LISTEN: Das Lied von der Erde

Recently, a friend asked me for CD recommendations of the music of Gustav Mahler for the neophyte. It was quite a task and took a few days come to a very short list of two. I have to admit to being a Mahlerite and I suffer from Mahlaria, an currently undocumented condition which causes the sudden swelling up of tears and goosebumps at certain points in the music. Never fails, trust me.

I was six the first time I heard Mahler, a recording of the first symphony conducted by Bruno Walter. It wasn’t available in the U.S. and had been smuggled out of Europe. It’s hard to believe that, even at the end of the McCarthy Red Scare era, the music of Mahler would be considered un-American. (Then again.) The recording was making the rounds of the artier crowd in Detroit (there really was one), and it came to my house one evening. We all sat around staring at the phonograph player and were amazed by the amount of sound being produced. All those instruments, and that funny part with the funeral music and the klezmer band crossing paths. Mahler was having so much fun, and so were we.

But back to the recommendation. I decided to play the desert island game. If I had only one Mahler recording to take with me, what would it be? The first one is an old recording of the orchestral song cycle Das Lied von der Erde, with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Eugen Jochum. The soloists are tenor Ernst Haeflieger and the greatly under-appreciated American mezzo Nan Merriman. The recording is no longer available on CD, but can be downloaded from iTunes. To sample it, the final part of the last song, “Abschied,” is below.

Of course, like potato chips, I couldn’t take just one. So, the other recording I recommended is of the Symphony No. 1, with Rafael Kubelik conducting the Bavarian Radio Orchestra. (There are over 130 recordings listed on MahlerRecords website, and that doesn’t include performances available for download only). This one includes a wonderful performance of the Songs of a Wayfarer with baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

I’m going off to my desert island now. Hankie in hand, waiting for the “ewig, ewig” of “Abschied.”

WATCH: Obscene: a portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York ruled today that the Federal Communications Commission’s indecency policy regarding “fleeting expletives” is unconstitutionally vague. That term refers to the spontaneous use of the “seven deadly words” in live televised events. You know, like the MTV Awards. The ruling also covers “wardrobe failures," no pun intended. We all saw that, too.

There is a very interesting interview with Newton Minow, former chair of the FCC under President John F. Kennedy, on the LibraryLaw blog. Mr. Minow joined an amicus brief on behalf of the broadcasters against the FCC.

I thought it might be a good time to watch the 2008 documentary Obscene: a portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press. It chronicles the life and work of the publisher of the first American edition of Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Tropic of Cancer, The Autobiography of Malcolm X and other titles that have been, and still are, banned in many places. Grove Press also published works by Samuel Beckett, Kenzaburo Oe, Tom Stoppard, Che Guevara and Harold Pinter, as well as the literary journal The Evergreen Review, apparently a favorite whipping boy of then Rep. Gerald Ford. (He really seemed to enjoy showing the press those pictures of naked bodies. Makes you wonder!)

Rosset continually defended works of literature in the courts with cases that have had lasting impacts on what is published in America and what Americans have the right to read. But he also comes across as, if not a bit of a "dirty old man" in places, at least a little kinkier than the times found comfortable. It's no wonder that he infuriated people (like a judge in Philadelphia) and enthralled others (like John Waters).

All in all, an interesting but not essential documentary.

LISTEN: Renata Scotto - Final Scene from Puccini’s "Suor Angelica"

Suor Angelica is the middle part of Puccini’s Il trittico, three short operas. Rarely performed together in one evening, it also includes the melodrama Il tabarro (The Cloak) and the comedy Gianni Schicchi. It had its world premiere at the New York Metropolitan Opera in December 1914. The same soprano sings the lead in all three.

The opera is set in a convent near Siena in the latter part of the 17^th century and is set for an all-female cast. This clip features the remarkable performance of Renata Scotto from the 1981 “Live at the Met” series that aired on PBS. An actress of intense insight into character motivation, Scotto is here in her prime, and simply heartbreaking.

UPDATE: This video is now available as part of the James Levine: Celebrating 40 Years at the Met - DVD Box Set (2010) that also includes 12 Titles on 21 DVDs.

LISTEN: When I grow up

This just makes me happy, every time I listen.

LISTEN: Dmitri Hvorostovsky Sings a Russian Folksong

“Farewell, Happiness” – A Russian folk song, sung a capella by my favorite Russian baritone. It’s the dark side of the soul here.

WATCH: Jud Süss

Jud Süss (1940) is the most notorious of the many Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda films produced in the 1930s and 1940s. It is unrelenting in its scurrilous depiction of Jews in general and Süss Oppenheimer in particular. In this historical costume drama, he’s portrayed as a conniving businessman who worms his way into the court by lending the Duke of Wurttenberg vast sums of money used to purchase trinkets for the Duke's mistresses. Becoming more powerful as time goes by, Oppenheimer convinces the Duke to disband his Parliament and declare himself absolute ruler. Of course, Oppenheimer is the power behind the throne, attempting to create a dictatorship. Oddly, this seems somewhat reminiscent of the the rise of Nazi Germany.

The film shares some of the same attributes of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation: fine acting, interesting cinematography, excellent production values, and unabashed racial stereotyping and bias.

Some interesting asides – this film is base on a 1925 novel by Lion Feuchtwanger, which actually presents a sympathetic portrayal of Oppenheimer. An earlier British film adaptation in 1934 starred Conrad Veidt (the Nazi coronel in Casablanca), and is a condemnation of anti-Semitism. Restored and produced on DVD in 2008, it is banned in Germany, Austria, Italy, and France.

It’s impossible not to be disgusted and appalled by this film, or to ponder what kind of career the very talented director Viet Harlan would have had under different circumstances.

WATCH: New Tricks

New Tricks is a British series about three retired police detective who are rehired to investigate cold cases. They work for Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman, played perfectly by Amanda Redman, and their cases run from fake pictures in the Queen’s collection to the murder of a celebrity chef by his wife (Honor Blackman), and more.

What separates (and elevates) this series is its combination of great mysteries and characters with a wonderful sense of humor. It also makes cogent statements on racism, feminism, love vs. sex, aging, and other issues.

Two seasons have been released on DVD, with more to come. According to the IMDB, there are 6 seasons, and they all have been released in the UK. I’m definitely lobbying for more!

WATCH Jar City

I recently bought a Roku box, which allows Netflix subscribers to watch instantly lots of movies and television shows on their TV. You need an internet connection, either hard-wired or wifi. It’s really great for older movies and foreign films as well. Newer films tend to broadcast very well, while older ones can appear pixilated. Roku has other “stores,” so you can also view films from Amazon, etc.

We don’t get to see many Icelandic films, so I was curious about Jar City. It’s a mystery about the murder of an old man that leads a detective to reopen a case that's been cold for over 20 years. A second detective, working on a case involving the desecration of a graveyard, soon realizes that the two cases are linked. It also deals with genetic mapping, medical confidentiality, and xenophobia in Icelandic society.

While violent and graphic at times, the MPAA-unrated Jar City (2006) was both exciting and moving. The desolation of the Icelandic scenery reminded me of that in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the Wallander series on PBS. (Does the sun ever shine in these places?) Based on the novel by Arnaldur Indrioason, this is a taught thriller. It’s one of the very few films I’ve rated as 5 stars on Netflix.

WATCH: Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany

This 11-part series, totaling over 15 hours, presents the lives and history of the village of Schabbach from 1919 to 1982. The main character, Maria Simon, witnesses both the good and terrible times in Germany from just after WWI through its rebuilding and prosperous time in the 1980s. Rather than concentrate on showing the big events, writer/director Edgar Reitz focuses in on how those events changed one small town.

Originally shown on German television in 1984, it also played in movie theaters throughout Europe and in the US. Shot mostly in black and white, it drifts into color whenever the filmmakers choose. Unfortunately, the series has been released on DVD by Facets Video, which is notorious for simply transferring the film to disc without much care, leaving many scenes washed out.

I found the entire series engrossing, especially those episodes dealing with WWII. Reitz has also made two sequels, both longer than this series, which are available through Netfix.

READ: Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome

I came across this book on the half-price table at Barnes & Noble. When I read the blub and discovered it’s one of the favorite comedic novels in Great Britain and has never been out of print since its first publication in 1889, I decided it was worth trying at only 4 bucks! It was money well spent!

It’s the story of three friends, each the 19^th century equivalent of today’s slackers, who decide to take a boat trip down the Thames River, accompanied by the ever-faithful four-legged friend, Montmorency. It’s one of those anything-that-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong adventures, and I was laughing out loud on every page. There’s the plot, of course, but there are all the side-stories of previous adventures recounted by the narrator that make this so much fun.

If you’re looking for (or need) a good laugh-‘til-you-cry escape, you can’t go wrong with this. If you can’t find it at your library or on a bargain table, it’s available for download from Project Gutenberg.

The book has been turned into a film with a screenplay by none other than Tom Stoppard and starring Tim Curry, Michael Palin, and Stephen Moore, directed by Stephen Frears! It’s not available on DVD in the US, but some saintly person has uploaded it to YouTube. You can start watching it here. (OK. It's not as funny as it should be, and I'm not sure it can be appreciated fully without reading the book.)

READ: Mr Perrin and Mr Traill by Hugh Walpole

Moffat, the fictional boys public school on the coast of Cornwall, is the setting for this story of the conflicts, obsessions, and banalities of the school institution Mr Perrin and his rival, the young, new and popular Mr Traill. A torrent of emotions is unleashed over the "battle of the umbrella." (Pun intended.) The crumbing of Mr Perrin's psyche is a marvel. It's also one of the few novels that deals with the teachers and staff of a British public school, rather than the students. It was originally published in 1911.

I’m a big fan of Hugh Walpole, a writer I’ve discovered late in life. This novel, his third,is considered to be his best, and was praised by many of his contemporaries, including H.G. Wells and E. M. Forester. He also wrote Portrait of a Man with Red Hair, reviewed here.

READ: The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas

A birch tree suddenly appears in the Parisian back yard of retired opera singer Sophia Simeonidis. She seeks the help of her neighbors, three post-graduate students named Matthew, Mark, and Luke, to help her. When she later turns up dead, the omen of the tree is only one of the puzzles to be solved. Translated from the French, it's a good mystery with interesting characters.

Fred Vargas the pseudonym of French historian, archaeologist and writer Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau. She also writes the police procedurals with Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, starting with the excellent The Chalk Circle (1996). To fully understand the quirks of the main character, it’s best to start this series at the beginning.

READ: Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

The daily lives of ordinary Germans in Berlin during WWII, and the small acts of simple defiance a few of them chanced. It's a love story, a terrifying study in the workings of a police state, and a police procedural describing the hunt for the perps.

Originally published in 1947 and translated from the German only last year, it wound up on about 20 "best of the year" fiction lists. The 500-page novel was written in 24 days shortly after the end of WWII and Fallada’s release from a Nazi mental asylum. He died before it was published.

The book has been filmed twice, once as a television mini-series for German TV, but these are not available on DVD in the US.

READ: In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes

Postwar Los Angeles is the setting for this hard-boiled detective mystery about a serial killer, told from the point of view of the killer, Dix Steele. One of the few pulp/noir written by a woman, it's now considered a classic of feminist literature. The tag line reads: "American Machismo Gone Mad." The violence is very subtle, as it was published in 1947.

It was made into a movie with Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Graham. While it's a good film, it really deviates from the book to the point that the narrative is lost. That being said, Bogart does a fantastic job as a psychologically wounded WWII vet. They should film a new version. Colin Farrell would be great.