A Lark Ascending

You have a point there - if I never bought another recording I'd have enough to keep me wallowing in pleasure for the rest of my life. Except... I got hooked into music by that sense of anticipation for what lay round the corner. I'm still gripped by that, regardless of what I own (clearly marking me as someone very successfully captured by capitalism!). Lewis Carroll got this perfectly: `

You explain why right away: But how often has the money gone to the 'people who deserve it' since the beginning of commercial recording? The idea that 'people today' are accepting immoral practices doesn't work...because we've all been party to that since we bought our first records. This is the way capitalism works. It'll take more than a change in the record industry to introduce ethical practices.

This strikes me as one of those situations where the technology is way ahead of the legality. As fast as the record companies try and nail the legality down, they still look up to find technology several streets ahead and have to start all over again. The only solution is for companies - or individual musicians/bands/collectives - to provide something unique that cannot be quickly replicated. The moral argument is all well and good but it doesn't stop people (I've got my own share of recordings that are of questionable provenance). But once you start hitting the moral high ground where does it stop? How about the ethics of buying a Mosaic for $120 that you get through once a year at most. How many meals could that buy in Darfur? I actually find a certain pleasure - I'm not sure why - in buying direct from the source. A musician's site, a small, specialist label. I'll loyally buy direct from, say, the Discipline Global site that handles the King Crimson/Robert Fripp music and feel no desire to locate this music cheaper because buying from there is easy, interesting, full of surprises and I've a feeling that a fair bit of the money is going to the people who deserve it. That's the model that is needed.

Minority Report Just to offer a different perspective - I'm not trying to start a fight! a) I've not bought an LP in about 20 years - I've slowly been either replacing them with CDs or burning them to CD-R (more recently replacing some with downloads). The bulk of my LPs are in the loft where they'll never be played again. I associate vinyl with rice krispies, off centre discs, inner groove distortion, needle jumps etc. Probably a result of only ever having modest playback equipment - but I worshipped the CD from the moment it arrived. b) Although I've had some downloads from commercial sites that have sounded poor, most I find hard to differentiate from a normal CD. I always burn to CD-R and play that way at present (habit, I suspect...I've not been able to get past the idea of an item with a specific, finite amount of music on it!). I've been perfectly happy with most from e-music. Recent downloads from classical labels like Gimmell (Tallis Scholars), Chandos and, more recently, the new DG site have been marvellous. Now I'm willing to accept that I lack either the discerning ears or the quality of playback equipment to tell the difference - but I'm pretty certain that it's only a matter of time before technology just eliminates any difference there. I'll have no difficulty to switching totally to downloads. c) I always find the arguments about the packaging interesting, especially when coming from a body of people likely to get dismissive about the general public's addiction to packaging in other areas. I was very attached to the packaging up to a year or so back. E-music weened me off. I like a nice front cover and notes if they are informative (though usually they're waffle!) - a fair few online distributers are getting good at making those available (Gimmell is superb!). In fact, I've gone as far as ditching my jewel cases and general paperwork, keeping CD and main booklet in a PVC folder. Saves acres of shelf space! I suspect that 5-10 years from now there will be companies running off 'audiophile' pressings of CDs as they do vinyl today. But the future lies in downloads (or whatever comes next!!!!). If I hear something on the radio today I want to buy, it will take me a day or more to get to a shop to buy it; ordering the CD online still imposes a time delay. The ready availability to purchase and be listening in half an hour at most is bound to win over the mass audience (and I'd include many people who enjoy specialist musics in that mass audience). I loved going out on Saturday afternoons to record shops, browsing, buying an LP or two, gazing at the gatefold. But those days are long gone. I spent 30 years going record shopping nearly every week, often driving to cities 30 miles away for a different experience. In the last year I've gone shopping maybe six or seven times! An enjoyable experience lost...but I've won back so much time, much of which has become listening time! Having said all that, I've no intention of ripping my existing CDs and then selling them! Oh, and it's interesting to read the term 'CD quality' as an affirmative. Not too long ago that would have been an oxymoron!

Well, no-one has told the plants yet but the sky is set for spring: It was warmer today than it was last July during our 'phantom summer.'

Well, spring is but a state of mind! Actually, I should have subtitled this 'Track the return of life across the northern hemisphere'. Apologies to Kenny Weir and others for my thoughtless hemispherism!

Seen some great pictures on this site - Chris' views in NY immediately jump to mind. So, with the first snowdrops out, how about a visual tracking of this wonderful time of year? This was the still wintry scene outside my front door at about 8.30 am this morning...less rural than it looks. The sunrise hides an entire small town! Proof of the snowdrops...I seem to have four!!!!

Hope that goes well, Papsrus. I saw Moody many years ago...can't recall in what context!

An interesting composer - in the 20s he was considered a bit of an enfant terrible; a bit too modernistic and (a bigger crime in some eyes at the time) continental. As time went on he seemed to get absorbed into the mainstream. A bit like Walton. There's some of his spikier stuff on this disc: My favourite is the more romantic 'A Colour Symphony' - great tunes there! Talking of Walton, there's a marvellous Decca box of his main orchestral pieces: The First Symphony, in particular, is amazing. One of those glowering between the wars pieces like RVW's Fourth.

Just noticed that both Chandos and Lyrita are now up on e-music (at least here in the UK). Never noticed that happening!

This is one reason why I'm really looking forward to more and more record companies putting material out via digital download (leaving all the 'quality' issues to one side) - the chance to fill in the gaps without duplication. I have 3 of the Fats Waller RCA sets, acquired just before they started to disappear. JSP have now launched a thorough series and I've recently got volume 2. The trouble is that there's a CD and a bit of material between the end of that set and where my RCAs pick up. The JSP box 3 would end up with nearly 3 discs of duplication. Fortunately JSP use e-music so I'm hoping it won't be too long before these boxes appear there. Though some record companies are crafty with this. I was looking to download one classical recording in ten parts off an album where I don't need the couplings. Unfortunately two of the parts were 'album only' so my only option would have been to buy the whole album with the things I didn't need. Another sign of a failure of the companies to take into account what customers are seeking in this new world. I read somewhere that Classics might be digitalising their collection - now that would work for me if things were available singly. Though I suspect I won't live long enough to see the job completed!

I have that record - really excellent. In fact I'll give it a play now! This is about to hit the shops in Europe later this month: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mande-Variations-T...8446&sr=8-1 The blurb says:

He has been, and there's fine music there, but Finzi's setting of Wordsworth's "Intimations of Mortality" when it gets rip-roaring exuberant, seems ludicrous to me, the English massed-choirs tradition at its most square and gallumphing. Yes, 'square and gallumphing' is a perfect description of one of the weaknesses of a fair bit of English music, especially the choral stuff. Even RVW would fall foul of it at times, especially in some of his scherzos. It's a place where Britten really comes into his own - his music is much more lightly sprung, less dense. I've never really got on with 'Intimations' - Finzi works best for me in his songs and shorter orchestral pieces. This disc - expanded from 1 1/2 original LPs - has some lovely music: He usually sounds very English to me (probably for no other reason than the fact that his music is constantly used as a signal for English or Britishness by advertisers, political parties, TV producers etc). Where he differs from RVW, Holst or Howells, for example, is the lack of overt folk song or Tudor church music influence. The latter may be what is often associated with Englishness. Holst is a composer whose works should be much more widely know. Apart from 'The Planets' (a fabulous piece) he seems to get little attention. His music from the 20s and very early 30s is fascinating - much more spare with a strong neo-classical influence. I've played this disc endlessly over the years (first as an LP, then as an expanded CD):

I think I'd describe the earlier Bridge as more Victorian/Romantic; there's not much pastoralism there. You get a Debussy/Ravel influence in the 1910s in things like 'Summer'. But I'd agree Bridge came into his own after WWI - whether it was musical evolution or a reaction to the Great War is an unanswered question. The Cello Sonata is one of his most intriguing pieces; two movement written either side of the divide. In the first you can still hear the dense growth of Edwardian potted palms; in the second you're in a much more bracing, spare world. 'Oration' - almost a cello concerto - is one of the great reactions to the Great War.

I'm still exploring the classical music world, and my tastes are all over the place, so I'm not ready to call myself an "enthusiast" of anything just yet. Still, I know what I like, and this doesn't seem out of character with what you're after here. It's high on my wish list. Are you familiar with Arnold Cooke? The Jabez and the Devil Suite is terrific. That one I don't know but it is very much on my radar! In fact it was reading a short article in the March 'Gramophone' magazine about Britain's 'neglected composers' (where Cooke gets an enthusiastic mention) that ignited this thread. (Incidentally, bvy, in my book 'tastes are all over the place' is a good thing!)

Grace Williams is someone I've yet to listen to - there's some of her music on Lyrita. Arnold is an enthusiasm of mine too - the 2nd and 5th Symphonies especially. A really tragic figure, largely ignored for writing approachable (yet frequently harrowing) music at a time when serialism was mandatory to be critically accepted in the UK. There's a bio by Anthony Meredith and Paul Harris that makes uncomfortable reading - his psychological breakdowns and terrible behaviour to those close to him. Decca recently put out some fine box sets of his music - I have the set of the concertos. (There's a TV doc too from the same source as the recent RVW) Britten is amazing - I never really 'got' Wilfrid Owen until I heard the 'War Requiem'. The other operas are well worth exploring - I especially like 'Billy Budd', 'The Turn of the Screw', 'Death in Venice' and 'A Midsummer's Night's Dream'. Frank Bridge is someone I took to heart in the 70s after hearing the Charles Groves EMI disc with 'Enter Spring' and 'The Sea' on it - the latter rich and romantic, the former showing much more contemporary influences but with a gorgeous main processional melody. The Hickox series of Bridge works on Chandos is probably the easiest way to get this music - fine performances. I've never been able to get over something I read in a bio of John Ireland about him posting his laundry to someone! Bizarre! The ultimate impractical artist! However, some lovely stuff there too - I especially like his Piano Concerto. E.J. Moeran's 'Symphony in G' is one not to miss - very influenced by Sibelius but with some very 'English' moments. There's a good Naxos recording.

Around the time I started discovering jazz (mid-70s) I was also exploring classical (and folk, but that's another story). An almost 'Paul on the road to Damascus' scene one Sunday morning whilst being played a recording of Vaughan Williams' 5th Symphony/Tallis Fantasia set me off on a long obsession with 20thC English music. My real enthusiams lie between Elgar and Tippett and I love wandering down the byways that lead through people like Alwyn, Moeran, Arnold, Bax and many more. Britten, Delius, Holst, Bridge etc are major stopping points en route. Though I've been listening quite a bit to Byrd and Talllis of late and am listening at this minute to a disc of Judith Weir's music. I know this music has a cult following, one that has been nicely served in recent times by those record labels who realise that there is more to life than another Beethoven 5th - stand up Hyperion, Chandos, Naxos. Above all, all praise to Lyrita (currently enjoying a marvellous rebirth with new recordings and its full catalogue emerging on CD for the first time). When I first started listening it was still a bit of a guilty pleasure - too 'conservative', lyrical, nostalgic for most modernist ears. But it seems to be coming out of the shadows again. I make no claims for it re: importance, significance, position in the grand hierarchy of what's considered 'great'. It just moves me constantly. So, any other enthusiasts?

There was a version of John Rae's Celtic Feet with additional Hungarian musicians including fiddle and cimbalon. Now that I did see at Bath about 3 or 4 years back. It was recorded for the BBC.

I think I did. They played Bath one year at the Pavilion, didn't they? I'm not sure - it was an expensive 10 piece including Hungarian fiddle and cimbalon! Might have been a year I didn't get to Bath. Arnie also had a smaller band with some Hungarian influences that made the album 'Cold Cherry Soup'.

I don't know if you saw Arnie's previous project - Improvokation - exploring his Hungarian roots with a mix of UK and Hungarian musicians, Sidewinder. A real labour of love that was unjustly neglected. I saw the Cheltenham premiere - bought the CD and it has remained one of my most played. Anyway, they were selling it at the gig for £5. Jump for a copy! The new one is worth getting too - though I'd love to hear a live recording of the band. The studio CD has rather shorter tracks - live they stretched these out magnificently.

Go, Sidewinder!!!! Saw them last night in Nottingham and they were great (and all kudos to Eddie who did a workshop in a local school in the afternoon! Good man!). Great playing and soloing all round - and a really impressive, musical young drummer in Dave Smith. I'm not one for drum solos but his showpieces were some of the highlights of the evening. I saw Ambulance as a four piece at Appleby a few years back. They were good then but, my, how they've come on! Guardian review of the Ronnie Scott date here: http://music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,...rticle_continue

You'll want to find this earlier album by the pair: I'd also recommend the quintet date they did at the same festival: Looking forward to seeing these two in April when they play locally. Incidentally, try and hear them outside of ECM. I think you'll hear something a little different - warmer, less serious.

Hi there! Stravinsky? Same as last time -- busy (de)composing. Seriously, I'm waiting anxiously for this to arrive from BMG: I'm trying to process some new Britten just now also. My son's voice teacher wants him to take a stab at Canticle II. There's a world of wonderment in Britten. I'm not all that familiar with the Canticles - must give them a listen again. As the weather improves get a copy of the 'Spring Symphony' (a choral/soloist piece)...and, even better, a marvellous piece by his teacher, Frank Bridge, called 'Enter Spring'. Playing those is a March/April ritual of mine.

Easy to understand, Kenny. I often find myself on sabbaticals in classical or folk music and wondering why I listen to jazz - though I return quite quickly! That sounds like a great radio show!

Hi bvy, Nice to see you. How's Stravinsky?