Upcheering music

[pastoralguy]

Alan Civil used to tell a delightful anecdote about the famous opening of the Oberon overture. In his RPO days he was sometimes frustrated by Sir Thomas Beecham's habit of fussing about ., with spectacles etc. just before giving the downbeat , so one day Civil jumped the gun and started without him.

Fantastic!

[pastoralguy]

Hmmm. For me, the late Brahms piano music. I’ve heard many recordings since first discovering this wonderful music but it’s still the first encounter by Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich on Philips that I return to.

[smittims]

Yes, one's 'first encounter' often remains a favourite. With me it's Julius Katchen in late Brahms, though I agree Kovacevitch is a classic. David Owen Norris, however,was quite disparaging in 'Building a Library' and chose a dull performance by someonge I'd never heard of.

[cloughie]

Alan Civil used to tell a delightful anecdote about the famous opening of the Oberon overture. In his RPO days he was sometimes frustrated by Sir Thomas Beecham's habit of fussing about ., with spectacles etc. just before giving the downbeat , so one day Civil jumped the gun and started without him.

Clearly he would wait ‘For no one’ and his orchestral colleagues thought it to be very Civil!

[LMcD]

Clearly he would wait ‘For no one’ and his orchestral colleagues thought it to be very Civil!

Did he remember to tuck well in beforehand, I wonder?

[kernelbogey]

...Music to cheer you up - need not be cheery music but a piece of music that gives you great pleasure to listen to may simply mean a brief respite from life's troubles or may improve your mood simply by being exposed to a great piece and a great performance...

I think this is an important point: following the 'argument' (for want of a better word) of a piece can be absorbing, taking one out of oneself. Noticing aspects of a piece because the performer(s) has interpreted it in a different way from others: these, in a sense intellectual or cognitive, tasks do not in themselves make 'cheery music', as Barbs proposes. This indeed would be why, for me, the Goldberg Variations can be 'upcheering' because they are endlessly absorbing, notably when performers diverge in their interpretation.

[Barbirollians]

Yes, one's 'first encounter' often remains a favourite. With me it's Julius Katchen in late Brahms, though I agree Kovacevitch is a classic. David Owen Norris, however,was quite disparaging in 'Building a Library' and chose a dull performance by someonge I'd never heard of.

That's quite common with DON BALs in my opinion - fascinatingly knowledgeable but then chooses a recording that does not thrill at all - only exception I can remember is his choice of Pires and Horowitz as runner up in D 960.

[smittims]

thanks cloughie and LMcD.

[Sir Velo]

Tchaikovsky's Pathetique. No matter how bad things are going personally when I hear this I know they could be a hell of a lot worse!

[Serial_Apologist]

Did he remember to tuck well in beforehand, I wonder?

Duvet always?

[Serial_Apologist]

Tchaikovsky's Pathetique. No matter how bad things are going personally when I hear this I know they could be a hell of a lot worse!

My father put that symphony on the night before my mother gave birth to me. Explains everything!

[Serial_Apologist]

I think this is an important point: following the 'argument' (for want of a better word) of a piece can be absorbing, taking one out of oneself. Noticing aspects of a piece because the performer(s) has interpreted it in a different way from others: these, in a sense intellectual or cognitive, tasks do not in themselves make 'cheery music', as Barbs proposes. This indeed would be why, for me, the Goldberg Variations can be 'upcheering' because they are endlessly absorbing, notably when performers diverge in their interpretation.

To be followed by what I think of as Schoenberg's answer to the Goldberg, namely his equally absorbing Suite Op. 25.

[silvestrione]

That's quite common with DON BALs in my opinion - fascinatingly knowledgeable but then chooses a recording that does not thrill at all - only exception I can remember is his choice of Pires and Horowitz as runner up in D 960.

Chose Richter in the Grieg PC. But, yes, I fell for it, bought that Brahms CD, which has since long-gone to Oxfam.

[LMcD]

Duvet always?

Only cover versions, especially in Beds.

[MickyD]

So many things I could choose from so many periods; early Haydn symphonies, the Mozart Horn concertos....moving on, overtures by Suppe, then into the 20th century, I've no idea why, but Eric Coates always brings a smile to my face.