I finally broke down and subscribed to XM Radio because the trial that came with my new car ran out a couple of months ago. It comes in handy on my 25 minute commute to work since dodging advertisements and the other distractions of commercial radio is annoying. It's handy to have a dedicated traffic station for DFW, a wide variety of great music stations and a few more news sources such as CNBC and CNN among others to augment KERA on FM.
But the most fun is choosing from the huge variety of music styles. It's taken at least a couple of weeks to audition several music stations of various styles for presets and I only covered about half of them. The ones I have so far include Real Jazz, Classical, Classic Vinyl, Coffee House, The Groove and a Bluegrass channel.
Classic Vinyl is the album rock from the 60s and 70s. Coffee House is a songwriter channel with an acoustic folk tendency, but also includes covers of big hits done in an unplugged style. The Groove combines classic soul from bands like The Temptations to a variety of Funk, Hip-Hop and danceable tracks with a Funk, Soul or R&B flair. The Bluegrass channel was a random find that is very enjoyable. Fast picking banjos and fiddles full of improvisation is great fun listening.
Auditioning the various music channels reminded me of some styles long forgotten. I do like several of the Country channels, but have not been able to choose one for a preset yet. Outlaw Country features styles like Merle Haggard and others. Willie's Place spins a lot of Willie Nelson and Austin City Limits genres like Asleep at the Wheel. Then there are more mainstream Country-Rock channels.
I have about 3 presets still free after choosing the ones mentioned here plus the 3 news, weather and traffic channels. Maybe I'll toss the smooth jazz slot, Watercolors, that is currently renting a spot but very close to getting booted due to lack of passion. No Kenny G yet, thankfully, but the resemblance to muzak may be too close for comfort.
Showing posts with label Classical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classical. Show all posts
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Super Bowl Sunday at the DSO
The DSO concert Sunday afternoon was great. Hungarian dances by Brahms and a Bartok classic were the orchestral pieces while the featured Liszt piano concerto was awesome.
I had never heard most of the Dances by Brahms. I am very familiar with many other Brahms works including the symphonies and a piano concerto or two. These works are cornerstones of abstract Romantic literature and exemplary works of all of music history. The Hungarian Dances are billed as light orchestrations, which they are. However, Brahms, being the master composer he was, found a way to weave profundity with levity in the right proportions to avoid any hint of triteness.
Historically, I have been negative toward hearing live concertos. Generally I prefer more balanced orchestral works where instrumental lead is shared across many orchestral sections, dictated by the abstract needs alone. Concertos seemed to artificially put the spotlight on one instrument and favor virtuosity over pure truth and beauty.
However, Sunday's performance of the Liszt concerto may have changed my mind. Maybe it was the excitement of seeing a 21 year old Russian pianist perform masterfully. Perhaps the concerto itself was more integrated with the orchestra than typical classical concertos. Whatever the reason, the piano was blended as a perfect complement to the orchestra and the solo sections were virtuosic, yet musical. Maybe I will retain my discrimination toward violin or other concertos, but bend a bit for piano concertos, since the piano is like a mini-orchestra itself.
The Bartok composition was a great contrast to the Romantic orchestrations that came before. Nothing like a little early 20th century expressionism to sanitize any hint of schmaltz that might have been felt during the Romantic music portion (Romantic with a capital R as a classical period, not romantic with a little r that might resemble a soap opera :))
I had never heard most of the Dances by Brahms. I am very familiar with many other Brahms works including the symphonies and a piano concerto or two. These works are cornerstones of abstract Romantic literature and exemplary works of all of music history. The Hungarian Dances are billed as light orchestrations, which they are. However, Brahms, being the master composer he was, found a way to weave profundity with levity in the right proportions to avoid any hint of triteness.
Historically, I have been negative toward hearing live concertos. Generally I prefer more balanced orchestral works where instrumental lead is shared across many orchestral sections, dictated by the abstract needs alone. Concertos seemed to artificially put the spotlight on one instrument and favor virtuosity over pure truth and beauty.
However, Sunday's performance of the Liszt concerto may have changed my mind. Maybe it was the excitement of seeing a 21 year old Russian pianist perform masterfully. Perhaps the concerto itself was more integrated with the orchestra than typical classical concertos. Whatever the reason, the piano was blended as a perfect complement to the orchestra and the solo sections were virtuosic, yet musical. Maybe I will retain my discrimination toward violin or other concertos, but bend a bit for piano concertos, since the piano is like a mini-orchestra itself.
The Bartok composition was a great contrast to the Romantic orchestrations that came before. Nothing like a little early 20th century expressionism to sanitize any hint of schmaltz that might have been felt during the Romantic music portion (Romantic with a capital R as a classical period, not romantic with a little r that might resemble a soap opera :))
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