A whole 5 days since my last post. Shameful. I will rush out into the garden and flagellate myself shortly. However, first of all, it remains for me to document what I’ve been listening to this week. In my defense, the internet has been broken at home and I’ve been too busy at the chocolate teapot factory to remember to make a note of my listening.

In the car, it’s been mostly these three albums:

  • The Fall – The Infotainment Scan
  • The Sunday Reeds – Drowning in History
  • Kronos Quartet with Asha Bhosle – You’ve Stolen My Heart

I’m still enjoying The Sunday Reeds’ album immensely. The guitar feedback on it is absolutely ferocious, which is never a bad thing. And I’m surprised by how often I’m returning to Infotainment; it remains one of my favourite Fall LPs, and definitely one of the group’s stronger LPs (with Levitate) of the 1990s.

Tuesday’s listening was:

  • Prokofiev – Romeo & Juliet (Previn)
  • Morrissey – Southpaw Grammar
  • Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
  • The Fall – Infotainment Scan
  • Haydn – Symphony no. 15
  • Haydn – Symphony no. 16
  • Haydn – Symphony no. 17

On Tuesday night I went to see The Lemonheads at the Irish Centre in Birmingham. I could be misjudging him, but Evan Dando seemed rather (ahem) unfocused. Or, less charitably, off his face. He wasn’t happy with the sound, and stropped off stage in his acoustic solo spot having mumbled something about not being able to hear himself after a second attempt at playing “Favourite Tee”. Now, I don’t mind a decent rock ‘n’ roll strop – but if you’re going to come back on stage, don’t then be surly and ruin the mood. I left with a slightly sour taste in my mouth, which wasn’t helped the following day on listening to the covers album, Varshons, which I picked up at the gig. It is, frankly, completely underwhelming.

Friday’s listening was:

  • Honegger – Chamber Concerto for Flute, Cor Anglais & Orchestra
  • Schnittke – Praeludium in Memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich
  • Shostakovich – Symphony no. 14 (Rostropovich)
  • Bruckner – Symphony no. 3 (Haitink)
  • Carter – Elegy for String Orchestra
  • Carter – Cello Sonata

Friday night heralded another trip to hear the CBSO, and a concert of two halves. Elgar’s In The South opened the evening’s festivities, and it started well. I’m no Elgar fan, but it had me paying fairly close attention to begin with. Unfortunately it soon descended into the all-too-familiar turgid Elgar-by-numbers that I loathe so well. I duly drifted off elsewhere and my attention was only recaptured by a couple of rather nice brass and wind chords towards the end of it. The fourth Mozart horn concerto, with our principal horn, Elspeth Dutch, as soloist, was little better. Dutch was obviously having an off-night, and I felt less and less comfortable as I anticipated split notes that arrived with alarming regularity. Conductor Michael Seal and orchestra seemed to be giving the piece a completely perfunctory treatment and the effect was a performance that gave the impression of wanting to get the piece out of the way as quickly as possible.

The second half was much better – Thomas Trotter never disappoints on organ, and a blazing rendition of “the” Widor toccata on the Symphony Hall organ is worth the price of a ticket alone. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve heard it played badly at a wedding: on that instrument, with Trotter at the helm, you may as well be hearing it for the first time. How can music so familiar be so exciting? Sheer volume has something to do with it, I’m sure… Saint-Saens’s third symphony suffered from some over-quick tempi that left the first movement’s stuttering theme a bit of a shambles in places, but once it got going all was well. Saint-Saens 3 is a miracle of sructural engineering, with the Dies Irae woven into every fibre of its being, and perhaps isn’t taken seriously enough due to its status as a bit of a pot-boiler. It has great emotional power, though, and Seal judged the pace of the slow second half of the first movement absolutely beautifully.

Today I’ve been experimenting with my new speakers, and have had the following on:

  • Haydn – Symphony no. 60
  • The Jesus and Mary Chain – I Hate Rock ‘n’ Roll 12″ promo
  • Pink Floyd – The Wall
  • Webern – Symphony, op. 21
  • Cecilia Bartoli – Maria
  • Shostakovich – Symphony no. 15 (Järvi/Gothenburg SO)
  • Shostakovich – Symphony no. 4 (Rostropovich)
  • Haydn – String Quartets, op. 33

Phew.