Sibelius’ symphonies range from really over-the-top late 19th century folk-inspired stuff to the kind of subtle innovation this unsophisticated listener might associate with Mahler. I am still a complete neophyte (tyro?) when it comes to discerning great symphonic writing from okay symphonic writing, so it’s the 1892 Kullervo that I notice the most, and it …
Debussy: the Complete works for Piano (1995 compilation) by Walter Gieseking
Debussy’s piano music is as significant as Satie’s, even if it isn’t always as obviously revolutionary. Debussy eventually became very mainstream and so his music had much more currency. And it’s been absorbed so much it’s sometimes hard to tell how exactly he was breaking away (but other times it is very obvious). As someone …
Satie Piano Works (1987, 2003, 2012) performed by Aldo Ciccolini
Erik Satie’s piano music changed the way many people thought about music. It’s hard to imagine John Cage, cool jazz, ambient, post rock and a bunch of other things without this. It’s also really cool to hear the ragtime stuff.
Ellington at Newport 1956 (1956, 2009)
Though Ellington is one of the most famous leaders in jazz, and probably the greatest composer in the music’s history, this is the first set I have ever heard (deliberately) by his band. The reason for that is simply because I got into jazz through Miles Davis, whose entire career has been played in the …
On Your Way, Jose: Raptors Trade Calderon
You may wonder why I haven’t yet started a “Campaign to fire Bryan Colangelo” in this space. Well, there are two main reasons. To this day, I do not know basketball like I know hockey. At this moment, without cable and without league pass, I watch way more college basketball than NBA basketball, and I …
Armchair Governing
For decades we have known about the phenomenon of “Armchair Quarterbacks”: fans who watch so much football that they decide – probably subconsciously at first – that they would be better at the offensive coordinator job than the experienced professional currently holding that position. And it extends to other football decisions and other sports decisions. …
The Campaign to Fire Dave Nonis: Joffrey Lupul Extension. Plus my thoughts on the Leafs’ first game of 2013
Dave Nonis took a step in the wrong direction when he resigned Joffrey Lupul instead of trading him or letting him walk. Lupul becomes only the second Leafs player to be signed through the 2017-18 season, when he will be 34. (JVR is the other.) Lupul will make $5.25 million per season.
The Campaign to Fire Dave Nonis: Pre-2013 Transactions
I already discussed the Lombardi deal. Lets talk about what else Dave Nonis has done since taking over.
The Campaign to Fire Dave Nonis – Matthew Lombardi
With Burke gone, and with Nonis as yet an unknown entity as a Leafs GM, I don’t really know what to call my latest evaluations of Leafs trades, so maybe I will retroactively change it to something else if I am indeed forced to launch a campaign to fire Nonis, but the way he has …
Variations, interlude et final; Prelude elegiaque; La plainte, au loin, du faune; Sonate (1989) by Paul Dukas, performed by Margaret Fingerhut
This is a quite surprising collection. Dukas – who apparently destroyed much of his output – used to be somewhat dismissed when it came to his piano music but I find what’s here – both the famous sonata variations and the less famous other two works – to be great, if not exactly life-changing. It’s …
2013 Maple Leafs Season Preview
I begin this season for the first time in a few years not having to preface the title with “The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke.” It was interesting to note the number of Leafs players mourning his firing. If he did one thing in his tenure, he created a culture of loyalty. In organizing my …
Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino)
As Inglorious Basterds was a somewhat delirious revenge fantasy about Nazism, Django is a somewhat delirious revenge fantasy about slavery. As with Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained is not Tarantino’s best movie – it’s a little too cartoonish and a little too schizophrenic for that – but I think Django Unchaine is slightly superior to Inglorious …
The Best of Tommy Dorsey and His Clambake Seven (1997 Retrieval)
Dorsey – along with his brother – was often accused of not playing “jazz”, something of a hurtful accusation to someone who felt he was a jazz musician. This was actually a fairly common thing in the ’30s when jazz and popular dance music were pretty tough to distinguish. (To this day, many people will …
The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke: Lockout to Lockout
Only one team in the entire 30 team NHL went from the last lockout (2004-05) to this one without a single playoff appearance: the Toronto Maple Leafs. Only four teams missed the playoffs at least 5 times: the Oilers (6 times), the Islanders and the Thrashers. One of these teams has a pretty good excuse: …
In Rock (1970) by Deep Purple
Deep Purple always seem to be the third wheel in the “(un)Holy Trinity of British [first wave] Heavy Metal”. Certainly if we are to judge by influence on the genre today, there’s no touching Sabbath, but if we go back in time to pre-British New Wave of Heavy Metal, Zeppelin was the band. I think …
‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (2012) by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
I love this, and so I have a dilemma.
The Fiscal Cliff: Another triumph of rhetoric over policy
I am not economist and perhaps that’s why I have trouble understanding the panic and the political stubbornness around the non-crisis of the so-called “fiscal cliff. (On the other hand, it is perhaps because of the fact that I am a not an economist that I have perspective, something that seems to be sadly lacking in most …
The Chess Box (1988, Chess) by Willie Dixon
So Dixon is unlike pretty much all the other major figures in post-war blues in that he rarely led groups. He was more of a songwriter and producer (and, of course, bassist). He’s only the frontman on something like 5 or 6 of these songs.
Sandy Hook and Self-Censorship
The BBC informs me that Django Unchained‘s premiere has been canceled on account of the massacre in Newtown, CT. This is the second film to be delayed because of this tragedy – as far as I know – though it is certainly the more artistically significant of the two. I think this is a mistake. Let …
Extraordinary Canadians: Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin (2010, Penguin) by John Raulston Saul
I first learned about Robert Baldwin in grade 7, and I can’t say that particular bit of junior high history moved me much. I was far more interested in the war of 1812 at the time, because I was a boy and because I liked military history, not history. So I can’t say I thought …
RIP Ravi Shankar
There was a time when I really, really wanted to get into Indian music. However, I lived in small town Quebec. So I used the internet (Napster then a few of Napster’s successors) and found very little in what I was really looking for: crazy-long ragas. I found a couple supposedly by Shankar (I have …
1934 (1983, Farrar Straus Giroux) by Alberto Moravia
I have written before about my love-hate relationship with Italian movies. But I can’t say that I have had this same experience with Italian literature, at least until now. Until now, I have genuinely liked the few Italian novels and short stories I have gotten my hands on. It seemed to me that what I …
Should I stop reading Exclaim!?
In the December 2012 issue of Exclaim! there is an interview with an extremely famous, near-ubiquitous pop-star. She’s not Madonna-famous, but she’s probably the next level down. On another page, a featurette compares the artist behind the “most popular song of 2012” with another, more-established artist (who, I must say, has been featured in the …
The Chess Box (1990) by Bo Diddley
This gives a better summary of his career with Chess than His Best. As a result it is a better display of his rather astounding diversity (for a first wave rock and roller).
RIP Dave Brubeck
I can’t pretend I know all that much about Dave Brubeck, the jazz pianist who just died. Like most jazz fans, I know Time Out well. And I only know the rest of his career from reading about him. I don’t think I have listened to a single other Brubeck album though I have heard the …
His Best (1997, MCA) by Bo Diddley
Along time ago R&B was actually something called rhythm and blues. This CD, which collects many of Diddley’s singles and b-sides from 1955 to 1966. His earliest music of 1955 – now his most iconic – lacks the country of Elvis and Carl Perkins, the gospel of Elvis and Little Richard, the manic intensity of …
Songs (2006) by Frederick Delius, performed by Yvonne Kenny and Piers Lane
This somewhat arbitrary collection of songs is decent enough. It would be nicer to hear complete sets. I can’t say that I hear enough of what I love about impressionism to really rave about it. On the other hand it is clear that these songs mark a departure from much of what was standard at …
Violin Concerto, Opera Intermezzi, Pieces for Small Orchestra (1994) by Frederick Delius, performed by Symphony Nova Scotia and Georg Tintner
Though it doesn’t really contain the big hits, this is a pretty solid collection. I like the violin concerto. I also like the “Two Pieces for Small Orchestra.” The music is still a little safe for me, but it’s pleasant. 7/10 “Prelude” from Irmelin (6/10) This prelude for one of Delius’ early operas doesn’t do …
Essential Delius (2011) by Various Artists
This is a compilation and so we have to treat it with a bit of skepticism. But it does contain most of the major orchestral works of his, and so it does offer a good intro, even the performances aren’t exactly standardized. I remain slightly reticent to get into Frederick Delius and I can’t exactly …
What is Neo-Conservatism?
Since before the recent US election the use of the term conservative has been driving me crazy. To tell you the truth, it has driven me crazy since I learned about ideology in university over ten years ago, but now that I have a blog, and now that I am inundated daily with misuse of …