Moments of Music

I still remember the first time I saw this recording - it was on the Cassette display rack in Cranbrook Public Library in Kent in the early 1980s.  I was about 13 and had started learning the violin at school and so was keen to listen to classical music featuring the instrument.  I hadn't heard of the 19th Century Italian virtuoso violinist  Niccolò Paganini  (1782-1840) before but wanted to listen to this new work... Over the past thirty years I have come to love this concerto  - to my mind it is Paganini's most tuneful, most mature and most sophisticated work for violin and orchestra. Paganini was something of a mystery to his audiences, a showman who kept his amazing playing technique (and written solo parts) a secret - to the extent that at performances he would only give orchestra members their printed music parts at the last possible moment and would gather them up again as soon as the concert was ended.  There were no printed, published scores or...

In September 1989 I moved out of home for the first time and went to live in a small coastal village called Plockton in the western Highlands of Scotland to work as a waiter in a small family-run hotel.  I was twenty years old. I'd subscribed to the music magazine 'Q' a few months before in an effort to get more acquainted with new music and one month (I can't recall which) there was a review of the self-titled album by a new Australian band who had called themselves 'Martha's Vineyard'.  For some reason the review caught my attention and I bought the album - without even hearing it!  Maybe it was the album cover which intrigued me... This was the days before the Internet so I couldn't Google the band, watch promo vids on YouTube or subscribe to their Twitter account or Facebook page!  I bought the album 'blind'.  But what a wise purchase it proved to be - and one I have never regretted!  About the band Martha's Vineyard were an Aust...

When I was little I loved looking through my parents' collection of vinyl LPs. The feeling of selecting an album from the red wire storage rack,  studying the picture and writing on the front, turning the sleeve over to read the details on the reverse.  And finally removing the black disc from it's paper sleeve, being sure to hold it delicately at the edges by my fingertips (as my dad was at pains to instruct me) while gently placing it on the turntable... Almost all the LPs in the collection were of either classical music or Christian music.   The very first album I can remember from this was a recording of Antonio Vivaldi's four concertos for violin and strings,  known as 'The Four Seasons'. The concertos were first published in 1725 as part of a set of twelve concerti, Vivaldi's Opus 8, entitled Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention).  The four concertos were written to accompany four sonn...

To give You an idea of what is in my music collection here are some screen shots of my phone - I use the n7 music player app,  btw.

I had an idea for what I could blog about... after I finally got round to ripping my entire CD collection and transferring it to my smartphone. Listening to some of the albums I haven't heard in years made me realise that music can be the key to bringing up vivid memories of times and events in the past... Many of the recordings in my collection relate directly back to particular moments,  events or periods in my life.  In this blog I'll share with you,  the reader, the stories behind why I love a particular album or piece of music.  Anyway, I hope you find some enjoyment in this blog... Paul :)