BaL 18.02.17 - Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez

[JimD]

Miles Davis totally steals the show indeed. Bought it way back and cannot now listen to guitar versions.
Davis sees in it the darkness and desperation that seems to haunt so much Spanish music, despite the high-voltage determination to dance.

Not to mention the alliteration.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And finally - his reference to Goya's Pilgrimage of San Isidro sent me to my copy of Robert Hughes's Goya - it has never occurred to me that the image was guitar-shaped

Nor to me - and it still doesn't, in spite of wasting some minutes willing myself to do so. If there's any instrumental shape there, it's that of a Cor Anglais - albeit one left on a radiator overnight.

[Bryn]

Nor to me - and it still doesn't, in spite of wasting some minutes willing myself to do so. If there's any instrumental shape there, it's that of a Cor Anglais - albeit one left on a radiator overnight.

But what of the figure actually playing a guitar, and singing. I can just about go with the shape of the body of the instrument being an aspect of the composition of the mural, too.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But what of the figure actually playing a guitar, and singing. I can just about go with the shape of the body of the instrument being an aspect of the composition of the mural, too.

I think if anything that figure shows how unlike a guitar the shape of the composition of the painting is. (Although that curious arch of figures around the guitarist - the bell of my "Cor Anglais" - that's intriguing.)

[Bryn]

I think if anything that figure shows how unlike a guitar the shape of the composition of the painting is. (Although that curious arch of figures around the guitarist - the bell of my "Cor Anglais" - that's intriguing.)

I was thinking of not just the crown, but the continuation of the shape through the line of the hills behind.

[Richard Tarleton]

I think if anything that figure shows how unlike a guitar the shape of the composition of the painting is. (Although that curious arch of figures around the guitarist - the bell of my "Cor Anglais" - that's intriguing.)

It is dark, near-hysterical, threatening...a sluggish snake of thoroughly miserable-looking humanity crawling towards the viewer across an earth as barren as a slag-heap....As it expands the picture plane, the serpent of Goya's human misery rises up and expands like the hood of a cobra, and we see what it is made of: faces, every one of them contorted in a rictus of extreme expression, singing out of key together, some of them (one feels) just howling like dogs or monkeys. Mouths like craters, mere black holes, a visual cacophony of darkness giving vent to itself.....

- Robert Hughes. The original is 4½ feet high by 14 feet wide. One is perhaps reminded of what Tom said of the Ricardo Gallen version....

[visualnickmos]

Can we forget the turgid painting, and get back to the music!

I don't know about anybody else, but I sort of had the impression that the reviewer didn't particularly go a bomb on the piece!

[Richard Tarleton]

Can we forget the turgid painting, and get back to the music!

I don't know about anybody else, but I sort of had the impression that the reviewer didn't particularly go a bomb on the piece!

, well, blame TMcK for bringing it up, irrelevantly!

It's difficult to listen with fresh ears, except to a very special performance - such as (for me) the winning version. Several other insights - I hadn't paid much attention to John Williams transposing those chords down an octave, Julian Bream coming into his own in the slow movement, the myths around the adagio, Rachel Podger - here's the full interview.

But talking of turgid - please can we also forget the Miles Davis version? Talk about noodly self-indulgence (to borrow Tom's expression), I've tried listening since lunchtime, and to borrow another of Tom's bon mots that's 8 minutes of my life I'm not going to get back. I daresay it sounded better in the 1960s when stoned.

[DracoM]

Quot homines etc etc......

[Richard Tarleton]

Quot homines etc etc......

[Alison]

Sue Bohling I think Richard.

Nice to hear I was quoted!

Will catch up on this later.

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks Alison, duly corrected, complete with umlaut!

[antongould]

Did Manuel and the Music of the Mountains get a favourable mention ..... ?????

[Richard Tarleton]

Did Manuel and the Music of the Mountains get a favourable mention ..... ?????

[pastoralguy]

Did Manuel and the Music of the Mountains get a favourable mention ..... ?????

I think my parents had that record!