Review of Bruckner Symphonie No.8 by Karl Bohm and the Wiener Philharmoniker

Artist:  Karl Bohm and the Weiner Philharomiker.
Album:  Bruckner Symphonie No. 8.
Recording House:  Deutsche Gramophone.
Copyright: 1977.

Bruckner Symphonie No. 8.
1.  Allergo moderato
2.  Scherzo.  Allegro moderato
3.  Adiago.  Feierlich langsam; doch nicht schleppend
4.  Finale.  Feierlich, nicht schnell

This disc is over 80 minutes long.  It takes that long when performed live.  It's usually the only work on a particular program.  I fell in love with Bruckner by accident in the 1990s at Powell Hall.  I had season tickets and I heard Bruckner for the first time.

Afterward, I was hooked.  I bought 4 different Bruckner symphonies over New Years.  I think about 19th century European armies clashing in thunderous duels when I hear this music.  Bruckner, slave to the beast at Bayreuth, adored Wagner.  However, Bruckner's music is all his own.  He was middle age when he became a composer.  That helped the maturity of his symphonic works.  Bruckner was disparaged in his own lifetime as the "Austrian peasant composer."  Some of his earlier works weren't taken seriously because of his simple, devote Catholicism.

The ten symphonies make up for his more simplistic "Tu Deums."  Recommended.

Bruckner!

I bought four different Bruckner symphonies:  Symphonie No. 1; Symphonie No. 3; Symphonie No. 4; and Symphonie No. 8; over New Years.  I've been listening to Bruckner since then.  No. 4 is on my CD player.  I'd like to get more Bruckner CDs.

Alas, I've run out of room to store my discs.  I'll either have to get a new CD tower or get a CD book for my discs.  I'm now over 110 CDs.  I've download all my music digitally.  It takes up several GB.  I also have delved back into Joe Satriani.  Have his latest, Shockwave Supernova and Unstoppable Momentum.  I'll write more formal reviews, later.  I just wanted to update my blog after a several month absence...

Review of Lang Lang: Live in Vienna

Artist:  Lang Lang.
Album:  Live in Vienna.
Recording Company:  Sony Classical.
Copyright:  2010.

CD 1:
Beethoven:  Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 2
Beethoven:  Piano Sonata No. 33, Op. 57 "Apassionata"

CD 2:
Albeniz:  Iberia, Book I
Prokofiev:  Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 83
Chopin:  Etude Op. 25, No. 1
Chopin:  Polonaise No. 6, Op. 53 "Heroic"
Chopin:  Grande Valse brillante No. 2, Op. 34 No. 1

I enjoyed hearing Lang Lang live in Vienna.  My appreciation for piano music happened late for me.  Though I can't play a piano to save my life, I love those who mastered it.  Lang Lang has.  Recommended.

Goal: Yamaha double barreled French horn

I still want to get back to the French horn.  Being a writer is nice.  But it's not my long term goal.  That's still being able to play the French horn again.

In order to do that, I need to save up for a double barreled French horn.  They are expensive.  I should be able to set aside money for one.  But it'll take about four years worth of savings before I can purchase one.

That's a long time.  Maybe I can get published in the mean time and get some money to help make that purchase a reality...

Review of Michael Collins Motion Picture Soundtrack

Album:  Michael Collins Motion Picture Soundtrack.
Recording Company:  Atlantic Classics.
Recording Date:  1996.

Soundtrack:
1)  Easter Rebellion
2)  Fire and Arms
3)  Train Station Farewell
4)  Winter Raid
5)  Elegy for a Sunday
6)  Football Match
7)  On Cat's Feet
8)  Defiance and Arrest
9)  Train to Granard
10)  Boland Returns
11)  His Majesty's Finest
12)  Boland's Death
13)  Home to Cork
14)  Civil War
15)  Collins' Proposal
16)  An Anthem Deferred
17)  She Moved Through the Fair
18)  Funeral/Coda
19)  Macushla

Another soundtrack from an excellent movie about Ireland's bloody history.  Recommended for the story it tells...

Conan the Barbarian Soundtrack

Album:  Conan the Barbarian Soundtrack.
Studio:  Universal City Studios.
Copyright:  1982.

1  The Anvil of Crom
2  Riddle of Steel/Riders of Doom
3  Gift of Fury
4  Wheel of Pain
5  Atlantean Sword
6  Theology/Civilization
7  Wifeing
8  The Leaving/The Search
9  Mountain of Power Procession
10  The Tree of Woe
11  Recovery
12  The Kitchen/The Orgy
13  Funeral Pyre
14  Battle of the Mounds
15  Death of Rexor
16  Orphans of Doom/The Awakening

Overview:
Great soundtrack to an awesome movie.  Recommended.

Review of Opera Proibita

Artist:  Cecilia Bartoli.
Title:  Opera Proibita.
Recording Company:  Decca.
Copyright:  20005.

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Un pensiero nemico - Combo che fugge col vento
Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa  Il Trionto del Tempo e del Disinganno
Disserratevi, o porte d'Averno - Notte funesta ... Ferma l'ali  La Resurrezione

Alessandro Scarlattti (1660-1725)
All'arme si accesi guerrierii Cantata per la Notte del SS.mo Natale
Mentre io godo in dolce oblio - Ecco negl'orti tuoi
Che dolce simpatia Il Giadino di Rose
Caldo sangue - Ahi! qual cordoglio...Doppio affetto Sedecia, Re di Gerusalemme
Qui resta...L'alta Roma San Filippo Neri

Antonio Caldara (1670-1736)
Vanne pentita a piangere Il Trionfo dell'Inocenza
Sparga il senso lascivo veleno La Castita al Cimento
Si piangete pupille dolenti Santa Frascesca Romana
Ahi quanto cieca...Come foco alla sua sfera  Il Martirio di Santa Caterina

Impressions: 
This album is a screamer.  Lots of 18th century Italian music by Handel, Scarlatti, and Caldara.  I enjoyed it.  Recommended