Bargains Galore

Oh, cruel universe, why tempt me so? Is there no one who is unaware of my weakness for the Boxed Set, the comprehensive collection on CD of the work of a musician?

And, why not. Along with the satisfying sense of completeness they are frequently tremendous value. And there’s two new sets coming out this month that are equally massive, equally valuable and, I’m certain equally AWESOME . . . !

Wagner: The Great Operas From the Bayreuth Festival is a 33 CD collection of almost every Wagner opera, all recorded live at Bayreuth. I’m not familiar with the Wolfgang Sawallisch recordings included in here, but I’m sure they quality is fine, and the set includes the Böhm Ring Cycle, generally regarded as the companion classic to Solti’s cycle, and one I do NOT yet have. Okay, rack it please!

The other set is a collection of the English master, Ralph Vaughan Williams. I used to admit to loving is music in grad school, and received a few scornful laughs, but I do love his work. He wrote wonderful songs and along with the beautiful Pastoral Symphony produced a collection of works that balanced a Romantic sound world with a very Modern mystery. His last four symphonies, including the 7th which was adapted from a film score, are hermetic, enigmatic, inward turning works, enticing to the ear and heart and leaving a sense of fascinated bafflement, which I find a high achievement. All those are here, in consistently fine performances led by Vernon Handley, along with EVERYTHING else. At 30 CDs, and a price of a little more than $50 depending on where you buy, who can say no? Certainly, not I . . .

Hot Weather Music

Wow, it’s hot. The best written part of the New York Times is the weather section, where you can read words like ’sultry,’ ‘torrid’ and ‘oppressive’ used, and used correctly.

So what to listen to on days like these? This is the playlist from Sunday:

Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue; Michael Tilson Thomas & the LA Phil
June Christy, Something Cool
Arthur Bythe, Illusion
Fela, Zombie
James Blood Ulmer, Odyssey

And that worked pretty well . . .

In The Meantime

As the poet wrote, the days run away like wild horses over the hills . . .

I’ve got a few longer essays I’m working on, about everything from the possibility of dangerous music to the pellucid perfection of Kraftwerk. But since I’ve picked up a gig – a day gig doing a database conversion, not anything to do with music – I’ve just been accumulated notes and working bit by bit, which is why posting has been light the past month. But there’s still plenty of interest for pensées, like:

This interesting article in Sunday’s Arts and Leisure, about Trent Reznor and how he is finding new ways to bring his music to an audience. For example, his new recording is free. This is absolutely the time for musicians to be thinking about how independent they can be in the means of production and distribution, especially since the record companies, with one notable exception, have no new ideas whatsoever. They’re as hidebound and stuck to obsolete thinking as Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al. (Personally, I’m a NIN listener, not a fan, but anyone creating digital music should be aware of what Reznor is doing. And I’m enjoying the ability to remix the music of others – it’s the equivalent of practicing an instrument).

And my wife and I are heading out tonight for a play about, of all people, Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil. I’m especially looking forward to the realization of Ballet Mécanique, which is mainly a curio nowadays, a better guide to a certain romantic thinking about the future than a great piece of music. But it should be seen in action, and that same school of thought it where Kraftwerk comes from, so . . . here’s to the future!