Post by julesd68 on Sept 21, 2018 17:01:17 GMT
What thinkest ye of the classical 'concept album'?
My initial reaction is always to ignore them, which is a shame as they might contain some good music. But there's something irritating about them. I imagine some young thrusting marketing types dreaming up these concepts and congratulating each other on their remarkable ingenuity ... I feel like I'm being sold to, and most of us don't like that.
I mention this today having seen, but not heard, the latest release by the estimable Ms Helene Grimaud - 'Memory'. Here's the spin -
Hélène Grimaud’s new album MEMORY can be thought as an invitation to mindfulness.
Music that can help remind us “that for all in our daily lives that is trivial, there is a place where meaning is stored”
I think it was Heidegger who said memory is to meditate on what is forgotten. Memory is not concrete – it is a recollection of things past, defined as much by what fades as what remains. The repertoire here is not connected to specific personal memories for me – memory is not autobiographical or programmatic in that sense. My interest is rather in exploring memory as a state of consciousness common to us all, and discovering paths and features of that meditation, suggested by music. – Hélène Grimaud
I'm really not sure what to make of that. Half of me thinks 'intriguing' and the other half 'nonsense'. Actually, when you see that Sheku Kanneh-Mason's debut on DG was called 'Inspiration' I'm coming down on the side of nonsense, it all feels very trite indeed.
My initial reaction is always to ignore them, which is a shame as they might contain some good music. But there's something irritating about them. I imagine some young thrusting marketing types dreaming up these concepts and congratulating each other on their remarkable ingenuity ... I feel like I'm being sold to, and most of us don't like that.
I mention this today having seen, but not heard, the latest release by the estimable Ms Helene Grimaud - 'Memory'. Here's the spin -
Hélène Grimaud’s new album MEMORY can be thought as an invitation to mindfulness.
Music that can help remind us “that for all in our daily lives that is trivial, there is a place where meaning is stored”
I think it was Heidegger who said memory is to meditate on what is forgotten. Memory is not concrete – it is a recollection of things past, defined as much by what fades as what remains. The repertoire here is not connected to specific personal memories for me – memory is not autobiographical or programmatic in that sense. My interest is rather in exploring memory as a state of consciousness common to us all, and discovering paths and features of that meditation, suggested by music. – Hélène Grimaud
I'm really not sure what to make of that. Half of me thinks 'intriguing' and the other half 'nonsense'. Actually, when you see that Sheku Kanneh-Mason's debut on DG was called 'Inspiration' I'm coming down on the side of nonsense, it all feels very trite indeed.
It costs nothing to record, obviously, and the only real expense is a tasteful new cover that looks nice in the racks at Waitrose and John Lewis.
