Some more old posts I archived...
From MT: Harkness, no doubt as fed up with the holidays as most of us, snapped:
<<No, I'm implying that any number of people on this board like to play the game of obscurantist one-upmanship. "The greatest recording of such and such is by some guy no one's ever heard of, in a radio broadcast from Sakhalin Island in 1946. There was
only one tape ever made, and I have it, and I killed a Soviet diplomatic courier to get it and then blew up the radio station to make sure there were no more copies. Fleeing across Siberia, my troika pursued by wolves....">>
Popov WTC
You have not heard the WTC unless you've heard the great Vladimir Ardaevich Popov - not to be confused with his brother, the sublime composer Igor Ardaevich Popov, of whom I've spoken before in this forum. Unfortunately, Vladimir Ardaevich Popov's
recordings are on very rare 78s, the gathering of which took me nearly four decades. Each recording was made during a different Traktorfest season (1932-38), and it is astonishing to behold how Vladimir Ardaevich's style matured over that span. The last
recordings were made at the Novosibirsk Traktorfest, in which the crowd decided to keep the tractors running for heat, and there is some disturbing background noise and a shout or two from the artist begging attention; however, the pianist's towering
interpretations are such that the sound simply is not an issue. There was an LP reissue of part of these performances, in substandard pseudosteroized sound, on Arcanissima 77, though an announced CD reissue on Piratica never materialized as the label
dematerialized. As I said at the beginning: throw out all your recordings of the WTC: no-one comes even close to Vladimir Ardaevich Popov. Regards,mt
Heldenpianist Jeremy Cook
Allow me to introduce myself. I am world-renowned German translator and Wagnerian Romantischer Heldenpianist Jeremy Cook. I will be giving my next live concert/lecture/demonstration on the ego-inflating results of hearing and/or performing Richard Wagner'
s music on Tuesday, February30, 1999, from 5 to 7 PM in the Lawrence Welk Memorial Auditorium of the Bridgeport, Connecticut No-Tell Motel. Admission to this gala event is $2.00 for adults, $3.00 for seniors and students (don't cry poor to me, I don't
want to hear it). This is my most recent presentation of my scholarly lecture/concert entitled, "Wagner's Music as a Stimulus to Heightened Arrogance and Delusional Self-Importance," which was met with vociferous kudos on previous occasions. It includes
a pre-concert lecture on the fine points of translating German vocal and poetic texts into easy-to-understand modern English (with many examples provided). The performance itself features piano transcriptions of arias from a wide range of Wagner's operas.
In the course of the evening, I will actually play eight high C's, two high D's, and one super-duper-high C (the one at the very top of the piano, usually heard only in cartoons). Videotapes of this performance will be available. Terms will be announced
in a future self-flattering Usenet post to broadcast the wild success that the performance will no doubt be. Snacks will be provided free (little hot dogs on crackers and the like) but the bar is strictly cash. Hope to see you there! Jeremy Cook,
Wagnerian Romantischer Heldenpianist Newtown, Connecticut, USA
I enclose eulogies from my previous events:
"I doubt that I will ever see a performance like that again."
- Norman Lebrecht, The Times of London, 12/20/98.
"I clapped until I stopped."
- Harold C. Schonberg, The New York Times, 1/5/99.
"The free buffet was not to be believed."
- Julia Child, Food & Wine, November 1998.
"The performances given by Jeremy Cook in these parts will not soon be forgotten." - Gramophone
"We didn't listen before to a conductor like Mr. Jeremy Cook, we couldn't believe what we were listening now and we don't want to listen to him, ever again!" – Fanfare
"Mr Cook's concerts do for music lovers what Thanksgiving does for turkeys"
-- Connecticut Chronicle, November 1998
From Simon Roberts: For immediate release:
Brussels 1/23/99 -- The World Association of Record Sellers (WARS) wishes to make public its appreciation and recognition of their most loyal customer, Simon Roberts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Roberts, an avid classical music collector, has
recently broken a record long held by an LP collector who by 1982 had acquired 178,000 LPs. By January 11, 1998, Mr. Roberts had bought every classical music CD ever released, and had bought at least one classical CD from each classical music dealer in
the world. It is estimated that to date Mr. Roberts has acquired some 185,000 CDs. Mr. Roberts will be honored at a reception to be held at WARS headquarters, during which he will be presented with an artistic silver plaque depicting a facsimile of his
credit card.
For further information, contact WARS at
[email protected].
"Pigs in white satin and mice with a stammer
Cows that speak Latin and wield a hammer
Badgers that think they can dine out with kings
These are a few of my average things........"
---from "The Hound of Music"
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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