Monday, April 18, 2011

Tom Bombadil on deviantART


http://angusdegraosta.deviantart.com/

I like the deviantART website. You'll find good art to buy, and plenty of great free stuff to put as wallpaper on your cell phone. I uploaded a few pictures on the site, including this fellow, my Photoshopped photo of a wood carving I purchased at Oyster Fest 2008 on Long Island. I call him Tom Bombadil, after the Tolkien character. He's a wild man.

Cheers,
Angus

Friday, April 8, 2011

Brahms: Piano Quintet, op. 34 - Previn


Mighty out-of-print, and mighty good. I've heard some rather anemic versions of this piece - not this one. The F minor Piano Quintet, op. 34 is one of the first recordings that made me realize chamber music can be great stuff. I haven't up to now seen any reviews of this performance by AndrĂ© Previn and the Musikvereinsquartett, which I think dates from 1984. Not a problem. I'll review it. The first three movements are as grumpy and graceful as you might expect, and the last is all the rip-roaring Brahms you could ask for. Seriously one of the most brilliant finales Brahms ever wrote, up there with his symphonic output. I found this at my local library years ago and have never stopped admiring it.

For a comparison to other recordings, read here. As for the music...

Download here (no password):
http://www.mediafire.com/?7og2l18s3t6q9i2

Cheers,
Angus