When I was younger, I loved classical music (in addition to swing and blues and rock, of course). I probably spent a small fortune on LPs and then tapes and finally cds.
I haven't indulged myself much in recent years, but lately I've been renewing my acquaintance with some old favorites and thought readers might find a weekly snippet of a tone poem or opera or symphony to be a nice diversion.
Today, I've embedded a short piece: Butantan, the second movement from Ottorino Respighi's Brazilian Impressions. In 1927, Respighi and his wife visited Brazil, and took a tour of the Butantan Institute, which was (and still is), a major source of anti-venom for snake bites. The evocation of slithering, hissing snakes is unmistakable, and I would not be surprised to learn that the bassoon was invented primarily to conjure up visions of these creatures.
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2 comments:
I was expecting something like Villa Lobos or Milhaud but it's more impressionistic. Nice textures.
Thanks, Paco. I still buy CDs and take recommendations from anywhere (I used to get a ton of them from James Lileks' The Bleat). That had a kind of Indiana Jones feel to it.
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