Home Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

Yesterday: What a great day for music on the radio-audio! Really there's no better way...

...to deliver the Real Thing: Live music in mostly unintermediated sound. (By which I mean, no toys, minimal boards and mics -- and no splicing!)

First the Met gave us Jenufa, by Leos Janacek, in a glorious, full-throated and dramatically viable performance.

Then, as usual, Prairie Home Companion -- with stars of the Minnesota Opera, Butch Thompson, Pat Donohue, Vern Sutton, Prudence Johnson. I swear, the engineers there get some of the most realistic sound around.

And at eight o'clock the locale switched to Symphony Hall, where James Levine conducted Haydn, Wuorinen and Brahms. I have to say, when I listened to the Friday concert I was not impressed, although admittedly I was running errands so was in and out of the car (which by the way is a great place to concentrate, especially when sitting in the parking lot). The Haydn 22nd was too slow, the Wuorinen 8th was incomprehensible (Why does modern music seem to demand xylophones and wood blocks? Such cliches!) and the Brahms 4th lacked propulsion.

Be that as it may, last night was totally different. Maybe it was a belly full of sirloin and broccoli and Sam Smith IPA, maybe it was the sound (different station, better audio), maybe it was the band, or maybe it was Jimmy. At any rate it all clicked -- even the Wuorinen. And if you know any Wuorinen, you'll know how radical this pronouncement sounds: I enjoyed it!

Cheers to radio! Three cheers to live music!

clark


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Topic - Yesterday: What a great day for music on the radio-audio! Really there's no better way... - clarkjohnsen 11:17:41 02/18/07 (8)


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