Swoon Nominations

So nominations for the Classic 100 Swoon are closed and the big list will be put up soon. I nominated more than I can vote for and there were some more obvious choices I might vote for that I didn't need to nominate. Of course, last time I nominated things not one of my nominations made the voting list so it may not be an issue.

Anyway, here's a selection of what I nominated. I was impressed to see someone had already nominated one of Liadov's Eight Russin Folk Songs for Orchestra, the Hymn or Religious Song, so I just nominated the Lament. I also nominated The Enchanted Lake (which has a good chance of making the countdown I think, and The Magical Snuffbox - which unfortunately is called the Musical Snuffbox ... here's hoping they figure that out.

Sticking with great Russians, I also nominated Mussogsky's Dawn on the Moscow River from Khovashchina and The Old Castle from Pictures at an Exhibition. Slipped some Ippolitov-Ivanov in there two, the Introduction to Caucasian Sketches No 2 and At Rest and Nocturne from the Turkish Fragments - the second and third movements.

A Narnia Lullaby by Gregory-WIlliams was my most modern nomination, it has always captured me, every time I hear it I drift to another world. I don't have high hopes for it in the countdown however.

I was a little stunned when I found no Elena Kats-Chernin on the preliminary list when she has some remarkably beautiful Swoons. I put forth Eliza's Aria from the Wild Swans (which was one I thought would be there by default), and a couple of short pieces I find equally swoon worthy, including this amazing Bucharian Melody.

There were a few others I nominated but this is your lot for now.

PS Okay one more, there's a short solo piano piece by Mozart which I first heard on Gerard Willem's Reflections on Mozart album and it is pure swoon. All the genius of Mozart with a heart-wrenching beauty underlying it. This version is Mitsuko Uchida's rendition.

Getting this blog going

This is just a quick post to announce the new way I'm hoping to run this blog. I'm going to try to be a bit more methodical and committed to it. I've started by adding a Facebook page which will announce when I post here and also share smaller things like links and quick happy birthdays to composers long dead and maybe even living ones from time to time.

I'm also going to have a Composer of the Month. I'll announce who on the Facebook page on the first Wednesday of the month and post a YouTube link to a piece written by them every Wednesday. I'll also do a post about them here sometime during the month and maybe some album reviews.

This month it's Beethoven. Yes, a fairly obvious choice but it made sense. I'm studying his Piano Sonatas in an online course this month so he's already on my mind and in my ears. Doing that course was a bit of serendipity actually. My wife just gave me the Beethoven-Willems Collection featuring all the sonatas and concertos plus more, and I was looking at courses on the Coursera site and saw it there - it was meant to be. I'll let you know what it's like later in the month.

I'm still working my way through the B-W collection but the discs I've played so far are magnificent. Not only is the playing good, the recording is crystal clear. It's an all-round brilliant effort.

Let the music play!