Gordon Steadman
02-06-2013, 06:54
We all seem to discuss the ins and outs of the hi-fi in terms like 'musical' but surely this applies to performance too.
Any favourite piece of music, I tend to collect every version that I can find. But I always come down to one version that gives me the most pleasure and leads me straight into the music.
Below is a letter I sent to one of the HiFi rags many moons ago, sorry its a bit long. Non classical fans look away now:)
I love my wife!! This is for all the usual reasons and for some not so usual ones!!
I somehow managed to reach my 50’s before meeting the one person who is right for me (hopefully the same is true for her!)
Although we both come from similar backgrounds, our paths to the present have been very different. I got over-educated, did the whole management bit, ran my own company and lost the lot in the 90’s. She left school at 15 and drifted for 30 years or so until we met. I speak proper and she definitely comes from Sarf London.
As this is a HiFi mag I will come to the point!
Her HiFi is a Pioneer system with enough power to run said Sarf London for a week. This feeds JBL speakers with music that ranged from Def Leppard to Judas Priest and various chicken munching bands in between.
Mine is an Origin Live deck with Creek pre-amp, Leak Stereo 20, Quad 57’s and REL sub-woofer. Surprisingly, the music I play thereupon tends to more gentle ‘bands’ who play things like Bach and Takemitsu! This makes music sound the same as the pianos and guitars that I play. I am a guitar maker and know what a guitar sounds like! For sensible money it’s the most musical system I’ve ever heard.
Since we met, as my needs naturally come first, we listen mostly to music that suits my system. When we do listen to her music she complains that the electric guitars lack a bit of bite but that’s the Quads for you. At least the REL satisfies her need for bass that blows the walls out.
One of the less usual reasons for my great admiration is her ears. She needs earplugs to stop a tap dripping in the flat five floors up and two sideways from keeping her awake. I believe she was probably a bat in a previous existence. She REALLY hears what’s going on. ( jokes about the old bat not allowed – we’ve only been married a year)
These ears of hers are naturally applied to music and she, who has no previous experience of either the quality of the system or the music, has some very forthright and completely unaffected opinions. She has never been told what she should like and who is considered great and good. Only her immediate reactions and feelings are expressed.
Over the years, my likes have polarised and I have gone back to listening mostly to Bach, Vivaldi and guitar music which was what got me into the whole hi-fi thing in the first place. I have added a few things like Jazz and blues. So generally Bach is the father, Clapton is the son and Ron Carter the holy ghost!
You should here what she says about Mozart - Pretentious lightweight twaddle! Beethoven – its like someone threw a book into the air and couldn’t sort the pages out again, it leads nowhere and says nothing doing it! Its just notes not music.!!!
We listen to the Rodrigo Guitar concerto by Bream or Williams and she says, Bream plays with feeling, but the orchestra is not with him, Williams just seems to be playing the notes. Neither is as musical as Cubedo playing with the Barcelona Symphony!! She has never listened to this stuff! She has made me re-assess much of the music I have and blow me down its true! I don’t really enjoy quite a lot of it. So much of it is there because of who I knew at the time or what popular opinion told me I should enjoy. Any pretentions I may have are laughed out of court!
So I’m downsizing! Not only that, but I am enjoying the music I really like with renewed enthusiasm because I don’t feel guilty about enjoying such ‘simple’ music as Vivaldi (“this is great, it is fun, it paints me pictures and leads me somewhere”) Intellectually demanding music like Bach “(nice but not so relaxing”) or Takemitsu (“A bit demanding but actually extremely interesting”)
Just think, if I get rid of all the stuff I haven’t listened to for years, there will be room on the shelves for all the books I never had the space or time to read!!
I wonder if this is generally true. How many of us have zillions of records and CD’s that we never listen to (or to which we never listen) I must have bought hundreds that were played once only and have been carried around religiously ever since.
Strangely, I recently carried out the same exercise with my books. I have been carrying around tons of the things with me for years. I now only have books that I have read within the last five years or re-read regularly. Should I ever fancy reading any of the others, there is always the library!
Yours sincerely,
Ring any bells??
On another point, sometimes pictures make music even better. Case in point is the Bacarisse Guitar Concerto. The famous bit is the Romanza, wonderful tune in itself but add pictures of the Spanish civil war and suddenly, it all makes even more sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR-UiyIa7Yk
Any favourite piece of music, I tend to collect every version that I can find. But I always come down to one version that gives me the most pleasure and leads me straight into the music.
Below is a letter I sent to one of the HiFi rags many moons ago, sorry its a bit long. Non classical fans look away now:)
I love my wife!! This is for all the usual reasons and for some not so usual ones!!
I somehow managed to reach my 50’s before meeting the one person who is right for me (hopefully the same is true for her!)
Although we both come from similar backgrounds, our paths to the present have been very different. I got over-educated, did the whole management bit, ran my own company and lost the lot in the 90’s. She left school at 15 and drifted for 30 years or so until we met. I speak proper and she definitely comes from Sarf London.
As this is a HiFi mag I will come to the point!
Her HiFi is a Pioneer system with enough power to run said Sarf London for a week. This feeds JBL speakers with music that ranged from Def Leppard to Judas Priest and various chicken munching bands in between.
Mine is an Origin Live deck with Creek pre-amp, Leak Stereo 20, Quad 57’s and REL sub-woofer. Surprisingly, the music I play thereupon tends to more gentle ‘bands’ who play things like Bach and Takemitsu! This makes music sound the same as the pianos and guitars that I play. I am a guitar maker and know what a guitar sounds like! For sensible money it’s the most musical system I’ve ever heard.
Since we met, as my needs naturally come first, we listen mostly to music that suits my system. When we do listen to her music she complains that the electric guitars lack a bit of bite but that’s the Quads for you. At least the REL satisfies her need for bass that blows the walls out.
One of the less usual reasons for my great admiration is her ears. She needs earplugs to stop a tap dripping in the flat five floors up and two sideways from keeping her awake. I believe she was probably a bat in a previous existence. She REALLY hears what’s going on. ( jokes about the old bat not allowed – we’ve only been married a year)
These ears of hers are naturally applied to music and she, who has no previous experience of either the quality of the system or the music, has some very forthright and completely unaffected opinions. She has never been told what she should like and who is considered great and good. Only her immediate reactions and feelings are expressed.
Over the years, my likes have polarised and I have gone back to listening mostly to Bach, Vivaldi and guitar music which was what got me into the whole hi-fi thing in the first place. I have added a few things like Jazz and blues. So generally Bach is the father, Clapton is the son and Ron Carter the holy ghost!
You should here what she says about Mozart - Pretentious lightweight twaddle! Beethoven – its like someone threw a book into the air and couldn’t sort the pages out again, it leads nowhere and says nothing doing it! Its just notes not music.!!!
We listen to the Rodrigo Guitar concerto by Bream or Williams and she says, Bream plays with feeling, but the orchestra is not with him, Williams just seems to be playing the notes. Neither is as musical as Cubedo playing with the Barcelona Symphony!! She has never listened to this stuff! She has made me re-assess much of the music I have and blow me down its true! I don’t really enjoy quite a lot of it. So much of it is there because of who I knew at the time or what popular opinion told me I should enjoy. Any pretentions I may have are laughed out of court!
So I’m downsizing! Not only that, but I am enjoying the music I really like with renewed enthusiasm because I don’t feel guilty about enjoying such ‘simple’ music as Vivaldi (“this is great, it is fun, it paints me pictures and leads me somewhere”) Intellectually demanding music like Bach “(nice but not so relaxing”) or Takemitsu (“A bit demanding but actually extremely interesting”)
Just think, if I get rid of all the stuff I haven’t listened to for years, there will be room on the shelves for all the books I never had the space or time to read!!
I wonder if this is generally true. How many of us have zillions of records and CD’s that we never listen to (or to which we never listen) I must have bought hundreds that were played once only and have been carried around religiously ever since.
Strangely, I recently carried out the same exercise with my books. I have been carrying around tons of the things with me for years. I now only have books that I have read within the last five years or re-read regularly. Should I ever fancy reading any of the others, there is always the library!
Yours sincerely,
Ring any bells??
On another point, sometimes pictures make music even better. Case in point is the Bacarisse Guitar Concerto. The famous bit is the Romanza, wonderful tune in itself but add pictures of the Spanish civil war and suddenly, it all makes even more sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR-UiyIa7Yk