Introducing the Fall Line... of vintage classical vinyl

...being a list of vinyl classical LPs I bought on my first trip to this falls Friends of the Multnomah Public Library booksale, at a buck a pop.

Brahms, Piano Concerto #2 – Chicago Symphony (1975)

Brahms, Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel & Waltzes – Leon Fleisher, piano (1957)

My nomination for awesomest Brahms cover art of all time.

“The Contemporary Trumpet.” Music of Kraft, Campo, Henderson, and Hamilton, whoever they were. – Thomas Stevens, trumpet. (1972)

“The Debussy Album” …or first half of a double album – Philadelphia Orchestra (probably mid-1970s)

Gabrieli, assorted pieces – Eastman Wind Ensemble (1961) “Hi-Fi Monaural” (!)

Handel, Four Concerti Grossi – Munich Bach Orchestra (1970)

Liszt and Grieg, Concertos. RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, Artur Rubinstein, piano (1954)

Litolff, Henry (!), Symphonic Concerto #4. Monte Carlo Opera Orchesta, Gerald
Robbins, piano (1973)

What, you're not familiar with the concert music of Litolff?

Lopatnikoff (!), Divertimento & Rozsa (!), Serenade for Orchestra – La Jolla Musical Arts Festival Orchestra (!) (1951)

Mandolin Music (!) by Hasse, Beethoven, and Gianneo – Heidelburg Chamber Orchestra, Jacob Thomas, mandolin (c. 1970)

Massenet, Piano Concerto, plus Saint-Saens and Gounod – Westphalian Symphony Orchestra, Marylene Dosse, piano (1973)

Music for Violin and Cello by Ravel, Haydn, and Hindemith – Oleg Kagan, violin, and Natalia Gutman, cello. “Made in USSR”! (possibly 1974)

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto #2 – Robin Hood Dell Orchestra of Philadelphia (!), William Kapell, piano (1950)

“Rimsky-Korsakoff,” Le Coq d’Or & Stravinsky, “Firebird” – Boston Symphony (1965)

Saint-Saens, Violin Concerto – New Philharmonia Orchestra, Pierre Amoyal, violin (1977)

Scriabin, Sonata #3, 16 preludes – Vladimir Horowitz, Piano (1956)

Richard Strauss, Rosenkavalier Suite – Detroit Symphony (1985)

Vivaldi, Opus 11 Concerti – I Solisti Veneti (1976)

“The Well-Tempered Synthesizer” – Walter Carlos, early synthesizers (1969)

Zwilich, “Passages” and “String Trio” – Boston Musica Viva (1984)

Saint of the Month: Saint Luke!

St. Luke

AKA: n/a
Feast Day: October 18.

Really Existed? Sure, although it's possible that there were two guys named Luke whose attributes have blurred together.
Timeframe: Is thought to have died in A.D. 84 at the age of 84, or perhaps A.D. 74 at 74.
Place: Antioch.  (One of the great world cities for almost 2000 years, but wiped out in the fifteenth century.  Basically in the little tab of modern Turkey that sticks out to the south along the eastern Mediterranean coast.)

Credentials: By tradition, unambiguously, in both Catholic and Orthodox hagiographies.
Martyrdom: Most say no.  Now, there's a story that the Emporor Nero (reigned AD 54-68) had St. Luke's hand cut off, but then Luke reattached it, whereupon Nero beheaded St. Luke and the 276 people who had witnessed the miracle, including his "prime minister."  But this does not seem to be a widely-believed tradition.

Patron Saint of: artists, bachelors, bookbinders, brewers, butchers, doctors, glass makers, goldsmiths, lacemakers, notaries, painters, physicians, sculptors, stained glass workers, students, surgeons, Capena (Italy), and Hermersdorf (Germany).
Symbolism: A bull or ox, sometimes with wings.  Often shown painting the Madonna.

Last month, I promised that we’d have a more prominent saint this time around. Well, how about Saint Luke? Yes, that Luke: Luke the Evangelist! Best-selling author, by tradition, of the Book of Luke! And also the less well-read but still very influential Acts of the Apostles.

Now some of you who, for whatever reason, do not have the New Testament Gospels fresh in your mind, are thinking “Yeah! Luke! One of the twelve Disciples!” But no. The book of Luke says right up front that it’s a second-hand history of events that happened quite a while in the past. Luke is more what you’d call an “Apostle,” and seems to take part in some – although not all – of the eponymous Acts of his second-most-famous writing.

As a high-profile saint, St. Luke holds a broad portfolio of patronage. He is thought to have been a physician, making him the natural patron of doctors. Students are in his docket, as are the unsettling duo of surgeons and butchers. He is also the patron of artists, based on a tradition that he painted a portrait of the Virgin Mary from life. There are those that maintain that Luke’s renditions of Mary are held in the Vatican collection, but this seems awfully unlikely, and it’s worth mentioning that there doesn’t seem to be any mention of this particular story until about five or six hundred years ago. (Interestingly, artifacts that are held to be bones of St. Luke have been scientifically tested and shown to be of the right approximate geographical source and era, so – although it’s awfully hard to track a 2000 year chain of custody – who knows?)

Luke, the first of our Saints of the Months to make much of a splash in the artistic tradition, is said to be symbolized by a bull or ox, often winged. I have no idea why. But sure enough, in many paintings and illuminations there’s a cow placed right there with him according to the affable logic of symbolic art: standing on his desk, tucked under one arm, whatever. His supposed painting of Mary is a fairly common subject for artists, and you will most often see him at his easel or discussing the final touches of a portrait with his famous subject.

Does all this make you feel like browsing the internet for paintings of St. Luke? No need! I did it for you. Here are a handful of my favorite depictions of October’s Saint of the Month.

Giorgio Vasari.  Note that Mary is being held in midair, that her index finger rather brilliantly
defies ordinary geometry, and of course that Luke likes to have his cow at hand while painting.

Guercino -- Luke shows off his finished product; this time the cow is
a decorative piece in the background.  A lot of painting from a limited color palette.

The doctor-saint watched over by a benevolent winged cow.

In late-medieval illumination, St. Luke works on his portrait with his
adorably happy pet cow at his feet.

Paolo Verenese -- I am not completely sure what is going on here, other than an association of
St. Luke with his Gospel and with his symbolic animal.

The always amazing Rogier van der Weyden.  Luke is apparently sketching.
There is no cow present, but how about those fields of color?

The Wednesday Post

Good-Bye, Francis Bacon!
Another Philatelic Farewell


One measure of an artist's success is how much people admire his or her work, and one measure of how much people admire work is how much they are willing to pay for it.  By this standard, Francis Bacon is one of the towering figures of 20th century art, with paintings that have sold for prices such as $6 million, £14.2 million, and even €55.465 million.  Now that's supporting the arts!  Or at least, the arts establishment.

In the Infinite Art Tournament, Mr. Bacon's numbers were respectable but less awe-inspiring.  The 11th artist to leave the tournament, he went 1-2, gaining 17 positive votes against 19 negative -- an " artist's power ratio" of .89, if you will.

Bacon's philatelic legacy holds up very nicely by the standards of 20th century painters.  He has been represented on stamps in his native Ireland

(which issued an unusually disturbing first-day cover)...

...as well as elsewhere in Europe...

...and the philatelic market being what it is, further abroad.  Francis Bacon may or may not be a major cultural figure in Guinea-Bissau, but you can buy a single postage stamp with a whole lot of border for only 3500 units of the local currency.

The Infinite Art Tournament, Left Bracket Second Round: Bingham v. Bellows!

George Caleb Bingham
1811 - 1879
American

Lost to German-American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt in Round 1.
Crushed Josef Beuys in First-Round Elimination.

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George Bellows
1882 - 1925
American

Defeated Bernardo Bellotto in Round 1 by a single vote.  YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
Beaten by Giovanni Bellini in Round 2 in a fair fight.

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Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting, but likely much longer.

The Hypothetical Hypermarathon

I’ve started to get a little bored with my second running map. Not that I’ve dropped it or anything. Here’s what it looks like at the moment:

If you haven’t seen it before, this map represents an area of the City of Roses in which I am slowly running down all the streets. Purple represents April to June, Blue represents July to September, and green are the new streets from so far this October.  It’s fine and all, and I do plan to finish it, but it’s definitely a rerun of the first version, and some of the thrill is gone.

The Hypermarathon

I am going to send a sort of running avatar out into the world. Whenever my physical incarnation runs a certain distance here in Stumptown, my hypothetical self can be out running the highways and byways of, well, wherever he runs to. For instance, if the so-called "real me" does my little 2 ½ mile route around the graveyard down the street from Castle5000, hypothetical Michael5000 might be progressing 2 ½ miles down N2370 Road on the way from Alva to Waynoka in northwestern Oklahoma. (Obviously, this example would have to be quite a ways in the future, since I will be starting from my front porch, and it would take me two years and three months to get to Alva at my current per-month running pace.)

It’ll be fun! I can keep you apprised of the whereabouts of my hypothetical harrier in the sidebar. Maybe he can write in from time to time to talk about places he’s been! Maybe even – this would be pretty trippy – I could even go out and meet him somewhere! I could go running with him.

So Obviously, the Question Is…

Where should I/he go? I see two areas of great potential. One would be to send Avatar5000 out to explore areas of scenic, historic, or personal interest. Secondly, perhaps you’d like to invite him to come visit! You really wouldn’t need much of a guest room; he/I could just crash on the couch, or for that matter at the back of the junk drawer, or in a notebook, or wherever you keep your own abstractions.

There are also two important limitations to this venture. One is that I won’t be moving especially fast. Locations in and around Bridgetown would be easy enough to pick off, but the open road will certainly be calling. On the other hand, if I were to put (for instance) FallingWater on the list of places to visit it would be quite some time before I was able to make it to southwestern Pennsylvania (Keep in mind, too, that my avatar isn’t going to use freeways, as they are unsafe and unpleasant to run on). We might also have to confine ourselves to North America, because while I would in principle be perfectly willing to run across a hypothetical Bering Strait landbridge or through the Chunnel, I can’t guarantee that my remaining running lifetime will be sufficient to get me that far.

The journey begins Saturday, October 27! 

But where shall I/he go? If you have suggestions, or would like to invite my avatar for a visit, let’s hear about it in the comments!

The Infinite Art Tournament Round 1: Cranach v. Cuyp!

Lucas Cranach the Elder
1472 - 1553
German

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Aelbert Cuyp
1620 - 1691
Dutch

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Vote for the artist of your choice!  Votes go in the comments.  Commentary and links to additional work are welcome.  Polls open for at least one month past posting.

Coming next week: THE Ds!!!

The Infinite Art Tournament Left Bracket Second-Round Elimination: Avercamp v. Baldung!

Leaving us this week with records of 1-2 are two twentieth century Europeans: Balthus (18 cumulative votes for, 19 against) and Francis Bacon (17-19).  Bacon beat today's first contestant in Round One, but lost to our second contestant in Left Bracket Round Two.  Does that mean that Baldung will trump Avercamp?  Let's vote!

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Hendrick Avercamp
1585-1634
Dutch

• Lost to Francis Bacon in Round 1.
• Clobbered Frank Auerbach in Left Bracket First-Round Elimination.
• Handily defeated 20th Century French painter Balthus in the Left Bracket Second Round.

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Hans Baldung
c. 1484 - 1545
German

• Lost to Giacomo Balla in Round 1.
  
• Trounced Fra Bartolommeo in Left Bracket first round elimination.
  
• Beat Francis Bacon in Left Bracket Second Round by a single vote.  YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!

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Vote for the artist of your choice in the comments, or any other way that works for you. Commentary and links to additional work are welcome. Polls open for at least one month past posting, but likely much longer.