Month: May 2013

2013, Music

Secret Chiefs 3 Live at the Drake Hotel, May 24, 2013

So I have been a fan of SC3 since sometime in the early 2000s, but I had never seen them live and – due to my music addiction making music money scarce – I had not kept up with their musical output past 2004’s Book of Horizons, where the satellite band “concept” first came to …

Hockey, Sports, The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke

Toronto Maple Leafs 4 at Boston Bruins 5, May 13, 2013

A lot of people I know are feeling really bad after the Leafs fell apart when they had a 4-1 lead on the Bruins. A lot of other people are trying to spin it positively: at least the Leafs were in the playoffs for the first time in 9 years; at least the Leafs took …

2010, Music

The Kingdom (2010) by Edward Elgar, performed by Halle

Listening to the two completed parts of the proposed oratorio trilogy I find myself liking this one less than the first. It is simpler and less provocative. Apparently the choral writing is quite good but I don’t really see why I should listen to this over other oratorios (even Elgar’s own). It’s fine, but that’s …

1986, Music

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis et al. (1986) by Orford Quartet, CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Simon Street

This is one of those nonsensical compilations of pieces of “classical” music that are put together because all the music is performed by a similar ensemble, in this case String Quartet with Orchestra. So you have two very late romantic British composers (though Vaughan Williams music could be seen as something else, I guess) with …

1903, 2012, Music

The Apostles (2012) by Edward Elgar, performed by Halle

This is, to my ears, quite superior to the followup, the Kingdom. The music is more interesting and compelling, and this is also a little shorter (I think). I still don’t know why someone would opt for this over, say, a Bach, but it’s well done decent enough. 8/10

1913, 1919, 1931, 1932, 2007, Music

Sir Edward Elgar Conducts Elgar: Falstaffl Cello Concerto; Nursery Suite (2007)

Though the sound isn’t ideal – though it certainly is better than I expected – this is the most interesting Elgar I have heard so far. Fastaff is fantastic; it feels like half of the first wave of film score composers adored it. And unlike so much programmic music, it actually sounds out the action, …

2011, Music

Piano Quintent; String Quartet by Edward Elgar (2011) performed by Goldern Quartet, Piers Lane

This is an odd combination: we get a string quartet, piano pieces seemingly picked at random from two separate eras of his career, and the piano quintet. I guess they wanted to give us our money’s worth or something.

1968, Music

Elgar: Sympyhonies 1 & 2 (1968, 2007) by London Philharmonic Orchestra, Adrian Boult

I guess Elgar gets his rep because he was perhaps the first really notable British composer in some time – or up until that point, I don’t really know. But I think that reputation is inflated – at least based on my earliest listens to his music – by the general Anglophilia that is a …

1899, 1904, 2007, Music

Elgar: Enigma Variations; In the South; Serenade (2007) by Andrew Davis, Philharmonia Orchestra

The so-called “Enigma Variations” are disappointing if only because one thinks that maybe they will be weird (or at least mysterious). They are not weird. They are tuneful and crowd-pleasing. “In the South” is one of those weird things that composers write where it feels like there should have been more (and they acknowledge that …