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Scratch Pad 77 March 2011 TARAL WAYNE :: NIALL McGRATH & TIM TRAIN :: DITMAR (DICK JENSSEN) :: BRUCE GILLESPIE :: ABC CLASSICS Top 100 Scratch Pad 77 March 2011

Based on the non-mailing comments section of *brg* 67 and 68, a fanzine for ANZAPA (Australia and New Zealand Amateur Publishing Association) written and published by Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard St, Greensborough VIC 3088. Phone: (03) 9435 7786. Email: [email protected]. Member fwa. Website: GillespieCochrane.com.au

Contents

3 Unsolved mysteries of the hereafter — by Taral Wayne

6 The brand new Scratch Pad poetry spot — by Niall McGrath and Tim Train

9 Ditmar’s best and favourite films of 2010 — by Ditmar (Dick Jenssen)

15 Shining shores: Bruce Gillespie’s favourites 2010 — by Bruce Gillespie

36 ABC Classic 100 ten years on: 2010 — introduced by Bruce Gillespie

Cover graphic — ‘Evening Phenomenon’ by Ditmar (Dick Jenssen) Cartoon p. 3: ‘Unsolved mysteries’ — by Taral Wayne

2 Unsolved mysteries of the hereafter by Taral Wayne

I think some scholar, or someone who wanted to be mistaken for one, claimed that the translation from the Koran was wrong, and it wasn’t ‘seventy virgins’, but something like ‘seventy figs’, that a good Muslim could expect in Paradise, and that it only meant the blessed would be in the midst of plenty.

I’m not sure I buy that. It was only 1500 years ago, and I don’t think Arabic then was so different from modern Arabic that millions of Arab Muslims make such an elementary mistake. But who knows ... maybe Allah really only did mean that the nearly arrived would be greeted with a plate of figs ... I sure would like to see the faces of a couple of billion dead Muslims as their cherished hopes are dashed.

I would imagine that the rest of us would be disappointed by one thing or another as well. As I recall, the Bible doesn’t really say much about the nature of Heaven. It says emphatically that the Blessed will remain in the presence of God forever. There are allusions to milk and honey that sound much like the Seventy Figs. Surely this only means that there’s lots of good grub to eat, not that the diet would be monotonous and cloying. And there is a Vision or two of Paradise shining like gold.

But are there 7-11s? If so, who works the night shift? What about the internet? Is there tech support when I have a problem? Can I eat pizza all day long, never exercise, and stay in shape? Are there Worldcons? Can I tune in pop music, instead of harps and wheezy ? Surely there can’t be NASCAR though, or the WWF, or it could hardly be

3 Heaven to me. Will trailer parks — for all those millions of poor white I don’t know why the Afterlife would be limited to higher animals, though. trash — still attract tornadoes? And maybe robes were the fashion choice We are told that the Spark of Life is imbued in all creatures, big and of the millions who lived in the Middle East a thousand years ago, but small. If so, there’s every possibility that the pneumococci that launched why couldn’t I have blue jeans if I want? Or a Star Trek uniform, for that you into Eternity might come along for the ride. We might be knee-deep matter. Does Heaven have a dress code? Will we still have belly buttons in bacteria, fungi and viruses in the Here-after. Even if in our immortal for good-looking chicks to bare? Why? The Bible doesn’t seem to answer forms we are immune to infection, the sheer bulk of all the microscopic any of these vital issues, so I suppose we’ll just have to hope for the life forms that have ever existed could create an ocean of protoplasm in best. the Hereafter that is miles deep. Never mind wings. We’d need fins and flippers. If there’s no Silicon Heaven, asked Kryten — the mechanoid on Red Dwarf – where do all the dead calculators go? He has a point. If Artificial The only real authority we have on the Shape of Things to Come is Mark Intelligence is ever created, will it have a soul and be eligible for Twain. salvation? Could it go to The Hereafter when its service warranty is over? Yes, it’s true that the Bible has a few things to say on the subject, but And when asked if Silicon Heaven was the same place as Human Heaven, they are maddeningly vague. Heaven is seen as a city of gold, nestled Kryten had an answer for that too. ‘Someone just made that up’, he said, in the canyons of a billowing cloudscape. One wonders whether the ‘to prevent you from all going nuts.’ That’s a point, too, and goes far to witnesses of this glorious vision had been partaking too deeply of the clearing up the mystery of Kryten’s first point. How would any intelligent sacrament of the grape, and had mistaken a sunset for Paradise. But the being stand life without believing that something better lies in wait for image has undeniable power on the imagination. Heaven is often us? described as having streets paved with gold, though what use that would be is hard to guess. Perhaps that Corvette you’ve always wanted, and What if all higher animals, from hamsters all the way up to apes, also can have in the Hereafter, comes equipped with gold-weather tyres? have souls? You might love your cat, but would you want to spend There is the fabled milk and honey too. Both were highly regarded treats eternity with every one you’ve ever kept, having them follow you around the time of Christ, especially among the poor, but even the everywhere, rubbing against your legs, scratching up the furniture and average peasant or laborer would obviously prefer to sit down to a meal demanding to be fed 24 hours a day? Dog lovers will have similar of bread and meat and reach for the honey only as desert. problems, as well as pitcher’s elbow from throwing sticks for dozens of Rovers, Fidos, Bowsers and Spots. What about your Mom’s canaries and What else is said about Heaven? Almost nothing. The main selling point parakeets? Will she be burdened in the Afterlife by dozens (or hundreds) seems to be the proximity to God. of cheeping, squawking, pooping birdies in their 24 kt gold cages? From where will all the paper come to line cage floors, and what will be done Not much is said about that, even. What sort of neighbor is God? Does with it when it’s changed? he play the stereo late at night? Does he bang on your front door when you have loud parties? Can you get along easily with God, or is he Then there’s that Big Mac you ate the other day. Where do you think bad-tempered and demanding? Can you speak your mind to Him, or must hamburger comes from? Right. Living cows, who die to be ground into you agree with every little thing He says? Is He witty, and entertaining? lean red chuck before it goes on the grill. Do dead cows go to Heaven as Or is He a tedious philosopher? What if He is only a gossip, wittering well? I can imagine that if they do, they might well hold a grudge. In the away about ancient Egyptian priests and Assyrian kings you never heard Afterlife, there could be an army of angry animals waiting to show us of? In other words, what sort of time can you expect to have while what they think of being consumed as wings, sausages, chops, cutlets, hanging onto the hem of God’s robe for Eternity? burger and steaks.

4 Worse may be the belief that you join the mind of God, becoming no Apart from the cloudbank and Pearly Gates there is little physical more than a memory of what you once were. How is this different from description of Heaven, but quite a lot of talk about how people behave simply dying, as doubtless God knows everything about you anyway? there. We are left trying to imagine having whatever we desire, and being given the freedom to pursue whatever activities we want. Perhaps that Mark Twain, though, had quite a lot to say about the Afterlife in a short isn’t such a bad way for Heaven to be — much potential with few story published in 1909. ‘An Extract From Captain Stormfield’s Visit to limitations. But one still wonders about the furnishings. Heaven’ was the last short story published in Twain’s lifetime, and tells of the journey of a steamboat captain on his way to Heaven. After years Why is it that religion rarely talks of such things? of hurtling through space, he finally arrives at the Pearly Gates. Captain Stormfield describes them as set with flashing jewels, piercing a wall of It’s understood that religion is primarily concerned with guiding people gold that stretched as far as the eye could see and rose so high that the in the here-and-now. Yet, religion almost relishes descriptions of the top was lost from sight. A crowd of billions of arriving souls waited suffering and horror awaiting those who misbehave. We have vivid patiently for a brusque clerk to take their names and place of birth before pictures of flames and the damned roasting in them; of demons dancing they are permitted in. The Captain is issued a white robe to replace his over twisting, blackened, living corpses; of trackless caverns, curtains of serge suit, a halo in place of his brimmed cap, wings and a harp. Then razor-sharp stalactites and bubbling pools of molten sulfur. We have joins about a million other people on a cloudbank as a member of the Dante’s unforgettable image of three-faced Satan, frozen into the deep- Heavenly Chorus. est pit of the ninth circle of Hell. There are the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch, that show Hell as chaos and insanity. As if none of this was Sixteen or seventeen hours later, according to his account, he realises enough, contemporary films give us glimpses of Hell that are graphic that there is almost no-thing he wants to do less for Eternity than this. beyond anything past generations could ever have thought possible. Evil He is quite unable to play a harp, and knows only one tune. In less time seems very easy to imagine. than it takes to finish a cigar he is bored. Similarly, the Captain is quite unable to get the knack of flying with his wings, and finally ‘sends them What does this say about us? Is the ease with which evil is pictured a out to be washed’. result of our experience of history, or is it the product of diseased imaginations? Are we too far removed from Paradise to have any idea Only then does Captain Stormfield learn that the real Heaven is an infinite how to picture it? place with innumerable pleasures, open to beings from all religions, nations, races and even other planets. There are wishing-carpets that Most likely there is nothing to imagine. There is neither a Good Place nor whisk a person millions of miles from one place to another. All drinks at any Bad Place for us to go when we slough off our mortal coils. When the bar are free. A cobbler, who ought to have been among the greatest Kryten is told by Lister there is no Silicon Heaven, Kryten asks, ‘Where poets of the Age, but supported his family by making shoes instead, is do all the calculators go, then?’ celebrated for his true worth. Anyone may have anything he or she wishes, so long as it isn’t harmful. Lister answers pragmatically, ‘They just die.’ I suspect he’s right.

Captain Stormfield is told that the Heaven people are told about in the Still, even a silicon heart may hope. When Kryten later deactivates a Bible is only a figure of speech that they unfortunately take for literal crazed mechanoid killer by revealing to him that there is no Silicon truth. Heaven, Lister ask how the knowledge didn’t shut down Kryten as well.

Still, ‘Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven’ is incomplete. Twain is mainly ‘Simple,’ he says. ‘I knew something he didn’t. I knew I was lying.’ interested in moral matters, and the irrationality of Christian beliefs. — Taral Wayne, November 2009

5 The brand new Scratch Pad poetry spot by Niall McGrath and Tim Train

Recently Niall McGrath sent me some poetry as a submission to my magazines. I’d never heard of him before, but I’m fairly sure he heard of me through the tireless efforts of English fan Steve Sneyd on behalf of poetry, especially genre poetry.

Niall tells me that his recent publications include a collection Treasures of the Unconscious, published in summer 2009 by Scotus Press, Dublin; and work recently in Poetry Ireland Review, Stand, Aesthetica, Antigonish Review (Canada), Crannog, The Yellow Nib, Cyphers, Fortnight, The South Carolina Review, The Ashville Poetry Review, Northwords, etc. Work previously in Quadrant (Australia), Redoubt (Australia), The New Statesman, The Shop, etc.

At the same time as Niall sent me his work by Internet, Tim Train’s little zine Badger’s Dozen arrived, with many amusing poems and other sketches, illustrated by his wife Alexis. (Tim is prevented from getting to most Nova Mob meetings these days when he reads his poetry competitively on the first Wednesday of the month.)

Let’s see what happens after this first Scratch Pad poetry spot. You open Pandora’s Box only once.

The Darkest Hour Snow was general all over Ireland. John had just come of age. In the black north, above the black city, As they dug a handful of survivors from gullies the Black Mountain was transformed white. to shiver in a trailer as winter wind but the blackface sheep lay sliced round hillsides like a skean dhu, under the weight of death, he noticed for the first time lips black, eyes black, noses cold, limbs stiff. how his Da’s back had become age-bent.

6 Slumping into the cab, wiping his brow, II John’s pectoral muscle spasmed as he voiced his loss — hundreds Now, it’s all only a December ache, flooding beneath deep drifts. on the breeze of nostalgia as he sniffs manure: The quaver of his words reminding him how he knelt before the hearth, parcels thudding of the time the old man knelt promisingly of Lego or some remote-controlled car in muck in the byre to plead which never came. That one light on the plastic tree with, for the only time in his life, winking: a dead brother’s whispered glee. tears in his eyes, for him not to go off to the war but stay and help him. — Niall McGrath And now, with the light of dark clouds reflecting off frozen hills, Saturday Night his Da muttered, “I started with nothing afore. This time, I’ve got you to help me.” With a key turn, the lorry’s ignition I’m going out by staying in: spluttered, the engine roared. I’ve got a hot date with two cats, A heater, and a garbage bin. — Niall McGrath Tonight I’ll twirl and and spin And party on the bathroom mat — I’m going out by staying in. Two cats. A bed. A book. All win! So I’ll put on my party hat, An Ulster Nativity And party by the garbage bin. We’ll stay up after half past ten, ‘It is a wind which carries the seeds of life and the dust of extinction. It Those cats and I, and we will chat is a winnowing wind. It is a bitter wind.’ (Campbell McGrath, ‘Langdon, And eat icecream. We’re staying in North Dakota’) ’til syrup dribbles down our chin And we feel fine and full and fat, I By heater and by garbage bin. So please excuse me if I grin — March wind shivering in his heart, I’ve got a hot date in my flat. with flickering evenings of stars I’m going out by staying in — and clouds of breath blowing against his shirt, Two cats. Heater. Garbage bin. alone in the yard, squinting to bounce over bars of a gate, as he hoists liths of straw — Tim Train from mouths, moaning calves bucking against him, hooves pressing on boots like claws, always one with lips keenly finger-sucking.

7 Ninjas Underpantoum

(For Mitzi). Ninjas injure with nunchukas Make you cry for mercy fuckers Some like their knickers pink, Chop your hands and arms in half Some like their knickers frilly; Slice your legs off at the calf, Some like them extra extra slinky, Toast your testes on the grill — Even though it’s chilly. But passive smoking Some like their knickers frilly, passive smoking With small embroidered flowers, passive smoking kills. And even though it’s chilly, Pirates torture hang draw quarter They’ll wear them out all hours, Loot rape terrify and slaughter With small embroidered flowers Laugh as innocent blood spills — (Depending on their tastes). But passive smoking They’ll wear them out all hours passive smoking In quite revealing lace. passive smoking kills. Depending on their tastes, H-bombs H-bomb civilisation Some men wear women’s bras, Cause apocalyptic devastation — In quite revealing lace, Feel that nuclear winter chill! While driving in their cars. But passive smoking Some men wear women’s bras, passive smoking Others just wear stockings passive smoking kills. While driving in their cars — Zombies Vampires follow after — It’s really not that shocking Hear their dark Satanic laughter! — That some men just wear stockings. Hold you down and drink their fill, You’ll come round to it slowly, But passive smoking It’s really not that shocking: passive smoking The Mormons think them holy — passive smoking kills. You’ll come round to it slowly. In conclusion: Ninjas rule! Some like them extra extra slinky Pirates rape, and zombies drool, (The Mormons think them holy). Nuclear Winter is pretty cool. Some like their knickers pink. But PUT THAT CIGARETTE OUT, FOOL! — Tim Train — Tim Train

8 Ditmar’s best and favourite films of 2010 by Ditmar (Dick Jenssen)

Included in the list below are films I regard as of quality and those of pleasure. Of course, the former include the latter, but the latter, being of an idiosyncratic nature, are not necessarily of the former. I also, again idiosyncratically, include any visual presentation, even if it is a recording of a stage performance. Oh, all ‘films’ were seen on Blu-ray — I gave up cinema-going many years ago. This means that I have not yet seen some of the more highly praised films of the year, and that at least two of the films listed below are from previous years. I am looking forward to The Social Network, The King’s Speech, The Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky’s for a Dream is, I believe, one of very best films of the past decades, and his The Fountain is also among the top few (pace to the critics)).

Documentaries

Galapagos (various directors, narration by Tilda Swinton) This is an incredibly beautiful film with scenes of breathtaking splendour, and with a wonderful narration by Swinton. It is also packed with information, presented as only the BBC (and/or David Attenborough)

9 can, painlessly and subtly.

Planet Earth (various directors, narration and visceral performance by David Attenborough) Where Galapagos was a mere three hours, this is a ten-hour plus treat. Everything exemplary about the former is present here also. I was for many years rather cool about ‘nature’ documentaries — especially the cutesy, anthropomorphic Disney True Life Adventures, but the BBC and Attenborough have radically changed my perceptions. The passion which Elaine Cochrane has for the littlest life — well, creepy-crawlies, actually — has also been a major determining factor in my appreciation for the world around us, and to which for many years I was quite oblivious.

Opera and ballet

Yes, these would not be classified by many people as ‘films’, but as I said above, if they’re filmed records of stage productions, then I treat them as films.

Stravinsky and the Ballets Russes: and The Firebird (music by , original choreography by Fokine and Nijinsky, reconstruction of the original performances) The Firebird is the better of the two as regards immediate appeal — The Rite is, as far as I’m concerned, still a trifle too avant garde, inasmuch as the choreography gives the appearance of automatons rather than humans — and it appears very ‘american indian’ in costume. But that’s just a minor quibble. Both are major works as dance and music, which changed their art. Firebird is stunningly beautiful.

10 (music by , the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana conducted by , with La Fura del Baus) The opera is fantasy and science-fiction. And while to some it is over-wrought and overblown, which I can understand though not agree with, it is the music which is of overriding concern — even though, again, it may appear overwrought and bombastic to some. But this performance is a reimagining of the opera, in which the sets, costumes, staging and — most especially — the acrobatic backdrops of the athletes and gymnasts of La Fura del Baus suit Wagner’s story and music as perfectly as I can imagine. The four operas of this ‘cycle’ become super-science fiction and fantasy. Mehta’s conducting and the performances of the singers are as good as can be hoped for, and with the surreal staging — and huge, multi-screen images — becomes an awesome and awe-inspir- ing experience. There are both DVD and Blu-rays of highlights of the cycle available. You will find reviews of each of the four operas at .

This is my film of the year.

Films

Seventh Heaven (directed by Frank Borzage). Silent. Well, it may be old, and to some rather mawkish, but it all works. Love amongst the slums of Paris which endures in a telepathic manner even when he is in the trenches of World War One. Films of this era seem to have a quality of ‘silveriness’ to the photography, and even though the realism and harshness of the slums is portrayed unflinchingly, the photography imparts a romanticism to the story. Although silent, there are ‘sound effects’ on the audio, and, of course, there is musical mine, and my father’s: Diane. Oh, the Blu-ray is from a French company. accompaniment throughout — which includes an old, old favourite of Check out .

11 12 Departures (directed by Yojiro Takita) A warm, human, touching film about a semi-taboo ‘profession’ in Japan — that of the encoffiner — those who prepare in a highly ritualistic manner the dead in their coffins, cleansing the spirits of both the deceased and the living. It’s a profession which brings solace, and perhaps some peace and acceptance of death, to the survivors, but even though it is such a compassionate act, the encoffiners themselves are regarded as, in some way, unclean and to be avoided. The film is also about the newly wed couple who have returned to his village — how he cannot tell her how is making a living, and how she, on learning of his profession, tries to understand and accept. It is also filled with quiet humour.

The Secret in their Eyes (directed by Juan Jose Campenella) Ostensibly about the writing of a novel, based on an unsolved murder, by one of the investigators, which leads to an unofficial reopening of the case. But this is just the hook on which the substance of the film hangs — the shifting emotions, especially love and friendship and sacrifice and betrayal — the changing political scene in Argentina over the past few decades — and concerns of truth and justice, especially justice.

These are the only new 10/10 movies I’ve seen this year.

Agora (directed by Alejandro Amenabar) Set in the troubled times (circa AD 400) when the Roman Empire is collapsing, when Christianity is becoming the powerful religion and paganism is moribund, the film centres around Hypatia of Alexandria. As with most ‘epics’ there are historical inaccuracies, but these are of essentially no importance in the themes which are explored — particu- larly the ‘conflict’ between reason, rationality and logic on the one hand, and unreason, irrationality and illogic on the other, as exemplified by Hypatia (‘considered the world’s first notable woman in mathematics’) on one hand, and the new religion (Christianity) and the old one

13 (Judaism) on the other. A struggle which reason must always lose when Shutter Island the opposition is allied to fanaticism and violence, as it was then — and (directed by Martin Scorsese) is now in some places. As Hypatia says to the Bishop when she refuses conversion to Christianity, ‘You cannot question your beliefs, I must question mine.’ Which leads to her death by the Christian fanatics, the The Ghost Writer execution being in a traditional Judaic manner. This film correctly points (directed by Roman Polanski) out that fundamentalists of any faith are the true evil, and because it depicts extremist Christians and Jews and Pagans as mindless bigots, it The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has had very limited release worldwide. For that reason, but not that reason alone, I am recommending it. Many scenes look as though they (directed by Niels Arden Opley) are animated Alma Tadema paintings: the difficult path that reason and mathematics trod from ignorance to certainty (in the sense of a mathe- Tetro matical proof) is made very clear; and the important and vitally necessary (directed by Francis Ford Coppola) role of experiment and the analysis thereof is presented with great force. And Rachel Weisz (Hypatia) is always worth viewing when in a film. All except the last are well-known, too well-known for me to say anything except recommended. The film by Coppola is in black-and-white. It deals Inception with the troubled relation between a young man and his brother, and (directed by Christopher Nolan) with a tangled web of family and familial relations. It also shows Coppola’s love for Powell and Pressburger movies, especially The Red Shoes.

Guilty pleasures

Solomon Kane The Black Shield of Falworth (directed by Michael J. Bassett) (directed by Rudolph Maté) This is real Saturday afternoon fare. Daring heroes (Tony Curtis), spirited Valhalla Rising damsels (Janet Leigh), dastardly villains (David Farrar), lush Technicolor, (directed by Nicolas Winding Refn) and rousing, but forgettable, music. This is the film in which Tony Curtis supposedly says: ‘Yonduh lies the cassel of my fadder’. But that’s an I am recommending these two films (even though both have received apocryphal story concocted by Pauline Kael. less than enthusiastic reviews) for the following reasons. They: (1) are highly entertaining; (2) are gorgeously photographed, with many scenes — Dick Jenssen, January 2011 of exquisite beauty; (3) both have important ‘subtexts’ dealing with redemption and becoming human, with traits of compassion and altruistic self-sacrifice; and (4) are well-directed.

14 Shining shores: Bruce Gillespie’s favourites 2010 Favourite books read for the first time in 2010

1 (Paul Kelly) 2010; 568 pp. 16 The Last Temptation (Val McDermid) 2002; HarperCollins; 2 William Golding: The Man Who Wrote ‘Lord of the Flies’: A 432 pp. Life (John Carey) 2009; 577 pp. 17 How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know (Byron Sharp) 3 On the Edge of the Cliff (V. S. Pritchett) 1979; Random House; 2010; Oxford University Press; 228 pp. 179 pp. 18 Inheritance (Nicholas Shakespeare) 2010; Harvill Secker; 254 pp. 4 A Careless Widow and Other Stories (V. S. Pritchett) 1989; 19 Stories (ed. Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantino) (2010; William Morrow; Random House; 164 pp. 428 pp. 5 Dark Matter (Schilf) (Juli Zeh) 2007; Harvill Secker; 322 pp. 20 A Book of Endings (Deborah Biancotti) 2009; Twelfth Planet Press; 6 The Child Garden (Geoff Ryman) 1989; Unwin Hyman; 388 pp. 288 pp. 7 The Gone-away World (Nick Harkaway) 2008; William Heine- 21 The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (Alex mann; 532 pp. Ross) 2007; Harper Perennial; 695 pp. 8 Galactic Pot-healer (Philip K. Dick) 1969; Gollancz; 177 pp. 22 Greener Than You Think (Ward Moore) 1947; Ballantine; 185 pp. 9 Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family (Alexander 23 And the Waters Prevailed (John Litchen) 2010; Yambu; 485 pp. Waugh) 2004; Broadway Books; 472 pp. 24 Eclipse 2 (ed. Jonathan Strahan) 2008; Night Shade Books; 10 The Lottery and Other Stories (Shirley Jackson) 1949; Penguin 287 pp. Modern Classics; 306 pp. 25 Eclipse 3 (ed. Jonathan Strahan) 2009; Night Shade Books; 11 The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson) 1959; Penguin 289 pp. Modern Classics; 246 pp. 26 Real and Reel: The Education of a Film Obsessive and Critic 12 Too Much Happiness (Alice Munro) 2009; Chatto & Windus; (Brian McFarlane) 2010; Sid Harta Books; 187 pp. 303 pp. 27 Generosity: An Enhancement (Richard Powers) 2009; Farrar 13 We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) 1962; Straus Giroux; 296 pp. Penguin Modern Classics; 158 pp. 28 Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy: Fifth Annual 14 Marathon Man (William Goldman) 1974; Bloomsbury; 279 pp. Volume (ed. Bill Congreve) 2010; MirrorDanse Books; 383 pp. 15 On Passion (Dorothy Porter) 2010; Melbourne University Press; 29 Baggage (ed. Gillian Polack) 2010; Eneit Press; 223 pp. 96 pp.

15 16 Favourite Novels read for the first time in 2010

1 Dark Matter (Schilf) 7 Marathon Man 2 The Child Garden 8 The Last Temptation 3 The Gone-away World 9 Inheritance 4 Galactic Pot-healer 10 Greener Than You Think 5 The Haunting of Hill House 11 And the Waters Prevailed 6 We Have Always Lived in the Castle 12 Generosity: An Enhancement

Paul Kelly’s How to Make Gravy is a non-autobiography initially aimed Sinatra? Throughout the book Kelly shows wide musical tastes, from at non-readers. Paul Kelly is one of Australia’s best Mozart to rock and roll to Aboriginal chant to Frank Sinatra. performers and/or songwriter-folksingers. He is Australia’s finest and most prolific writer of popular songs, and he’s had a fair amount of Kelly wrote this essay in honour of the night Frank Sinatra died, 14 May success at selling CDs. A few years ago he was asked to concoct a 1998: ‘He took old songs which, in the novelty-seeking climate of the presentation for the Melbourne Festival, during which he would sing time, were considered passé, and with the help of Nelson [Riddle]’s fresh accompanied only by his own guitar or by one other player, and each and bold arrangements made them new again. And in so doing estab- night for four nights he would sing 25 of his songs. The titles of the songs lished a large part of the canon of American popular music. The golden would be in alphabetical order. Later, when offered the opportunity to age, just when people thought it was gone, now had its king.’ record the 100 songs on eight CDs, Kelly began writing notes for each song. Some of these notes stayed as notes, other became jokey lists, Paul Kelly is great on musical history — the history of almost any kind and others grew into essays. These essays became autobiographical of music. Whoever would have thought, though, that his musings would musings, notes and anecdotes. The whole became a ‘mongrel memoir’ led right into the heart of song, life and death? of 568 pages, packaged as a hardback together with the eight-CD package. He points out that Sinatra changed enormously in the ten months between 1953, when was broke and unemployable, and 1954, when the We already knew that Paul Kelly was a fine lyricist, perhaps not so great release of the LP In the Wee Small Hours relaunched his career. ‘I a tunesmith, but nobody realised he is also a great prose writer. In these remember my shock the first time I saw a photo of Frank as a young essays of varying lengths, he tells the story of his family (his grandpar- man. My image of him up to that point was of someone eternally ents on his mother’s side were Australia’s first entrepreneurs of Italian middle-aged ... The whippet-thin, high-cheekboned, wavy-haired, hand- opera), a lot about travelling around Australia and America and a bit some boy-next-door in the photo — that was Frank? The same person about his relationships with women, but his best prose he reserves for as the round-faced, sinister-looking balding man who made lame jokes musings where his meditational foot slips down through the spiritual and crooned with his drinking cronies in Las Vegas casinos. It seemed floorboard, and he discovers things he (and we) didn’t realise he knew. unbelievable to me ... The gap between youth and old age, that big sea we cross, is the story of our life, and all other stories — of love, work, My favourite section accompanies the lyric for ‘Winter Coat’, a song he power, family, health — fit within it. We all make our adjustments to that wrote for Frank Sinatra long after Sinatra could have recorded it. Why slow-unfolding car crash as best we can ... You lie in the dark as Frank

17 sings of loss and try to pay attention to all the little exquisite details ... tion of stories that I read at the beginning of the year. Munro is also a but after a while you find yourself drifting off and thinking about your great prosesmith, but I remember little about her individual stories. own life and all its losses, how life over time is simply a series of losses: loss of parents, of love, of possibilities; loss of innocence and your I decided to stop reading stuff that I should read. I’ve found some very children’s innocence’ (pp. 485–9). good books during the year from the compulsory pile (especially the Stories collection, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantino, Deb The reader can feel Paul Kelly becoming aware of what his own personal Biancotti’s A Book of Endings, which collects many of her stories from enterprise is all about. What else is his ‘’, the greatest recent years, and the two most recent Eclipse anthologies edited by Australian song, all about? But how many other Australians from any Jonathan Strahan), but I wanted something more ... more ... more. field could say what he says in this book? Near the end of the year I found in Brunswick Street Books a biography Paul Kelly continues: ‘The knowledge that you’ll never be able to sing I had been looking for, John Carey’s William Golding: The Man Who like Frank is another kind of loss. You’ll never even get close, and Frank Wrote ‘Lord of the Flies’: A Life. Ramona Koval had interviewed Carey will never sing “Winter Coat”, the song you wrote to conjure him ... Loss’s on her Radio National ‘Books Show’. The story of Carey’s search for sphere grows wider now, and included in it is all possibility.’ details of Golding’s life proved even more riveting than the book he wrote. Carey found inside Golding’s lifelong journals a man unsuspected by most The book is named after the song that many people would consider Kelly’s people, even by Carey when he met him late in life. Not that I’ve ever best. A man stands at a phone in a prison yard on 21 December. He been a great admirer of William Golding’s novels. I always thought The phones home for Christmas. His brother is at the other end of the line. Lord of the Flies was too diagrammatic, the downward slide of the He tries to stop himself weeping about everything he’s missing. ‘Who’s fortunes of its characters too inevitable. I did enjoy Free Fall when I read gonna make the gravy now? I bet it won’t taste the same/Just add flour, it in 1964, but I’ve never read it since, and I still haven’t read Golding’s salt, a little red wine and don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce for two other SF novels, The Inheritors and Pincher Martin. Reading the sweetness and that extra tang’. He wishes everybody well. But what bio-graphy revealed a man who was interesting in himself, regardless of might his brother be doing on Christmas Day with his wife? ‘Just don’t the quality of his work. Many of his obsessions echo my own — except hold her too close, oh brother please don’t stab me in the back ... You that I have no talent for writing fiction. The rise and rise of Golding’s know I love her badly, she’s the one to save me/I’m gonna make some reputation, culminating in the 1983 Nobel Prize, was as much an irritation gravy, I’m gonna taste the fat’ and his whole situation comes crashing to the ‘better sort’ of English critic as it was a source of satisfaction to in on him and the listener. To hear this song for the first time hits you people who always loved his books. Golding was an annoying man you in the midriff. Reading it for the first time, in How to Make Gravy, will do couldn’t ignore, rather like a Keith Roberts who gained the success denied that for you as well. to Roberts. Carey’s biography is a fascinating tale, richer and more detailed than most novels. How to Make Gravy came right at the end of year. Until then 2010 had been another grumpy year of reading to me. I picked from the shelves Recent rereading of my favourite passages from How to Make Gravy two books of short stories by V. S. Pritchett, On the Edge of the Cliff reminds me of why I gripe about most other books I read. They seem and A Careless Widow. They had been sitting there since I bought them so fake somehow, so contrived. The best writers seem to write to hide in the 1980s. I was desperate for some succulent writing, something I themselves, not reveal themselves. Even very fine novels such as Geoff could lose myself in. Immediately I found myself gulping down short Ryman’s The Child Garden (people have been recommending it to me stories not only made of readable prose, but also of memorable charac- for years) or Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World seem like ters and off-kilter plots. They gave me the enjoyment that I had not quite beautifully made, but very contrived entertainments. The Child Garden found in (say) Alice Munro’s Too Much Happiness, her recent collec- has a great love story at its centre, but as in Air, Ryman falls for the lure

18 of the transcendent. You think he’s going to tell you an intricate story knowledge. Wonderful characters, too. about an interesting future society, but in the end he just gives us a pseudo-religious jolt to the middle of the brain. Thomas Disch alerted Penguin recently re-released three books by Shirley Jackson. At the me to this permanent fault in science fiction: the addiction to the same time as I bought them, I heard an American professor of literature transcendent. Since then I haven’t been able to avoid noticing the Big (yes, interviewed by Ramona Koval) suggesting that Jackson is the great Finish; in other words, the resolution that has nothing to do with the way not-quite-rediscovered American writer. Her books are succinct and we might live our lives in the future. The Gone-away World hides a funny, for a start. She is very good, but hardly another Flannery monstrous trick at its centre, but Harkaway writes so well that I went O’Connor. The trouble is that one keeps feeling that, although Jackson along for the ride. I wish it had not been a ride. I wish these very clever writes with precision and wit, she’s telling us a bit too much about herself. writers would get rid of the bulldust and articulate original and possible The main characters of both The Haunting of Hill House (frequently future scenarios. listed as the best modern ghost novel) and We Have Always Lived in this Castle go mad during the course of the novel. I couldn’t help feeling Much less ambitious than the books by Ryman and Harkaway is Philip that the haunted Hill House was the same place as the dilapidated ‘castle’ K. Dick’s Galactic Pot-healer. While I was reading it in the recent of the latter book, and the nutty characters are the same. There is more Gollancz paperback edition, I was sure I had never read it before. variety of voice in the short stories of The Lottery, but again, the best However, Elaine found in our library the paperback I bought in the late stories describe tangible madness without coming to terms with it. 1960s, and it is covered in my notes! So why did I forget it then, and Jackson’s biography would probably be more hair-raising than any of her love it now? Probably because I was so entranced by the Philip Dick of fiction. Ubik and Now Wait for Last Year (which I read about the same time) that Galactic Pot-healer seemed inconsequential in 1969. Read now, it proves You will wonder why I have listed a book of pop sociology called How to be one of Dick’s few perfect novels, and very deep indeed (while very Brands Grow. I would never have bought it, but I did get to proofread funny). it. I like it because it uses currently available research to puncture almost all our assumptions about how we buy stuff. It’s like stepping behind the Fathers and Sons is both biography and autobiography. Alexander shop fronts in all the shopping malls of the world and finding that they Waugh had to be born into a race of monsters, including Evelyn Waugh are made of cardboard. In doing so, we step behind our own veneers (his grandfather) and Auberon Waugh (his father). I heard Alexander and realise we shoppers are made of cardboard. Waugh being interviewed, again by Ramona Koval. He sounded like a very sensible bloke, somebody who could be excused for trying to Also not fitting any category is Dorothy Porter’s On Passion. Porter exorcise all those ghosts from his memory. Yet he also realises how died much too young from cancer recently, and anybody who met her privileged he was to have grown up with one of the best English writers (as we did at a Nova Mob meeting) mourns the passing of her immense in his lineage (Evelyn) and a complex, kind, funny man (Auberon) as his cheerfulness and delight in the world. She was a good poet, specialising father. Who cares if the rest of the world saw each of them as the very in poetry-novels, but the short essays in On Passion (one of those model of a right-wing monster? Alexander’s great-grandfather was the mini-hardbacks that shops like Brunswick Street Books and Readings family’s true monster. It’s worth buying the book for that portrait. have on their front counters) seemed to me even more alive and perceptive than any of her poems. She should have lived long enough After I read Juli Zeh’s Dark Matters (not the ghost novel that’s in all to write a very large book about passion. the bookshops at the moment, but a novel translated from German), I thought it was the most original suspense novel I’d read for years. And The Rest Is Noise deserves an essay in a music issue of *brg*, but I very nicely written. I reread it recently, and realise that, although it’s a haven’t had time to write it yet. Highly recommended, even if I disagree bit too ambitious, it’s a deeply serious book about the uncertainty of with many of Alex Ross’s conclusions.

19 Most of the other books I’ve listed have faults that make them less tells you a lot of ignorant crap about the failures of science fiction in the enjoyable than they should have been. late forties and fifties, point him (for instance, Rjurik Davidson, who spoke at the Nova Mob in 2009) toward the best novels by Ward Moore, While you’re reading William Goldman’s Marathon Man, you think it Damon Knight, Robert Sheckley and Frederic Brown. is the best-constructed thriller you’ve read in years. Yet six months later I can remember little about it, especially as I’ve never seen the movie. Bill Congreve’s, Gillian Polack’s and Jonathan Strahan’s collections are probably a bit too low on the list, mainly because each features only The Last Temptation is a memorable Tony Hill/Carol Jordan novel from two or three stories I really like. However, the average quality of their Val McDermid, but it is about 200 pages too long (like most mystery fiction is as high as you would find in any overseas collection, and I would novels of the last twenty years), and McDermid allows herself to slip into recommend buying them as presents for people you like. very cliché-ridden prose. A pity, as some of her earlier novels are succinct entertainments. Real and Reel should have been better than it is, or maybe longer. Brian McFarlane delivers witty and informative reviews of British films Nicholas Shakespeare’s Inheritance has a setup of great originality on the weekly ‘Film Buffs Forecast’ radio program on 3RRR (midday, and he writes well. A man walks mistakenly into the wrong funeral, and Saturday), but in his cinematic autobiographer he rushes his story a bit finds that he has inherited half the dead man’s fortune because of his too much. I would have preferred a complete autobiography that included mistake. When you read the first few pages, you can hardly not read the much of this material, much amplified. Maybe the publisher has imposed rest of the novel, but Shakespeare throws away his premise by the end mistaken limits on the book. of the book. I’ve left John Litchen’s And the Waters Prevailed to last only because I would say much the same about Richard Powers’ Generosity. The I plan to write about it at greater length in the next SF Commentary. You character around whom the action revolves has great personal magnet- can gain a good idea of how it evolved, and what it’s about, from John’s ism, an almost science-fictional ability to make people feel good and introduction to his ‘My Life and Science Fiction, Part 3’ in *brg* 67. I galvanise them. However, Powers then treats the premise in a plodding, should say that the newspaper and TV reports on the recent spate of science-fictional way. One of those books that should have been good, floods in Australia only demonstrate the accuracy of John Litchen’s but is half made. fictional speculations about what will happen as the Earth’s climate keeps revving up and the seas inundate our coastal cities. Buy this very Greener Than You Think, an SF classic by Ward Moore, is also a bit enjoyable novel: $30 to Yambu Press, PO Box 3503, Robina Town Centre, disappointing by its end, but that man could write. Every time somebody QLD 4230.

Favourite films seen for the first time in 2010

* = for this and the following two lists, items that I have could not have seen without the help of Dick Jenssen.

20 1 Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer) 1993 20 Tin Men (Barry Levinson) 1986 2 The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella) 2009 21 The Detective (Gordon Douglas) 1968 3 The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies) 1992 22 Broadway Danny Rose (Woody Allen) 1984 4 The Lost Thing (Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan) 2010 23 Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron) 2009 5 Goya’s Ghosts (Milos Forman) 2006 24 The First of the Few (Leslie Howard) 1941 6 The White Ribbon (Peter Haneke) 2009 25 Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich) 2010 7 Up in the Air (Jason Reitman) 2009 26 The Social Network (David Fincher) 2010 8 Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese) 2009 27 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (George Clooney) 2002 9* The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev) 2009 28 Don’t Say a Word (Gary Fleder) 2001 10* The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski) 2009 29 Popeye (Robert Altman) 1980 11 Love Lust and Lies (Gilliam Armstrong) 2009 30 An Englishman Abroad (John Schlesinger) 1983 12 Thank You for Smoking (Jason Reitman) 2006 31 My Year Without Sex (Sarah Watt) 2009 13 Hopscotch (Ronald Neame) 1980 32* The Terminal Man (Mike Hodges) 1974 14* People Will Talk (Joseph L. Mankiewicz) 1951 33 Kokoda (Don Featherstone) 2010 15 Pink String and Sealing Wax (Robert Hamer) 1945 34 Me and Orson Welles (Richard Linklater) 2009 16* The Informant (Steven Soderbergh) 2009 35 Sweetie (Jane Campion) 1989 17* Departures (Yojiro Takita) 2009 36 Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton) 1985 18 Inception (Christopher Nolan) 2010 37 Zardoz (John Boorman) 1974 19* Crisis (Richard Brooks) 1950

For me, 2010 was a better year for films than for books, except for one about 90 fon my end-of-year to-be-ranked list. Way ahead of the rest is personal peculiarity that keeps catching me out. More and more I found Rolf de Heer’s Bad Boy Bubby. that I would watch a film for the first hour on DVD or Blu-Ray, put it aside for the night, and never return to it. Sometimes this was because of Why did I not see it at the cinema in 1993? I see very few films at the irritation with the quality of the film, but increasingly it was because I cinema. The reviews made it sound (a) vaguely offensive, and (b) a bit could foresee the end: the clobbering of the main character or characters. predictable. No matter; so I waited until 2010. The director and writer were really enjoying setting me up to squirm while I watched the ghastly events about to take place. For this reason, Bad Boy Bubby crosses every line of bad taste that existed in Australian I did not watch the end of Atlantic City, or Agora, or a few others. (or any other) cinema at the time, but it is also very amiable. Bubby (Nicholas Hope) is a young man who has been cut off from the world all I confess, to any readers who retain faith in my judgment, that I wasted his life, imprisoned in an underground room by his lumpish, possessive many nights in 2010 on watching episodes of TV series. I thought it mother. This had led to a very strange relationship between them. A impossible to be trapped into this habit. But having bought the complete series of accidents leads to confrontations between Bubby and his mother set of the British cop/mystery series A Touch of Frost, I spent six and his returned father, enabling him for the first time to walk free from months, inbetween films, watching all the episodes. Late in the year, I his prison. An innocent, he discovers an ever-changing pageant that is watched all the episodes of Ellery Queen, one of the very best American the Real World. We see everything from his point of view, not from the series ever made. point of view of people who laugh at him or try to take advantage of him. The story line becomes increasingly unpredictable, ending up with Bubby Despite those interruptions, I watched enough films to pile up a list of becoming an rock star (resembling Nick Cave in appearance and stage

21 actions) and finding the love of his life. The film stitches together confrontational grotesquerie and utter charm without drawing breath. It’s a pity that Rolf de Heer has never made anything as arresting since.

I did see two films in the cinema in 2010: David Fincher’s The Social Network and Christopher Nolan’s Inception. They dominated the critics’ columns when they summed up 2010. Each film is flashy enough, and superbly manufactured, but neither has the impact of each director’s best work (Fight Club or The Prestige). We remain the outsiders to the action of both films. The main fascination of Inception is working out what actually happens in it. Is there any moment of the film when its main character is actually not in a dream? Who set up the whole series of events and descending levels of dreams? For whose benefit? What was actually discovered and delivered? It’s a good puzzle story; I’ve watched it several times on Blu-Ray already.

Some of my favourite films for the year were crime stories or mysteries. The best was Juan Jose Campanella’s Brazilian film The Secret in Their Eyes. A man must reexamine an old crime; this brings him back to an old love, and the need to solve a mystery that has itched away at him for years. Sounds all very familiar if you watch British cop shows, as I do, but nothing here is predictable. Everything depends on the rela- tionships between the characters involved.

I could say the same thing about Niels Arden Oplev’s version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the film of the first book of the series everybody else has been reading. (Stieg Larssen’s series of three novels sold 800,000 copies last year in Australia alone.) The mystery is well done, but it’s nowhere near as interesting as the confrontation between the girl with that dragon tattoo and her enemies. Nice to see the female leading the investigative action instead of being the victim or near-victim of the baddies, as is usual in crime fiction.

Roman Polanksi’s The Ghost Writer is also an accomplished thriller, with its main characters obviously based on Tony and Cherie Blair when they were in power. A ghost writer is hired to write the politician’s ‘autobiography’ and does his job too well. His predecessor has been killed already because of what he discovered, and the unnamed new boy puts himself in harm’s way. The strength of the film is in the acting and its production design: the writer sits in comfort, delving into the past, while

22 through a large window he looks out onto a cold beach landscape of the of social analysis than you’ll find on cinema screens these days, bravura island that has effectively become his prison cell. Many criticis have performances from Richard Dreyfuss and Danny De Vito, and the kind of commented on the film’s last shot, a visual tribute to the last shot of clear, beautiful colour photography that has completely disappeared from Polanski’s own Chinatown. today’s films.

Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Phildickian-noir You’ll notice I’ve put off talking about films about which I cannot thriller Shutter Island shares many qualities of unease with those in generalise. Each of Terence Davies’ films based on his childhood in both Inception and The Ghost Writer. Scorsese creates a greater sense Liverpool is unique, yet together they make up one of the great film of unease than does Nolan in Inception, with considerably fewer gim- documents. Very few films are personal explorations, but Davies ignores micks, and Leonard di Caprio is better here than in any other film except all those aspects of movies that divert him from the truth, and in The Scorsese’s The Aviator. You reach the end of Shutter Island and you must Long Day Closes plunges straight into the heart of his past. I don’t know watch it again immediately. how he finances his films, but I’m grateful to his benefactors.

It’s hard to summarise most of the other films on the list. Some, such The Lost Thing, all 15 minutes of it, is also a very personal film for its as the politically astute Crisis (Richard Brooks) I could never have seen creators, Shaun Tan, author and illustrator of the book, and animator except for Dick Jenssen putting it in my hand. Dick also discovered a Andrew Ruhemann. It’s very exciting to see Tan’s totally originally DVD of Joseph Mankiewicz’s unknown (to me) drama People Will vision of the world brought to life in this animated short. Many of us are Talk (1951). Both films rely on black-and-white photography at its best, hoping that somebody has put up the cash to make Tan’s textless graphic and star Cary Grant at his best. Neither film is mentioned in a Cary Grant novel The Arrival into a full-length animated feature. (The late news, 26 cine-biography I saw on DVD a few years ago. January, is that The Lost Thing has been nominated for an Oscar Award for Best Animated Film. Go, Shaun!) Once a month, Frank Weissenborn and John Davies travel to my place to watch films in Blu-Ray on the plasma screen. They’ve brought some Milos Forman’s Goya’s Ghosts is one of several films that I’ve picked fine films with them in 2010. I might never have got around to watching up from a JB Hi Fi bargain bin this year, have known nothing about it, Peter Haneke’s The White Ribbon if John had not been impressed by yet have felt that frisson of excitement at finding a rare treat. (Two other it. The star of the film is the black-and-white photography, made up of pleasant surprises from the JB bargain bin have been Ronald Neame’s crisply complex country landscapes in long shot and character studies stylish Hopscotch (1980), a caper–thriller movie starring Walter Mat- almost as stills. At the end, we are not told who committed the crime thau and Glenda Jackson and some delicious script writing; and Robert that obsesses a back-country German village before World War I. We are Hamer’s Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945), a comedy–murder– fairly sure we know the answer, but the interest of the story is in historical thriller starring the robust Googie Withers, are two other discovering the ways in which the villagers ignore the evil in their midst. surprises from the JB bin.) Forman has been rather unlucky in recent years. He’s a much better director than almost any of those current We also saw a Blu-Ray of Jack Clayton’s The Innocents, also photo- big-money-money directors, yet his films are lucky to achieve a theatrical graphed in my favourite medium, widescreen black and white, by Freddie release these days in Australia. Goya’s Ghosts, starring Javier Bardim as Francis. If I had not seen The White Ribbon, I would say that The a shifty, on-the-make priest, is about that period in Spanish history when Innocents is the best-photographed film of the last fifty years. A small the government changed often, and Napoleon’s army was rampaging cast, including Deborah Kerr at her best, recreate the text of Henry around the countryside. The Spanish Inquisition was no sooner over than James’s best story, The Turn of the Screw, with all its unease and horror. further political horrors rained down on the Spanish people. Stern stuff, yet the tone of the film is a celebration of life, despite all the attempts John also contributed Barry Levinson’s Tin Men, a much sharper film by the nasty guys and ideologists to snuff it out.

23 One of the surprises of 2010 was to find that Hollywood can still make I’ve been trying to catch up with a few Australian films during 2010, ironic comedies. Three of the best have been made by Jason Reitman especially after I scored the bullseye by pulling Bad Boy Bubby off the (including Juno, which I saw last year). Steve Soderbergh (The shelf. Informant) is still there firing, as is Nora Ephron (Julie & Julia). Reitman has a good eye for production design and camerawork, and Up The best new Australian film I saw in 2010 was Gillian Armstrong’s in the Air (2009) and Thank You for Smoking (2006) also provide Love Lust and Lies. It is the fourth film in which Armstrong interviews scripts worthy of their casts. Up in the Air plays with the idea of three girls she first met in Adelaide when they were 14 years old. Now downsizing America’s wellpaid workforce, and Smoking plays with the they are in their forties, their lives have undergone great changes since idea of persuading people to do what’s bad for them. If the business of the third film in the series. I expected Love Lust and Lies to run smoothly America is business, something has gone very wrong with business and like one of the episodes of Michael Apted’s ‘Up’ series. However, the America, but Jason Reitman’s cockeyed view and Steve Soderbergh’s events that have been erupting into the lives of our heroes disturb us as twisted hero (played Matt Damon) are more memorable than all of Mike much as they do the main characters. Moore’s bellowings. Sarah Watt’s My Life Without Sex is enjoyable, a meditation on life Thanks to Dick Jenssen to putting Elaine and me onto the Japanese film and death, but it doesn’t have the same memorable passion as her Departures (Yojiro Takita). In Japan, undertaking is a special profes- previous film. sion. The education of a young undertaker proves to be the kind of complete education in life skills that few men receive in any society. Very Jane Campion’s first feature Sweetie (1989) is just as anarchistic as I Zen, very understated, and often very funny. had been told it was, but the declarative acting style used by Campion undercuts the effectiveness of her more manic moments.

Favourite music DVDs seen for the first time in 2010

1 Hail Bop! A Portrait of John Adams (Tony Palmer) 2009 Finch and Lorne Michaels) 1989 2 Paul Simon: You’re the One (Garry Halvorsen) 2000 9 1991 3 Cliff Richard and the Shadows: Live in London 2009 (Brian 10 Paul Kelly & : Live at the Enmore Theatre 2005 Klein) 2009 11 Paul Kelly: Live Apples (Paul Dane) 2008 4 Old Crow Medicine Show: Live at the Orange Peel and Ten- 12 Colin Hay: Live at the Corner (Matt Weston & Marty Smith) 2009 nesse Theatre: Dec. 4 2008 (Lee Tucker) 2009 13 Little Feat: Highwire Act Live in St Louis 2003 (Milton Lage) 5 London Calling: Bruce Springsteen Live in Hyde Park 2009 2004 (Chris Hilson) 2010 14 : Live from Austin TX (Gary Menati) 1990 6 Benjamin Britten: A Time There Was (Tony Palmer) 1979 15 Stones in the Park (Leslie Woodhead and Jo Durden-Smith) 1969 7 Bernstein: Mahler Symphony No 2 (Humphrey Barton) 1971 16 Wonders Are Many: The Making of Dr Atomic (2009) 8 25 x 5: The Continuing Adventures of (Nigel

24 This is a new list. In previous years I’ve noted some of the music DVDs I’ve seen in my notes, but not many. Few of them work really well as movies. There’s not much one can say about a music DVD if the person you’re talking to doesn’t like the particular style of music you’ve chosen. Most of the ones I picked from the stack are rock videos, designed to be played up loud on lazy nights when I really didn’t want to watch Antonioni or even Jason Reitman. For rock concert DVDs, there’s not much to choose in cinematic style between them. The director puts cameras in various strategic spots, then hopes that the performances will be lively on the night and the editing can add extra energy. The concert version of Paul Simon’s You’re the One tour (1990) is better than the rest, not only because of the superiority of the style of Paul Simon’s band (four percussionists, four guitarists) and the power of his songs, but also because of an effective marriage between stage lighting and film editing.

Of this year’s list, I would consider only Hail Bop! and You’re the One for the main movie list: maybe Hail Bop! could be placed after Tin Men, and You’re the One just after Broadway Danny Rose. Or maye not. It’s hard to make comparisons, which is why I started this new list.

Top performance honours (regardless of movie quality) go to Old Crow Medicine Show, a band with such a frenetic stage style that its members seem ready to leap off the stage and into the living room; Cliff Richard (who must be nearly 70, but looks 45) and the Shadows (Hank Marvin still looks lean and 45), from an slightly cut version of a 41-song, three-hour concert that includes only pre-1966 songs; and Bruce Springsteen, offering the schtick that he really feels 60 these days, yet powering on for three hours of Concert at Hyde Park (as the sun goes down and the lights come on), each song more energetic than the one before.

I watch very little on DVD; I would prefer to sit in front of the speakers and let my imagination add the pictures. However, I’ve just discovered the Tony Palmer TV documentaries about various famous composers, and have bought any I’ve seen in Discurio. Hail, Bop!, a rambling sort of journey around John Adams’ mind and career rather than a biography, was the highlight of the year. We see Adams joking around with friend Manny (Emmanuel Ax, one of the world’s best pianists), showing him how to play an Adams piece, and some powerful scenes from Adams’ operas, especially Nixon in China. Adams comes

25 across as the ultimate amiable Californian gentleman; only occasionally that, or the film itself has deteriorated before being transferred to DVD. do we see steel glimpses of the perfectionist composer–conductor at The sound of the performance is a bit dull and boxy, like that on a 1950s work. LP, whereas the choir and orchestra were obviously performing at their best. I’m hoping that other films from the set are much better recorded On the other hand, the video of Tony Palmer’s Benjamin Britten: A and remastered. Time There Was had deteroriated very badly before being reissued. What a pity, since the film contains many unexpected insights into the Thanks to Trev Clark for providing me with a DVD of 25 x 5: The nature of Britten’s character and career, and several extracts from BBC Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones. Its interviews are televised operas revealing that Peter Pears was not merely an adornment rather more revealing than those on Stones in Exile, the recent DVD that to the Britten life story, but was also the best opera actor I’ve ever seen accompanied the re-release of Exile on Main Street. Jagger-view now (on film or video). The Britten opera set has been released by the BBC, rules Rolling Stones Land, with Keith Richard as sardonic court jester, and I’m tempted ... whereas when 25 x 5 those years ago we were also allowed to hear the viewpoints of , and . Also disappointing for technical reasons was the first film I watched (Symphony No 2 (‘The Resurrection’)) from the boxed set of Bern- The other videos on my list are recommended if you like these perform- stein Mahler that I bought. Leonard Bernstein with the Vienna ers. I have about 40 more on the shelf waiting to be watched. But what Philharmonic Orchestra form one of the great recording forces of the happened a few weeks ago? Dick Jenssen lent to Elaine James Levine’s last thirty years, but this particular TV video seems to have been recorded version of the complete Wagner Ring, all 17 hours of it! too early (1971) to make use of current digital sound techniques. Either

Favourite films seen again in 2010

1* Paris, Texas 12 Mahler 2* Last Year at Marienbad 13 Moon 3* Wings of Desire 14* Galaxy Quest 4* The Red Shoes 15* The Lineup 5 The Innocents 16 The List of Adrian Messenger 6 Rear Window 17* Microcosmos 7 Fantasia 18* The Fall 8 Sullivan’s Travels 19 Mary and Max 9* Stagecoach 20 Up 10 THX 1138 21* The Day the Earth Stood Still 11 Dumbo 22 Unbreakable

Not much to say about this list, because I’ve talked about most of the films over recent years. I’ve watched most of them this year because the

26 Blu-Ray discs have just become available. What luxury it is to groove is the best movie of the last thirty years, but maybe Paris, Texas has along to Last Year in Marienbad or The Innocents, their black-and- replaced it. white widescreen photography probably now looking better than ever they did on the big screen. How great it is to see The Red Shoes at last Oddity of this list is John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939), because I’m not as it might have looked when first exhibited. sure whether I’ve seen it before or not. Yes, I’ve seen it before, so it’s on this list, but when I watched Stagecoach on TV as a midday movie in In the case of Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas (1984), the transformation the early eighties, the whole middle scene (the stagecoach passengers’ is even more startling. When I saw it first at the Astor Theatre, on a overnight stay at a fort before resuming their dangerous journey) was double bill with Wings of Desire (my longest night ever at the flicks), the missing. That’s why I’ve always remembered Stagecoach as nothing but print was quite grainy. Now on Blu-Ray, every image is startling clear, a very skilful action movie. I could never see what all the critical fuss is with Harry Dean Stanton and family strutting their stuff as they have about. During that overnight stay, you might remember, a baby is born, never have been seen before. This movie is 2 hours 40 minutes short. and the characters learn enough about each other for all their relation- The slower the action, the higher the tension, and the more it involves ships to change. When they resume the stagecoach ride in the morning, the viewer. For many years I have written that Wenders’ other master- all have become different people. Script writing in Hollywood movies piece, Wings of Desire (also now in a startlingly clear print on Blu-Ray), never got much better than this (except in John Ford movies).

Favourite popular music boxed sets and reissue collections bought during 2010

1Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Collection (70 CDs 9Shane Howard: Retrospect: Collected Songs 1982–2003 (2 + DVD) CDs) 2 Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street (remastered + CD + DVD) 10 Various: The Bert Berns Story, Vol. 1 1960–64 3 Broderick Smith’s Big Combo 11 Jennifer Warnes: Famous Blue Raincoat 20th Anniversary Edi- 4Tom Petty: The Live Anthology (4 CDs) tion 5Paul Kelly: The A to Z Recordings (8 CDs) 12 Rosanne Cash: Blue Moons and Broken Hearts: The Anthology 6 Bruce Springsteen: The Promise: The Darkness at the Edge of 1979–1996 (2005) Town Story (3 CDs + 3 DVDs) 13 Chet Atkins: Guitar Legend: The RCA Years (2 CDs) 7Jethro Tull: Stand Up (2 CDs + DVD) 14 Sarah Storer: Calling Me Home: The Best Of (2 CDs) 8Shadows: Complete Singles As & Bs 1959–1980 (4 CDs)

As with classical music, the quality and quantity of the items in boxed place, so I don’t grieve for what I’ve missed. sets often sets the tone for what is really going on the recording industry at the time. According to the press, the CD is dead, yet I have had no Before the CD disappears, though, the major companies seem deter- trouble spending as much money on CDs per year as I ever did. mined to repackage all their best items. Some recent huge sets I’ve Occasionally I hear of recordings that are available only on download, missed out on because very few copies were printed: for instance, I’ve but not many. If downloads happen, I don’t hear about them in the first just been saved from the temptation to buy the new 15-CD

27 set because only 1000 copies were made, and only two turned up at Readings.

One super-boxed set I had to buy is Miles Davis’s The Complete Columbia Album Collection, 70 CDs plus a DVD. I remember the day when the LPs were deleted by Sony in Australia: Readings (in its old shop in Carlton) had the floor filled with umpteen beautiful , and I could afford only one or two. In the newly released box, each CD costs $2. The booklet alone, if released as a paperback, would be worth $20. This is the first chance I’ve had to get a handle on the Davis career. I’ve heard some of the key Davis recordings, such as Sketches of Spain, Kind of Blue, In a Quiet Way, Tribute to Jack Johnson and Tutu, but I’ve never had a chance to hear what lies between them. How did his work develop? With the help of the booklet and other books, I hope to trace the story.

Why Miles Davis? I don’t listen to much jazz, and I don’t like brass instrument music much. But Davis seemed always to be trying to fuse different types of music and stretch any limits that people tried to impose on him. His basic sound is the blues: melancholic rather than brassy, downbeat and introvert rather upbeat and extrovert; meticulous rather than slapdash. He achieved what rock and roll and experimental classical music said they were doing, saying ‘Up yours, world!’ and shape-chang- ing. Most musicians settle for what pleases the public; early in his career Miles Davis decided the only way to create a personal public is to remain a minority of one.

The other items in my list hardly match Miles Davis’s achievement, but they offer their own rewards.

The Rolling Stones’ reissue package of Exile on Main Street includes the DVD Stones in Exile which somehow manages to delete the name of Gram Parsons, the previously acknowledged central influence on that album. Never mind; the reissue CD is superbly remastered; and the CD of songs recovered from the vaults is better Stones music than anything else they have released since 1974, except for .

My favourite Australian rock albums of all time would be the second and third Dingoes albums (both recorded in America, but never mind). They have still not been remastered and reissued properly. After split, Broderick Smith, the lead singer, went solo. His best album,

28 yielding a couple of hits in the early 80s, was Broderick Smith’s Big remastered, with a CD of extra tracks. The DVD, though, is merely the Combo. I thought I would have to rely on listening to the LP for the rest sound album in a superior sound version. of my life, but 2010 brought a miracle: the CD release of this record. Unfortunately its re-release received very little publicity, so you might The rest of my list items are mainly compilations of favourite tracks from have trouble finding it. various periods. For instance, I already had one of the great boxed sets, The Shadows’ complete tracks from 1958 to 1964; a complement is the Most of Tom Petty’s albums of the last 25 years (except last year’s new Complete Singles As and Bs, which fills in my knowledge of their Mudcrutch and this year’s Mojo) have been fairly tepid affairs, each with career after they stopped having hits in Australia in 1965. two or three brilliant new songs. His reputation rests on his first five LPs and his concert performances. The Live Anthology presents four CDs If you are interested in high-quality Australian performers, buy Shane packed with great performances from his whole career. This is genuine Howard’s Retrospect: Collected Songs 1982–2003 or any of his rock and roll as hardly anybody is still playing it. Play these CDs loud. other CDs that might still be in print. He began as the lead singer of Goanna, the protest-song band that sold vast numbers of records in the Paul Kelly is not the Tom Petty of Australia, but when he really wants 1980s, and since then had developed both as a vocalist and songwriter. to rock, he can compete with singer-songwriters such as Neil Young. As I wish I could find a DVD of one of his concerts. I’ve already mentioned in the ‘Books’ section, The A to Z Recordings accompanies and inspires the book How to Make Gravy. I had expected Why buy The Bert Berns Story, Vol. 1 1960–64? You say you’ve never Kelly’s live, unaccompanied performances to be a bit boring compared heard of Bert Berns. You’re right. You haven’t. The only reason I’ve with his band concerts, but not so. You just hear the words more clearly. heard of him is because of a stray remark made by Stan Rofe, Mel- Highly recommended, whether or not you buy the book. bourne’s great deejay, in 1961 when he played a song called ‘You Better Come Home’. Stan Rofe said that although this single (which peaked at I must admit that I’ve had little time to play Bruce Springsteen’s The No 99 on the American Top 100 and was never released in Australia, but Promise, all three CDs and three Blu-Rays, but I just know I’m going to I was nuts about it when Stan played it quite a few times — I was fourteen enjoy it all. It’s great to hear Darkness at the Edge of Town remas- at the time, remember) was by Russell Bird. Stan Rofe said that Russell tered, sounding better than it ever did on LP, and the drawn-from-the- Bird was the performing name of a named Bert Berns. vault songs on the two CDs of The Promise are drawing rave reviews I’m not sure why I have remembered that bit of trivia for fifty years, but from the music magazine critics. The Blu-Rays include a rediscovered I have. When I read in an English music magazine that there was a concert film, and a film about the making of Darkness. The CD is not collection of the best of Bert Berns on Ace Records, I had to have it. It dead while Bruce Springsteen still believes in it. turns out to be wonderful. Bert Berns, it seems, was a record producer who should have been as famous as Phil Spector. He developed a When I shared a flat for a few months in 1970 while living in Ararat, my percussive sound, best typified by singles such as the Isley Brothers’ flatmate Mike brought some of his favourite albums up from Melbourne. ‘Twist and Shout’, ’s ‘Cry to Me’ and Gene Pitney’s ‘If I He had with him the first Band albums I had heard, two great Steve Miller Didn’t Have a Dime’. I hadn’t heard of many of the singles on the new LPs, and Jethro Tull’s Stand Up. It was then and has remained my collection, but many of them are very enjoyable. Buy this CD, and check favourite Jethro Tull album: the group still plays ‘Bourrée’ from it, and the Ace Records catalogue for its sets of obscure 1960s songs. If only several of the ballads are among their greatest songs. Nice to have it Stan Rofe were still alive to hear his era resurrected.

29 Favourite popular music CDs heard for the first time in 2010

1 Loudon Wainwright III: High Wide and Handsome: The Charlie 25 Old Crow Medicine Show: Tennessee Pusher (2008) Poole Project (2 CDs) (2009) 26 Richard Thompson: Dream Attic (2 CDs) (2010) 2 Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street (reissue) (Disc 2) (2010) 27 The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You (2009) 3 Willie Nelson: (2010) 28 Four Bitchin’ Babes: Fax It! Charge It! Don’t Ask Me What’s For 4Miles Davis: Someday My Prince Will Come (1961) Dinner (1995) 5 : Mean Old Man (2010) 29 Patricia Barber: Verse (2002) 6 Deadstring Brothers: Sao Paulo (2009) 30 Various: Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows: Songs of John 7 The Wolfgramm Sisters (2010) Prine (2010) 8 Tom Petty & Heartbreakers: Mojo (2010) 31 Phosphorent: To Willie (2008) 9Cyndi Lauper: Memphis Blues (2010) 32 Dingoes: Tracks (2010) 10 Texas Tornados: Esta Bueno! (2010) 11 Jackson Browne, David Lindley, and En Vivo con Trio: Love Is Other contenders Strange (2 CDs) (2010) 12 Mavis Staples: You Are Not Alone (2010) Dave Brubeck: Time Further Out (1961) 13 : Clapton (2010) Dave Salt: Old Salt Blues (1996) 14 Gurf Morlix: Last Exit to Happyland (2009) Ramblin’ Jack Elliott: A Stranger Here (2009) 15 Eliza Carthy & Norma Waterson: Gift (2010) Levon Helm: Electric Dirt (2009) 16 Elton John & Leon Russell: The Union (2010) (CD + DVD) Sarah Blasko: As Day Follows Night (2009) 17 John Prine: In Person and On Stage (2010) Archie Roach: 1988 (2010) 18 Robert Plant: Band of Joy (2010) Eric Bibb, Rory Block and Maria Muldaur: 19 Paul Kelly & Stormwater Boys: Foggy Highway (CD + DVD) (2005) Sisters and Brothers (2004) 20 Neil Young: Le Noise (2010) Various: Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm (2009) 21 Paul Kelly: Live Apples (CD + DVD) (2008) Steeleye Span: Live at a Distance (2 CDs + DVD) (2009) 22 Little Feat: Highwire Act: Live in St Louis (2 CDs) 2010 James McMurtry: Too Long in the Wasteland (1989) 23 John Cale and Terry Riley: Church of Anthrax (1971) The Coal Porters: Durango (April 17–April 30) (2010) 24 : I Feel Like Playing (2010) Kate and Anna McGarrigle: Pronto Monto (LP)

I realise that most of these selections are peculiar to me. But everybody’s Main Street is their most exciting set of new tracks since 1980. They list seems peculiar to everyone else. Look at the January 2011 Rhythms even dragged Mick Taylor (who left the band in 1974) back into the studio magazine — there is almost no overlap between the items offered in the to finish a few tracks. Top Ten Albums lists by Australia’s leading music writers and broadcast- ers. I would have put that CD as No 1, had it not been beaten by Loudon Wainwright III’s best CD (a double CD plus booklet) in more than ten As I’ve written already, the second CD on the Rolling Stones’ Exile on years, High, Wide and Handsome. I’d never heard of Charlie Poole, a

30 pioneering country–blues singer, until Loudon rediscovered him, and I suspect I wouldn’t have liked Poole’s own records very much. However, they have inspired Loudon to stretch his vocal range. (Old rock musicians, like old editors, just get better as they get older; I repeat this eternal truth.) Half the songs are Poole’s own songs or those he is known to have performed during the 1930s, and half are Loudon Wainwright’s, inspired by aspects of Poole’s dissolute and death-defying life. (By contrast, Wainwright’s late-2010 CD Songs for the New Depression is a very half-hearted selection of the kind of songs he usually does well: comedy satires and personal explorations.)

Brian Wise, from radio 3RRR in Melbourne, almost the only person on radio to play the sort of music I like, recently ran two programs of new songs by ‘veteran artists’. All the new songs sounded fresh and exciting. For instance, you would think Willie Nelson could record every other day an album of Country Songs (his latest), but although he is offering plain cookin’, it’s very tasty food. Willie writes few of his own songs these days, but he knows how to mine seams of treasure previously undiscov- ered. Willie sounds enthusiastic, and this band is hot.

One of the great albums of the year, Mean Old Man, comes from the ‘last man standing’ (the title of his previous CD) Jerry Lee Lewis. Of the performers of Jerry Lee’s rock and roll generation (1955–58), is anybody still working except Willie Nelson himself? Jerry Lee Lewis is in as good a voice as always, his piano playing is as wild as ever, and the only thing that betrays his age is that he no longer writes songs. These revivals, sung as duets with top people in American music, made me feel really good. I even felt like dancing.

Other people treated by radio as golden oldies include Tom Petty, whose Mojo from last year is his sharpest record in 30 years. Sharp rock and blues songs, plus hard, cutdown arrangements from the Heartbreakers.

Cyndi Lauper, whose ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ was one of the most refreshing singles of the 1980s, is now also treated as passé by radio. This unfortunate fact gives her permission to break out of any straitjacket imposed by record companies. She has picked up a band of the best blues musicians in America, and sings the Memphis Blues with them. The combination works perfectly.

31 Jackson Browne (vocals) and David Lindley (guitars and vocals) have Elton’s old lyricist, Bernie Taupin. I just hope Elton has taken Leon out been working together for forty years, but haven’t done a studio album on tour with him to provide him with a pension fund. for a while. Out on the road a few years ago, they teamed with the band En Vivo con Trio in Spain for the double CD Love Is Strange, allowing John Prine sounds older than he is, because he has fought (and Jackson Browne to relax into his most outgoing album for many years. seemingly won a round against) cancer during the last decade. He does (Many of the songs on his recent studio albums have been overpreachy not seem to have resumed writing his deeply amusing and emotionally and not very tuneful.) I would have liked to hear more of David Lindley devastating little songs, but In Person and On Stage provides a as vocalist. effective platform (with some good friends) to show off his forty years of great writing. Mavis Staples must be nearly as old as Jerry Lee Lewis, but you would never know. Her distinctively deep voice has leapt out of Staples Singers Robert Plant is even older than John Prine, but not as old as Jerry Lee recordings since Mavis became their lead singer at the age of 12. Her Lewis. A rock singer as good-looking as Plant never need look old; he devotion to gospel music and the blues has remained undiminished, and just looks more weathered, like . Unlike Jagger, Plant keeps now lights up You Are Not Alone. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the taking up new challenges. His Raising Sand, a folk-blues album with religious lyrics; the music is exuberant and joyful and tuneful, just like Alison Kraus, sold millions of CDs in 2009, and now Band of Joy, with the singer. Patti Griffin, will probably sell millions more. Band of Joy is not merely another Raising Sand: it has a wider range of songs and textures. It Like Tom Petty, Eric Clapton is another ‘veteran’ singer who has brings Robert Plant back to the pre-eminent position he held in rock after bounced back from comfortable boring success. His albums of covers of Led Zeppelin split up, and relieves him of the need to do Zeppelin covers. Robert Johnson songs were highlights of the last decade, and on Clapton he delves right back into the blues and old jazz songs that inspired him I keep thinking of Paul Kelly as a fresh face, because he became really to become a musician in the first place. Clapton’s singing has never been successful only in the 1980s. Just an eyeblink in time away. Like Robert better. Plant, and very few others, he keeps trying something new with each album. Foggy Highway was the second album he recorded with a Norma Waterson is one veteran singer who is proud to sound a bit old, bluegrass band. It comes with a DVD, which includes one track each of although she is not as old as Mavis Staples. With her daughter Eliza duos with Sarah Storer and Kasey Chambers. They are remarkable Carthy, she produces Gift, full of wonderful British and American songs, performances: Paul Kelly charms each of them into his arms. No wonder some newly written and some traditional. most of his songs are about the delights of women or the troubles he has with them. Forty years we have waited for Elton John and Leon Russell to make a record together. I didn’t know that Leon Russell, that sardonic voice, Live Apples is the concert version of a recent Paul Kelly album Stolen beard and hat who commandeered the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour Apples, with most of its songs having biblical or apocalyptic themes. from Joe Cocker, was friends with anybody outside of the 1970s smart Read How to Make Gravy to see the hold that God still has on the mind set, such as George Harrison and Bob Dylan. But Elton tells us he always and spirit of an unbelieving sinner like Paul Kelly. When Kelly cannot think wanted to play piano as well as Leon. Over the last forty years he has of ideas for a song, all he has to do is reach for the Gideon’s Bible in his made millions and millions more dollars than his idol, so he called him hotel room and start leafing through it. On the DVD, Kelly is working with up in 2009 and arranged to make a duets album. Why not earlier, a very strong rock band that includes his nephew . The second fghodsake? Leon has been doing badly in recent decades. The Union half of the concert includes the crowd’s favourite Kelly hits. I could listen finally brings these two together. Leon sings nearly as well as he did in to those songs, especially ‘When I First Met Your Ma’ and ‘To Her Door’, 1970, and he and Elton still write very good songs, most of them with in any configuration: with a rock band, with a bluegrass outfit, or solo.

32 When Neil Young’s Le Noise, recorded solo with wunderproducer of such songs as the Faces’ ‘Stay With Me’, the Rolling Stones’ ‘Loving Daniel Lanois (and named after him, see?), topped the ‘Off the Record’ Cup’, the Beach Boys ‘Sail On Sailor’ and Little Feat’s ‘Sailing Shoes’. poll at 3RRR as Best Album of the Year, host Brian Wise was nonplussed. Can’t wait for their next CD. He is the ultimate Neil Young fan, but obviously he did not like an album in which Neil plays solo — using a very loud guitar. Neil playing very loud Texas Tornedos is a venerable Tex Mex outfit that has a recent upgrade guitar equals the impact of most people’s five-piece bands. The songs and youthening of personnel. Several of their members have died in are the thing to listen to. Some of these songs were not as interesting recent years, but their replacements are determined to keep the spirit as Neil Young’s best, but at least three of them are magnificent. Neil alive. Esta Bueno! is not just an encyclopedia of Tex Mex styles; it has Young has not recorded a great album since Sleeps With Angels, but each a lot of good new rock and roll songs. new album offers treasures. The Avett Brothers I discovered by hearing one very strange track on I don’t just buy CDs made by my favourite veteran artists (usually people radio, as a result of which I bought I and Love and You. Yes, it’s who began their careers before 1970), but I confess there are few new mesmerising country-based , with some affinities to the music performers on my list of top albums of 2010. of This Morning Jacket, but it’s also various and interesting.

The Deadstring Brothers I heard first on the speakers at a record shop. Disappointment of the year? When I heard that the Dingoes had The next Rolling Stones! Great drumming, guitarwork, vocals and lyrics. re-formed after 32 years, I was sure they would produce the best CD of I still think so, especially after listening to Sao Paulo, this year’s album, the year. Why was I very disappointed in Tracks? Because the one band but I seem to be ahead of the pack. I just hope they don’t split up before member who could not be on the new album was their old drummer, somebody other than me discovers them. who has died. The new drummer is nowhere near as powerful as the one we remember from Five Times Round the Sun. Worse, the drums were If The Wolfgramm Sisters had appeared in the latter months of 2010, recorded separately in Adelaide, after the rest of the album was recorded instead of in December 2009, they would have won quite a few readers’ at Kerryn Tolhurst’s studio in Tucson, Arizona. There is no vital pulse polls. Maybe I would have placed their new CD higher if it had not been here. The good news is, though, that the Dingoes reunion concerts have nearly twelve months since I’ve played it. The Wolfgramm Sisters is been so successful around Australia that the band will release a double- a Melbourne group. Kelly, Talie and Eliza Wolfgramm might be still young, CD concert performance (and perhaps even a DVD?) in February 2011. but they have perfect ears. They do great rock and roll rave-up versions

Best classical boxed sets bought during 2010

1 Rostropovich: Complete EMI Recordings (26 CDs + 2 DVDs) Saint-Saëns: Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra (2 CDs) (2009) (2001) 2Paul Lewis: Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas (10 CDs) (2009) 4 Paul Lewis (p)/Jiri Behovacek/BBBSO: Beethoven: Complete 3 Stephen Hough (p)//City of Birmingham SO: Piano Concertos (5 CDs) (2010)

33 My feeling is that classical music is suffering more from the downturn in CD sales than popular music or jazz. The cover of the monthly Gramo- phone magazine now boasts about 150 reviews per month rather than the former more than 200 reviews per month. That’s still a lot of CDs, but most of them come from smaller labels that are unavailable in Australia — except by download. I don’t download, so maybe I’m missing out on some interesting music.

The record companies have been left with little choice but to repackage the great performances for which they paid fortunes in previous decades. One of EMI’s greatest stars was Mstislav Rostropovich, the great cellist who recorded extensively in USSR (concerts to which EMI has gained access) and later became the king of London, recording the great cello concertos and chamber pieces with the world’s top orchestras. The 26-CD box works out to about $2.50 a CD, and the treasures are many, including performances that will always set the gold standard for cello playing. (Oddly, his version of the Bach solo cello partitas and sonatas, associated most with the name of Pablo Casals, is the only uninteresting recording in the set. For a much better recent recording, buy Pieter Wispelway.)

Paul Lewis is a pianist has dominated the Gramophone pages in the last two years in the way that Simon Rattle did for many years. He also performs all over the world, and has made several trips to Australia. Elaine heard him playing at the Elizabeth Murdoch Hall in Melbourne. I like his fresh-sounding, highly percussive versions of the Beethoven Sonatas, but Elaine feels that he plays too fast, at least on some of the sonatas. Anyway, this set of 10 CDs is very exciting, and bears compari- son with those of most of my other favourite pianists.

I’m not so sure about the set of the Beethoven concertos that he has released more recently. There are available more exciting versions of In 2001 they won the Gramophone Record of the Year, and for once the most of the concertos, and I probably should not have spent the money. judges were right. Romantic piano concertos were a bit old hat even But when has that ever stopped me, especially as Readings had the Lewis when Saint-Saëns began composing them, but he gives a distinctive set on special? French spritzig (so to speak) to these pieces. Stephen Hough obviously eats and drinks this music with breakfast, and the orchesta sounds as I should have bought Stephen Hough’s two-CD set of Saint-Saëns’s enthusiastic as he is. complete works for piano and orchestra when they first appeared.

34 Favourite classical CDs heard for the first time in 2010

1Richard Tognetti (v)/Christian Moore (va)/ACO: Mozart: Violin 8Richard Tognetti (v)/Christian Lindberg/Nordic CO: Dvorak: Concertos 3, 5/Sinfonia Concertante (2010) /Legends (2010) 2Thomas Zehetmair (v)/Ruth Killius (va)/Franz Brüggen/OEC: 9 Pieter Wispelway (vc)/Jeffrey Tate/SSO: Walton: Cello Con- Mozart: Violin Concertos/Sinfonia Concertante (2 CDs) (2010) certo/Bloch: Suite No 1 for solo cello/Ligeti: Sonata for solo 3 Alfred Brendel (p)//VPO: The Farewell Con- cello/Waltton: Passacaglia for solo cello/Britten: Ciaccona certs (2 CDs): Mozart: Piano concerto 9/Piano Sonata 9/Haydn: F (2009) minor variations/Beethoven: Piano Sonata 13/Schubert: Piano So- 10 Carlos Kleiber/VPO: Brahms: Symphony No 4 (1981) nata D960/Beethoven: Bagatelle 4/Schubert: Impromptu in G flat 11 John Eliot Gardiner/ORR: Brahms: Symphony No 3/Nanie/Ghe- major D899/Bach: Chorale Prelude BWWV659 (2009) sang der Parzen (2009) 4 Truls Mørk (vc): Britten: Cello Sonatas (2000) 12* Olivier Charlie (p)/Jean Hubeau (v): Saint-Saëns: Sonata for 5 Gedon Kremer (v)/Kremerata Baltica: Hymns and Prayers: Piano and Violin Op. 57/102/Berceuse/Elegy, Op. 163/143/Ro- Tickmayer: Eight Hymns in Memoriam Andrei Tarkovsky/Franck: mance Piano Quintet in F minor/Kancheli: Silent Prayer (2010) 13 Pieter Wispelway (vc)/Vassily Sinarksy/Rotterdam PO: Prok- 6 Steven Isserlis (vc): Revisions: Gabor Takacs-Nagy/Tapiola Sin- ofiev: Sinfonia concertante/Tcherepnin: Suite for cello fonietta: Debussy: Suite for Celo and Orhcestra/Ravel: Two Hebrew solo/Crumb: Suite for cello solo (2009) Melodies/Prokofiev: Concertino for cello and orchestra/Bloch: From 14* Tashi: Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time Jewish Life (2010) 15 Thomas Zehetmair (v)/Amsterdam Bach Soloists: Bach: Violin 7 Paul Watkins/Huw Watkins (vc): Martinu: Cello Sonatas 1, 2, Concertos BWWV 1042, 1041, 1052, 1056 (2009) 3/Variations on Slovak Themes (2010)

Not a lot I can say about this list, because I didn’t really need to buy any and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, sells itself to me, but it’s a of them, did I? Except Alfred Brendel’s Last Concert, of course. Even pity he has still not recorded all the concertos. This has been done by if he had played nothing but ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ (or Beethoven’s Thomas Zehetmair, another great violinist, and the English Chamber variations on it) I would have to buy any CD set that celebrated and Orchestra, so I bought his set as well. Technically not as exciting as the mourned the end of the astonishing career of Alfred Brendel, still my ACO versions, they are still very enjoyable. favourite pianist. At least he retired rather than dropping dead at the keyboard. There is nothing outstanding on this two-CD set; it’s Brendel’s I have other versions of most the other pieces, but what the hell — I buy fond farewell to his own audience, and they had a great time on the night. anything I see by Richard Tognetti (violinist), Pieter Wispelway (cellist) and Steven Isserlis (cellist). Indeed, the lists show that I I bought two different versions of the Mozart violin concertos because became addicted to the cello in 2010. I’m not sure why. Perhaps listening recently I played all the CDs I had of the five concertos, and they came to the cello gives the emotional impact of listening to the organ without up as old and dull performances, so I threw them out. I thought at the the visceral impact. time, ‘This is great music, so there must be some great performances around.’ A performance by Richard Tognetti, ace Australian violinist, I continue to look for great performances of the Brahms symphonies,

35 while being convinced that almost nobody has ever done them in the The only CD that doesn’t fit my pattern of buying for the year is the style to which I would like to become accustomed. John Eliot Gardiner collection Hymns and Prayers, by violinist Gedon Kremer and his conducted a very exciting new version of the 2nd last year, and this year group Kremerata Baltica. Two pieces, those by Tickmayer and he produced a 3rd that is much better than nearly all the others. (His 1st Kancheli, fit into the category of ‘reverential ancient–modern’ that I like was appalling; I don’t know what went wrong at that recording session.) very much: haunting meditations on death and fate, with lots of inter- esting sound textures; plus a great performance of Franck’s Piano Dick Jenssen lent us some exciting recordings: the group Tashi’s version Quntet in F minor. of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, very different from any other version I’ve heard; and a French version of Saint-Saëns’s Sonata — Bruce Gillespie, 25 January 2011 for Piano and Violin and Berceuse’s ‘Elegy’. I don’t know if they are still obtainable in shops.

ABC Classic 100 ten years on: 2010

Bruce Gillespie’s introduction: In recent years I’ve reprinted station 3MBS because it offers printed program details to its subscribers. many of the ABC’s annual voters’ polls on various aspects of classical music. Until 2008, I could simply copy the list that appeared in Limelight, Ten years ago, the ABC asked its listeners to nominate the ‘one item of the ABC monthly magazine that has traditionally provided the daily classical music they could not live without’. In 2010, we were asked for program for listeners to ABC- FM national classical music station. 2010’s our favourite 10 pieces. Hence, the 2010 list is rather different from the poll, ‘ABC Classical 100 Ten Years On’, did not appear in Limelight, so I 2000 list. The versions listed in the following pages are those actually had to reconstruct it from the daily online program sheets. With its played by the ABC last October. Where I don’t list the timings for February issue, the magazine has drastically reduced details of daily particular performances, it’s because the ABC played only excerpts on ABC-FM programs. No doubt the editor of Limelight will offer the excuse the day. that ABC listeners can look up program details on the internet. That’s twaddle, because many of them cannot. Many do not have computers in The following code is used by the ABC in its lists: s = soprano; ms = the home. Many live in the country, where internet downloads are mezzo-soprano; t = tenor; b = bass; br = baritone; ct = contralto; db unreliable. (That’s why the Gillard Government’s promise of a national = double bass; g = guitar; p = piano; cl = clarinet; v = violin; vla = broadband system has played well to the electorate.) Not only is there viola; vc = violincello, i.e. cello; o = organ; Op. = Opus (i.e. catalogued now no reason to continue buying Limelight, a lightweight music maga- number of the composer’s works); K = Kerkel = catalogued Mozart work; zine, but increasingly I will listen to Melbourne’s subscription music BWV = Bach Werke Verzeichnis = catalogued Bach work.

36 1 Beethoven: Symphony No 9 in D minor, Op. 125, ‘Choral’ Janice Watson, s; Catherine Wyn-Rogers, ms; Stuart Skelton, t; Detlef Roth, b; Edinburgh Festival Chorus; Philharmonia Orch/Sir Charles Mackerras Hyperion CDS44305 61’34 2 Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat, Op. 73, ‘Emperor’ Claudio Arrau, p; Staatskapelle Dresden/ Sir Colin Davis Philips 464 681-2 40’35 3 Beethoven: Symphony No 6 in F, Op. 68, ‘Pastoral’ London Classical Players/Sir Roger Norrington EMI CDS 7498521/2/4 40’07 4 Mozart: Concerto in C for Clarinet and Orchestra, K622 Wolfgang Meyer, basset cl; Concentus Musicus Vienna/ Teldec 3984-21476-2 27’49 5 Handel: Messiah Judith Nelson, s; Emma Kirkby, s; Carolyn Watkinson, c; Paul Elliot, t; David Thomas, b; Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford; Academy of Ancient Music/ L’Oiseau-Lyre 411 858-2 6 Dvorák: Symphony No 9 in E minor, Op. 95, ‘From the New World’ Czech Phil Orch/ Ondine ODE 962- 2D 40’56 7 Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor, Op. 18 Sviatoslav Richter, p; Warsaw Phil Orch/Stanislaw Wislocki DG 469 178-2 34’40 8 Mozart: Requiem, K626 Sibylla Rubens, s; Annette Markert, c; Ian Bostridge, t; Hanno Müller-Brachmann, br; La Chapelle Royale; Collegium Vocale; Orch des Champs-Élysées/Philippe Herreweghe Harmonia Mundi HMC901620 47’24 Joseph Swensen, v; Scottish Chamber Orch 9 Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 Telarc CD-80507 24’22 Arthur Grumiaux, v; Royal Concertgebouw Orch, Amsterdam/Sir 12 Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, Op. 8 Colin Davis Nils-Erik Sparf, v; Drottningholm Baroque Ens Pentatone PTC 5186 120 42’05 BIS-CD-275 39’36 10 Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 13 Saint-Saëns: Symphony No 3 in C minor, Op. 78, ‘Organ’ Jacqueline du Pré, vc; London Sym Orch/Sir John Barbirolli Anita Priest, o; Los Angeles Phil Orch/Zubin Mehta EMI 3679182 30’00 Decca 466 682-2 11 Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor, Op. 26 14 Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending: Romance for Violin

37 and Orchestra Regis RRC 1080 4’32/ Dimity Hall, v; Sinfonia Australis/Antony Walker ‘Je crois entendre encore’ ABC 472 984-2 17’03 Jussi Björling, t; unnamed orch 15 Bach: St Matthew Passion Regis RRC 2016 3’33 Ian Bostridge, t; Franz-Josef Selig, b; Sibylla Rubens, s; Andreas 26 Fauré: Requiem, Op. 48 Scholl, ct; Werner Güra, t; Dietrich Henschel, b; Choir & Orch of Johanette Zomer, s; Stephan Genz, br; La Chapelle Royale; Colle- Collegium Vocale Gent/Philippe Herreweghe gium Vocale Gent; Orch des Champs- Élysées /Philippe Herreweghe Harmonia Mundi HML 5908376 Harmonia Mundi HMC 901771 37’51 16 Beethoven: Symphony No 7 in A, Op. 92 27 Mozart: Orch/Daniel Barenboim Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, br; Anna Netrebko, s; Dorothea Rösch- Sony SK 45 830 36’13 mann, s; Franz-Josef Selig, b; Christine Schäffer, ms; Bo Skovhus, 17 Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, D667, ‘The Trout’ br; Chorus; Vienna Phil Orch/Nikolaus Harnon- András Schiff, p; members of the Hagen Quartet; Alois Posch, db court Decca 458 608-2 44’03 DG 477 6544 36’16 18 Beethoven: Sonata No 14 in C sharp, Op. 27 No 2, ‘Moonlight’ 28 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6 in B minor, Op. 74, ‘Pathétique’ Claudio Arrau, p Vienna Phil Orch/Valery Gergiev Philips 473 782-2 17’16 Philips 475 6315 44’02 19 Holst: , Op. 32 29 Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto in B flat, Op. 23 Berlin Philharmonic Orch/Sir Simon Rattle Mikhail Pletnev, p; Philharmonia Orch/Vladimir Fedoseyev EMI 3593822 51’12 Virgin 5623582 34’47 20 Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis 30 Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel Vienna State Opera Orch/Sir Adrian Boult Tasmin Little, v; Martin Roscoe, p Westminster 471 240-2 16’24 EMI 3761822 8’16 21 Beethoven: Symphony No 5 in C minor, Op. 67 31 Beethoven: Symphony No 3 in E flat, Op. 55 ‘Eroica’ Vienna Phil Orch/Carlos Kleiber London Sym Orch/Bernard Haitink DG 112-2 33’12 LSO Live LSO0080 49’13 22 Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez 32 Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 Slava Grigoryan, g; Orch/Brett Kelly Anne-Sophie Mutter, v; Berlin Phil Orch/Herbert von Karajan ABC 476 8072 22’52 DG 469 157-2 30’34 23 Mozart: The Magic , K620 33 R. Strauss: Four Last Songs Erika Miklósa, s; Dorothea Röschmann, ms; Christoph Strehl, t; Gundula Janowitz, s; Berlin Phil Orch/Herbert von Karajan Hanno Müller-Brachmann, t; Arnold Schoenberg Choir; Mahler Decca 467 910-2 22’42 Chamber Orch/ 34 Mozart: Piano Concerto No 21 in C, K467 DG 477 5789 Mitsuko Uchida, p; English Chamber Orch/Jeffrey Tate 24 Elgar: , Op. 36 Philips 475 7306 28’32 London Sym Orch/Pierre Monteux 35 Allegri: Miserere mei Decca 452 303-2 29’23 Tallis Scholars 25 Bizet: The Pearlfishers: Gimell CDGIM 339 12’31 ‘Au fond du temple saint’ 36 Gershwin: Jussi Björling, t; Robert Merrill, br; un-named orch Los Angeles Phil Orch/Leonard Bernstein, p

38 DG 469 139-2 17’08 Cleveland Orch/Lorin Maazel 37 Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 3 in D minor, Op. 30 Decca 452 970-2 42’04 Martha Argerich, p; Berlin Radio Sym Orch/Riccardo Chailly 48 Bach: Cantata BWV147: ‘Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben’ Philips 464 732-2 40’41 Lisa Larsson, s; Bogna Bartosz, c; Gerd Türk, t; Klauss Mertens, b; 38 Bach: Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and strings, Amsterdam Baroque Orch & Choir/ BWV1043 Erato 3984-23141- 2 29’33 Richard Tognetti, v; Helena Rathbone, v; Australian Chamber Orch 49 Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4 in G, Op. 58 ABC 476 5691 14’21 Emil Gilels, p; Philharmonia Orch/ Leoplold Ludwig 39 Sibelius: Symphony No 2 in D, Op. 43 EMI 4768282 33’19 Royal Phil Orch/Sir John Barbirolli 50 Pachelbel: Canon & Gigue Chesky CG903 44’22 The English Concert/Trevor Pinnock 40 Tchaikovsky: DG 469 247-2 5’50 Vienna Phil Orch/Herbert von Karajan 51 Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Op. 43 Decca 466 379-2 Artur Rubinstein, p; Chicago Sym Orch/Fritz Reiner 41 Bizet: RCA RCD14934 23’07 Marilyn Horne, ms; James McCracken, t; Tom Krause, b; Adriana 52 Tchaikovsky: , Op. 49 Maliponte, s; Children’s Chorus; Manhattan University of Minnesota Brass Band; cannon of US Military Academy, Opera Chorus; Metropolitan Opera Orch/Leonard Bernstein West Point; Bells of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Caril- DG 457 901-2 lon, The Riverside Church, New York; Minneapolis Sym Orch/Antal 42 Schubert: String Quintet in C, D956 Dorati Isaac Stern, v; Cho- Liang Lin, v; Jaime Laredo, vla; Yo-Yo Ma, vc; Decca 475 8508 14’49 Sharon Robinson, vc; 53 Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV988 Sony SK 53983 55’08 Roslyn Tureck, p 43 Mahler: Symphony No 2 in C minor, ‘Resurrection’ DG 459 599-2 22’42 Elizabeth Whitehouse, s; Bernadette Cullen, ms; Melbourne Cho- 54 Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 rale; Melbourne Sym Orch/ Kyung Wha Chung, v; London Sym Orch/André Previn ABC 476 7738 83’44 Decca 475 7734 30’58 44 Puccini: La bohème 55 Debussy: Suite bergamasque: Clair de lune Victoria de los Angeles, s; Jussi Björling, t; Robert Merrill, br; RCA Claudio Arrau, p Victor Orch/Sir Thomas Beecham Philips 475 7947 6’48 EMI 2173082 12’39 56 Ravel: Bolero 45 Bach: Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV565 Berlin Phil Orch/Herbert von Karajan Helmut Walcha, Schnitger organ of St Laurenskerk, Alkmaar, Neth- EMI 5159342 16’05 erlands 57 Sibelius: Finlandia, Op. 26 No 7 Archiv 477 6508 9’28 Philharmonia Orch/Vladimir Ashkenazy 46 Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV232 Decca 466 687-2 8’01 Wynford Evans, t; Lisa Beznosiuk, fl; Michael Chance, ct; Monteverdi 58 Mahler: Symphony No 5 in C sharp minor Choir; The English Baroque Soloists/John Eliot Gardiner New Philharmonia Orch/Sir John Barbirolli Archiv 469 769- 2 EMI 5669102 74’29 47 Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet 59 Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35

39 Julia Fischer, v; Russian National Orch/Yakov Kreizberg Itzhak Perlman, v; Abbey Road Ens Pentatone PTC 5186 095 35’02 EMI 5625992 4’42 60 Mozart: Ave verum corpus, K618 72 Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op. 35 Atlanta Sym Orch & Chorus/Robert Shaw Chicago Sym Orch/Fritz Reiner Telarc CD-80222 2’51 RCA 09026 68168-2 44’36 61 Satie: 3 Gymnopédies 73 Tchaikovsky: , Op. 71 Reinbert de Leeuw, p Chicago Sym Orch/Sir Georg Solti Philips 475 7706 13’11 Decca 455 810-2 62 Orff: Carmina Burana 74 Bach: Suite No 1 in G for Solo Cello, BWV1007 Gundula Janowitz, s; Gerhard Stolze, t; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Pieter Wispelwey, vc br; Berlin State Opera Chorus & Orch/Eugen Jochum Channel Classics CCS 12298 18’15 DG 447 437-2 75 Grieg: Peer Gynt Op. 55 63 Barber: Adagio Berlin Phil Orch/Herbert von Karajan Los Angeles Phil Orch/Leonard Bernstein DG 474 269-2 DG 469 460-2 10’09 76 Mozart: , K527 64 Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 Giuseppe Taddei, br; Luigi Alva, t; Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, s; Dame Stephen Kovacevich, p; BBC Sym Orch/ Sir Colin Davis , s; Graziella Sciutti, ms; Philharmonia Orch & Philips 475 7773 29’36 Chorus/Carlo Maria Giulini 65 Schubert: String Quartet in D minor, D810, ‘Death and the EMI 5655672 37’46 Maiden’ 77 Beethoven: Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano in C, Jerusalem String Quartet Op. 56 Harmonia Mundi HMC 901990 42’56 David Oistrakh, v; Mstislav Rostropovich, vc; Sviatoslav Richter, p; 66 Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring Berlin Phil Orch/Herbert von Karajan Israel Phil Orch/Leonard Bernstein EMI 5669022 36’39 DG 477 5195 36’55 78 Dvorák: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 67 Mahler: Symphony No 1 in D, ‘Titan’ Jacqueline du Pré, vc; Chicago Sym Orch/Daniel Baremboim Sydney Sym Orch/Vladimir Ashkenazy EMI 5865972 42’16 SSO Live SSO201001 52’05 79 Mendelssohn: The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26, ‘Fingal’s Cave’ 68 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 5 in E minor, Op. 64 London Sym Orch/Peter Maag Vienna Phil Orch/Valery Gergiev Decca 443 578-2 10’03 Philips 475 6315 46’24 80 Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 69 Mussorgsky orch Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition Royal Concertgebouw Orch/Sir Colin Davis USSR State Sym Orch/Yevgeny Svetlanov Philips 475 7557 55’26 Regis RRC1352 35’45 81 Puccini: 70 Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture, Op. Cheryl Barker, s; Orch Victoria/ 21; Incidental Music, Op. 61 Melba MR-301085 Edith Mathis, s; Ursula Boese, c; Bavarian Radio Sym Orch & 82 Brahms: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 Chorus/Rafael Kubelik Itzhak Perlman, v; Chicago Sym Orch/Carlo Maria Giulini DG 469 157-2 41’18 EMI 5577640 43’05 71 Massenet: Thaïs: ‘Méditation’ 83 Rachmaninov: Symphony No 2 in E minor, Op. 27

40 London Sym Orch/André Previn DG 463 048-2 39’15 EMI CDC 7 471592 58’52 95 Albinoni arr Giazotto: Adagio in G minor for strings and organ 84 Khachaturian: Spartacus I Solisti Veneti/Claudio Scimone Vienna Phil Orch/Aram Khachaturian Erato 0630-15681-2 8’14 Decca 460 315-2 96 Górecki: Symphony No 3, Op. 36, ‘Symphony of Sorrowful 85 Schubert: Symphony No 9 in C, D944, ‘Great’ Songs’ Vienna Phil Orch/Sir Georg Solti Zofia Kilanowski, s; Polish State Phil Orch of Katowice/Jerzy Decca 460 311-2 55’37 Swoboda 86 Smetana: Ma vlast Philips 450 148-2 Boston Sym Orch/Rafael Kubelik 97 Mozart: Cosi fan tutte DG 459 418-2 Renée Fleming, s; Anne Sofie von Otter, s; Frank Lopardo, t; Olaf 87 Tallis: Spem in alium Bär, br; Chamber Orch of Europe/Sir Georg Solti The Tallis Scholars Decca 452 161-2 Gimell CDGIM 207 9’58 98 R. Strauss: Songs with Orchestra: ‘Caecilie’; ‘Morgen’; 88 Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana ‘Wiegenlied’; ‘Ruhe, meine Seele;’ ‘Meinem Kinde’; ‘Zueig- Maria Callas, s; Giuseppe di Stefano, t; Rolando Panerai, br; Chorus nung’ & Orch of Teatro alla Scala, Milan/Tullio Serafin Jessye Norman, s; Gewandhaus Orch Leipzig/Kurt Masur EMI 5868302 Philips 475 8507 20’33 89 Purcell: Dido and Aeneas 99 Schubert: Adagio in E flat, D897, ‘Notturno’ Lynne Dawson, s; Gerald Finley, br; Maria Cristina Kiehr, s; Rose- Beaux Arts Trio mary Joshua, s; Clare College Chapel Choir; Orch of the Age of Philips 475 7571 10’27 Enlightenment/René Jacobs 100 Mozart: Symphony No 40 in G minor, K550 Harmonia Mundi HMC 901683 59’33 Prague Chamber Orch/Sir Charles Mackerras 90 Brahms: Piano Concerto No 2 in B flat, Op. 83 Telarc CD-80139 33’39 Sviatoslav Richter, p; Chicago Sym Orch/Erich Leinsdorf 91 Sibelius: Symphony No 5 in E flat, Op. 82 London Sym Orch/Alexander Gibson Decca 468 488-2 30’28 92 Handel: Coronation Anthem: ‘Zadok the Priest’ Choirs of Westminster Abbey, HM Chapel Royal, St Paul’s Cathedral, St George’s Chapel, Windsor; orch drawn from all major London Orchestras/Dr William McKie EMI 5665822 5’48 93 Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A, K581 Ensemble Villa Musica MDG 304 1184-2 35’30 94 Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor, Op. 11 Krystian Zimerman, p; Concertgebouw Orch, Amsterdam/Kyrill Kondrashin

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