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New CD of Brahms symphonies, Berlin Philharmoniker conducted by Karajan (the 60s recording, which is fabulous). Look at this:
Number of photos of Brahms: 0
Number of photos of Berlin Phil: 0
Number of photos of Karajan: 18
Admittedly, 11 of those are the last page of the booklet, and they're from other Karajan CDs. For Beethoven, you have Karajan posing next to a plane; for Grieg/Sibelius he is conducting on a boat poised at a perilous angle; and for Dvorak/Smetana, he is on a motorbike (but not conducting). All I can do is quote that old chestnut, taken from an excellent repository of music jokes here (though I've tidied the punctuation):
Karajan, Klemperer and Toscanini were talking one day. Apropos of nothing in particular, Klemperer said, "I am the greatest conductor the world has ever seen."
Toscanini replied immediately, "Oh, no you aren't. I'm the greatest conductor ever, God told me so himself!"
Karajan paused for a moment, and then said, "I never told you that."
ETA: Since I'm feeling rather proud of this, here's the result of a slightly tangential conversation that started up when I remarked that if you're going to plagiarise, Mr Brahms, pinching a bit of something incredibly famous such as Beethoven 9 is not clever. I then had a moan about Beethoven's never-ending cadences (friend of a friend of a friend's father reckoned that Beethoven just couldn't come).![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elfbystarlight, who can't read music, was naturally rather puzzled.
elettaria: A cadence is like saying "That's it," at the end of a story; or of a paragraph, in a smaller way. They're often used for ending phrases, and used importantly for ending movements. "That's it" is two words, right?
elfbystarlight: What's a movement? [Digression to explain what a movement is.]
elettaria: Beethoven does the equivalent of this:
That's it! That's it! That that that that's it, that's it, that's it, THAT'S IT, THAT'S - IT. It itty-itty-itty-itty-itty-IT.
(multiply by about ten)
In other news, I managed to get round the Gyle shopping centre in a wheelchair on Monday, and haven't been too shattered since. When borrowing the wheelchair from the information point, I enquired whether there was a curfew, since Shopmobility had wanted their wheelchairs back by 4.45. "Yes," the (fairly old and unattractive) security guard said, absolutely deadpan, "I want you in bed by seven." I don't think he had any idea what we'd said, and CM and I managed to get a discreet distance away before gettting the giggles. I decided not to say, "Best offer I've had in years," to the guy, just in case.
Number of photos of Brahms: 0
Number of photos of Berlin Phil: 0
Number of photos of Karajan: 18
Admittedly, 11 of those are the last page of the booklet, and they're from other Karajan CDs. For Beethoven, you have Karajan posing next to a plane; for Grieg/Sibelius he is conducting on a boat poised at a perilous angle; and for Dvorak/Smetana, he is on a motorbike (but not conducting). All I can do is quote that old chestnut, taken from an excellent repository of music jokes here (though I've tidied the punctuation):
Karajan, Klemperer and Toscanini were talking one day. Apropos of nothing in particular, Klemperer said, "I am the greatest conductor the world has ever seen."
Toscanini replied immediately, "Oh, no you aren't. I'm the greatest conductor ever, God told me so himself!"
Karajan paused for a moment, and then said, "I never told you that."
ETA: Since I'm feeling rather proud of this, here's the result of a slightly tangential conversation that started up when I remarked that if you're going to plagiarise, Mr Brahms, pinching a bit of something incredibly famous such as Beethoven 9 is not clever. I then had a moan about Beethoven's never-ending cadences (friend of a friend of a friend's father reckoned that Beethoven just couldn't come).
elfbystarlight, who can't read music, was naturally rather puzzled.elettaria: A cadence is like saying "That's it," at the end of a story; or of a paragraph, in a smaller way. They're often used for ending phrases, and used importantly for ending movements. "That's it" is two words, right?elfbystarlight: What's a movement? [Digression to explain what a movement is.]elettaria: Beethoven does the equivalent of this:That's it! That's it! That that that that's it, that's it, that's it, THAT'S IT, THAT'S - IT. It itty-itty-itty-itty-itty-IT.
(multiply by about ten)
In other news, I managed to get round the Gyle shopping centre in a wheelchair on Monday, and haven't been too shattered since. When borrowing the wheelchair from the information point, I enquired whether there was a curfew, since Shopmobility had wanted their wheelchairs back by 4.45. "Yes," the (fairly old and unattractive) security guard said, absolutely deadpan, "I want you in bed by seven." I don't think he had any idea what we'd said, and CM and I managed to get a discreet distance away before gettting the giggles. I decided not to say, "Best offer I've had in years," to the guy, just in case.
