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What is Musicality?

Hello fellow music lovers,

I am upgrading my system like a lot of us who follow Audiogon. I read a lot about musicality on Audiogon as though the search for musicality can ultimately end by acquiring the perfect music system -- or the best system that one can afford. I really appreciate the sonic improvements that new components, cables, plugs and tweaks are bringing to my own system. But ultimately a lot of musicality comes from within and not from without. I probably appreciated my Rocket Radio and my first transistor radio in the 1950s as much I do my high-end system in 2010. Appreciating good music is not only a matter of how good your equipment is. It is a measure of how musical a person you are. Most people appreciate good music but some people are born more musical than others and appreciate singing in the shower as much as they do listening to a high-end system or playing a musical instrument or attending a concert. Music begins in the soul. It is not only a function of how good a system you have.

Sabai
sabai
uberdine
100 posts
 
Schubert, agreed, the mid bass is crucial for classical music. I mainly listen to alternative rock/ska/punk but love your namesake's first and second piano trios, as well as Mahler and St Saens' cello concertos. With live classical the cellos both envelop and lift up the other instruments, which our systems should be able to replicate.

Can you recommend any other cello-based music I might like based on the above? I like Beethoven's cello concertos as well but not as much as Mahler's or St Saens'. My knowledge of classical is however VERY limited, so I'm open to suggestions.
detlof
1,899 posts
 
Sabai,
REgarding those two artists you mention, I could not agree more. Not to forget, that Monk was also a composer and a great teacher in his own way. All the jazz greats of his time came to him, seeking his advice. His genius was behind and formed the way jazz music was being played then. At least that's what I have been told......
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Uberdine, first and foremost the Bach solo cello suites.
Dvorak and Elgar Cello concertos. One of the most haunting pieces in all music is the Solo Cello Suite Opus 8, by one of the greatest of modern composers, Zoltan Kodaly. There is s good performance on Naxos but IMO the one by Janos Starker, a Hungarian like Kodaly is one of the greatest recordings ever made.Came out on Delos.
Haydn wrote 2 enjoyable cello concertos , as did Max Reger.
One of Yo-Yo Ma's finest efforts was the Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto on Sony.
Beyond all doubt one of the finest works in all of music is Schubert' Quintet in C which uses two cellos, many fine recordings of this.
frogman
7,457 posts
 
Excellent recommendations by Schubert. I would add Heitor Villa Lobos' "Bachianas Brazileiras" No. 1 for eight cellos and No. 5 for orchestra of cellos and soprano. Villa-Lobos was the greatest of the Latin-American composers to, like Kodaly, blend the native music of his country (Brazil) with European Classical tradition. In this case, "Bachiana" refers to the influence of Bach; subtle, but easily heard in these pieces particularly in the fugue. The EMI recording of these pieces with the glorious Victoria De Los Angeles singing No. 5 is the one to have. Music not quite of the depth of Schubert's recs, but beautiful by any standard and showcases the cello.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Detlof and Frogman,

Monk created a unique style -- according to his wife, due to his small fingers (especially his baby finger which was nearly half the length of his middle finger). His compositions became classics. Peterson composed very little. He had a huge reach. His command of the keyboard, his virtuosity and his beautiful arrangements and renditions of the "classics" were breathtaking. Monk and Peterson are two of my favorite jazz pianists.
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