Music rant: Chiling With Vivaldi
Dec. 13th, 2019 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kate_schaeferI support two public radio stations, one for news and one for classical music. I usually don't take a premium when I make a donation, but sometimes I do. I have a mug that's older than my marriage, a tote bag, a wind-up radio. I have a CD called "Chilling with Vivaldi," and it's about to go into the donation bag.
I didn't look at the description closely when I selected it. I expected it to be a selection of Vivaldi concertos, leaning heavily to the most familiar, the sort of thing I could stick into the CD player when I want some pleasant music that I don't need to pay much attention to. Instead, it's a selection of just the largo and adagio movements of Vivaldi concertos, played by musicians who seem to have been told to play in the most soporific fashion possible.
I assume it was intended to be soothing. It is not soothing. It is dreadful. Take away all the contrast in music, and what is left is -- well, it's still music, but it isn't good music.
There have been times when I've wanted to hear just one movement of a work I like, though usually I prefer to hear the whole thing, the way the composer intended. (There are also composers whose works I'd like better if I could put them through a stern editing; I'm looking at you, Shostakovich, and also at you, Wagner. I am not looking at Mahler, because I don't think even a stern editing could make me like Mahler.) I never want to hear a mess of movements from several different works all strung together because they're supposed to be played at the same tempo.
I didn't look at the description closely when I selected it. I expected it to be a selection of Vivaldi concertos, leaning heavily to the most familiar, the sort of thing I could stick into the CD player when I want some pleasant music that I don't need to pay much attention to. Instead, it's a selection of just the largo and adagio movements of Vivaldi concertos, played by musicians who seem to have been told to play in the most soporific fashion possible.
I assume it was intended to be soothing. It is not soothing. It is dreadful. Take away all the contrast in music, and what is left is -- well, it's still music, but it isn't good music.
There have been times when I've wanted to hear just one movement of a work I like, though usually I prefer to hear the whole thing, the way the composer intended. (There are also composers whose works I'd like better if I could put them through a stern editing; I'm looking at you, Shostakovich, and also at you, Wagner. I am not looking at Mahler, because I don't think even a stern editing could make me like Mahler.) I never want to hear a mess of movements from several different works all strung together because they're supposed to be played at the same tempo.
