I know I’m getting older when most of the “new music” on the car radio is so offensively bad to my ears, that I plug in the iPod or, for shorter trips, tune into my local NPR station to catch “Performance Today.” Today’s hurry to make it to art history on time meant no time to lose with the iPod and so it was to Fred Child’s soothing voice that I started the daily commute. By the time I reached the parking lot that was my ultimate destination, I was transfixed by the wonderful sound of a duet for cello and double bass. Who knew? I’m not very well… read?… in classical music, but I know what I like when I hear it. And this certainly qualified. It makes for a nice change from the typical morning zoo style jocks with their sound effects and (rather dull) banter. Developing an appreciation for another kind of music — training your ear — will open up new insights into everything you listen to.
Classical music, like classical art, architecture, and cooking, derserves some of your attention.
This is from the PT website (where you can hear the first hour of this morning’s show):
Cellist Brant Taylor and bassist David Grossman
Third movement from Duo for Cello and Double Bass in D Major
Gioacchino Rossini
Duets for the tenor and bass are few and far between in the opera literature. The most notable is probably the pearl fishers’ duet in Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers.” Duets for cello and bass? An even rarer find, but this performance at Maine’s Portland Chamber Music Festival makes a great case for more of the same.
Even better, I found the duet on iTunes and it is now downloaded and waiting to be transferred to the iPod for my next leisurely morning ride over the river, sunroof open and crisp Fall air filling the cabin of the sedan.
Find a copy and give it a listen. It makes for a very elegant beginning to the morning.