Published on
January 25, 2006 in
The music I deem necessary....
Tags: birgit nilsson, celebrity death, mozart, NPR, opera, ring cycle, ring of the nibelungen, solti, soprano, tristan and isolde, wagner.
Happy 250th…wha? I guess it’s another sign that orchestral music in the US is now dead. NPR (and the others) are now celebrating the birthday of Mozart in Jan 2006. Is this news? No.
The real news is that the great Wagnerian soprano, Birgit Nilsson, passed away on Christmas Day, 2005. Word seemed to reach the States in early January and I just happened to find out while traveling 1000 miles away from home earlier this month.
I still have my Nilsson/Solti Ring recordings along with the Tristan and Isolde recording on both LP and CD. These recordings will travel well with me for the remainder of my life. They still rank amongst the best recordings of any musical genre.
Thanks go out to her for all my Wagner recordings.
On 4-Jan-1986 a new comedy quiz show appeared with broadcast origin of Madison, WI. Michael Feldman and his friends have been going at it ever since on the US PRI network. I may have heard the show before but didn’t really catch on until 1994; probably helped that they were in Memphis and they had some local musical guests with a rich history (Stax, IIRC). I was hooked!
Hard to explain the draw of this show. I guess it’s an honest, funny, unpretentious, and spontaneous show. Musical stylings by John Thulin sure help. What a pianist. His music perfectly complements the show. He also seems to play a lot of hemiolas which I find to be a rather moving effect.
In fact, I like their music so much I named my blog after the hemiola and in thought of the great music which comes from this show every Saturday morning. Really!
Happy Birthday Whad’Ya Know!
I saw one of these year-in-review shows with a few music critics on hand to discuss the past year’s offerings.
I recognized neither the songs nor any of the artists they were talking about. Not even Neil Young’s recording was mentioned much less the obscure stuff I’ve been listening to.
Strikes me kinda funny!
After hearing various choirs during this holiday season I’m reminded of a comment from a choir director I heard nearly 10 years ago. She mentioned something along the lines that, if a choir’s repetoire solely consisted of JS Bach and John Rutter catalogs, then what more would you need?
I tend to agree with that sentiment!