Advantages: Music to take you beyond this world Disadvantages: Needs a bit of patience
-one years he wrote around a thousand works, including the very well known Unfinished Symphony and the Trout Quintet (for five instruments ? piano and strings), named after a song he wrote (The Trout) which is used as the basis for a set of variations. His special gift was for writing good tunes ? some have been turned into popular songs ? and this makes his music easily approachable.
Sadly, most of his works requiring more than a handful of players were never heard in his lifetime, not even the StringQuintet, which is surely one of the most sublime, other-worldly pieces of music ever written.
******The StringQuintet?******
I intend to approach this work from a personal, emotional standpoint rather than use musical jargon. It?s not necessary to understand harmony or musical structure to enjoy any music. The composer needs to ...
Advantages: Haunting, passionate music to get lost in. Disadvantages: It's classical and this puts people off before they even try it.
It is entirely due to Floon?s enthusiastic review of Schubert?s Quintet that I am writing this. I was browsing the classical reviews seeking some recommendations to try and happened upon this. I only have one example of Schubert in my collection (Rosamund) and quite enjoy it so thought I would give this a go too. So off to the Library I went and returned clutching The Raphael Ensemble?s superb rendition of the Stringquintet. Oh joy ? Oh heaven I seem to have hit the jackpot of chamber music.
Schubert?s life is the quintessential example of the romantic notion of the neglected genius who dies in obscurity. An entire generation passed before his most substantial achievements even saw the light of day. The quintet is among them. It was one of his last works written only weeks before he died at such a tragically young age of 31 ...
Advantages: Excellent backing tracks, competent vocals, a couple of strong pop hits Disadvantages: Not much in the way of soul, some dull tracks, all rather dated now
mind that in 1972 "The Black & White Minstrel Show" was still one of the top rated TV shows, which tells you something about the era.
The Pearls were signed to the Bell label ? which had some hugely popular acts on their roster including the Bay City Rollers, Barry Blue, David Cassidy and Gary Glitter. The UK arm of the label focused mainly on commercial pop and the Pearls fitted into this perfectly. Interestingly the US arm tended to focus more on soul music.
A String of Pearls
Going back to my dad?s old Sanyo radio cassette recorder there was a song which was oft played by myself back in 1974 called ?Guilty?. Performed by the Pearls I loved it and have vague recollections of a Top of the Pops performance which incorporated judges? wigs. I have hunted high and low for this clip on the internet and sadly can only conclude it was ...
