Feltsman on Die Kunst der Fuge

Tonight I’m listening to Vladmir play The Art of Fugue by Bach, and it’s quite nice. I don’t have many AoF recordings all on keyboard instrument. Of course, he’s all kind of crazy and all over the place in his Goldberg recording, so this one you might guess is different.

Feltsman lets the music affect his mood (I guess), and this mood, in turn, affects the music. Combined with a moody figure and excellent technique, some very interesting things can happen.

It’s those little nuances here, and there, that render the recording as one with touches of fleeting brilliance.

Clear sound, great attack in many phrases. Sometimes the timing is just not robot-perfect, and this to me, is a blessing rather than a curse. Feltsman’s playing for me in Bach is very different from the touch of, say, Angela Hewitt who is more smooth (legato) in her style. Feltsman avoids the mechanical style of Gould, but any echoes are fair ones.

I am not sure in all the praise I might give the recording that it would be my definitive favorite. It wouldn’t be the only one I’d want to have in my collection… but it contrasts very nicely with my instrumental versions and brings both smiles and appreciation to me while listening; between its moments of reverence, and those of humor.

iTunes “Plus” Upgrade

Today when I logged-into the iTunes Music Store, I was alerted that I could “upgrade” two albums I had purchased to their newer, higher-quality “Plus” tracks for $6. This upgrade would improve the quality, supposedly, and remove the DRM-restrictions.

I took the bait. I was disappointed that this music was only encoded originally at 128kbits. And unlike Amazon’s VBR-encoding that “changes” the encoding depending upon the complexity of the material, Apple’s are all 256kbit encodes.

(Yes, I know, VBR can provide better over-all quality, and I have many tracks encoded in VBR, but at substantially higher bit-rates.)

One problem: as iTunes started to download these new replacement tracks, it locked up, and was not behaving.

After force-quitting and restarting, I had to visit my account to renew the downloads, and it locked up again. After force-quitting a second time, I upgraded to the latest copy of iTunes, and the third try was successful.

I like the freedom… iTunes or Amazon… DRM-free. I think any competitor needs to follow in these footsteps… to offer DRM-free music, at competitive prices, that play on all players. “Technology independent,” in other words. If Universal, Microsoft, Real, or anyone else doesn’t get it… I don’t think they’ll be successful.

Mii

I think I look a lot like my Mii.

Sleepy Music

Driving home from a long trip, I had several CDs in rotation in the car. Among the selections were an album from Dave Holland Big Band (jazz), Biber’s Rosenkranz Sonatas, and some wind concertos by Vivaldi. First up was the jazz, and the following comment came forth from my traveling companion.

This music is sleepy music… (He proceeds to sing the repetitive “lick” on the current track.) You see, this is music isn’t good for keeping you awake.

It was true, we were both tired and in need of an afternoon nap. But this, to my ears, was hardly “sleepy music.”

Next up, the Vivaldi. I think the disc was played by Zefiro, which means passages normally embellished by the violinist (director), or harpsicordist (director) were gone, and instead, liberties were taken with the woodwind lines (say, I don’t know, the oboe). Their fast movements are full of energy and drive, yet, their slow movements are pastoral, for sure.

It’s Vivaldi’s fault, but some of those are sleepy.

Somehow in comparison, Biber wasn’t sleepy. I’d lend it to the fact his repetitive chunks are smaller and “all over the place,” to quote my companion. Historically, Biber’s “Fantastic” style gave way to the structure we see in ripieno-formatted concertos. It’s just that the little motivic ideas in Biber get expanded to be whole phrases that repeat in Vivaldi.

It’s amazing what lessons are learned when trying to fight-off sleeping at the wheel.

Amazon MP3 Service

I bit the bullet this past weekend and tried my hand at purchasing music using Amazon.com’s new MP3 download service. Here’s a link to Bach’s Goldberg Variations I was considering buying, from Richard Egarr.

I started with three complete CDs:

• Mozart Violin Concertos (Andrew Manze, English Concert)
• Gluck: Trio Sonatas, Musica Antiqua Köln
• Keith Jarrett: Dark Intervals

I was surprised to find that the Mozart was missing a track. When I went back, I found out that unknown to me, one slow movement was “unavailable.” Like, you could preview it, see it, but you could not buy it. What the hell? I guess I saw it before I bought “the entire” album, but I figured it wasn’t available alone, but only with the full album.

I was damned.

The sound quality of the MP3s is good. It’s not, however “256 kb” as they announce. Instead, all three CDs featured VBR-encoded tracks. This isn’t necessarily bad, but not one track was above 256… I am not sure this is kosher to say one thing (256) and get a track that averages at another (213).

The MAK disk was released on Challenge Classics, not DG Archiv. Same went for their Dowland release I bought on CD (I didn’t much care for it.) This Gluck release is more to my taste, and a review should be forthcoming.

Long ago I enjoyed Jarrett’s CD called Dark Intervals, it was in fact, a favorite. I had bootlegged it onto tape from the public library (thanks, Bay Village Public Library, Ohio). But since the digital days, I had longed to own this. So, thanks to Amazon and ECM I now own this solo concert from Japan, recorded in the late 1980s.

The most disappointing was the Manze CD. Yes, he does a few interesting things, but the tempi he chooses too often are too slow for my taste. EGalante with Biondi did a better job at their recording of concertos 1-3; Manze records 3-5 (thankfully, #3 is a real favorite). Both offer some “personally authentic” touches that the full set by Standage and the AAM lack.

So far, I’m happy with Amazon’s new service. Higher quality files than iTunes, without the silly DRM.