These aren't the first of my 52 pieces of bird music, but just something for the new year. First up, a polka by Johann Strauss II, In Krapfen's Woods - oh for God's sake, you're so childish. There are people who think that the New Year Concerts in Vienna represent everything that's anachronistic and just generally terrible about classical music - being a miserable lefty who steals all of his opinions on the world straight from George Monbiot and Stewart Lee, I should probably agree with them, and yet I don't. But forget all that and just listen to the quality of the playing by the Vienna Philharmonic, here conducted by Carlos Kleiber in 1989. I think it's safe to say that no other orchestra plays this music with such class. See if you can pick out and identify the bird. (Ahem)
And now a tribute to the two rarest birds currently spending the winter in Britain - an Eastern Black Redstart on the Isles of Scilly, and a Blyth's Pipit near Wakefield in Yorkshire at Pugneys Country Park. Both of them are completely lost, thousands of miles out of range, and both of them have a breeding range in Central Asia. So, with no imagination on my part whatsoever, here's In the Steppes of Central Asia by Alexander Borodin.
The first proper piece is coming next week. Happy New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment