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November 27, 2016:

OBSESSIONS

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, so after two weeks of binge listening what have I discovered? Well, I’ll tell you what I’ve discovered because why should I withhold such information from dear readers such as yourselves? I shouldn’t and I shan’t, not necessarily in that order. I’ve discovered that I have several current musical obsessions. Yes, I’ve enjoyed almost everything I’ve listened to, so Mahler, Bernstein, all the Brits – wonderful stuff. But the real rediscoveries, for me, have been Sibelius and his seven symphonies – that sounds like a Dr. Seuss book, doesn’t it? Sibelius and his Seven Symphonies. I don’t think I’ve yet found a completely satisfying set by one conductor, but I have another set to listen to and then we’ll see how I feel. And then there’s Samuel Barber – cannot get enough of his beautiful music. Randall Thompson – what a great American composer he was – no a huge orchestral output but what there is is cherce. Of all the Japanese composers I listened to, Ikuma Dan is the one I return to over and over again – quite addictive. And speaking of addictive, that would be Heitor Villa-Lobos – I can’t wait to get another recording of the Bachianas and Choros and a box of his symphonies, none of which I’ve ever heard – I’m in for a treat, I suspect. And of course there’s The Planets – that’s been a major obsession – I’ve heard about twelve different CDs and the clear winner remains William Steinberg and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. For me, no one even comes close in sound or performance. More about the four I heard yesterday in a moment. And of course there’s Ravel. I have loved getting to unravel Ravel – the invention, harmonic sense, everything – and there are such wonderful recordings to choose from, including some mighty fine SACD ones from RCA Living Stereo. Finally, Gian Carlo Menotti. It’s amazing that someone who had the popularity he did (I believe he took home two Pulitzer Prizes) – Amahl and the Night Visitors made him a household name – could be virtually forgotten today. I mean, several of his operas actually played on Broadway. But it’s not just those, his orchestral music is fantastic – filled with glorious melody and invention and I just can’t get enough.   I’d say those are the current obsessions and I’m sure I’ll have more.

Yesterday, she of the Evil Eye came, so I left and went to Jerry’s Deli for some bacon and eggs. Every single parking space was taken in their parking lot so I had to park in the bowling alley parking lot next door. The reason? A party of thirty – yes, THIRTY – was having breakfast. At nine-thirty. On a holiday weekend. Color me baffled. But I got my usual booth, ate, and then decided to go pay a visit to a used CD store in Tarzana called CD Trader. I used to go quite often, but I probably haven’t been in three years or more. They have a huge used classical section, with most CDs priced at $3.98, so I found four count them four versions of The Planets and I bought them all – and they were having a Black Weekend sale so the total with tax was only sixteen bucks for the four CDs (one of the CDs was priced at six dollars). I then went and picked up no packages even though two were supposedly out for delivery – they weren’t as I later found out from Amazon – this has been happening way too often. They’re supposed to have detailed tracking and they don’t – so they can’t even tell you what’s what or when anything will arrive. So they ask you to wait three days then call back to see what’s what. When one is a Prime member one doesn’t like this kind of thing. Free two-day delivery means exactly that. So, for the second time in a week, they gave me an extra month on my Prime so that’s two free months. But who knows if these CDs will arrive and if they don’t by Tuesday I’m going to make Amazon pay for both CD and overnight shipping and that’s the way it is.

I then came home and listened to all four Planets during the day and evening. First up was Tomita – you may remember him – the electronics guy. His take is fun but not really anything you can listen to all that often, but I’m glad to have it and I’ll play it on the den player because it’s in surround sound. Then I tried someone named Mark Elder’s performance. On this CD some modern composer has composed an additional movement called Pluto, since Pluto wasn’t really a planet when Holst wrote his piece. Pluto wasn’t very good and certainly nothing like the Holst. Elder’s performance of The Planets was very laid back – I didn’t mind it, but it’s not one for the ages or even the age or even the a. The sound was okay – a bit low. Then it was John Eliot Gardiner – instantly I knew I was in good hands, both performance and sound-wise and while it never reached the Steinberg heights in performance or sound, it’s now my second favorite reading and I recommend it and it has a really good companion piece – Percy Grainger’s The Warriors. Finally it was the much-lauded Zubin Mehta – this thing has tons of five star reviews on Amazon but then again every version by anyone has tons of five star reviews – according to those who leave them, whatever version they’re reviewing is the BEST. Baffling. I was especially looking forward to the mighty performance and brilliant sound I read about – imagine my surprise when I got neither. I got muffled and poorly balanced sound and what I thought was a pretty ham-fisted performance. Mr. Mehta truly put the Meh in The Planets. It’s the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and they’re okay. The companion pieces aren’t much better in terms of sound or performance, but I like the suites – Close Encounters of the Third Kind and something called Star Wars. So, of the four, the clear winner was the John Eliot Gardiner and it’s his and Steinberg’s I’ll be playing. After all that listening, I felt the need to sit on my couch like so much fish.

It had been raining for a few hours, but I wanted some snacks so I went to Gelson’s quickly, got about two ounces of lobster salad, four small drumettes, and some shrimp cocktail shrimp, so nothing too caloric. Then I decided to watch a DVD entitled Jack the Ripper, that I’d gotten recently. This was the 1959 British film – low budget, no stars or anything. But producer Joseph E. Levine had just had a huge success importing Hercules and so he did the same with Jack the Ripper, paying a pittance to pick the film up for the US and then sinking an unheard of million dollars into promotion, especially TV ads. Well, it worked – it was a huge hit just as Hercules had been. Such was the saturation of the ads and so titillating were they that I certainly was at the Wiltern Theater for the first showing at noon, which was actually in early 1960. Well, I loved it – no, it wasn’t great but it had some atmosphere, some violence, some pretty girls, and I didn’t guess who the Ripper was, so that came as a surprise (it’s pretty obvious, but not to a twelve-year-old). I especially liked the lurid, jazzy score by Pete Rugolo. In fact, I bought the stereophonic soundtrack on RCA. I was a bit confused when I saw another soundtrack on RCA Camden – that one had narration and told the story, but the music was by Stanley Black. Only much later did I find out that Levine threw out the Stanley Black score and replaced it with the much more obvious Pete Rugolo score.

But my absolute favorite thing in the film came at the end when the Ripper got his by being crushed by an elevator. As he screams, two people in the elevator look down – it cuts to the floor and suddenly the black-and-white film turns to color for just that shot, as red blood comes up through the floorboards. Yes, the twelve-year-old me loved that and had to see it two more times specifically for that scene, which I described to my school chums with great relish. I’ve seen the movie only a couple of times since in bad open matte prints. But I’d read this DVD from Italy was decent so I took a chance. It’s in 1.66 so that’s the first benefit. And then I was rather surprised to find that this DVD had the original Stanley Black score. It’s quite different, but I quite enjoyed it. And the floor board scene was there – it’s often been said that Levine added it, but this is obviously the original UK version, so that’s not true. And the color in that shot is quite good. There are some uncensored scenes included as extras – apparently they shot certain scenes two ways – one for the UK and the US, and another for more liberal countries. So, there’s a scene in the dressing room where a bunch of chorines talk to their boss, fully clothed of course. But in the uncensored version, literally every gal in the scene is topless. And three other scenes of the Ripper doing his dirty business features tops that just happen to come loose. Fascinating. I would have quite liked those scenes as a twelve-year-old, but noooooo, we didn’t get them.

Then I listened to Menotti’s The Saint of Bleecker Street, his mid-1950s opera that opened on Broadway and ran for ninety something performances. I’d heard it on LP back in my LP collecting days, but I really didn’t remember anything about it. Well, it’s quite a wonderful little opera and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Whilst listening, I finished writing the Kritzerland commentary. Then I took a very long shower, and then just listened to some interesting Ravel orchestrated by Marius Constant, the man who wrote the famous The Twilight Zone theme.

Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep. I’ll jog if the weather permits, then we have a rehearsal for the Richard Sherman event – that’s in Calabasas so I have to trek out there. Then I’m sure I’ll eat a little something, then come home and watch a motion picture of some sort.

Tomorrow is our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which I’m looking forward to. The rest of the week is meetings and meals, our second Kritzerland rehearsal, a meeting with Kay Cole and Doug Haverty about the packaging for her CD, then our stumble-through, then sound check and show. Next week is a week we shall need the strongest most excellent vibes and xylophones for. It could go either way and I prefer it go a good way rather than a difficult way. It would truly be nice to have a stress free holiday season and birthday.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog if possible, have a rehearsal, eat, and watch a movie. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be having such wonderful musical obsessions.

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