Various Artists [Rock Moods] 

I bought this quite a while back, in the late Nineties, it's now something i wouldn't particularly consider, as i'm quite endeared to two disc sets, but this one has a high percentage of real gems on it, and has a very good mix of different well known hits, and yet is not so different that it loses a vague theme to it, and over the years i've been slowly endeared to this disc.

In listening to this disc today, i was very impressed with tracks 6, 9, 14 & 17, and i would like to give each one of these a little synopsis,

6 George Michael - Heal The Pain, a very acoustic song, strumming guitars and tambourines, and a nice bongo beat percussion, i like the way that on the chorus's George Michael interrupts himself on each line in overdubs, never really been touched by this song before, but today it really hit me, a nice breathy song.

9 Steve Winwood - Valerie, this is a tremendous song, however this mix isn't so strong as others i've heard, the keyboard synths are great [and the solo too 2:42+], and it's a song that never lets up, it's intensity keeps growing, the chorus is fantastic, notice the odd deep and loud beats every now and then, excellent.

14 Del Amitri - Nothing Ever Happens, this is Del Amitri's best song, a very thoughtful song as far as the lyrics go, a song against an auto robotic lifestyle, we're all so much on automatic pilot to really notice what really matters, the song slowly develops into a nice frenzy, very acoustic too.

17 Black - Wonderful Life, it's that constant and mesmerizing keyboard beat throughout that really does it for me [0:10+], and the marimba / steel drums sounds at the end of every chorus is great [1:23+], i just like the ebb and flow of things, it creates nice waves that really roll over me, and a sax solo too! [2:54+].

Tchaikovsky - Symphony 4 [Masur-Gewandhausorchester Leipzig] 

It's been quite a while since i listened to the Fourth Symphony of Tchaikovsky, and i forget how really good it is, i have a hard time with Tchaikovsky's first three Symphonies, they just sound below par, his last Symphony is the best of all, and then the Fifth, and then the Fourth.

Kurt Masur was born in Germany, now 83 years old, this work was recorded in the late Eighties, the booklet cover seems strange [photo by Francisco Hidalgo], what does it depict?, a park square covered in snow, with some abandoned chairs lined up!, and what's it got to do with the music?, dark and broiling clouds above, and green writing on the front cover, i still like it a lot, there's a certain desolate loneliness about it!.  

It was the first movement that i really enjoyed the most, it's the extensive use of brass throughout the movement that i love, the horns especially have a prominent place, the opening fanfares are terrific [0:00-0:43], all terraced in different brass voicings, after the opening fanfare it turns into a sort of a quasi waltz deep down [1:28+], something that Tchaikovsky just couldn't seem to avoid!, it's in the key of F Minor, so Tchaikovsky plies us with anger and sadness, the timpani are prominent too, hammering out rolling thunder at times, i like the frantic and fast strings with the timpani beating away the rhythm [4:21-4:51], a plangent bass clarinet [5:29+] with assorted woodwinds following, give a sad little delicate waltz, this turns into an even gentler string serenade / waltz [6:33-7:43], with a supremely inspired low and quiet timpani heartbeat, creating a nice little march at the same time, this comes back later towards the end [14:17-15:26], this turns into a forte brass / frantic high violin melee [8:15-9:03], i like the way the brass fanfares from the start of the Symphony keep coming back again and again [11:31, 11:54, & 12:28], like some idee fixe, Tchaikovsky uses the low bassoon notes to great effect in a little waltz solo [13:11-13:28], which turns into a waltz featuring a flute and horn in duet [13:33-13:55], strange bedfellows indeed!, and right at the end Tchaikovsky has one last very high and frantic violin passage [17:57+], where the brass make glorious rising fanfare blasts, very atmospheric, the whole movement had me appreciating Tchaikovsky all the more for his genius.  

Here's Daniel Barenboim conducting the first movement on YouTube.

Brahms - 6 Klavierstucke Op118 [Magnan] 

Here's a new Brahms disc in my collection, i forget where i got this, but it's good to try a new Artist, and this disc has got some excellent works on it, the Handel Variations are my favourite Brahms solo piano, and it was good to also familiarize myself with his book of six piano pieces again.

Gisele Magnan is new to me, and there is a dearth of information about her, only that she is French, i'm always on the lookout for a new superb Brahms recital, and visually this fits the bill, with roughly a third of a left side strip as a picture [by Stephane Ouzounoff], it creates a tall upright picture, that has consistent interest from top to bottom, the hands are well placed [and of course being a Pianist, they're the tools of the trade], it's a fantastic sharp picture, the rest of the booklet is quite sparse, cream coloured with an oval shape for the works lettering, this recording was made in 1995.

Gisele Magnan is quite distinctive, she does things differently, not necessarily better, but different and refreshing, she doesn't pull everything off, and even her 'failures' are interesting and thoughtful!, she plays somewhat extreme speeds, the final Intermezzo of the six [Op118/6] is played really slow, and yet it's so interesting, she really makes something new out of it, lovely colours on the piano, the two pieces i loved here are 2 & 5, the two slow 'bookends' of the work, and it's the first one Op118/2 that is the darling, that she really does play a shade too fast, the beauties need to coalesce to really take effect, she plays it fairly loud-ish, full of passion and drama, the more i listen to it, the more i'm impressed with her colours, and the way she can eke out sonorities that sound just right from the keys, especially at the beginning it needs a gentleness, a swoon to it, and yet i can see how her approach has its benefits, i like the way she treats the left hand bass line as not mere accompaniment to the more famous 'steal the glory' right hand melody, but it's rhythms become part of the tune, for me this is her noticeable great talent, left and right hand aren't a team of twins parroting from the same page, but... neither are they strangers doing their own thing, they're more like yin and yang, opposites that balance each other out, you can hear their separate voicings to superb effect, her straightforward matter of fact start, does actually work wonders after a while, there's a short passage near the beginning which is a good example, where the right hand melody becomes more intense, and goes up the keyboard, while the bass also does the same [1:08-1:30], it's like the left hand fills the gaps which the right hand misses!, it's so hard to explain, matter of fact-ness is the order of the day, but with the left hand bass so rhythmically precise, there's a great vibe to the whole thing, right in the middle there's a slow golden refrain [2:56-3:29], taken slow and careful, it really works!, and the coda of sorts has a final farewell-ness to it [5:09+], i really like her a lot already!, a disc i want to get to know some more, and i feel that i've really plumbed the depths in, with my feelings about the piece here.

Here's Elena Kuschnerova playing the Op118/2 Intermezzo on YouTube, the timings are extremely similar, and so it's easy to follow along with the timings above.

Jackson Browne [The Very Best Of Jackson Browne] 

I like 'best of / greatest hits' packages, they're great if you don't like an Artist enough to buy any individual album they have, but they're good enough to have a collection of their best bits, so Madonna / The Stones / Elton John / The Jam / Billy Joel / Dire Straits / Paul Weller / Abba, and others would in my mind be ideal here, i also see so many Artists releasing 2 disc sets of their best, and for so many a 2 disc set means lots of average filler, only Billy Joel and Elton John on the above list can sustain that sort of full exposure, so it's a joy to exclaim that Jackson Browne can sustain this too, one difference with Browne is that i have two of his studio albums [I'm Alive & Late For The Sky], which are fantastic in their own right, but so many of his 'political' albums have slim pickings, also i find that there's a serious problem with some greatest hits packages, in that all the wrong songs are chosen, the very best songs are left out!, happily i can report that this isn't the case with this set, in fact the exact opposite, all the very best of Jackson Browne really is here.

Jackson Browne is now in his 63rd year, he was born in Germany, but an American citizen, these discs cover his whole career, the cover photograph [by Nels Israelson] is excellent, a grainy mono picture, appropriately in brown and cream, with the lettering nicely fitting the style and theme of the photography.

As for the music, all my favourites are here, and the tracks i enjoyed the very most were 9,11, & 27-29 [11-13 on disc 2], very much from the two studio albums i mentioned earlier, i like the way Browne can sing with such intimacy and insight, getting on the 'inside' of so many 'outside' things, track 11 on the first disc 'Before The Delude' is such a great example, and it's the first song which introduced me to Jackson Browne, the violin / fiddle lines are superb.

And on this listen the song which touched me the most was track 11 on the second disc, 'Sky Blue And Black', and i mentioned this very same song when i wrote about the album it came from last year in my Blog [6th May 2010], it is one of the greatest things he has ever done, it starts off with an atmospheric piano intro of the main tune, and Browne's lyrics paint a poetic vision of insight, the first verse doubles as a sort quiet intro in itself [0:23-1:18], and then things kick in even more, and the gem of a line in the second verse,

There's a need to be separate

And a need to be one

And a struggle neither wins

i've always been enamoured of this line, being on the whole a loner myself, i love my own company, and yet there's a longing to belong to something greater, there's a sort of Reggae-ness in the background, Browne's voice catches and cries on certain words, he can heighten certain phrases and passages, i can feel the tug on my heart, the ebb and flow that Browne creates, great lines that force us to see the power of his heart,

And the heavens were rolling

like a wheel on a track

and also the nostalgic and pathetic regret of,

But the moment has passed by me now

To have put away my pride

And just come through for you somehow

there's a lovely little refrain at the end [5:12-6:03], where the music gently coda-esques back to the lonely solo piano, absolutely fantastic, Jackson Browne has this innate ability to marry words and music in perfect matrimony.

Here's Jackson Browne singing 'Sky Blue And Black' improvised for TV on YouTube.