Today, for some reason (probably because I saw the CD on the shelf), I decided to listen to Vesselina Kasarova's Lieder recital from 1999. Then I decided to see if I had ever gotten around to ripping it to iTunes. Aha! There it is in iTunes, but there's no cover photo (iTunes is not great at tracking down classical album covers.) So, of course, I Google images for "Kasarova Lieder."
The first image was the CD cover (now duly saved and linked to the files in iTunes). The fourth image linked me to a blog post by Smorgy called Why I Love Vesselina Kasarova. That Smorgy loves Kasarova is not news, but why Smorgy loves Kasarova was a new story for me. And it's a wonderful story. Her post also touches on indiscriminate "music criticism" that has little to do music or with actual criticism.
In the comments section of Smorgy's post, relevant to the aforementioned "music criticism" I found a comment from Lankin and a link to a blog post intriguingly entitled Lovers of Classical Music - Application Denied. The post is both thoughtful and amusing, and I find myself wishing that Lankin would start posting again!
So, where did I go next? Well, I named this post before I wrote it, and now I'm sitting here wondering how I actually did get to that clip of Topi Lehtipuu singing Gluck. I don't remember; but here it is, plus another with Stéphane Degout.
(I seem to be haunted by Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride lately, which is odd, since I never heard or saw the opera before this week. I've made it about halfway through this performance, and I am enjoying it quite a bit.)
More or less apropos of nothing, I also came across this provocative album cover during my afternoon web explorations:
(I seem to be haunted by Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride lately, which is odd, since I never heard or saw the opera before this week. I've made it about halfway through this performance, and I am enjoying it quite a bit.)
More or less apropos of nothing, I also came across this provocative album cover during my afternoon web explorations:
P.S. Kasarova's recital disc is wonderful, by the way. A lot of the songs are on YT.
Hey Rob! Somehow I missed this entry. Thanks so much for kind words! :o) Now I've got to dig up the Kasarova/Gruberova disc again for another good duets spree. Last time I did that I spent a week or two with their Katzen Duett stuck in my head. ;o)
ReplyDeleteHope you're having a good summer!
Smorgy
Hi Smorgy. It's my pleasure to share gems from your blog. It's been a busy summer, that's for sure. Hope yours was pleasant, too!
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