Saturday, August 29, 2015

The final crash of civilization and Mozart

"It is natural enough that when the final crash of our civilization is being constantly and confidently predicted on all hands as imminent, or already begun, people who have a regard for the arts should turn to those amongst the great who can most effectively provide an anodyne."


Now that's a sentence you don't see too often, especially not on the booklet in a music album. After the introduction there follows analysis and musical comment on the piece itself.


It is the opening paragraph of the accompanying analytical notes to a classical album with a Mozart piano concerto. Leaflet neatly tucked in the album inside, record sleeves with handy rivets preventing the disks from sliding into the album back.


His Master's Voice album number 301, Mozart concerto in C minor performed by Edwin Fisher and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded on eight sides, four 12" records, in 1937.


(Still very good to listen to, with or without the surrounding crash of civilization...)

1 comment:

  1. Makes me want to listen to it, which is proof of an effective sleeve note. I did listen to Mozart recently after Clive James said of his string quintets K 515 and K 516 (in a recent radio interview): "This is what I want to be hearing when the light finally dies."

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