Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Clash of the Titans (and one small man)












"There's two of you legendary figures of the creative spirit sharing the same birthday, two of you kings among musical men? We're gonna need a bigger cake."



Pierre-Laurent Aimard and gang performing the fourth movement of Johannes Brahms' first piano quartet. Odd to see such cuts in a classical YouTube. Someone's been overdosing on some MTV.

If someone held a gun to my head and instead of asking for the three or four singles in my wallet -- take my debit card while you're at it, dumbass, there's jack shit in the bank, too -- asked me to choose my favorite work of his, I would have to say the third symphony. No embed allowed (c'est terrible !) so check out the first movement here. Or better yet, go buy the damn thing.



Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the last movement of Piotr Tchaikovsky's indestructible fourth symphony. Hey, who doesn't love a bombastic finalé?








"Did someone say bombs? Heh, heh."

Chimpy, there's more to love in life than having a torrential downpour of munitions turn vast fields of real estate into a mélange of cracked stone, burnt timber, scattered body parts and fragmented humanity. Yes, there are other things things to love.

Including that giant chocolate cake over there.

12 comments:

La Belette Rouge said...

Brahms? Didn't he write some kind of lullaby or something.
p.s. I really don't intend on being annoying--it is just my ignorance that might prove annoying. But trust me, it is not malicious.;-)

Anonymous said...

The photo 'shark soup' and 'happiness is a warm gun' didn't come through on my machine.

HHmm, odd combo.

I like Tchaikovsky.

Unknown said...

Hey, back off on Tchaikovsky! He's one of my alltime favorites, along with Schubert and Mozart.
Beethoven is overrated...

My Inner French Girl said...

Love Rachmaninov.

Imagine a presidency infused with both art and realpolitik. A philosopher-king, even. Would we be in the mess we are now?

Salut,
Marjorie

Tom Harper said...

You're right, we're gonna need a mighty big cake for those two birthdays.

Utah Savage said...

I have nothing to add except Bach has always rung my bell. I do like Tchiakovsky. I think his passion is cathartic. I'm hitting every site I can today finding some way I can use the word cathartic. Thanks for giving me that opportunity. I even posted Catharsis as the title of my post today. Did I say I think pomposity and calling someone's use of a great word like cathartic or catharsis, as hackneyed is an ass? Just saying...

TomCat said...

Classical is great, but how about Mozart?

Randal Graves said...

LBR, it's annoying when one isn't trying to be annoying when they should have merely been malicious in the first place. No, that's wrong. Now I'm annoyed. ;-)

fot, fucking blogger. This happens now and then. The former is a shot from Jaws, the latter a wonderful portrait of Der Leader.

kip, we like Tchaikovsky here. But we especially love Beethoven.

marjorie, as long as the p-k was fitted with a fancy palace and swanky robes, hell no. And we'd have such an abundance of renewable resources and future-tech farming programs that we would all have ample time for pursuing the arts.
But we have Bush instead.

tom, and some beer and vodka!

utah, the usage of the word 'catharsis' as a cathartic process is quite meta. Bach is also a kicker of musical ass.

tomcat, it ain't Wolfgang's birthday. :)

Utah Savage said...

You may have no idea that all the catharting is because I though fairlane was giving you real shit abut your use of the word cathartic. Now I have been told by Scarlet that you and fairlane give each other this kind of shit all the time. Fool that I am, I was sharpening my knives to gut fairlane in your defense, insulting both you and fairlane in the process. Please forgive me for my misplaced chivalry. Next time you see me, call me a gnats ass.

Unknown said...

Marjorie, we had a President like that. His name was John F. Kennedy.

Randal Graves said...

utah, actually, I think fairlane was razzing anita about it, but if it was indeed me, that's okay. One must give leeway to a Red Wings fan. You know how they are.

Distributorcap said...

i am amazed at your vast knowledge of music......