Here's part 2 of my playlist of songs to play loudly (part one can be found here). This time it's all about blasting classical music so you feel surrounded by the music, and hear how every instrument or voice meshes together perfectly, plus all of the crescendos and diminuendos and all those little details you just don't notice when you play it quietly! I really do encourage you to try listening to the pieces - you never know, you might find something you like!
Classical
Tristan Und Isolde - Isolde's Liebestod - Richard Wagner
The epic build up to when you finally finally finally hear the resolution of the Tristan chord, then he takes it all back again - I can't explain it adequately, so I will let Stephen Fry do it for me:
plus, it's fun to watch two men getting all worked up about Wagner!
Song for Athene - John Tavener
This never fails to send shivers up my spine - especially at the climax of the piece (around 4:20 onwards). Unfortunately I couldn't find my favourite version of this piece - this one is a little dull - so if you can get your hands on it, the version by The Sixteen on the album Ikon is in my opinion the definitive one.
I just looked up the story of this song, and it turns out it was composed in memory of a teenager who was killed in an accident - from now on it will move me even more than it already did.
The Lark Ascending - Ralph Vaughan Williams
It is so hard to choose just one Vaughan Williams piece, but of course it has to be The Lark Ascending. I adore british pastoral music because it reminds me of, well, the british countryside! Rolling hills, green fields, hawthorn hedges and drystone walls... Lovely. I am terribly picky about how this should sound - every violin virtuoso worth their salt has recorded a version of this, but I really don't like them. The reason this piece works is because all the instruments come together to make the sound, not because some famous violinist is making the orchestra wait around while they draw out every note. This is my favourite version, by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
oh, and if you want to hear what a lark ascending really sounds like, click here.
Lux Aurumque - Eric Whitacre
When you turn this up, you really do get the impression of being surrounded by golden light - gorgeous!
Peter Grimes - Four Sea Interludes - Dawn - Benjamin Britten
When I listen to this, I really get the feeling of movement and the potential power and danger of the sea. It really sets the tone for the rest of opera, this feeling of anticipation and something slightly ominous in the background.
Dido and Aeneas - Overture and When I am Laid in Earth - Henry Purcell
I love the whole opera, but especially these two tracks - I couldn't possibly choose between them!
First, the overture: once again, I am incredibly picky about how this must sound - the most important thing is that it isn't too slow after the initial stately introduction! Obviously there are so many different versions of it - not just the interpretations, but the instruments used can be completely different. I personally like the ones which are performed on baroque instruments, and they need to have adequate bass.
This aria, When I am Laid in Earth, is probably Purcell's most famous piece, and it's not hard to see why - it is genius! Dido's part seems to be continuously descending, as the ground bass unrelentingly grinds on, leading her to her inevitable death - such a great composer!
Now, I'm not necessarily an advocate of blasting music through headphones - it damages your ears, and if you are in public it can be incredibly annoying for other people - but there are some tunes which sometimes deserve to be turned up to 11. I usually keep my ipod turned way down, but by turning it up a little one can hear how all the individual parts of the music magically come together to form that piece that you love.
If you continue to read this blog, you will come to learn that I am a great fan of making playlists, so today I decided to come up with a playlist of some of the music that cries out to me to play it loudly!
A lot of the stuff I end up blasting through my headphones is classical, so I have split the playlist into two sections - popular (I can find no other way of classifying these tracks!) and classical. Popular today - Classical will come tomorrow!
Popular (I'm leaving out the obvious ones, and party-pleasers e.g. 80's power ballads. Much as I love them, I'm going for ones you may not have thought of here)
Sound Of A Drum - Seth Lakeman
I've mentioned this in a previous post, but it really is one of my favourite songs of all time. The bass, oh man, the bass! Some day soon I'm going to break the woofers in my car because I play this so much with the bass turned way up. Turn the volume right up for the beginning - I promise you, you won't regret it (unless you have crappy speakers) - it never fails to send shivers up my spine!
This Charming Man - The Smiths
weirdly upbeat for The Smiths, this song will never cease to make me dance around like a lunatic - love the guitar line, Johnny Marr!
Big Love (live) - Fleetwood Mac
I loooooooooooove Fleetwood Mac, and I would do *anything* to see them live. Sadly, this is the closest I've been to being at a concert of theirs. This live version is from one of their "Best Of" albums, and Lindsay Buckingham's guitar playing is unbelievable! However, one time I played it for one of my friends and they asked me if the cd was skipping! These are the perils of playing music too quietly, so make sure you turn it up to get the full effect of the remarkable guitar playing!
Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
I don't usually like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs that much, but this song won me over - it's great fun, funky and kind of sinister!
Neighborhood 3 (Power Out) - Arcade Fire
You can only get the full force of this band if you see them live, but you can get a taste of it by turning this up!
Golden Brown - The Stranglers
The accompaniment to this song is so simple, but so affective - I have to hear it properly!
Sæglópur - Sigur Rós
When I went to see Sigur Rós, they made it rain in front of the stage during this song, so now I always think of a sudden rainstorm when I hear this. Turning it up really helps you appreciate how dense the fabric of this song is.
Mirrorball - Elbow
I get lost in the repeating backing tune of this song, and the orchestration is just swoon-worthy! Elbow at their best!
Do you Love Me? - The Contours
Cue: me dancing around my room like a nutter
I could go on and on and on, but I think you probably get the picture! What songs do you have to play loudly? Or are you more sensible about you hearing than I am?
Midterms are over for the week - just one more next week, and a couple of papers to write, then I am out of the woods! I know I have been neglecting cookery for a while, I will endeavour to post something yummy later this week! Before that though, I will have a couple of music-related posts, since that is one of the things (along with stuffing my face with chocolate and imbibing large doses of caffeine) that has helped me to get through the last couple of weeks. Here we go then - this week's featured artist:
Rufus Wainwright
Ok, we all know Rufus Wainwright - even if you don't know him by name, it is pretty likely that you have heard his music - most probably his version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". I'm not sure I know a single person that doesn't like Rufus Wainwright's music at least a little bit, and I think that really says something about the beauty and accessibility of his songs.
Hailing originally from New York and Montreal, and member of a ridiculously musical family - younger sister Martha (whom he often collaborates with, and who's music I also love), father Loudon and mother Kate McGarrigle - Rufus has so far released 8 cds, as well as various songs for films such as Brokeback Mountain, Moulin Rouge and The History Boys. Last year saw the premiere of his opera "Prima Donna" at the Manchester International Festival.
It is very hard for me to pick only a few songs as my favourites, but here goes anyway (a lot of them ended up being from his first album - I guess it's my favourite!):
April Fools
Fun fact - the women in the video are all opera characters who die for love - Mimi from La Boheme, Carmen, Tosca, Madame Butterfly and Gilda from Rigoletto - can you figure out which is which? Also, is it just me or is Madame Butterfly played by Martha Wainwright?
The weekend and the first half of this week have been and will be pretty nightmareish - lots and lots of revision, along with the usual weekly assignments. I have two midterms this week, one tomorrow, and one on Wednesday - so you can imagine that earlier today I was in a bit of a state. Just as well then that I decided to check my mailbox, because inside it I found this:
and inside that, I found this:
Hooray! Finally! Just what I need to get me up and at 'em and dancing around the room
I don't really celebrate thanksgiving - we don't have it in England, as I have repeatedly had to tell people here - but I figured that a 3-day weekend was something to celebrate, so I made a vaguely festive meal - steak with hassleback potatoes and peas! I also made "Pumpkin Pie in a Pan" from this recipe, but I won't go into that in detail, since it wasn't my recipe.
I'm going to focus in this post on the potatoes. In the spirit of full disclosure, they didn't turn out exactly as planned - I think the oven needed to be hotter, but since I was cooking the pie at the same time, I couldn't crank up the heat. They were still good though, so I'm going to share the recipe
Hassleback Potatoes
hassleback potatoes are basically roast potatoes, but they are cut open to help them cook so you don't have to par-boil them.
Start off with some potatoes, as many as you think you can eat. Longer, more oval shaped ones are ideal, but I could only find round ones, and they work just the same. You want them to be relatively small, whatever shape they are. No need to peel them if they look like the ones in the picture, just wash them and chop off any gnarly bits.
Now for the hassleback part:
slice into the potatoes, almost all the way through, but NOT all the way (it is surprisingly difficult, so don't be surprised if it takes a couple of tries to get it right).
Put them in a roasting tin and drizzle them with olive oil. As you can see, I had some trouble slicing the potatoes, and ended chopping off the ends of a few of them!
Then sprinkle with salt, and put them in the oven at about 400F for around half an hour, or until the potatoes are cooked through.
