GG: The passion behind logic...

["Joseph Podlesnik" <veronese@jerseycape.com>]

In the GG Chat transcript, Kevin Bazzana says, 

"He was always most attracted to music that was "logical," "rational,"
"cerebral," whether by Sweelinck, Bach, Schoenberg, or whoever, and always
least attracted to music that was (by his standards) primarily "sensuous"
or "colourful" or "dramatic" or "rhetorical," whether by Couperin,
Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, or whoever. (Of course, there were
contradictions: he never admired Stravinsky's particular form of "rational"
music, while he somehow made a place in his aesthetic for the highly
sensuous and colourful music of Scriabin and Strauss; perhaps predictably,
he usually found satisfying rationalizations for these apparent
contradictions. And of course, even when he played the most rigorously
"rational" music, his playing was always beautiful and captivating, even if
he tended not to talk about it in those terms.)" 

Yes, a splendid example would be the rapturous last passages of his
recording of the Berg Sonata, Opus 1. Anyone know this piece well? Care to
educate me on this? It's absolutely gorgeous. In fact, the (more or less)
melodic ending is all that much more beautiful as it contrasts with the
preceding thorny atonality. I found this also in the music of Frank Zappa,
especially his use of "Carlos Santana's 'secret chord progression'" in
"Shut up 'n Play yer Guitar".

JP

______________________________________
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or memorable quote, did ya?  Well, here goes:
"Death is all metaphors."  -- Dylan Thomas