Whats on your turntable tonight?

I have been following everyone's comments on Brian Wilson's "Smile". I eagerly purchased the LP when it was released, based mainly on the buzz it had generated. I have not considered myself a Beach Boys "fan" but I like their tunes and the good time, summer air feeling they always invoke when I hear them.

I just cannot get my head around this one. I have been reluctant to come out and say so up until now, thinking I must be missing the point, or am ignorant of the reasons for the Magnum Opus status it has been given by the press.

To me, the title is a good one. It does make you smile when you hear it. That being said, I liken its overall effect on me to an amusement park: It makes me smile for a short time, but the novelty wears off. There are those who REALLY like amusement parks.

The production values are right up there, there are quirky sound effects, interesting turns of phrase in the vocals, but Brian's voice and years of hard living really show.

Honest, I want to like it, I don't dislike it, but I am really only good for a side at a time before I find myself saying "well that was fun. What's next?"

Q: "... before I find myself saying 'well that was fun. What's next?' "

A: The answer is Mahler, Joe. M A H L E R

;-)

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Tonight...

Holst: Savitri, a Chamber opera in one act
Holst: Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda
...Imogen Holst conducting the English Chamber Orchestra and Purcell Singers, with Janet Baker, Thomas Hemsley, Robert Tear. Argo ZNF 6, recorded 1965. I've owned this record for 25 years and enjoy it immensely. Harry Pearson had this on his list for many years for the Choral Hymns. They're nice, the Purcell Singers and harp accompaniment are excellently rendered, but it's the Savitri for which you need to get this record. This recording is one of the clearest examples in my collection of soundstage width, depth and layering - and it's great example of when excellent reproduction of soundstaging can really add to the realism of a recording because the three vocalists move up, down and across the stage during the course of the performance.

Copy number 2 of the above. Yep, its a duplicate and I need to decide to keep one and find a home for the others. So far, it's been a toss-up between identical pressings. Copy 3 is an older pressing, but I'll have to get to it later.

Piano Works of Debussy and Ravel, Ivan Moravec, Connossieur Society CS2010 (Athena reissue ALSY 10002). If you don't know these recordings Moravec made in the 1960s for the Connoisseur Society label, you really need to check them out if you have any love for piano, Debussy, Ravel or Chopin. The series includes some of the most intelligent piano playing of this (or the last) century by one of the greatest pianists, and they have some of the best and most natural recorded piano sound available. Moravec is certainly my favorite pianist.
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Rushton: RE your observation about most folks never having heard a harpsichord live, it is true that my earliest exposure to the instrument was an actual harpsichord, at the house of friends of my parents when I was a little kid. Though they didn't live in my neighborhood, their son and I were occasional playmates until maybe around age 8, so I had many opportunities so indulge my facsination for this instrument (which was how I felt from first sight/listen). I don't recall anybody from their family actually playing the thing though - it just looked so neat, and I would dink away on it until somebody got fed up and pried me off the bench. Contrast that with the piano (not that I don't love the piano today), which I was made to take lessons on and pretty much despised at around the same ages (except for jazz on my Dad's records).

I know a luthier in Paris - she's primarily reknowned for her period-style viola da gambas - who's made some awesomely beautiful Baroque harpsichords, but even if I could afford to commision one, I'm too late. She hasn't made one in probably close to 20 years; I think they're just too time-consuming, with too little demand, and she says she doesn't foresee ever doing another.

BTW, I'm a nut for harpsichord in pop contexts as well, which was a brief fad in the early-to-mid-60's. The Left Banke ("Walk Away Renee", known for its use of a string section) made a few good recordings featuring harpsichord. It remained popular as a movie soundtrack instrument through the late 60's and into the early 70's. One particular fav is a jazzy early-60's Henry Mancini bachelor-pad instro record called "Combo!, with lucsious RCA studio stereo sound, on which I believe Hank foregoes piano entirely in favor of harpsichord. It's the very definition of "ginchy"!

Nostalgia for the rainy evening, Hiroshima's first two - Self-titled and Odori.