HutchFan

I keep coming back to this over and over again lately: Tomasz Stanko - Balladyna (ECM, 1976) I have the CD version with the non-descript, battleship-gray cover -- but I'm posting the uncanny, strange-but-familiar original LP cover instead. I think it's much more in tune with the music.

Funny how we all hear things differently. Because I love Mance's playing -- with Griff & Lock, with Dizzy, with Cannonball, with Gene Ammons -- whenever he's a sideman or a leader. Different strokes for different folks, eh!?!

A terrific LP!

You'd get no argument from me on that. It's one helluva record. Yes!

Excellent!

Now listening to Mahler's First Symphony, as heard in this set: More from Bruno Walter's brilliant "Indian Summer" at Columbia Records.

Thank you for the link. Very interesting. I figured Wit's performance might have a special something, given that he's a Pole leading a Polish orchestra. Of course, that's not always an accurate indicator. But sometimes . . .

I've only heard two recordings of the work -- Barenboim and Salonen. I definitely prefer Barenboim. NP: ❤️

More Lutoslawski:

Yes, exactly. I like your use of the word "unadorned." Sometimes music that holds something back has the most powerful emotional effect on the listener.

For comparison's sake, I'm now listening to Ashkenazy's version of Schubert's D. 894: Relative to Planès' reading, Ashkenazy's more traditional interpretation is equally beautiful -- but it's an entirely different sonic world.

It's gorgeous music making. I'm enjoying it! Planès' playing strikes me as very buttoned-up and ultra-precise -- very "French" -- but these qualities give the music a different sort of drama than I've heard in Schubert before. It's a less Romantic sound; instead, it's an approach that seems to anticipate modernists like Debussy. I'd say that it's an interpretation that pays attention to air and the space-between-notes as much as it does to the notes themselves -- and this isn't something I'd normally associate with a composer like Schubert. Does that make sense?

First listen:

Perfect description, felser. Jack is ON FIRE. . . . And everyone in the congregation says, "Amen!"

Now spinning: Two masters on the high-wire.

Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh on MNF tonight. Should be interesting.

Such a great record.