Well, dear readers, I have made myself a little pasta with red sauce snack and it was very comforting and good and now I am ready to write these here notes. I watched nothing but did a lot of listening, had a few telephonic calls, and a really bad computer scare that had me busting a gut, as the saying people say. This has happened a couple of other times but never quite to the extent it happened last evening. I went to move a folder onto a hard drive and got the spinning wheel. I hate the damn spinning wheel, it is the devil’s device. I usually outwait it, but this wouldn’t quit. When I brought up the force quit window to see what was what, it said Finder wasn’t responding. I hate when it says that because I know the wheel will keep spinning until the cows come home and I think after twenty-two years we know just how long that will be. So, I did what I didn’t want to do and probably shouldn’t have done – I force quite Finder. The first time I did that years ago the entire desktop disappeared but came back a few minutes later when Finder finally relaunched, which it’s supposed to do IMMEDIATELY. The second time, about three years ago, the desktop remained while it relaunched. Last night, the entire desktop disappeared, and Finder would not relaunch. I searched for a file I knew was on the desktop and it wouldn’t open because Finder wouldn’t relaunch. I shut down the computer, started it up, and when it should have given me the desktop it gave me a black screen. I do not care for a black screen when it’s supposed to be my desktop. I had to walk away, or I would have thrown the computer on the ground and stomped it to death as I did with my Dell laptop back in 2002. So, I loaded a couple more albums onto the hard drive attached to the laptop, then came back to the computer and thankfully the desktop was there. Scary stuff and I do not care for scary stuff as regards this here computer. I had two tacos for food, and they were of high quality and low cost, from the good Mexican jernt I like.
So, here’s the latest of the listening, as I wend my way through this incredible Ormandy Columbia stereo set. I listened to the Messiah – it’s originally a two-and-a-half-hour work, but the Ormandy recording runs a brisk 106-minutes. I’d listened to the full version and didn’t care for it all that much, so I liked this short version better. It’s not something I’ll ever love, but it’s wonderful-sounding and very well sung, especially the divoon Eileen Farrell. I suspect the Ormandy recording was a lot of people’s first exposure to the Messiah – it was, at the time, the most successful and biggest-selling classical record ever – well over a million copies and a gold record. After that, there was a compendium of some Russian bon-bons by Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka, Tchaikovsky, and Balakirev – great music, beautifully performed in great sound. After that, we had more Handel – Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Music – again, not my favorite, although these performances made me enjoy it much more than I have. Also included was Corelli’s Suite for Strings, which I enjoyed a lot – hard not to with the Philadelphia strings. The we had the Tchaikovsky fifth and it’s simply the best performance of that wonderful symphony I’ve ever heard, and I have a ton by every great conductor. It’s just so unfussy and pure, with gorgeous playing and Ormandy just lets the music do its job. Then we had the Rachmaninov second – yes, it has the sanctioned cuts, but boy, is it stunning in every way. There are many beautifully done complete versions, but I would never be without Ormandy. Then a great Shostakovich disc with the cello concerto and the first symphony. Again, these are landmark performances at a time when not a lot of conductors were recording Shostakovich like they do today. And now a disc with two Mendelssohn piano concertos and the incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The performance of the two concertos made me like them more than I have in the past. You can never undervalue how much the Columbia recording team and these stereo recordings are part and parcel of what makes them great and able to hold their own against anything recorded today. In fact, they’re better than a lot of what I hear in today’s recordings. Next up, violin concertos by Brahms and Wieniawski.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll pray for a modern major miracle, I’ve already ordered a chopped Eyetalian salad from CPK and that will arrive at one, then I’ll once again attempt to write and hope my eyeballs don’t bug me, and of course I’ll be loading and listening to more Ormandy. I’m halfway through the set, loading-wise and on disc twenty-seven, listening-wise. I’ll probably try to watch something, too.
Not sure what’s happening on the weekend, but next week there will be a lot of stuff happening.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, pray for a modern major miracle, eat, try to write, load and listen, and perhaps watch something. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray/streaming player? I’ll start – CD, Ormandy. Blu and streaming, who knows? Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that the computer is up and running with no spinning wheel.