Well here I am, 5:33 on the morning of Friday 21 November 2008 about to write my first ever blog. Scarey, to say the least.
Why am I writing this so early in the day you might ask? The answer to that is perhaps the easiest part of this screed. I'm an insomniac and I've been up all night checking my most recent concert and CD reviews, before sending them off for Bill and Rob's eagle eyes to peruse, correct my appalling grammar and spelling, and trying hard not to look stupid to them as is in charge. Be gentle with me, boys.
And after that I opened the box holding the 34 CDs of the complete Haydn Symphonies (Naxos) which I've just received from Len. Of course, if I'd thought it through I'd have made a cup of tea before embarking on this new departure. Instead of that I put on Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell album. If I didn't think that it would scare the neighbours I'd be singing along! At least listening and keeping my mouth shut was a good idea.
I've entered the details of performers and recording dates in the file I've opened for the Haydn task and, if truth were told, I'm only really writing this to stop myself having to start thinking about the development of the Symphony and dear old Haydn's part in the grand scheme of things.
When I was a kid, starting to take an interest in classical music, I read Records and Recordings every month. It was my musical bible, to some extent, and the well written and well informed articles (I still remember a long article by John McCabe about Shostakovich's Symphonies) taught me so much. I was really pleased to write for it in the early '80s when it was relaunched for a short time. What I never considered was the amount of work involved in putting together a review - the amount of time it takes, the reading you have to do, the listening, not just of the CD you're reviewing but the other recordings you're using for comparison. Then, you've got to find the original record numbers, or the re-issued numbers, for your comparison recordings so you can alert the public to other performances.
Reviewing concerts is really no easier. You'd think that it would be easier with my having over 40 years worth of concert going behind me, and many performances still live in my mind, as if I'd heard them yesterday, but then you start to compare notes (no pun intended) in your mind and it's no different to checking record numbers for a CD review. But if you're going to write an informed piece - and surely that's what we're all trying to do - with a concert review you've got to try and convey the atmosphere of the concert hall for the readers who weren't present or didn't hear the broadcast - that's what you do.
One thing I believe in is that you should have had about 35 years of music through your ears before you can really make genuinely informed comment. I don't think that this is too much to ask of people you're relying on for information.
But now I'm digressing and trying hard to put off the inevitable - playing the first Haydn CD. I think I'll go and make a cup of tea!
Good morning!
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Recently I have been to concerts given by Meatloaf and the Moody Blues. I have been listening to these for at least 40 years. How do they manage to sound exactly the same whilst the rest of us only manage to get older?
ReplyDelete"One thing I believe in is that you should have had about 35 years of music through your ears before you can really make genuinely informed comment. I don't think that this is too much to ask of people you're relying on for information."
ReplyDeleteThat's a joke, right? Do you know any great music critics who were not already worthy, informative (even "accurate") reads at age 30 or 40? Would you dismiss early Tim Page or early Tommasini or early Harold Schoenberg or early Julius Korngold or everything that Alex Ross has written to date?
I know a lovely Charles Bukowski poem that very vaguely touches that topic; it is called "Be Kind". Worth seeking out, perhaps.
Cheers,
jfl