Musicwhore.org Music and memory

The fall release schedule probably means a lot more to listeners far younger than myself, but I don’t really see much beyond these albums  — and ones previously reported — about which to get excited.

Rufus Wainwright, Prima Donna, Oct. 2

The bar for rock stars composing classical music is set low enough that exercises for first-year composition students in a conservatory become amazing acts of achievement. See Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel. Wainwright, however, really loves opera, and his songwriting already shows a strong predilection for storytelling.

Glenn Gould, Remastered: The Complete Album Collection, Oct. 9

Back in May 2015, I picked up the soundtrack to Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, a movie I hadn’t seen since college.  Listening to the soundtrack made me crave to watch it again, and after getting the DVD, I’ve picked up a few Gould recordings from the used vinyl bins. I don’t think I’m enough of a fan to drop $200+ on this set, but it would be tempting.

XTC, Oranges and Lemons (Deluxe Edition), Oct. 23

Oranges and Lemons was the first XTC album I owned, although I like Skylarking and the Dukes of the Stratosphear’s Psonic Psunspot more.

Igor Stravinsky, The Complete Album Collection, Oct. 30

On the same day Duran Duran dropped that stinker of an album known as Red Carpet Massacre, I bought a 42-disc budget boxed set of Igor Stravisnky conducting his own works. This remastered collection promises another 15 discs of material. That budget set was $40 and had the barest minimum packaging it could muster. Don’t know if I can justify spending 5 times as much if I’m pretty much going to rip them anyway. But yeah … tempting …

Dolly Parton / Linda Ronstadt / Emmylou Harris, Complete Trio Collection, TBD

Linda Ronstadt pretty much ruled out another Trio album when she revealed she had Parkinson’s disease. So this collection remasters the two Trio albums and adds a third disc of outtakes and rarities. Oct. 16 had originally been reported as the release date, but now no date has been set.

Delays

Henryk Górecki, Symphony No. 4, Jan. 22, 2016

Originally scheduled for Sept. 25 and then Oct. 16, Nonesuch’s recording of Górecki’s posthumous symphony has now been pushed back to January 2016.

Tags: dolly parton, emmylou harris, glenn gould, henryk gorecki, igor stravinsky, linda ronstadt, looking ahead, rufus wainwright, xtc