Your Prayers, Again
Allisyn showed up to work today, by surprise. She was having chest pains and couldn't drive home. As I was driving her, they got worse. I decided to pick up Remy and hightail it to the hospital. I'm hoping we were able to forestall a full-scale heart attack, but either way they are keeping her overnight. I don't know much more than that right now.
Thanks fo the Vinyl, Bud!
A co-worker is unloading some old classical albums on me, a small stack at a time. The batch that he brought in today was killer - it included two of harpsichordist Sylvia Marlowe's albums on Decca (stereo DJ copies!) and the 1977 CSP re-master on Egon Petri's 1952 recording of the Beethoven "Hammerklavier Sonata" Op. 106. The Petri I have owned before, and rather frequently listened to it in high school. It is radically different from ANY other recording of the "Hammerklavier", as Petri plays the piece as though it were an ultra-tough excercise in modern music. It IS a difficult and advanced score, like several things in late Beethoven (the Grosse Fuge, the Op. 135 String Quartet, etc.) But I've heard players such as Kovacevich round off the edges of the score, add pauses here and there and spruce it up with a little rubato to make it read more like what one would expect from a Beethoven Sonata. And I'm not saying that's a bad approach.
But it is NOT the approach that Petri takes - he dives in to the work with both feet and takes it at treacherous tempi and highlights literally everything that is difficult and thorny about it. The Petri plays the concluding Allegro resoluto it almost sounds like something out of Ives' "Concord Sonata." It's crazy, but its also the recording of the "Hammerklavier" I like the best! My high school copy I was forced to abandon when circumstances compelled me to flee California on my eighteenth birthday. I haven't heard it since, so thanks to Chris T. for bringing this lovely music back to me.
Which brings up the evil subject of
Great Classical Recordings Held Hostage!
Some time ago Pearl Records in England issued a package called "Egon Petri: The Complete Busoni Recordings". When I checked out the table of contents, it made me mad, because I could tell at a glance it wasn't "complete." Egon Petri was the piano student who was closest in spirit to the interpretive style of Ferrucio Busoni, whose few recordings, many piano rolls and scores/editions I have studied for twenty-five years. The Pearl package didn't include Petri's solo piano recording of Busoni's gargantuan "Fantasia Contrappuntistica," made in 1960 for the Westminster label. The Pearl package was limited, naturally, to only the 78 era recordings Petri made for Columbia, which are public domain in Europe.
What was Westminister is now part of Universal Music Group. They have re-issued some Westminister stuff, mostly orchestral recordings by Hermann Scherchen. But it's going to take them forever to get around to Egon Petri, if they ever do so at all. Likewise don't expect Sony to issue this mono Petri "Hammerklavier" anytime soon. Business is bad, and these recordings are not high priorities.
Also owned by UMusic is the entire catalogue of Syvia Marlowe, who was one of Decca Gold Label's contract artists, making a ga-jillion albums for them. Anyone who knows harpischord well knows that Sylvia Marlowe rules - probably the only person I know of who can claim to have recorded J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, Virgil Thomson, Colin McPhee and the piece "Honky Tonk Train Blues" by Meade Lux Lewis. But her records have been out of print so long that her name has been forgotten except to a few specialist nuts like myself. There is also the fear that her recordings might seem "old fashioned" in light of recent developements in performance practice and the evr-changing sound of rebuilt period instruments. That Sylvia's records don't sound "old fashioned" at all is a credit to her, but try explaining that to some record exec who thinks that Christophe Rousset is "da bomb."
I just heard Sylvia Marlowe playing a couple of pieces by Louis Couperin. How were they? Well - like I said - they rule!! And I have to thank some fellow I never knew who was too lazy or too devoted to throw out his vinyl albums when they went out of date, and kept them in excellent condition. This bud's for you!
WHOA! TCM Dishes Up a Healthy Heapin' of That Good Ol' Cecil B. DeMille
Show of hands: How many of know the name "Cecil B. DeMille"? Oh - many of you! Good. Now - How many of you have seen any of his films beside "The Ten Commandments" with Charlton Heston? Hmmm - that's what I thought.
It seems that TCM really comes through in April - I think it is to make up for March, which is usually devoted wholly to Oscar(TM)-winning films you've seen a damn dog million times. This year the Oscars were awarded early, so February was the vacant month at TCM instead. But recognition of DeMille's incredible cinematic legacy is LONG overdue - even on TCM. So this is a special treat, with a two-part documentary on his career, and a screening of nine films. If you catch one I'll be happy (and so will you - he really was worth his reputation, especially in the silent period.)
Here is how the schedule shakes out:
DeMille Documentary
Cecil B. DeMille: An American Epic Pt. 1 4/5 at 8 & 11:30 pm,
4/12 at 1 am
Cecil B. DeMille: An American Epic Pt. 2 4/7 at 8 & 11:30 pm,
4/12 at 2 am
DeMille Films
The Sign of the Cross (1932) 4/5 at 9 pm
The Squaw Man (1913) 4/6 at 12:30 am, 4/19 at 12 am
The Cheat (1915) 4/6 at 2 am
The Squaw Man (1931) 4/6 at 3 am, 4/23 at 4 am
Madam Satan (1930) 4/6 at 5 am
The Crusades (1935) 4/7 at 9 pm
The King of Kings (1927) 4/8 at 12:30 am, 4/12 at 12 am
Dynamite (1929) 4/8 at 2:30 am
The Affairs of Anatol (1921) 4/8 at 5 am
The Sign of the Cross, The Cheat and The King of Kings are all masterworks. The 1913 The Squaw Man is interesting in that it's first Hollywood feature and uses, for a change, real Indians in the Indian parts. The Affairs of Anatol is a good social melodrama of the kind that, I think, no one ever bettered De Mille in, although Male and Female (1919) is a superior title. Madam Satan is one of the biggest disasters in the history of cinema, a musical with such incredibly bad songs and in such bad taste that you'll think you're watching a 1930 version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." the others I haven't seen - The Crusades I didn't even know he made.
Lots of other fun stuff coming up, so here's some more tips, and with that I'll say "goodnight."
he Pilgrim (1923) 3/24 at 10 pm (rarely shown Chaplin title)
Anna Christie (1930) 3/27 at 2 am (German language version)
Detour (1945) 3/27 at 8 am (If you've never seen it, don't miss it)
Intolerance (1916) 3/28 at 12 am (D.W. Griffith, 4 stories intercut, 178 minutes)
Shanghai Express (1932) 3/29 at 9:30 pm (Anna May - oy vey!)
The Flying Fleet (1928) 3/31 at 4 am
Monsieur Verdoux (1947) 3/31 at 8:30 (Charlie Chaplin as a serial killer)
Holiday in Mexico (1946) 4/1 at 10 am (weirdo musical filmed in pre-revolutionary Cuba)
Phantom Lady (1944) 4/3 at 8 am, 4/30 at 8 pm
White Zombie (1932) 4/4 at 3:45 am
Champagne (1928) 4/5 at 12 am (Hitchcock silent)
Stella Maris (1918) 4/8 at 7 am (Mary Pickford)
Daddy Long Legs (1919) 4/8 at 8:30 am (Mary Pickford - very good!!)
The Love Light (1921) 4/8 at 10 am (Mary Pickford)
Tess of the Storm Country (1922) 4/8 at 11:30 am (Mary Pickford)
Flesh (1932) 4/9 at 9 am (directed by John Ford)
The Lost Squadron (1932) 4/9 at 11 am (Erich von Stroheim, in character)
Senso (1954) 4/10 at 2 am (hey! obscure Visconti title)
Le Petit Soldat (1963) 4/17 at 2 am (Jean Luc-Godard)
Harold Lloyd Festival - see schedule for 4/20
Federico Fellini - Documentary & two Features on 4/23
The Ring (1927) 4/26 at 12 am (another Hitchcock silent)
Hearts of the World (1918) 4/27 at 4:30 am (D.W. Griffith)
A Child is Waiting (1963) 4/29 at 11 pm (Cassavettes directs Judy Garland - yikes!)
A program of Robert Siodmak films - see schedule for 4/30
Uncle Dave Lewis