The blog
Writing & notes
Essays, notes and reflections on technology, law and life.
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Boomshine
Generate some pseudo-random music by exploding circles at strategic choke-points on the game map so as to sustain the chain reaction as long as possible. Flash file: _flashnode (Flash is no longer supported by browsers; kept for the record) Source: http://bored.com/boomshine/ Read more →
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Bach: The Goldberg Variations
The clear-cut rhythms, riveting articulation, and contrapuntal acumen of Glenn Gould’s 1955 debut Goldberg Variations characterize this 1981 remake to strikingly different results. This later version is more deliberate in pacing, stark in expression, thoughtful with ornamentation, and tightly organized (if a mite theatrical) in terms of tempo relationships. Whereas there are no repeats from… Read more →
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Furtwangler Conducts Beethoven – Beethoven: symphonies no 3,4,5, & 9, Leonore
These may be the most gripping performances of Beethoven’s symphonies you’ll ever hear. No, not necessarily the most enjoyable or even the most accurate, but gripping–to say the least. In these wartime performances of Symphonies Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9, Wilhelm Furtwängler is at his most expressive, angry self. Conducting six of… Read more →
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Shostakovich – Complete Quartets – Borodin Quartet (6 CD Set)
Label(s): Melodiya Year of release: 2006 Recording length: 429:56 Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich Performer: Sviatoslav Richter Band: Borodin Quartet / Gosudarstvennyj kvartet imeni A.P. Borodina Read more →
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Wagner – Der Ring des Nibelungen (Ring Cycle) / Sawallisch, Bayerischer Staatsoper
Those without access to video disc players can now enjoy this 1989 Ring production, although stage noises and singers husbanding their resources come off less forgivingly in an audio-only context. But the recording is surprisingly crisp and vibrant, save for distortion in loud tuttis. Wolfgang Sawallisch has a sixth sense for pacing, proportion, and keeping… Read more →
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Prokofiev: The Five Piano Concertos
During the 1970s, Vladimir Ashkenazy recorded virtually the entire standard piano repertoire, largely successfully. Then he turned to conducting, at which he’s steadily become more successful. Although his initial efforts on the podium were not greeted with universal acclaim, you’ve got to respect the fact that he moved onto something new rather than attempting to… Read more →
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Prokofiev, Ravel: Piano Concertos, etc / Martha Argerich
This is the original Prokofiev/Ravel concerto coupling as it appeared on LP; the Prokofiev has also been coupled with the Tchaikovsky First Concerto. I prefer this edition since superb performances of the Ravel are less common. The young (1967) Martha Argerich plays the Prokofiev for maximum brilliance but leavens the Ravel with the composer’s ironic… Read more →