Beethoven's Fifth

Leonard Bernstein & The New York Philharmonic - "Beethoven Fifth Symphony" (1962) - Columbia Masterworks

Hello Friends,

Keeping it classy once again on a Sunday Morning.  This time with an all time great performance of one Classical music's greatest works, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as performed by the famous New York Philharmonic orchestra as lead by the incomparable Leonard Bernstein!  Hangover cures don't get much better than this!

No one loves a good hook more than Tiki T and myself and perhaps there's no piece of music with a better hook that Beethoven's Fifth.  The famous Da-Da-Da-Daaah intro which was described as Beethoven as the sound of "Fate knocking at the door".  I'll say!
That theme, in one form or another, permeates throughout the record as if to say there's no escaping it!

Its tense, terse, fierce and unrelenting.  Fate is something to be feared.  You can run, but you can't hide.  Its the ultimate inevitable.

Beethoven was one dark dude!

By the time we get to the Fourth and Final Movement (the "Allegro" for you fucking snobs) the music takes us out of the darkness.  The chords change from C-minor to C-major and we are left feeling satisfied, triumphant.  Things sound more like a victory march than they do a funeral procession.  But in the movement's final bars, we're once again reminded that Fate (a much more subdued, Da-Da-Da-Daaah) bubbles not far below the surface.  Enjoy your victory today suckers because who knows what tomorrow may bring?  

(For Beethoven, Fate may have in the form of the loss of hearing he started experiencing around this time.)

Our favorite part of this Symphony (and one of our favorite things in our very limited knowledge of Classical music) is the lamenting little oboe that appears out of nowhere amongst the turbulence and grandeur of the First Movement.  Buried within a barrage of the four note theme (Da-Da-Da-Daaah), everything stops and a short, quiet and timid oboe solo emerges.  Like a small, lonely man crying out.   Its like the sound you might hear if you were drowning in the ocean, sinking fast beneath the tumultuous rocking waves, a moment of solace, calm and clarity before dying.  Fucking heartbreaking.

Here's a real short clip of what we're talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffacsi35Z6s

Great record and a great piece of music!  Hangover is (almost) gone and we're ready to greet the day and hit the ground running!

RATING: 5 ludwig vons out of 5

Wagner: Parsifal

The Philadelphia Orchestra - "Wagner: Parsifal" (1956) - Columbia Masterworks

Hello Friends,

Keeping it classy again this fine November morning on Vinyl in the Valley.

The opera, Parsifal, would be Richard Wagner's last great opera as well as the culmination of his larger-than-life career and mythic body of work.   The original opera lasts for nearly five hours(!).  Its a football Sunday at the Vinyl in the Valley HQ and we don't have that kind of time on our hands!  Luckily, its been parsed down two sides of an LP so we can enjoy some of its most memorable moments while in our slippers and chasing last night's hangover away with some strong, black coffee!

And this record does get our juices flowing!  This is a very big-sounding, bad-ass record, with lots of heavy-sounding themes, intimating brass, build-ups, crescendos, sinister silences and unnerving quiet moments.  Its basically doom metal for the classical crowd! Its the kind of music that makes you want to "air conduct", climb a mountain or lead an army.  Its no wonder that the music of Wagner would really have a tendency to rev up the scary-types like Adolph Hitler, Nosferatu or Darth Vader.

Written by Richard Wagner over a period of 25 years, the complete opera debuted at the Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany in 1882.  In a nutshell, the story follows Parsifal, from a young orphan boy to King of the Knights of the Holy Grail. Along the way, there's action a-plenty featuring knights, witches, wizards, holy grails, magic spears, femme fatales, holy communions, death and redemption.

Heady shit while you're trying to drink your morning coffee!

RATING: 4 today europe, tomorrow the worlds out of 5 

The Picturebooks - "Your Kisses Burn Like Fire"

Wow! What a fucking boot-stomper!

Great video and great song from German motorcycle-blues-garage rock duo, The Picturebooks.  This is what The Black Keys should sound like!

This song is from their October 2014 release, Imaginary Horse.  Check it out at their great label, Riding Easy Records.

Raw, stripped-down blues, trains, motorcycles and a smoking hot brunette to boot! What's not to love?

We think The Picturebooks are going places, friends!

Here's the band's website.

Wunderland bei Nacht!

Bert Kaempfert and his orchestra - Wonderland by Night (1960)

Hallo friends!

As the sun sets on a chilly, late April evening, we open a bottle of Blue Nun, drop the needle on this enchanting Long Player and reminisce about the good old days (before the War) in Das Motherland.    

Being served at "key parties" since '68

And like that bottle of Blue Nun, this album is lush and nostalgic and gives you heck of a hangover!  


Hailing from Hamburg, orchestra leader and arranger Bert Kaempfert served in the German Navy in WWII before turning full time to composing and playing easy listening music.  In addition to writing the standards, "Strangers in the Night" & "Danke Schoen", Kaempfert is also famous for hiring the Beatles to record "My Bonnie" with Tony Sheridan in 1961.

The highlight of the record are the piercing trumpet solos by Charly Tabor.  They're enough to make you shout "Willkommen!"

RATING: 3.5 Goosesteps out of a possible 5