Hello all
As indicated I am new to this list. My musical interests broad and
varied and I always find classifying music by genre quite annoying. As
an example, if I said I liked performances, which I do, by Keith Jarrett
you might be tempted to classify me as a jazz fan, that is, unless you are
familiar with the 2 CD boxed ECM New Series sets of JS Bach Well Tempered
Clavier Books 1 & 2. Both, in my estimation are superbly performed, Book
1 on piano and Book 2 on harpsichord. Then, take a CD which I purchased
just today. Music composed and played on trumpet by Norwegian Arve
Henriksen entitled "Sakuteiki" which is inspired by an 11th Century
treatise on Japanese gardening, also distributed by ECM Records under the
Rune Grammofon label. What I am saying is that the majority of composers
take the process of writing very seriously and it is us, the consumer and
the record distributor who insists on classifying it by genre. This is I
feel such a great shame as I would have not had the good fortune to unearth
the Arve Henriksen CD if I had only looked in the "Classical" department of
my local HMV record store.
Whilst on the subject of ECM Records who can be found on
http://www.ecmrecords.com/ their New Series label is quite wonderful
and for anyone who has not explored it I strongly recommend doing so.
Each release is a total performance. To give some idea. If you wished to
purchase, which I heartily recommend, the JS Bach Suites No's 1-6 for solo
violoncello performed by Thomas Demenga you would need to buy 4 single CDs
and the recently released double CD. In consultation with Manfred Eicher,
the produce, and the performer piece the program together with music by
other composers. For example, the afore mention double CD includes Suite
No 5 BWV 1011- Suite No 6 BWV 1012 is coupled with music composed by Toshio
Hosokawa (b1955) and Isang Yun (1917-1995) which I personally find very
refreshing. Having said all that my all time favourite performance of the
JS Bach suites for violoncello No's 1-6 has to be Paolo Beschi playing a
baroque Cello in The Villa Medici-Giulini, Briosco, Italy- Winter & Winter
910 027-2 and 910 001-2.
http://www.winterproductions.com
I hope you find something of interest on the ECM website as I continue
to. Check out recordings of music by Giya Kancheli, Erkki- Sven Tuur and
Luciano Berio and define them by genre if you must. I file JS Bach under
B on my shelves Erkki- Sven Tuur under T, Morton Feldman under F, Tangerine
Dream under T and Bob Dylan under D. It's all music to me
Kenneth Cooke
Leeds
United Kingdom
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