More Sweetish Sounds

Decided to play some mid-period VDGG in the early afternoon at a reasonable volume (since The Missus isn't around.) Gave a particularly close listen to A World Record, an album that a few critics don't rate too highly. As always the critics are obviously wrong, especially those who object to the cod-reggae and jarring guitar solo that plays out Meurglys III (The Songwriter's Guild). I love the groove here. The only objection I have is the fade-out rather than the big ending, but even this makes a kind of sense given that the jam at the end could go on for ever. Oddly enough they also slowly fade out on the lovely Wondering, and I mean really slowly, but the piece does seem to rather satisfyingly sputter out at the end of the fade, so I think some kind of musical point is being made.

Along with the often killer riffs, there's a lot of melody on the album, sometimes of a theatrical bent. Wondering would make a great show-stopper for example. It struck me that I felt something of a carry-over from listening to the SSO last night in terms of the simple loveliness of the sound worlds created, but given Peter Hammill's vocal extremes I suppose VDGG come with a good deal more astringency amongst the satisfying harmonies. It's just that I can't really hear how off-putting his voice is having been used to listening to, and admiring him, since I was 14 (when I bought H to He Who Am the Only One, a wise buy if ever there was one.)

Actually there was a bit of astringency last night, supplied, surprisingly by Yiwen Lu and her erhu. She's an astonishing player and the textures of sound she delivered set against the conventional sound-world of the orchestra were quite something. Apart from anything else I had no idea an erhu could sound so loud. Found myself wanting to hear a lot more of the music of Qigang Chen. We got his La Joie de la souffrance and I would have liked more, so was disappointed that another scheduled piece was replaced with some Borodin (though since I'm a bit of a Borodin fan since directing Kismet which draws heavily on his popular pieces no great harm was done.)

I must further admit that I'd not really heard of Maestro Chen before, so when I looked him up on Wikipedia I felt more than just a bit embarrassed. Music Director for the 2008 Olympics and somehow he passed me by! Now I've definitely got a lot of listening to do.