Missed yesterday, so I’ll do two today and one has to be a record I hate on.
I’ll get the hate out of the way first.
John Cage. I do not like John Cage’s compositions. I do not like compositions inspired by relationships with John Cage. Other people are free to like his stuff, but if there’s a piece of experimental music that I totally abhor, chances are that John Cage was the composer or had influence on the composer. 1 out of 10 because his stuff makes my skin crawl.
Now for the stuff I like.
Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. It’s full of life, color, passion – and rhythm. It’s not long-hair music that makes you pass out from boredom. It’s great fun and loaded with imagination.
It’s also free: Peabody Institute has lots of their performances available for private use, so if you scroll down to the 2003-2004 season, you can get all four movements there. Enjoy!
I first encountered Scheherezade in an unlikely place: a forgettable Tom Hanks comedy called The Man With One Red Shoe. Hanks plays a concert violinist who is mistaken for a secret agent, and in one scene his orchestra plays Scheherezade. Ooh, it gave me the tingles. I went out and bought it on cassette that same weekend.
I remember that movie and, yes, it is forgettable.
But not my Rimsky to the Korsakov!