Playlist

Recorded

Happy Halloween!

October 28, 2014
Symphony in B-flat, Op. 38 "Spring" - Schumann - Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz

This is a frustrating performance of what can be a magnificent piece. Too slow, too unremittingly legato, too blended and bland a sound - heaven forbid an oboe should sound noticeably different from a flute! It is as though a choice had been made for each passage as to what counts as the main line, and everything else is sent to a muddy purgatory. This is death for a piece that really lives in the articulation and commentary of the insurrectionist inner voices and counter-melodies. What could be radical becomes merely serious and stolid.

October 30, 2014
Die Walküre, Act II - Wagner - Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Karl Böhm, James King, Leonie Rysanek, Gerd Nienstedt, Birgit Nilsson, Theo Adam, Annelies Burmeister, Danica Mastilovic, Helga Dernesch, Gertraud Hopf, Sieglinde Wagner, Liane Synek, Elisabeth Schartel, Sona Cervena

As the trap springs each of the four major characters makes a choice between two of their opposite gender: Sieglinde between Hunding and Siegmund; Siegmund between Sieglinde and Brünnhilde; Wotan between Brünnhilde and Fricka; and Brünnhilde between Wotan and Siegmund. The act starts and ends in hyper-emotional disarray, but at the quiet center it is Wotan muttering to himself (in the person of Brünnhilde) that provides the dramatic fulcrum.

Winter gathering

In Session at the Tintinabulary

October 25, 2014
Mitchell 141025 - Keith Eisenbrey

I improvised on acoustic steel-string guitar, recording through a pick-up directly into a Zoom D24. I have been "folding" my improvisations overlaying the second half over the first, which is what you will hear by following the link. I've also been experimenting a little, resulting in this.

October 27, 2014
Banned Rehearsal 872 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosàly-Meyer

When we started Neal had not yet arrived and there was the possibility that Aaron would be making a companion tape in Boston. If the latter had occurred (it didn't) this would have been Banned Telepath 23 Seattle, the first "Telepath" since 1989. If Neal had not arrived (he did) this would have been Assembly Rechoired 56, the first since last year.