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Miriam and I both rode our bikes to work yesterday, and riding home together was fun. Also fun: seeing Andrew performing as Ironing at the Second Street Bakery. He closed out a show which also included acts from Miami. But everyone seemed to love Andrew best, and it’s hard not to; he’s on my short list of world’s nicest people. Speaking of nice people, Brian and Heather were there, too, and we chatted about work and video games between sets. I hope we can hang out with them more in the future. And that reminds me: Andrew’s performance art makes me think of what the future will sound like. That and Varèse.

I am looking forward to seeing Andrew and Shannon again tonight for dinner.

It’s been a long time since I have heard Tannhäuser complete.  My last exposure to the opera was watching the first act on DVD with Zubin Mehta conducting the Bayerischen Staatsorchester in an empty Nationaltheater München (I totally went there!).  As much as I prefer more traditional productions, that video benefits from the presence of Waltraud Meier, who looks as good as she sounds.  It also features tenor René Kollo, the Tannhäuser from the much older Solti-conducted Decca recording, which was my first exposure to the work.  I distinctly remember paying $51 cash for that set at the Barnes and Noble in Clearwater in 1999.  I took it home and listened to it straight through.

The Staatskapelle Berlin for Daniel Barenboim cannot compete with the Vienna Philharmonic for Solti, but Meier is also the Venus in the Teldec Tannhäuser, and as good as Christa Ludwig may be, I like Meier better.  I really love her voice.  Plus, Thomas Hampson and René Pape as Wolfram and Landgraf respectively are outstanding.  Dorothea Röschmann as ein Hirtenknabe is luxury casting.  I have had this recording for a couple years, but just never got around to listening to it.  It’s hard to make time for Wagner, made apparent by the copies of Barenboim’s Der fliegende Holländer and Tristan und Isolde that sit on my shelf wrapped.  But he’s a fine Wagnerian, as evidenced by his Parsifal, and the bits of his Teldec Ring I have heard–a set that is made doubly valuable by the notated leitmotifs alongside the printed text in the libretto booklet–which is now on DVD.  Also on DVD now is Barenboim’s 1983 Bayreuth Tristan, which I may look into.  As visually odd as it was, though, the König Marke of Pape might sell me on the James Levine Met production.

Pape is the Heinrich in Barenboim’s Lohengrin, which is enticing, and, since it wouldn’t hurt to have another recording of that opera, Barenboim’s is in the running, alongside Kempe’s.  But I don’t think his Meistersinger von Nürnberg meets my current needs, which is to say, I don’t need another Meistersinger unless it’s on DVD; I already have Solti’s Chicago set, Jochum’s DG box with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and a still-sealed Sawallisch recording on EMI.  That said, Levine’s DVD has Pape, James Morris and the lovely Karita Mattila!

There are now simply more Wagner on CD and DVD than I know what to do with.

In a recent post I made some remarks that may have come across as anti-Gershwin. I stand by them. Be that as it may, I happily admit to being fond of a Gershwin song entitled “Our Love Is Here to Stay”, written for a 1938 film called The Goldwyn Follies. I haven’t seen the movie, but if it’s anything like a lot of musical films made around that time, it probably lacks any logical narrative, but contains wonderful tunes. “Our Love Is Here to Stay” is a masterpiece of popular song, and as much as praise is due George Gershwin–who would not live much longer–it’s the lyrics of his brother, Ira, that make it such a brilliant work. The first verse, for instance, could not be improved, especially when Ira asserts that “The radio, and the telephone, and movies that we know, may just be passing fancies and, in time, may go…” That’s fantastic.

Alas, finding a well-performed version of this song is not easy. Bad singers butcher the great American songbook every day, and this song, done poorly, suffers. No recent efforts I know of do the piece justice. Funny as it may seem, I like an up-tempo version from 1962 best, with Tony Bennett and Ralph Sharon. That live concert also features two Kurt Weill gems, “Lost in the Stars” and, my personal favorite, “My Ship”, in unbeatable performances.  Barbara Hendricks is also good, and much more traditional in style.  Frank Sinatra is okay on “Songs for Swingin’ Lovers”.