bovea y sus vallenatos -- merengues colombianos

bovea and the boys throw down the merengues colombianos.

how do you top that?

julio bovea, alberto fernandez, and jose angarita on fuentes records, a division of miami records out of florida. nice.

artur schnabel -- beethoven piano sonatas 5, 7, 16, and 25

i came across a couple of slabs today of artur schnabel playing beethoven piano sonatas. i know a guy who likes to listen to piano sonatas with his granny that recently turned me on to some interpretations by a fellow named schiff. i have been enjoying those quite a bit and i thought these might be interesting to him from a comparison standpoint. these recordings were made between 1932 and 1935 so they don't have the fidelity of the ecm recordings by schiff, but this fellow schnabel is no amateur he can blow for real and since they both have names that begin with sch i felt it was important to share them. the first side of the first album was sonata no4 but there was a constant noise that was driving me nuts so i didn't rip it (upsetting since it looks as if the record had never been touched, perhaps it is part of the original recording) and in fact they all have a bit of crackle and tic but i found them enjoyable and so here they are such as they are. run an artur schnabel search on youtube, there is some good stuff there. upon doing a bit more research i come to find that artur had quite a following and as i listen more i can hear why. of himself he once said that he didn't play the notes any better than any number of other pianists but that it was the space between the notes: "ah, that is where the art lies," lafite likes that.
hope you'se do too.

brahms first symphony in C minor opus 68

so here we have brahms first symphony in c minor opus 68. i ran across this lp just now and ripped it because i'm freaky like that. this is an OLD 33rpm on telefunken (lgx 66003) that advertisies it self as being a long playing microgroove flexible vinyl record that is in fact about as flexible as a dinner plate. one lp in a cardboard inner sleeve with a thick plastic cover inside a box, they wrapped this sucker for the long haul and it's made out pretty well nigh on 60 years later.
joseph keilberth conducts the berlin philharmonic orchestra and for all the packaging there is no other information about the recording or the players; instead talking about brahms and this his first coming late at age 43 in a time when the public had turned away from classical outlines (violently, apparently), and to highly colored 'programme music' of liszt and wagner. he suffered many piquant comments at the time and critics called the first "the tenth" because of similarities in the finale to beethovens ninth to which brahms reportedly said "any fool can see that". so say the liner notes anyway. strikes me as a nice piece of music.
check it if you like.

astor p

everybody loves astor. entirely pleasant album, if not his most moving material. tico record looks brand new but has some surface noise. not too bad overall, check into it.

ali akbar khan -- ragas of india

all due respect to ravi and others, and granted the sarod is its own instrument, but ali akbar khan is the man. i can't imagine anyone around here won't like this stuff. he is accompanied by a tabla player named mahapurush misra who is no slouch.
come to find out as i read the liner notes that ragas are categorized by the time of day they are supposed to be played. i like that. i put a hint in the track name about this and i will mention it below. of course it all sounded good this afternoon as i ripped it. as i searched for a picture to use i just now found out that he passed away last month (4/14/22-6/18/09). foolishly, though he lived in my neck of the woods i never saw the man play. this is from a three album set put out by the classics record library/book of the month club in 1971.
hope you'se like it.

raga chandranandan 8pm-3am
raga goojjari todi morning
raga aheer bhairow predawn to sunrise
raga marwa: alap 40 minute raga part one
raga marwa: gat 40 minute raga part 2 a late evening and nighttime
raga bhairavi bhatiyar with ragmala between sunrise and noon