Aaron Copland redux

For as long as I recall classical music played a major part in my life from handed down records, broadcasts listened to an concerts attended that over the decades has lead to collection of favourites by various composers.

Parts of this have been mentioned on this blog over the years as I moved from buying performances on lp records and cassettes to now standard Compact Disc and High Definition download

Chunks of my collection are in one respect time periods where I picked what I could as my interests were piqued remaining without being reassessed in the light of newer recordings and improved mastering of older ones.

Aaron Copland is one of America's greatest composers, period, someone who had the art of getting a lot in without losing touch with American home spun idioms and relative simplicity.

It was around Nineteen-Ninety that got to hear across a weekday broadcasting slot the majority of his compositions in an excellent BBC Radio Three "This Mornings Composer" series of programs much of which served as my 'template' for collecting recordings of them around that era.

The mainstays in that era were Copland's own recordings for Columbia (now Sony Classical) records that in 1991 were compiled into three cd box sets.

I bought two at the time as they had the bulk of the works I wanted even if the early sixties sound left a little to be desired but that other set sounded poor so I never got it or its content

Following getting the Super Audio Player  I started this process of reassessment as its reproduction of regular cds  exceeded my previous players looking replacing by better sounding and sometimes played versions of which last months Mozart entry was one example.

There precious few recordings of Copland's Clarinet concerto or of Dance Panels and I had formed the view for my purposes, the two Sony Classical boxes I bought in the early nineteen-nineties would benefit from being replaced and this would be a good start point adding two works and replacing my original of 1925's "Music for the Theatre"

Leonard Slatkin is one the best leading conductors and advocates of Copland's music and he recorded for RCA a series of works featuring the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra well compiled of which this adds the not often heard Organ Symphony with Simon Preston and two other symphonies in modern wide ranging digital sound.

Copland mastered the art of writing film music that both didn't get in the way of the screen action and equally wasn't just soundtrack fodder, capable of being appreciated in its own right.

This disc featured the Red Pony, Music for Movies a arrangement of film music in the forms of a suite, Our Town and seldom recorded Prairie Journal (Music for Radio)which was broadcast on the radio.

This disc featured his Third Symphony and Music for a Great City which benefits from a modern recording.

Naxos had an excellent series of discs covering American Composers and I own most of the Samuel Barber titles but this one appealed as these main two works were in the third box I never bought although I've always loved The Tender Land suite written around life on a Southern Farm during the nineteen-thirties, his Piano Concerto and two collections of American Songs originally intended for piano and voice but transcribed here for orchestra and chorus.

I just love singing along to "I Bought Me a Cat".

A batch of Classical Super Audio cds

We are cycling towards the end of the month so I thought I'd post an update on my collection of classical music Super Audio cds which all can be played on regular cd players too.

One thing you have to recognize is because the format is so much capable of more natural sound doesn't mean you'll ditch any or all your existing recordings as there always two elements involved: the performance and the sound.

Ever since the days of the lp record that elusive balance of the two is what as collectors of recordings we've looking for and there exists from those early mono taped performances from the early nineteen-fifties to the turn of this decade many excellent performances that may not be on sacd and some where for technical reasons they may be little point in issuing them.

This said there are increasing numbers of  excellent recordings from the analogue tape era being freshly mastered and new recordings critically acclaimed so you may be able to 'upgrade' which is where we start.

For a good while I had been looking for a great fairly modern recording of Bartok's ground breaking Concerto For Orchestra which I remember well as a handed down Mercury mono lp record when I was in my early teens where I spied this.

It's reissue of the original Quadraphonic (surround sound) lps from the Deutsche Grammophon catalogue of the nineteen-seventies that only got issued in Japan but whose stereo mixes were issued in North America and Europe that were much admired.

 Arriving only toward the end of last week is a acclaimed recording of Schubert's String Quintet in C Major D 956 from 2011 by the much loved Tokyo String Quartet who have performed in North America and Europe.

Schubert's "The Trout" quintet has been a favourite of mine for a long while and recently I bought this excellent modern recording which will go with my regular cd sets of string quartets and symphonies by him.

This one can be filed under 'filling a hole' as in the years of building my classical music collection I hadn't gotten around to getting a complete set of Beethoven's String Quartets and this set of recordings from 2005 through 2008 is one of the best recorded.

I was able to get this 8 sacd set in stone mint condition used for half the regular price which made it quite bargain.

Mozart and I got back a long time, to the period I often borrowed pre-recorded tapes from the municipal library and most of my Mozart collection goes back to around 1991 on cd buying the many discs in the Mozart Masterpieces set.

Included in that was the debut recording of a then 14 year old Anne-Sophie Mutter with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with its then larger than life conductor, Herbert von Karajan of the 3rd and 5th Violin Concertos to which I had added two slightly later recordings on EMI by her of numbers 1, 2 and 4.

This set recorded in 2011 by PentaTone records is widely regarded as one of the finest coming with the very best sound available and even features a dvd where you see Julia rehearsing.
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"This is what you need!"

 

When you aren't as able as most, you are more dependent on other people for things or completing them which isn't just an irritant that can cause you to lash out in frustration in itself but also a cause of tension between you.

What isn't said I think needs to be is inevitably it does alter the relating dynamic by virtue they have what you need and can't do that they can use as lever and equally you may feel you have leverage because they're your means of getting something done so it is easy to form an abusive relating pattern.

But it's not just that it's also how that person slots into the role helping you realize the idea you had that can become a point of contention too.

Speaking as a person whose always been disabled, our normal expectation is in discussing it with someone, they work with us to do it the way we wish unless that's not possible in which instance we'd expect them to talk though other suggestions reaching agreement on the way forward.

What can happen though is the person runs with what they feel is what you need, taking control not just of the help but also of the very idea itself imposing their ideas in place of yours  then threatening to walk off leaving with an uncompleted job if you even question such attitude as the one looking for help.

It's as if at that point you just became invisible no longer permitted to have any say about some things in your lives and that easily leads to tensions that others soon pick up on.

I think if you spot this early on you need to bring this up as it can easily cause issues.

A little rant

 

I don't know how others feel but I am tired of hearing boys can't do this or wear that.

  Boys can too wear dresses and skirts.

  Boys can too wear panties and slips.

  Boys can too be allowed to express their feelings.

Today Girls are allowed to do all of the above and they are allowed to dress completely as boys, ie pants, shirts, and boxers yet still today boys are discriminated against if they wish to wear a dress or skirt.  

The boys who do are called a whole host of names that are not only degrading to the boys but females as well. IT is like being a girl is something that should be considered less then their male counterparts. 

Just like the "N" word for blacks is no longer in dictionaries the term "SISSY"* or "FAG" should be taken out of the dictionaries.  

To me WE need to make the use of what a gender wears not be included as to that person but see him or her as another human who just has and expresses their gender in a way that makes sense to them.

* Sissy as an insult should be removed, sissy gurl as a gender idenity being too feminine for a girl and insufficient masculine by a wide margin to be any kind of boy I feel should stay.

The needs of littles III

The other week I was mulling over some of things that did crop up at ASB.org, not that sadly that site lasted long, and that generally I tended to talk more in and around the role of age regression within being an adult schoolboy as from my vantage point being one comes from being in the headspace of being a adult little, legally an adult emotionally and psychologically very much a child of your own childhood era.

One piece of the jigsaw puzzle is how psychologically you get to being in that frame of mind and what it is that is in there and one topic that often raised its head was spanking which usually is seen as both sexual or kink centric but for some goes back into their childhood emotions and so forms a part of being in a psychological state of being a "little boy" or "little girl" again

The Benefits of Getting Spanked by Rodney Calmes

Many people believe that if someone likes to get spanked, it is all sexual. That is not the case all the time. Even though getting spanked has some sexual effects or enhances sexual arousal, there are many non-sexual benefits from getting spanked. What can spankings do for you?

1. Getting spanked relieves stress.

2. Getting spanked is calming.

3. Getting spanked generates endorphins and puts you in a euphoric state.

4. Getting spanked generates adrenaline and gives an adrenaline rush, especially if you are anticipating getting a very harsh one.

5. Getting spanked lifts moods. Russian psychiatrists have found success in treating depression with bare butt whippings.

6. The marks left from getting spanked is like an art of its own.

7. For some, it can restore feelings of youth.

Don’t be ashamed of getting spanked, enjoy it! For those who never tried it in your adult years, give it a try. You never know, you may like it.

There have been times when personally I have struggled with spanking as an element of being that adult little not least in website and on social media it's tended to dominate all discussion to the exclusion of look at the how and why we feel still "little children" even though the law says we're adults.

That text emboldened however did set out clearly a lot of the elements for and of what I get from being spanked in an adult little sissy gurl context starting from the very child-like, child-minded side of me needing discipline, direction and correction as I have little 'native' adult or even older child sense of self including self discipline.

The whole context of being subject to spanking, being 'made' to take it at the will of a 'adult authority figure' and the emotional outcome from given a good spanking restores a strong sense of being that little, of being young.

Spanking given some of my issues  around relating to people, understanding appropriate boundaries forms stronger bonds with me especially between myself and adults. I am wired very much toward physicality helps with bonding.

While it is entirely understandable a adult little who was abused in actual childhood would not and may even be could never accept the role of spanking within such relationships or through other outlets such as age play schools and the like, for me it's a core part, the mirror image of how it was to me as a boy back then.

As a sissy gurl I want dominants to spank my bottom.

Thoughts around learning

 There's nothing quite so stereotypical British as national panics best talked over tea and a common one is around educational standards although it could be argued part of this reflects the debate around learning and retaining facts over looking things up and following a process.

My feelings are more that you do need a knowledge base so you know  8 x 8 is 64 and The Great Fire of London did take place in 1666 so you can both know off the bat if something is 'wrong' and work efficiently. It is hard to progress when you haven't mastered the basics as like a good number of dyslexic people I know only to well which was a reason I ended up resuming studying a while ago.

Much of this chart from a UK national newspaper is familiar in that what I was expected in my class when I was educated strongly aligned with that common during in the 1950's and following reforms, changed.  My feeling is what happened has been less is required to be known and over a longer period which shows up when international comparisons are made.

It's hard to believe that in that time children are less capable of learning even if we are more enlightened around the things that can making learning more harder for some and prepared to assist more.

It may be how we teach that needs to be addressed apart from having the kind of classroom I had when the teacher just walked in with the texts needed, you got up to greet them and from that point on you were expected to sit still and pay attention rather than dealing with messing about with cellphones and the like.

Mozart Masterworks 1991 revisited

In 1991, to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of Mozart, the record label Deutsche  Grammophon at the time one of the leading labels issuing classical music, instituted a 25 compact disc series entitled Mozart Masterpieces that picked what they regarded as the most essential Mozart compositions in performances they regarded as being desirable all in what was a budget price which from recollection was around £5.49 per disc available separately or as a complete set. 

When compact discs first came out typically we paid £12.99 or more  and by around 1987 mid price discs often more generous when it came to content when it came to classical ones came out around the £7.50-7.99 mark so to have all these recordings at a low unit price really was a bargain for someone who only had a few recordings and many of them on tape or record.

There were however a few for various reasons I didn't get such as the recording of Symphonies 40 and 41 by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado that it was generally scarcely skated the surface of what was in the score to which I bought the mid 60's recordings by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra  conducted by Karl Bohm instead and there was this one that I had the 1976 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra recording by Karl Bohm I bought in July 1987 when it came out on the new Deutsche Grammophon "Galleria" series  with the Posthorn Serenade.

I thought it was time to revisit this series that was the core of Mozart collection and track down a copy for the 1960's recordings the Berlin Philharmonic did of this and two other works under the larger than life conductor Herbert von Karajan.

That copy of Bohm's conducting Symphony No.31,40  and 41 on DG "Privilege" was the first I replaced.

Part of the reason was I added the nineties DG "Galleria" of symphonies 25, 29 and 31 was to expand the range of symphony recordings  which did bring about duplication with symphony 31  and this double cd is not only remastered for better sound but adds symphonies 35, 36, 38 and 39 as the original Mozart Masterpieces cd DG 429 802-2 with symphonies 38 and 39 conducted by Herbert von Karajan had gone missing.

This took in his recordings of the late symphonies in their entirety that many hold to be superior to his nineteen eighties digital remakes with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

I did buy the Melos performed String Quartets disc but I bought later on a 6 cd set of the main String Quartets performed by the Amadeus Quartet at which point this single disc disappeared for some reason or other so I've picked up a replacement so I can enjoy their account of these two works.

This disc played by Pollini was in the set I bought as DG 429 812-2 with a rather generic embossed Mozart head on a piano image using the cd stampers of the mid to late 1980's cd issue but was re-remastered in 2011 in DG's "The Originals" series.

The remaster has given it a smoother less harsh sound that also feels more full and spacious than the original so has replaced it.

As well, it restores the original 1976 lp front cover which is much more attractive as art to look at featuring conductor,pianist and orchestra. 

Also included in the series was Géza Anda's recordings of his Piano Concertos 19 and 26 which for some reason I never bought although I did get a different recording of no 27 than the one in  this cd set which were from a complete series of them that currently are in a 8 cd set that I hope to get at some point being one the finest ever issued.

While the cover on my copy has the label "Privilege" not "Resonance" in the same font) it is from the very same stamper used for it so it is technically identical.

This was the 8 cd set that eventually I bought remastered compared with the early single cd for more firmer sound. It's just a pity copies of the original lp front covers were not included in the booklet.

This series was the first one I followed rather had bought for me, providing an opportunity to replace a number of works I had on much played records and tapes, making available what had in some instances been full price discs cheaply such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Anne-Sophie Mutter recordings of the 3rd and 5th violin  concertos and the first time some recordings previously issued on tape and lp record came out on cd.

Revisiting it, playing some of the original purchases and these others I missed  brings back many happy memories that lead to the establishment of considerable collection of favourite works by many composers on compact disc and its higher quality form, the super audio cd.

As well I did get a complete set of recording of Mozart's violin sonatas that originally came out as separate cds at this time cheaply comprising of excellent all digital recordings to go alongside the collection.