Hey, let me try my soft sell out on you, OK?
You're alive now, right, in the year 2004? You're a listener, too, correct? You prefer the designation "sound artist" to "musician"? You've got the ducats and the cajones and the erudition; you dig Deerhoof, Lightning Bolt, Philip Jeck, Scorces, Iannis Xenakis, Ami Yoshida and John Butcher, to name but a few. (The litany will resume after a brief message.) And you prefer vinyl, audible textures, wrinkles, the item secreted in a dark corner or at the bottom of the pile, the oversight, the slightly fetid yet somehow soothing reek of the past? Yes, you, my friend. Switch off the iPod for a second and browse through my picks rack. I know, nothing here you haven't seen or heard before. Some of the same old bullshit, sure, bourgeois sentiments and pastimes. Some things never worth puffing out your lips with a "whatever" over in the first place. Hmmm? No sir, it is a deliberate inclusion. Absolutely. I promise no one has a grip on your chain.
See, Little Alex, if you care at all about music, and if at all value what, for the purposes of this transaction, you and me can here coin as "transcendental style", from Melville and Mishima to Burning Man to Bresson to Scelsi to Barnett Newman and Rothko and Bernhard Günter, then you need to own at least one recording of poor old deaf Ludwig Van's 15th String Quartet (In A Minor, Opus 132). The third movement, the "Canzona di ringraziamento. Molto adagio" is perhaps the most exalted quarter-hour in the entire (and still accreting) canon of Western music. The composer's own inscriptions on the score (completed in 1825) provide enough backstory... I mean, assuming you've never heard this piece. With reference to the adagio, "hymn of thanksgiving to the Almighty, in the Lydian mode, offered by a convalescent"; as a combination instruction and explication of the theme (in D major) that alternates with the hymn itself, "feeling new strength".
Now, this particular recording your holding has some virtues in addition to featuring this particular golden oldie. First, it is in lavish monophonic sound, here restored using Sony's trademark Super Bit Mapping technique. I know you're no audiophile, but surely you can appreciate how these recordings possess a unique hue, grain and luster. Secondly, this recording will also give you some exposure to the work of the Budapest Quartet itself. By 1942, the year these readings were "waxed", as they were wont to say in those days, the members of the Quartet were not Hungarian but Russian, and leadership of the ensemble had been assumed by 1st violinist Josef Roisman. Trust me, you'll want to learn of this; you're getting it for a bargain right now. The Budapest Quartet was renowned for its Beethoven interpretations, several recordings of which were made until the group's dissolution in 1967, the idea being, I suppose, that each new generation of listeners needed its own version of these works as understood by the Budapest Quartet. This, then, it where it all began.
And, more than that, The Budapest Quartet was the most influential chamber ensemble of its time: the Arditti's and Takács' and Emerson's of our day owe something to Roisman and company. The Budapest Quartet set the standard for technical accomplishment, for impeccable (i.e., not excessively ornamented) phrasing, for a certain individual and collective astringency of tone, for rhythmic "snap", and for an unfailing and intrepid sense of tempo. Their music, however, does not lack warmth, and to call describe the group as being "Modern" in their conception is not to offer a euphemism for "clinical". It is just that the emotion is not rendered so intensely that it crowds everything else out of your mind. And, if you expect a Romantic icon such as Beethoven to fold before a group of perfectionists, though, think again. The "Molto adagio" benefits immensely from the Quartet's meticulousness as well as the subtlety of their detachment allows one to appreciate the order slumbering within and slowly awakened by the music itself. This 15th does not grant me, as it did Beethoven, rebirth, but it does lead me to an utterly fresh and invigorating and even, if I'm very fortunate, a cleansing receptiveness to a truth with which I have long lived. It is a truth whose complexities I think music, more so that just about any other art, can bear and can clarify. A cycle, the nature of which warrants an experience of it that is itself repetitive. Not unlike a compass needle floating in its medium, the listener orients his or her listening self within purlieus of reoccurrence, routine, regularity. Of course, this observation is descended from common sense, they share common alleles, and Darwin, even showing the utmost kindness, could not give it good odds. I should correct myself: I speaking of the, you know, that cycle... that thing that is the most rara of avis to be spotted in the pages of The Wire. Although a hardy species, and by now quite widespread, its coloring renders it one of the great challenges in all of birding; it nests in dense, thorny foliage, but its mating song is very distinctive, piercing as well as peculiarly pleasing to the ear. Yes, that form of flight. You know. Mortality.
Be sure to keep your receipt.
Posted by joe on April 12, 2004 6:20 AMYes, sure, but I prefer the late Beethoven quartet by the Vegh String Quartet, second version on Valois-Auvidis, recorded in June & July 1973 (the sound is good and if they transfert this in SACD, in could even be better.)
Sandor Végh was a founder member of the Hungarian String Quartet.
And if you want to hear what is for me the most marvellous version ever recorded of the 14th quartet (opus 131), try to find the Schneiderhan Quartet on Orfeo.
Recorded in 1944 in Vienna for the radio (the leader and first violinist, Wolfgang Schneiderhan will beginning later, after have been "denazified", a career of solist.)
What is marvellous with this record it's that it has been recorded on tape.
The sound is, of course, in mono but, in spite the limitation of the extension of the treble, it is reach the audiophile level. Incredible!
And the fervour, the sens of meditation and of drama with which this four "passive nazis" play the quartet (and the other who fulfilled the CD, the n°7 has no equivalent, to my hear, in the recording history of the beethoven string quartets (Ludwig van Beethoven: Streich Quartett op. 59/1.131 - Schneiderhan Quartett - Orfeo/ Coll. Ofeo d'Or - 1993.)
Joe,
Out of curiousity, is that last line: "Be sure to keep your receipt" a little hint hint that that qualities described in your last full graf will be lost on those listeners described in the first?
Posted by: Nirav Soni at April 21, 2004 10:41 AMThe Hungarian is my favorite quartet for both Beethoven and Bartok.
Posted by: walto at April 21, 2004 11:07 AManyone sharing? i wanna hear this before i buy.
that guy ludwig van - is he onkyo? i think i've heard he got something on IMJ coming...
hahaha
Posted by: tomas at April 21, 2004 5:47 PM"And if you want to hear what is for me the most marvellous version ever recorded of the 14th quartet (opus 131), try to find the Schneiderhan Quartet on Orfeo.
Recorded in 1944 in Vienna for the radio (the leader and first violinist, Wolfgang Schneiderhan will beginning later, after have been "denazified", a career of solist.)
What is marvellous with this record it's that it has been recorded on tape.
The sound is, of course, in mono but, in spite the limitation of the extension of the treble, it is reach the audiophile level. Incredible!
And the fervour, the sens of meditation and of drama with which this four "passive nazis" play the quartet (and the other who fulfilled the CD, the n°7 has no equivalent, to my hear, in the recording history of the beethoven string quartets (Ludwig van Beethoven: Streich Quartett op. 59/1.131 - Schneiderhan Quartett - Orfeo/ Coll. Ofeo d'Or - 1993.)"
LeMo. . .Walter and I want to know where we can find this. Cpacibo.
MRS
Posted by: Michael Schaumann at April 22, 2004 8:17 AMPerhaps this is dumb question, but where would one find the particular Budapest String Quartet recording you're talking about? It appears to be OOP.
Posted by: Ed Howard at April 22, 2004 8:49 AMNirav -- the tag-line is really nothing more than a lazy-eyed shot at ironic / deflationary "literary" closure. (Bull's eye or bum steer?) No real caveat emptor intended, actually; I just wanted to toss in language we have come to expect from transactions such as these.
Ed -- I would not be surprised to learn is this set, as well as the other Budapest sets, are now OOP. I suppose the only hope of finding them would be something like the Berkshire Record Outlet, the cut-out racks, or the "new and used" shops. I actually borrowed my copy from my father (to those of you who read the AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, that would be Lee Milazzo.)
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at April 23, 2004 6:57 AMMichael (and Walter) its out of print, I'm afraid.
But, if you want to "listen" to it, PM me at Jazz Corner.
Thanks, LeMo.
Speaking of PMs, I sent one to Joe recently that he's been IGNORING!!
Posted by: walto at April 24, 2004 5:41 AMsince my last comment seemed to be ignored (and that was fully justified...), let me ask again (even more since the record mentioned seems to be OOP: is anyone sharing this thing on slsk?
Posted by: tomas at April 24, 2004 9:22 AMWhat is slsk? Sounds like a new Scott Rosenberg composition :))
How nice to see some Ludwig Van on Bags. Don't know the Budapest version, but I'm rather fond of the old 1937 Busch quartet recordings meself. If you want a cassette Tom (remember cassettes? they used to be real hip once..), just let me know
slsk would be soulseek, old man (said with love), the current file-sharing choice of young experimental listeners everywhere.
you'd be pretty amazed at what's floating around out there (or so I'm told, as I'm also too old and swamped with music to have checked it out myself)...
Posted by: Jon Abbey at April 24, 2004 11:58 PMwhat jon said.
dan: if you ever manage to get broadband, check it out: http://www.slsknet.org/
thanks for your offer, but i only have a really crappy old tape-deck, which i only use to listen to metal while doing the dished. it turns every hi-fi record into a "dead c"-esque thing instantly.
Posted by: tomas at April 25, 2004 6:46 AMWell thanks younguns for the briefing. Yes, you're right Tom, it's time to go broadband (though divorce would probably follow shortly after). (The Scott Rosenberg piece I was thinking of, by the way, is "slsss (knrcch) pb", track 18 on "V", on Umbrella records.)
Wow, a machine that can turn a Beethoven Quartet into the Dead C!! I want one I want one I want one! Though as Tomas will tell you, the things I do on SoundForge don't sound all that different.
Back to Beethoven.. has anyone else out there got (more importantly HEARD) the Beetstretch 4CD mp3 set which extends the 9th Symphony to a full, glorious and veeeeeery slow 24 hours? It's wonderful stuff, but I've still not found the time to listen to it all the way through. I'm trying to find the record here but it seems to be lost in a pile of CDs when I get hold of it I'll give you the refs
(or maybe it's already out there on slsk :))
I think Brian wrote something about that on JC, Dan.
Posted by: walto at April 25, 2004 8:55 AMEs un excelente disco, me gusto mucho.
Posted by: Vicente at December 11, 2004 10:58 AMDe nada.
Posted by: Joe Milazzo at December 13, 2004 7:36 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................