10 Best: Symphonies no. 5

A few years ago, some friends and I devised an NCAA-style bracket tournament to determine the greatest composer of all-time through a rigorous series of discussions.  The overwhelming majority of humans would likely declare that arguing over who was better/more important between Ravel and Schoenberg is a pointless waste of time.  Just because they’re correct doesn’t mean it still can’t have benefits; talking about music, no matter how unusually, is far from pointless.

It is with that same general spirit in mind that I invite you into my world of randomly ranking things like best symphonies based solely on their number. It probably seems like a ridiculous idea, and it is, but it still gets you thinking about great music, and ultimately that’s good.  Read this and think about it.  Even better, listen to the music and rate for yourself.  Think of me as a cult leader and classical music as the cyanide Kool-Aid.  Do it now.

Who is the best Bruckner interpreter of all-time?

You can't drown, you fool. You're immortal.

Things here are slowly settling back to normal, and with that comes the hope that I’ll be able to re-kindle this blog a little bit with the final embers probably already burned out but still kind of a faint orange color.  I do have some pure gasoline, though, so I hold on to the dream.  By the way, the San Francisco Giants are World Series champs.

Somehow over the last few weeks, someone besides every member of the Giants and the guy who stole our shit has managed to be in my consciousness, and that’s Anton Bruckner.  I’ve found myself listening to the symphonies quite a bit recently, although I don’t entirely know why.  I can’t say they necessarily provide comfort in a time of stress, and they don’t really jive with baseball.  I guess it’s just that they’re really awesome.

Hiatus

Sorry for the hiatus on this blog. I was engulfed in the majesty of my beloved San Francisco Giants ending 50+ years of torture with a World Series championship. Then we got robbed and our computer was stolen. Now we’re moving in rapid fashion. There’s music somewhere in there. Hopefully I’ll be back in a jif. Until then…thanks for your patience.