Too much piano?

[vinteuil]

re asparagus. The whole question of whether eating asparagus causes a particular smell in one's pee is one that fascinates me.

The debate continues as to whether -
a) only a certain percentage of the population digest asparagus in such a way as to produce the characteristic smell
b) only a certain percentage of the population have the particular olfactory sensibility that detects that characteristic smell

Research continues, but it appears that some 22% have the autosomal genes that enable the olfactory detection...

I don't dislike the smell. And, after all, it does feature in À la Recherche* ...

wiki tells us:




"There is debate about whether all (or only some) people produce the smell, and whether all (or only some) people identify the smell. It was originally thought this was because some of the population digested asparagus differently from others, so some people excreted odorous urine after eating asparagus, and others did not. In the 1980s three studies from France, China and Israel published results showing that producing odorous urine from asparagus was a common human characteristic. The Israeli study found that from their 307 subjects all of those who could smell 'asparagus urine' could detect it in the urine of anyone who had eaten asparagus, even if the person who produced it could not detect it himself. However, a 2010 study found variations in both production of odorous urine and the ability to detect the odour, but that these were not tightly related. It is believed most people produce the odorous compounds after eating asparagus, but only about 22% of the population have the autosomal genes required to smell them.
In 2010, the company 23andMe published a genome-wide association study on whether participants have "ever noticed a peculiar odor when you pee after eating asparagus?" This study pinpointed a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a cluster of olfactory genes associated with the ability to detect the odor. While this SNP did not explain all of the difference in detection between people, it provides support for the theory that there are genetic differences in olfactory receptors that lead people to be unable to smell these odorous compounds."


* Asparagus "...transforms my chamber-pot into a flask of perfume." Marcel Proust

[AmpH]

... well, I don't know about 'too much piano'. But certainly 'not enough harpsichord'.

harpsichord = pretend piano = no thank you

Lots more piano please

[Nick Armstrong]

re asparagus. The whole question of whether eating asparagus causes a particular smell in one's pee is one that fascinates me.

The debate continues as to whether...

//

....some 22% have the autosomal genes that enable the olfactory detection...

I don't dislike the smell. And, after all, it does feature in À la Recherche* ...

wiki tells us:

"There is debate about...

//

... odorous compounds."


* Asparagus "...transforms my chamber-pot into a flask of perfume." Marcel Proust

I started when I returned to this thread to read the above...

Putting the P in P-iano, vinjaune?

You have more fire to fight in #17

As regards the OP, I have to say I am always glad to hear solo piano (provided it's not playing pieces written by szszszszszsz you know who....).

[french frank]

Yes, the funny thing is that in the German-speaking countries white asparagus is the norm. They're mad on it. In May and June almost every restaurant has a sign outside 'Spargelzeit ist hier!', and it's always the white. Must grow better there. Swiss friends told us that they can also sometimes get purple and even black asparagus.

Vinteuil

I think - but am happy to be corrected here - that the English and sometimes the French prefer the green

I don't think I've ever had green in France, certainly, over in Alsace I have munched much white (most recently in Colmar, in a small bistro-bar by the Unterlinden Museum, a 2-sauce dish). I like it with butter and flaked parmesan. And, yes, with prosciutto, pancetta or any of that sort of cured ham.

Here all about white asparagus in 'continental northwestern Europe'.

As for the English preferring green, well we don't get much choice.

On solo piano music: Janáček is a particular favourite of mine: In the Mists, On the Overgrown Path.

[HighlandDougie]

Vinteuil

I don't think I've ever had green in France, certainly, over in Alsace I have munched much white

Both colours widely sold here dans les Alpes Maritimes. Comparative taste test: green rather more flavoursome than the white - and the latter often needs to be peeled. Olfeactory results much the same from both. Love Vinteuil's quotation - and, much as I love LvB's piano sonatas, I have to confess that I also switched off this morning as there did seem to be rather a lot of ivory-tinkling (although the Ronald Brautigam aroused my interest).

[EdgeleyRob]

Too much piano? - Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!! - Not enough!!

Not enough Alkan though

[Nick Armstrong]

Mae West: Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.

[vinteuil]

* Asparagus "...transforms my chamber-pot into a flask of perfume." Marcel Proust

... the original, of course, is better here :

« Mon ravissement était devant les asperges, trempées d’outremer et de rose et dont l’épi, finement pignoché de mauve et d’azur, se dégrade insensiblement jusqu’au pied,-encore souillé pourtant du sol de leur plant,-par des irisations qui ne sont pas de la terre. Il me semblait que ces nuances célestes trahissaient les délicieuses créatures qui s’étaient amusées à se métamorphoser en légumes et qui, à travers le déguisement de leur chair comestible et ferme, laissaient apercevoir en ces couleurs naissantes d’aurore, en ces ébauches d’arc-en-ciel, en cette extinction de soirs bleus, cette essence précieuse que je reconnaissais encore quand, toute la nuit qui suivait un dîner où j’en avais mangé, elles jouaient, dans leurs farces poétiques et grossières comme une féerie de Shakespeare, à changer mon pot de chambre en un vase de parfum. »

[Serial_Apologist]

... the original, of course, is better here :

« Mon ravissement était devant les asperges, trempées d’outremer et de rose et dont l’épi, finement pignoché de mauve et d’azur, se dégrade insensiblement jusqu’au pied,-encore souillé pourtant du sol de leur plant,-par des irisations qui ne sont pas de la terre. Il me semblait que ces nuances célestes trahissaient les délicieuses créatures qui s’étaient amusées à se métamorphoser en légumes et qui, à travers le déguisement de leur chair comestible et ferme, laissaient apercevoir en ces couleurs naissantes d’aurore, en ces ébauches d’arc-en-ciel, en cette extinction de soirs bleus, cette essence précieuse que je reconnaissais encore quand, toute la nuit qui suivait un dîner où j’en avais mangé, elles jouaient, dans leurs farces poétiques et grossières comme une féerie de Shakespeare, à changer mon pot de chambre en un vase de parfum. »

Isn't there a rule here on this forum against showing the rest of us up?

[doversoul1]

E-Rob

Vaughan Williams compared the sound of the harpsichord to 'the ticking of a sewing machine'

Mitsuko Uchida was once described as ‘playing like (Japanese) sewing machine’, so it could well be a compliment.

Re: white asparagus.
I see them as a vegetable version of battery hens: grown without sunlight. Green vegetables should be green. I even like green tops of leeks.

I only eat asparagus when I can buy locally or British grown ones. Just cook them (a bunch per person) in salted water for a few minutes and eat them as they are. Strictly no butter. If they are not good enough for this, then, I don’t bother with them and eat instead seasonal green vegetable. Actually, they are rather useful vegetable in the hungry gap.

Back to CD Review:
Too much piano could be a good thing. A lot of leftover ‘to-do’ chores got done this morning.

[vinteuil]

I think - but am happy to be corrected here - that the English and sometimes the French prefer the green - whereas the Germans and sometimes the French prefer the white...

Vinteuil

I don't think I've ever had green in France, certainly, over in Alsace I have munched much white (most recently in Colmar, in a small bistro-bar by the Unterlinden Museum, a 2-sauce dish). I like it with butter and flaked parmesan. And, yes, with prosciutto, pancetta or any of that sort of cured ham. / ... /
As for the English preferring green, well we don't get much choice.
.

Alan Davidson - the late, great, Alan Davidson, - in The Oxford Companion to Food, writes -

" ... In Belgium, Germany, and much of France white is preferred. In Britain, most of Italy, and much of the USA (but with local differences) coloured asparagus is usual; but aparagus which is grown for canning is almost always blanched."

When I lived in Provence we usually had green asparagus; when I lived in Paris it was sometimes green and sometimes white.

I much prefer the green...

[vinteuil]

Isn't there a rule here on this forum against showing the rest of us up?

... well, if I have to leave you , so be it - but - before I leave you - what about this?

http://solal.over-blog.fr/article-19904940.html

[Nick Armstrong]

... well, if I have to leave you , so be it - but - before I leave you - what about this?

http://solal.over-blog.fr/article-19904940.html

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon !!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

... [sigh]

(One really had thought such canards had been slaughtered and turned to confit by now. Apparently not. Re-sigh... )

'Twas only Beecham's joke. It may surprise you, but I do like to hear the harpsichord, when the composer wrote for it.

[vinteuil]

'Twas only Beecham's joke...

... and in Beecham's defence, it can be pointed out that the harpsichords he wd have been able to hear wd've been the Pleyel etc monstrosities used by Landowska and similar (Landowska was such a musician that she could produce good things from them, but they are still jangling monstrosities compared to the harpsichords of the 17th and 18th centuries - and the good copies of 17th and 18th century instruments favoured nowadays.)