My absolutely mostest favouritest piece of Bach
November 27, 2007
Or quite possibly, favourite piece of music of all time, frankly. A simple, but beautiful piece:
Oboe concerto in D minor: Presto.
Makes me swoon wih perky, springtime delights.
My other knockdown favourite at the moment, and I'm not sure if I mentioned it ages ago - it still hasn't changed: the last movement in Beethoven 5. It's so good. Wrong word. GOOOOOD. Big, bold, celebratory, wild, extraordinary, powerful and joyous.
Do you have any classical recommendations? I'm up to my ears in bloody Ben Folds (bless him) and a limited selection of Brandenburg Concertos and Beeethoven 7 & 5, with a bit of Sheherezade thrown in. Not having a big fat centralised music server is a bummer. Not having all my CD's which are in storage is a fucking nightmare.
It's difficult to tell what my taste is, given that with classical, I think you'd be stupid not to admit that it's a constant learning curve, unless you do it for a living, in which case it's even more of a learning curve! I love Grieg's piano concertos - they're sparkly and fun, like hearing expound talk wittily. I love appalchian Spring by Copeland and now I love it more, because Nora adores it. It reminds me of my childhood, and now it'll remind her of hers. I really, really love when Prokoviev suddenly changes key in the middle of something - like modernism slyly elbowing its way in to a lovely classic Russian sound.
It is interesting that these people are all men. The world of orchestral sound, expressed in enormous detail through a masculine pen. If one listened overwhelmingly exclusively to work written by women (and in modern music too) what difference would it make to one's musical outlook?
Do I actually care... well, y'know. Not much, to tell you the truth. just listen to the bloody stuff and get involved. I make up songs for the kids all the time - does that count?