What Would Beethoven Think OR Relax to the Classics

Would Beethoven be appalled that his compositions appear on CDs with cheesy titles and cheesier photographs like The Ultimate Relaxation Album II? After all, this was a man who believed: "Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman." He was a man of lofty aims who, in my opinion, took music to heights unmatched by anyone before or since. I cannot conceive of him sitting down at the piano to compose something merely "relaxing": he was after much more than that. And yet, I cannot deny that I feel at peace with the world, and yes, relaxed, when I listen to the sublime second movement of his 5th Piano Concerto, which appears on the Ultimate Relaxation Album II.

I was reminded of this wonderful side effect of some classical music--its ability to relax us and offer respite from the world--while reading There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz. Published in 1991, it's a portrait of two brothers growing up poor in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes, a dangerous public housing complex where mothers feared their children might not live to see 18. As depicted by the eloquent Kotlowitz, the younger brother, 9-year-old Pharoah, whose childhood is under threat from his surroundings, "clutched his childhood with the vigor of a tiger gripping his meat. He wouldn't let it go." He also "listened to classical music on the radio because, he said, it relaxed him."

Over the years, many have asked Kotlowitz what became of Pharoah and his older brother, whose lives he chronicled over a two-year period, and whose futures matter to readers before they've finished the second chapter. A recent article in the Chicago Tribune makes it plain that like many who grow up poor in violent surroundings, their lives have been difficult. But I hope that wherever Pharoah is, he continues to take solace in music, and that it brings him some peace.

Inspired by this moving book and by young Pharoah's appreciation of classical music, I updated a CD list I created a few years ago called Relax to the Classics. You can access the list here and then check out a little respite from the world yourself. And feel free to chime in with your favorite piece of music to relax to--classical or otherwise.

The Magnificence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Years ago, in my early teens and in thrall of all things New York, I just assumed the New York Philharmonic was considered the greatest orchestra in the country. My mother, a violin teacher and Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscriber since her music school days, set me straight.

"The Chicago Symphony's considered the greatest orchestra in the country."
"No. Really?"
"Yes."
"Huh."

I wondered if perhaps, as a longtime Chicago area resident and CSO attendee, she was biased. I wondered if this was an attempt to sell me on the merits of Chicago when I was intent on moving to NYC. In my defense, I was young, more knowledgeable about pianists than orchestras, biased in favor of all things New York, and, well, I was young.

Now, I haven't undertaken a comparative study of symphony orchestras--and I'm certainly not qualified to judge. Nor is there a World Series for orchestras. But after attending a number of CSO concerts over the years and listening to a lot of CDs, I do think my mother was right. And Gramophone Magazine, among others, is on her side. In 2008, the classical music magazine ranked the Chicago Symphony Orchestra number 5 on its list of Top 20 Orchestras, the highest ranked of any U.S. orchestra. (The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam was named number 1.)

But enough with the rankings; this isn't baseball. Just check out some of our Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings and listen for yourself. And be grateful that you can listen to great music for free courtesy of your local library, and that you live in the vicinity of the greatness that is the CSO. Here are two CDs to start with.

The library owns the complete Beethoven Symphonies conducted by the late Sir Georg Solti. My favorite is the 3rd Symphony, with its soaring first movement. And there's a reason the 5th symphony is a classical music hit. Listen to all four movements--not just the famous first--to hear why. To experience the joy that is the 9th symphony, turn the volume up to 11 (but not in the library, seriously).

The CSO now has its own label, and in 2010 released Verdi's Messa da Requiem conducted by Riccardo Muti, the new music director of the CSO. According the interview with Muti that accompanies the CD, Muti feels that: "Verdi, like Mozart, was a composer who expressed the most essential feelings of mankind: love, hate, friendship, jealousy--everything that reflects our life, our way of being human. His music is the mirror of who we are." The composition begins so quietly you may think the CD isn't working. But listen carefully and stay tuned for an otherworldly listening experience.

There's More to the Cello than Yo-Yo Ma, Or, Introducing the Best 100 of Classical Music Series

Yo-Yo Ma is a brilliant cellist, wonderful ambassador for classical music, and has been characterized by Smithsonian Magazine as "the nicest guy in the classical music business." So why have I titled this post "There's More to the Cello than Yo-Yo Ma?"

Because great as he is, there are other wonderful cellists, and I'm a bit puzzled by people eager to attend the concerts of classical superstars like Ma and Itzhak Perlman but who have little curiosity about other cellists and violinists respectively. If you like Yo-Yo, you might enjoy other cellists as well.

Cello CDs purchased for the library in the last couple years include Zuill Bailey's recording of the Bach Cello Suites and a compilation called Best Cello 100. Even if you're not a classical music aficionado, you've probably heard the Prelude to Bach's Cello Suite No. 1, which has been used in an American Express commercial among many other commercials and movies. It's a stunning piece of music, and although I have a friend who insists that Janos Starker's recording of the cello suites is THE recording, I prefer Bailey's interpretations with his lighter touch, heightened dynamic contrasts and, at times, unusual phrasing. There's an improvisatory feeling to his performance of Cello Suite No. 1 that I prefer to Starker's. You can hear Zuill Bailey performing the 1st Cello Suite here, and Janos Starker's version of the first movement--the Prelude--here. Feel free to comment on which you prefer. Dissent is welcome!

We also own Pablo Casals' recording of the suite on the aforementioned Best Cello 100 CD. For someone looking to branch out from Yo-Yo Ma or for anyone who loves the cello, the Best Cello 100 is a great starting place. The compilation is a 6-CD set featuring 100 classics of the cello repertoire performed by acclaimed cellists including Starker, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jacqueline du Pré, and Truls Mørk.

Other titles in the Best 100 series that we own are:

Best 20th Century Classics 100
Best Baroque 100
Best Classics 100
Best Classics 100 Volume 2
Best Guitar 100
Best Romantic 100
Best Violin 100

Check them out today!

Win a Pair of Ravinia Lawn Tickets!

To celebrate our new Classical Music Center on the 3rd Floor, we're offering a chance to win one of three pairs of Ravinia lawn tickets for a Brahms/Dvorak concert on Saturday, July 25th at 7:30 pm.

What will you find at our Classical Music Center, which is located behind the 3rd floor elevator?

For starters, you'll find the latest issues of Strings, Gramophone and BBC Music. My favorite of the three magazines is BBC Music, a beautifully produced magazine out of Britain written in an engaging, accessible style. One of my favorite sections is Composer of the Month, which generally includes an essay, composer quotations, a timeline of main events in the composer's life and recommended recordings. Another cool feature is the backpage interview called Music That Changed Me.

The Classical Music Center currently houses all of our Orchestra section CDs, as well as CD lists to get you started on your classical music journey, such as Music of the Baroque and Relax to the Classics. You'll also find a small selection of our classical music DVD collection, like From the Top at Carnegie Hall. Season 2, which features gifted musicians aged 8 to 18. And don't forget to check out our list of best-selling classical CDs, as well as the rest of our classical CD collection on the third floor.

So stop by between now and July 12th to fill out an entry for the Ravinia tickets drawing, but be sure to check out our classical music offerings here at the library as well. My hope is that if you like classical music enough to travel to Ravinia in Highland Park, you'll also take advantage of what we have to offer in the way of classical music right here in Des Plaines--at the library.

What's Elvis Costello Doing in the Ballet Section?

There's an Elvis Costello CD in the Ballet section (Il Sogno)
There's a Sting CD in the Lute section
(Songs from the Labyrinth)
There's a Yo-Yo Ma CD in the Jazz section (Hush)

What's the world coming to?!
Have the shelvers gone mad?!
Have the catalogers gone mad?!

Absolutely not! But more and more musicians, composers and songwriters are thinking--and writing and performing--outside of the box they're associated with. So you might not find every CD featuring your favorite artist in the same section.

For example, though you'll find most of Elvis Costello's CDs in the rock section, they aren't all there. To find one of them you'll have to stroll over to the Ballet section. That's right, the Ballet section! Although truth be told, longtime Costello fans shouldn't be surprised. The man has long been a chameleon. He has written songs with "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" songwriter Burt Bacharach for the CD Painted from Memory (it's in the Popular section); he has collaborated with the Brodsky Quartet, and a couple of those songs can be heard on Best of Brodsky Quartet: Featuring Björk & Elvis Costello; and in 2000, when an Italian dance troupe contacted him about composing music for an adaption of A Midsummer Night's Dream, he took them up on the offer. The result is Il Sogno, and in the liner notes he talks about writing different types of music to accompany different kinds of characters. (Of supernatural beings, he wrote: "I thought it only appropriate that they should be swinging fairies.") While some classical compositions by rockers have been savaged by critics, The New York Times called it "a rhapsodic piece full of shifting moods, with moments of eerie delicacy and of comic pomp."

Others who have experimented with non-rock musical forms are Paul McCartney, who co-wrote Liverpool Oratorio with Carl Davis; and Billy Joel, who wrote Fantasies & Delusions: Music for Solo Piano.

If you're ever unsure of where to find a CD, please don't hesitate to ask at the Readers' Services desk on the 3rd floor. We're more than happy to help.

Have you ever checked out any of these CDs, or any other genre-busting CDs? (I've been warned against Liverpool Oratorio.) Do you enjoy Elton John's forays into musicals and movie soundtracks?