Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening not to the Verdi Requiem but to the Faure Requiem, which is a whole other kettle of flesh. I’d never heard the Faure Requiem until the beginning of this year – don’t know why, really, since I love just about everything Faure has ever written. I mean, he’s one of my favorite composers, with a wondrous gift for the most gorgeous melodies. My first hearing of Faure couldn’t have been better, and yet it was not a standard performance but a jazz performance with symphony orchestra – yes, Bill Evans doing the Faure Pavane with Claus Ogerman and his orchestra, a brilliant bit of business. That immediately led me to seek out Faure’s own version and I became obsessed with the Pavane and its haunting melody. And then, in the 1970s, I began buying up all the Faure on LP I could find, and I loved it all. When CDs came in, I bought it all over again and loved it all over again. The Faure Requiem is, like the Pavane, haunting and beautiful, ethereal and very moving. I now have at least five or six versions, my favorite of which remains the one by Andre Cluytens, in great sound, and with a great band and singers. But I’m also fond of Sir Neville Mariner, which is playing as I write these here notes, also beautifully recorded. For different reasons, I enjoy the David Willcocks version because it has a different feel due to his use of a children’s choir for some of it, and I absolutely love the Capitol Full Dimensional Sound mono version by Roger Wagner. I haven’t actually heard a bum version, although I wasn’t fond of John Rutter’s version of Faure’s first attempt – too used to the regular version. If you’ve never heard it, YouTube is your friend. Funnily, last night, while going down the YouTube rabbit hole because of an idea I got at three in the morning, that kept me up until five in the morning, I heard a bit of the Mozart Requiem and even though I’m no fan of Mr. Mozart, I liked what I heard of the first movement and may check out the rest of it. And I heard a bit of the Durufle Requiem, which seems like it might be right up my alley and which can be found on Amazon for two bucks – so might give that one a try, too. Otherwise, I’m relaxing but not twiddling my thumbs, as it would be too difficult to type and twiddle at the same time, although maybe it would be fun to try. Let’s see: alhoaeht akngn thagnan han n ;a n – nope, doesn’t work at all, although I can tell you that sentence translates as “all who have ankles think about ham. What the HELL am I talking about?
Yesterday was certainly a day. Even though I didn’t fall asleep until five, I did get seven hours of sleep, arising at noon o’clock. As soon as I was coherent, I wrote the cast stories and also the co-producer story – if you missed them, they’re on my Facebook page. Once that was done, I answered e-mails, made a few decisions that needed making, did thing that needed doing, then it was time for food.
I didn’t want to go out or spend money, so I made two tuna sandwiches, which were just great and very filling. That was the main meal o’ the day, around 850 calories all in. After that, I didn’t feel like even checking to see if there was mail at the mail place, so I did some work on the computer, had a nice e-mail from a very popular composer/lyricist, and just caught up on stuff, after which I finally sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I tried to watch a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Play Dirty, starring Michael Caine, directed by Andre de Toth, but it’s quite a bad little film and I ultimately fell asleep for fifty minutes. Then I had a little salad to bring me up to 1000 calories.
After that, I did a bit more work on the computer, then did a quick Gelson’s run, since the only thing I could have made here was pasta with butter and that’s too caloric, or a frozen pepperoni pizza, which I could have made and not finished – total calorie count for the whole thing was 1500 calories, so I could have eaten a little over half but you know how hard it is to not finish pizza. So, instead I bought ingredients for not so faux stroganoff – no chicken this time – they had small packages of top round specifically cut for stroganoff and only about four ounces of meat, which is less than 200 calories, so I got that and the other stuff and some white rice, then came right home.
Then I began the evening’s listening, and that was pretty much it.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven. I’m going to do a big shout out to the folks who’ve performed in Kritzerland shows over the years and hopefully I can remember most of them. We shall see. Then I’ll make the food and eat it, hopefully pick up some packages, and then I have to relax until it’s time for the one and only Facebook and YouTube Live test, which I hope you’ll join me for. I’ve got the submittend questions typed up and ready for answering and I will answer them with complete candor and perhaps even ebb. Yes, candor and ebb. Here are the links for both sites, although I should think you would know them by now. If you’ve liked the Facebook page or subscribed to the YouTube channel, you get notified, which is nice.
YouTube Live is https://www.youtube.com/haineshisway
Facebook Live is https://www.facebook.com/KritzerlandUpstairsatVitellos
So, come have fun. It’ll probably last only fifteen or twenty minutes. It’s 6:00 PDT and 9:00 PDT. After that, I’ll watch, listen and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll probably do a musical director story and then I’ll be done with all the stories, which I felt were fun and necessary for our tenth anniversary show. Saturday, she of the Evil Eye comes, so I’ll have to go do a few things to kill time, and then on Sunday I’ll relax until it’s time to get ready for our big tenth anniversary show. Can’t say enough about the cast, the guests, and especially Petula Clark. And it will be fun to see which surprises come to fruition.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, do a shout out for our performers over the years, eat, hopefully pick up packages, do a Facebook and YouTube Live test, answer questions with candor and ebb, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Requiems – which do I need to hear, which composers do you think I’d enjoy, Requiem-wise? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have learned that typing and twiddling do not work.