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Saturday, July 12, 2003
posted by gbarto at 2:25 AM:
Good wishes to Greg Hlatky of A Dog's Life/BorzoiBlog, who had some sort of cardiac episode. But his posting was uninterrupted, including a write-up on Saint-Saëns. Greg characterizes the composer as "admirable perhaps, but neither lovable nor awesome." But leaving aside the awesomeness that I found in the Danse Macabre, how can anyone resist the enchantment of the Aquarium from the Carnival of the Animals? (Go here to see a really neat web-page for this enchanting piece.)While we're on the subject of music... I picked up Sony Classical's new preview disc at the local Barnes and Noble the other night. There are several beautiful and amazing pieces, but I would highlight Summer's (no last name) recording "Mal di luna," from the forthcoming album "Summer," a short song set to Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata.
I'm less certain about Lara St. John's soon to be released effort, re: Bach. The piece on the disc, which contemporizes Bach's violin concerti, is too much contempo, not enough violin, but several of the other pieces (snippets available at her website) suggest that Sony may have chosen the weakest selection from the album for the preview disc. St. John, of course, is the vamp violinist who gets as much attention for her album covers as her playing, but for my money her recording of the Ciaccona from Bach's Partita No. 2 in Dmin (from
Bach Works for Violin Solo) is one of the best out there, while her latest effort, Bach: The Concerto Album is quite pleasing.Getting back to the Sony preview, a few others to watch: Mario Frangoulis and the duetting Marcelo Alvarez and Salvatore Licitra turn in nice performances, though some might find the first a bit too contempo as the music tries to decide whether to be melodramatic opera or pop. And Casey Stratton sounds like she's ready to pick up the mantle whenever Sarah MacLaughlin gets around to dropping it.
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