Category Archives: Music

A Consumer´s Guide to Fairport Convention

Preliminary Note: This guide deals only with the official studio and live albums released by Fairport Convention through 1999. No samplers, collections or unofficial live albums are mentioned. The albums are graded as follows: (****) = A classic. Should be … Continue reading →

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Agnus Dei’s Gaia

Agnus Dei was Gerald and Hilde Krampl; Hilde, a poet, died of cancer in 2002. This album, of piano works by Gerald based on Hilde’s last poems, may in some sense be taken as a tribute. Gerald Krampl was a … Continue reading →

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Bert Jansch’s Living in the Shadows (Part 1)

Bert Jansch, who died in 2011, was quite a prolific musician for quite a long time. I was a rather casual fan of his — well, actually I was an intense fan of one of his albums, and a casual … Continue reading →

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Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons

Terje Tønnesen, soloist and conductor on this recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, includes a liner note to the effect that the performance “represents a form of time travel in which we attempt a ‘correct’ reading of history while at … Continue reading →

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Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat, S. 124, Piano Concerto No. 2 in A, S. 125, Sonata in B Minor, S. 178

Franz Liszt was another of those nineteenth-century child prodigies, which may explain something very odd: because his family’s financial circumstances dictated that he begin concert tours at a very early age (sort of a musical variation on a classic rags-to-riches … Continue reading →

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Guarneri Quartet’s The Hungarian Album (Ernö Dohnányi, String Quartet No. 2 in D-flat Major, Op. 15, String Quartet No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 33; Zoltan Kodály, String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10)

The Guarneri Quartet is one of the most distinguished ensembles of the latter half of the twentieth century. It was founded in 1964, reportedly at the instigation of Alexander Schneider of the legendary Budapest String Quartet, although Arnold Steinhardt’s recollection … Continue reading →

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Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14, Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17 (Part II: Love Scene); Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid: Suite; Waltz; Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite

The idea of “meaning” in music is a complex one, the pursuit of which can go all sorts of places I don’t want to go right now. Suffice it to say that most commentators feel that relating music to some … Continue reading →

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The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition

Somehow 50 years have come and gone since Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released. And unless you’ve been living in a cave (or have been too preoccupied with the intense political goings-on around the world in 2017), you … Continue reading →

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Cats Laughing’s A Long Time Gone – Reunion at MiniCon 50

“Achievement unlocked!” I have to confess something to you.  The reason I asked to review this CD and DVD set wasn’t because I knew about the band.  It was because I like cats, and the band name is incredible.  So … Continue reading →

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Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan’s Small Town

Bill Frisell, one of the elder statesmen of the electric guitar in America, and young acoustic bassist Thomas Morgan team up for a sublime set of tunes on Small Town. It was recorded live in 2016 at the storied Village … Continue reading →

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