The Lark Ascend-
ing" cold; I already owned the "Greensleeves" LP, I think, but unlike "3 Gymnopédies,"
I'd never heard the piece before when I bought it. It's the first thing I'd play for
somebody if it were a really windy person who was in the habit of saying things like
"Play something majestic for me." Like "My Favorite Things" and like "Cowgirl in the
Sand," it's an epic that dissolves the world around you. Some of it soars, some is
balanced precariously between a sustained note and silence, mountains come out of the
sky, the muses dance and sing, they make the children really ring, you stand to lose
all time. I get the same feeling from the background score heard in some of Spike
Lee's movies; my guess is that Lee's father (Malcolm X) and Aaron Copland (He Got
Game) were heavily influenced by Williams. "The Lark Ascending" is waiting for some
director to lay it overtop the most stunningly contemplative 10-minute nature passage
ever filmed. A few seconds of it were actually used in 24-Hour Party People, of all
things. If I remember correctly, Williams turned up during the big "Pastoral Rave"
sequence.
________________________________________________________________________________
3574. Anton Arensky/M. Glinka: Trio No. 1 for Piano, Violin and Cello/Pathetic Trio
for Piano, Violin and Cello
3575. Juozas Gruodis: Pieces for Piano
3576. O. Yanchenko/Igor Luchenok: Quartet No. 1 for Two Violins, Viola and Cello/
Quartet No. 1 for Two Violins, Viola and Cello
3577. Chamber Works by Y. Meitus
3578. Baroque Concertos
3579. Don Smithers: "The Trumpet Shall Sound"
3580. Don Smithers: Festliche Trompetenmusik des Barock
3581. Freddy Grin: Trumpet for the Millions
3582. Tanzmusik der Wiener Klassik
3583. Le Parnasse Français
3584. Musique Française des XV et XVI siècles
3585. Contemporary Ballets from France
3586. Holland Symphony
3587. Chinese Classical Masterpieces
3588. Masters at Work
3589. Musik auf der grosβen Orgel der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche Berlin
3590. CBC Winnipeg Orchestra: Concert Performances from the 1974 CBC Winnipeg
Festival
3591. Ton Koopman: Christmas Organ Music
3592. Arthur Grumiaux/Istvan Hajdu: Encore! Bravo! Da capo!
3593. Eduard Tubin: Violin Concerto No. 1 & Other Works
3594. The Art of Pablo Casals
3595. Waverly Consort: The Renaissance
3596. Janet Baker: A Treasury of English Songs
3597. Maria Callas: Carmen
3598. Maria Callas: La Gioconda
3599. Igor Gorin: Great Baritone Arias
I bought the four albums leading off this group from the Vinyl Museum during its
final year or two, when they all of a sudden had boxes and boxes of brand-new stuff
on the Russian Melodiya label. I think it was all a dollar a record when they first
put it out, and by the end everything was a quarter. Most of what they had was in the
10" format; I just took a look, and along with Black Market Clash and Billy "the Kid"
Emerson's Crazy 'Bout Automobiles and the handful of other pop-related 10" records
I own, there are 40 Melodiya titles, only about a quarter of which I got through be-
fore boxing them. This would have been the mid-late '90s, timing that doesn't make
it difficult to figure out how it all ended up in a used record store in Canada. From
an online article entitled "Rebirth of a Record Company":
"'The most valuable recordings had long since made their way to the West and were
being handed from one firm to another,' said Andrei Troshin, chief editor at Melo-
diya. 'It is almost impossible for us to take them to court for this. Many record-
ings were stolen and all of the catalogues at Melodiya were destroyed in 1991--
people were working to cover their tracks. Fortunately, the thieves were too lazy
to steal everything and there were copies of most of the recordings.'"
To anyone who remembers the Vinyl Museum, it's amusing to think of it as a firm. Any-
way, it was a one-of-a-kind haul (as much as I did buy, I should have picked up a copy
of everything out there), and, in view of the circumstances by which it was made pos-
sible, I feel a little like Jon Lovitz in The Wedding Singer: "The Soviet Empire is
falling apart, and I'm reaping the benefits!"
________________________________________________________________________________
3600. Ofra Harnoy: Cello Encores
3601. Liona Boyd: Miniatures for Guitar
3602. James Galway: Greatest Hits
3603. Zamfir/van Hoof Orchestra: Classics by Candlelight
3604. John Williams: Greatest Hits/The Guitar
3605. Zodiac: Music in the Universe
3606. The Music of Leroy Anderson
3607. Bron Journey: Journey to Bethlehem
3608. Ralph Carmichael Orchestra: Christmas Spirit...My Kind of Feeling!
3609. Marty and His Golden Trumpet: Golden Songs
3610. De Rju Nommele Hearen fan it Wetterskip
3611. Nederland zingt: volshiederen en kerstzang
3612. Cynthia Clawson: Immortal
3613. Accordeon Parade
3614. l'extraordinaire Pierre Cochereau aux grandes Orgues de Notre-Dame de Paris
3615. Mireille Mathieu: Die Liebe Einer Frau
3616. Beroemde Weense Walsen
3617. The World of Rawicz & Landauer
3618. Marines for the Millions
3619. Rajkumar and Indrani Rizvi: Romantic Reflections
Ofra, Uma; Uma, Ofra--wait a minute, I already used that one with Ofra Haza...I think
the only two albums I ever got around to listening to from this section were the two
that lead off, which is why a lot of it ended up getting stuck here--not having played
Nederland zingt's volshiederen en kerstzang, and in no hurry to do so, all I have to
guide me as to its genre is the cover shot of some people ice skating in front of a
windmill. I know it's not reggaeton, all else is possible...I'm not sure if John Wil-
liams is the film composer or not; the album dates to the early '70s, so it could well
be him. Zamfir is definitely Zamfir, master of the pan flute. Liona Boyd had a fling
with Pierre Trudeau sometime after his split from Margaret; of Liona, Margaret, and
Margot Kidder, #3601's beguiling cover photo is a strong argument in favour of Liona
(she may also have been a touch more emotionally stable than the other two). Marty the
Golden Trumpet guy is something to behold. I get the feeling "golden trumpet" carried
more than one meaning...I didn't finish over Christmas as planned, but I'm down to
two more entries for box sets. I'm going to take some time off work and relisten to
them all first--I may listen to my Dr. Demento box more than once--so I'll see you
in six months to a year.