Beethoven from the Smetana String Quartet

One can easily overlook the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. I have had his only opera, Fidelio, on my shelves for nearly 30 years now, and never listened to it. And I would feel no loss if I never heard his fifth symphony again, nor the bombastic finale of the ninth. All his life, he had no long-term patron or employer, and was forced to earn his living from crowd-pleasing music. Occasionally, as in his 'old age' (he was only 57 when he died) he wrote music just for himself.

I have just been re-listening to his string quartet opus 130 in B flat major. Surely the Cavatina followed by the Grosse Fuga finale are among a chosen few at the summit of all music? In these two movements, Beethoven raises music to new heights. Music to which I am never tired of listening.

My chosen CD this time round was the Smetana String Quartet, Czech string quartet players playing Beethoven and really well recorded and balanced by Supraphon, my favourite company for string quartet recordings. Contentment all round.

Acquaragia Drom

Decades ago, in a record store in Paris (in the days when there were such things) I picked up, out of curiosity, a CD by a group of Adriatic gypsies who called themselves Acquaragia Drom. The group appeared to travel around in a tour bus and consisted of three men and two women. Instrumentarium was guitar, accordion, violin, clarinet, bass clarinet, and 'tromba de' zingari'. The music alternates between European, Indian, and 'Arab'. Throughout over two decades, this one CD has given me immense pleasure. Listening to it again today, I could not help but reflect on just how far popular / folk music has deteriorated with the advent of all-embracing American/African popular music, with its omnipresent guitar strumming, beat, and bongo drumming, all in relentless 4/4 time. No violins, no clarinets, no accordions, and everything synthesised and amplified via advanced electronics. Modern music has a lot to answer for. Modern folk (or "people's") music is to music what Bach is to Stockhausen. "Stockhausen? I think I once trod in some" quipped Thomas Beecham.