insignificant attempt(s)

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Thursday, July 18, 2019

“I’ve always admired poets. They’re the last pure artists. Nobody buys the stuff. All they have are themselves and a piece of paper.” - John Baldessari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baldessari

Friday, March 29, 2019

Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13 - Jacques Rachmilovich (at my You Tube channel)

Jacques Rachmilovich (1895-1956)

A brief biography:

Jacques Rachmilovich was born in Odessa on October 8, 1895. He studied composition and conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, making his debut there in 1921. One of his fellow students was Serge Prokofiev. After immigrating to the US in 1925 and settling in Southern California in 1945, he organized the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra, which he directed until 1948. A brilliant protege of Arturo Toscanini and Albert Coates, he made numerous appearances as a guest conductor both in the US and abroad, and specialized in both Russian and modern music. Rachmilovich died while travelling on the Italian ship “Giacomo” en route from Italy to the US on August 14, 1956. He was buried in the Strait of Gibralter.

The 1951 recording Rachmilovich made with the Stockholm Radio Symphony Orchestra may be the first commercial recording of Rachmaninov's 1945 restored score (while Eugene Ormandy had already conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in a televised performance of this work on March 19, 1948).

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Tchaikovsky: Suite No. 4 "Mozartiana" / Boccherini (arr. Jean Françaix): Scuola di Ballo / Schubert: Quartet No. 14 in D minor "Death and the Maiden" (D. 810)

Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Suite No. 4 in G major, Op. 61 "Mozartiana"

(cover of orginal 78 rpm edition)

I. Gigue

II. Menuet

III. Preghiere (Prayer)

IV. Theme and Variations

Solo Violin: John Corigliano

New York Philharmonic / Artur Rodzinski

(LP transfer; Columbia, recorded February 27, 1945)

Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)

Scuola di Ballo - Ballet Music

(arranged by Jean Françaix)

I. Leçon

II. Menuet

III. Larghetto

IV. Rondo

V. Dispute

VI. Presto

VII. Pastorale

VIII. Danse Allemande

IX. Scene du Notaire

X. Finale

London Philharmonic Orchestra / Antal Dorati

(78 rpm transfers; Columbia, recorded July 27, 1939)

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

String Quartet No. 14 in D minor "Death and the Maiden" (D. 810)

I. Allegro

II. Andante con moto

III. Scherzo (Allegro molto) & Trio

IV. Presto

Busch Quartet

Adolf Busch, 1st Violin

Gösta Andreasson, 2nd Violin

Karl Doktor, Viola

Hermann Busch, Cello

(78 rpm transfers; HMV, recorded Oct. 16, 1936)

Monday, December 31, 2018

Loveless Love. 1996 (Oil on canvas - 100 x 123 cm)

Loveless Love (W. C. Handy) / Love is like a hydrant, it turns off and on / Like some friendships when your money's gone / Love stands in with the loan sharks / When your heart's in tongs / If I had some strong wings like an aeroplane / Had some broad wings like an aeroplane / I would fly away forever / Never to come again / Oh love, oh love, oh loveless love / Has said our hearts are goldless gold / From milkless milk and silkless silk / We are growing used to soulless souls / Such grafting times we never saw / That's why we have a pure food law / In everything we find a flaw / Even love, oh love, oh loveless love / Just to fly away from loveless love

(click twice to begin video)

Billie Holliday - Loveless Love

Loveless Love was made 1996 at the request of a clarinettist whose teacher had made a clarinet arrangement of the song made famous by Billie Holliday. The arrangement was then performed by the clarinettist within the program of a recital while the painting was displayed behind him as he played the arrangement.