Why Not Listen to Some Old Music?

2026 Music Anniversaries

Author

Riley Haas
March 10, 2026

This is now my annual post about albums and other works of musical art celebrating anniversaries. I hope you find something you enjoy in my lists of the best music of these years.

As usual there is my major caveat: you cannot trust my ratings from the teens and probably the 21st century in general because I just haven’t listened to as much 21st century music.

Riley’s Best Music of 2016

  1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Skeleton Tree: An even more radical departure from the Bad Seeds’ sound of the ‘90s/aughts than their previous album.

  2. Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool (8/10): Though I liked this at the time I must admit I basically haven’t listened to it in 10 years and have no idea how I would feel about it now.

  3. The Dillinger Escape Plan: Dissociation (8/10): With their final record I found myself caught between wanting to like this a lot, and feeling like it’s a bit of a retread of various earlier albums. Much like with the Radiohead record, I haven’t listened to it much since, but I have at least listened to it here or there. (By the way, for those of you who don’t know, this is mathcore, an extremely niche metal genre.)

  4. Frank Ocean: Blonde (8/10): A quirky alternative R&B/neo-soul record unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. Which begs the question, why did I rank it so low?

  5. A Tribe Called Quest: We Got it from Here…Thank You for Your Service (8/10): A fitting end to their career.

  6. Joe Policastro Trio: Pops! (8/10): The Bad Plus if they had a guitarist instead of a pianist and were a little more musical conservative.

  7. The Bad Plus: It’s Hard (8/10): This is the first Bad Plus record in a while to be all covers. On some level, maybe that’s a retreat to their “safer” (albeit polarizing) earlier sound, routed in familiar melodies. (As an aside, I just saw a version of this band live on their farewell tour.)

  8. Run the Jewels 3 (8/10): I get why they’re a big deal

  9. Weaves (8/10): I like this less than their show I saw at WIMF in 2018 but it’s still pretty great.

  10. Bon Iver: 22, a Million (7/10): So much harmonizer I didn’t know what to do.

Riley’s Best Music of 2006:

  1. Scott Walker: The Drift (10/10): The vast majority of singer-songwriters, even those whose lyrics stray from tradition, operate within the singer-songwriter tradition, whether its the folk version of it or a more pop-rock tradition that emerged with the sixties. These singer-songwriters, even the most unconventional ones, are still recognizable as singer-songwriters. Walker isn’t, at least not any more. His music is far outside of the interpretative pop music that birthed his career, as much as it is far out of the singer-songwriter tradition, now that he writes all his own material. Instead, Walker draws primarily from film scores and from other genres you wouldn’t normally associate with your traditional ballad singers (I hear a post no wave influence, I believe). This thing he has made is utterly unique, to my knowledge, in the history of popular music. I compare it to Waits’ reinvention in the early eighties. Like Waits, Walker has created his own mini genre, where people are now forced to call things Walkerian. (Nobody calls anything Walkerian.)

  2. Joanna Newsom: Ys (10/10): An absolute classic progressive folk record.

  3. TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain (9/10): I suspect that this is the best album produced by any of the post post punk/new new wave bands that dominated indie rock in the aughts.

  4. Battle of Mice: A Day of Nights (9/10): At the time, I really loved this pseudo post metal record but I haven’t listened to it since.

  5. Pearl Jam (9/10): When I was 25 I severely overrated Pearl Jam’s self-titled album, but I still likely believe it’s their last really good record. I’ve not loved everything they’ve done since.

  6. Bob Dylan: Modern Times (9/10): I thought this was the peak of Dylan’s late career revival at the time but I haven’t listened to it much recently and I’ve become extremely skeptical of how much I was influenced by a critical opinion now that I know that all music critics love every single album from elder statesmen/stateswomen now.

  7. Keith Jarrett: The Carnegie Hall Concert (9/10): This is Jarrett at his improvisational best. It’s among the best of Jarrett’s solo live performances (that I have heard) and honestly there are few (if any) pianists that can touch him when it comes to his solo shows.

  8. Ben Goldberg: The Door, The Hat, The Chair, The Fact (8/10): Klezmer jazz and what I refer to as “post free” that I absolutely adored at the time.

  9. Knussen: Requiem: Songs for Sue (8/10): A distinct approach to the Requiem (which is traditionally a mass).

  10. The Mars Volta: Amputechture (8/10): This was the last of what I might guess we could call their first four “classic” albums that I got to, so it’s the one I like the least.

Riley’s Best Albums of 1996:

  1. Tortoise: Millions Now Living Will Never Die (10/10): This is, for me, the best example of Tortoise’s very specific brand of post rock that often sounds more like jazz or electronica (or some combination of both) than rock music.

  2. Beck: Odelay (9/10): A more mature version of Mellow Gold? That probably isn’t fair but it’s arguably both more coherent and stronger overall and just less influential by the fact that it came second.

  3. Neurosis: Through Silver in Blood (9/10): The first “post metal” record?

  4. Converge: Petitioning the Empty Sky (9/10): I am pretty sure this is not the first metalcore album – not just because it’s not Converge’s first record… – but it sure sounds iconic to me. Hardcore punk mixes freely with thrash metal in a way that, for 1996, sounds incredibly modern and contemporary in the 21 century.

  5. The Make Up: Destination Love: Live! At Cold Rice (9/10): Alt gospel rock. Or something like that. (This is a fake live album, by the way.)

  6. Wilco: Being There (9/10): This is the first Wilco album I ever heard and it’s what made me a fan of the band, so I’m biased. I want to call this the Exile of roots-based indie rock but it’s not that good.

  7. Sepultura: Roots (9/10): An awesome combination of metal with Brazilian music.

  8. Pearl Jam: No Code (9/10): This Eddie Vedder dictatorship of a record is actually my third favourite Pearl Jam album. Though I am normally reluctant to see one band member take over (and usually dislike the results), somehow Vedder attempting to gain full creative control of a band he just sang in a few years earlier results in one of Pearl Jam’s best sets of songs of their career. What’s more, the artsy fartsy experimental excesses of Vitalogy (which I believe were also Vedder’s fault), are reigned in and, instead, incorporated into the songs for the most part. I think that’s a rather big improvement and, for a long time, this was one of my candidates for their best album.

  9. Dirty Three: Horse Stories (9/10): I loved this back when I first heard it. It might have been my first Dirty Three record. Unique post rock in part because it’s a trio of violin, guitar and drums.

  10. Neutral Milk Hotel: On Avery Island (8/10): This feels like the inevitable result of trying to make folk music in the age of indie rock and, specifically, in the age of Pavement.

Riley’s Best Music of 1986:

  1. Metallica: Master of Puppets (10/10): I feel very confident in saying this is the most important metal album of the 1980s.

  2. Slayer: Reign in Blood (10/10): Though Reign in Blood is also a pretty important metal album.

  3. Ennio Morricone: The Mission (10*/10): I have vastly overrated this score to the movie of the same name because, at some point in my impressionable twenties I listened to it way too much. I haven’t listened to it in years and would absolutely not rate it or rank it this high now, I’m sure.

  4. Run D.M.C.: Raising Hell (9/10): Is this the most important hip hop album of the 1980s? And if so, why didn’t I rate/rank it higher?

  5. Candlemass: Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (9/10): Potentially the invention of doom metal if you care about such things.

  6. Saccharine Trust: We Became Snakes (9/10): Hardcore meets jazz.

  7. Mauricio Kagel: String Quartet III (9/10): A more accessible quartet from Kagel.

  8. Bad Brains: I Against I (9/10): This is a bonkers combination of ’80s metal, hardcore punk, soul and reggae that is unlike so much other music of its era. It’s hard to imagine bands like Fisbhone existing without Bad Brains, even if they were already making music by the time this record came out. The production sucks, though.

  9. Sonic Youth: EVOL (9/10): This is widely considered to be the point at which Sonic Youth started making music that was accessible enough to eventually turn them into (very minor) stars.

  10. The Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill (8/10): I’m sure if I had listened to this as a teen I would have found it less obnoxious but, of course, I didn’t listen to hip hop as a teen.

Riley’s Best Albums of 1976:

  1. Glass: Einstein on the Beach (10/10): I remember first listening to Pelleas et Melisande and thinking it was almost ‘anti-opera’, in that it was clearly made with some knowledge of and respect for the tradition of opera, but with a clear desire to overcome that – to make something new. And if that piece of Debussy’s is ‘anti-opera’ in any way, shape or form, Einstein on the Beach is almost like a complete negation of opera. I mean, it’s not really an opera at all. There’s no narrative, and it’s barely about the subject. (If it is at all, I would be quite sympathetic to any interpretation that argues it has very little to do with Einstein.) But that doesn’t matter. Glass has creating this dense wall of repetition and slight variation that is unlike anything I have ever heard – of its time. The incredible thing is now that I’ve heard this, I hear it in so many things. I can’t even begin to count the number of songs and other pieces of music I have heard in my life that owe something to this ‘opera’.

  2. Ramones (10/10): The Ramones are not my favourite punk band. In fact, I don’t really like them much at all. I find them kind of goofy. But this is possibly the most important album in the history of punk.

  3. David Bowie: Station to Station (10/10): This transitional album from his Philly Soul phase to the far weirder and artier music he would soon make with the Berlin Trilogy is probably a Top 3 Bowie album for me.

  4. Bob Dylan: Desire (9/10): This was made during The Rolling Thunder Revue and I guess reflects that sort of chaos. It’s a very different Dylan album than what came before it and it’s also the last really good album he made for, like, 20 years.

  5. The Modern Lovers (9/10): This sort of compilation of “demos” is an early punk classic that lets the rest of the world know what probably only a few people in Boston and the music industry knew. The mix of straight ahead rock music and the laconic delivery is not quite bratty enough for punk but way more in line with punk than most of the other rock music being made when it was recorded. Listening to it should prompt serious arguments among you and your friends about which punk band was the first punk band.

  6. Joni Mitchell: Hejira (9/10): Though maybe not Mitchell’s very best album, this is possibly my favourite, as it contains my favourite song (“Coyote”). The set of songs is among her very best, and it’s free of the experimentation of Hissing of the Summer Lawns. Not that it was a bad thing, but this record is more consistent, with jazz more fully incorporated into her sound and, overall, just a stronger set.

  7. Jaco Pastorius (9/10): I’ve never reviewed this famous debut album from possibly the most influential fretless bass guitarist ever.

  8. Rush: 2112 (9/10): Probably the pinnacle of Rush’s ‘70s prog phase.

  9. Bunny Wailer: Blackheart Man (9/10): One of the best reggae albums of the 1970s.

  10. Gorecki: Symphony No. 3 (8/10): I think this is the ‘Adagio for Strings’ of the Polish avant garde / Holy minimalist schools, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s obvious why its popular (well, if you put aside its length) and its also obvious why so many music nerds hate its popularity or even hate it: it’s too easy to love for something written by a guy who’s supposed to be “avant.” I really like it, but I understand why it isn’t exactly forward-thinking. As someone else commented, ‘sometimes beauty transcends reason.’ Couldn’t say it better myself.

Riley’s Best Albums of 1966:

  1. The Beatles: Revolver (10/10): A candidate for The Beatles’ best album and a candidate for best/most important rock album of the 1960s.

  2. Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde (10/10): Probably the greatest rock album ever released up until Revolver came out a month or two later.

  3. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention: Freak Out! (10/10): This album arguably invented multiple genres - art rock, experimental rock - as well helped introduce a new comic sensibility in rock music. One of the most important debut albums ever.

  4. John Coltrane: Ascension (10/10): Arguably the most ambitious and impressive thing Coltrane ever did.

  5. Ligeti: Lux Aeterna (10/10): This has to be one of the great choral works of the century.

  6. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band: East-West (9*/10): I really have to update my review of this album that I suspect I severely overrated when I was young due to its outsized reputation among male rock critics. It’s a standard blues album with a jazz cover (interesting but done by a rock band first) and the title track, one of the first incorporations of raga into a Western genre other than jazz.

  7. The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (9/10): Slowly, grudgingly, over the years I have upped my rating and ranking of what is probably both the best pop album of th1960s and one of the most overrated albums in the history of the album.

  8. Glass: String Quartet No. 1 (9/10): Glass’ first quartet is a really great piece of music, in part because it doesn’t sound so Glassian as almost all of the rest of his music does.

  9. The Byrds: Fifth Dimension (9/10): Critics at the time underrated this record which is their first (somewhat) psychedelic album, claiming the songs weren’t as strong enough or something.

  10. The Rolling Stones: Aftermath [US version] (9/10): The first truly great Stones record but also the last one until they realized they were just a rock and roll band and needed to stop messing around with other genres. (It took them like a year and a half or whatever to figure that out.)

Riley’s Best Music of 1956:

  1. Elvis Presley (10/10): It’s hard for us now, 60 years later, to understand what a big deal this record was and listening to it doesn’t necessarily help, because it doesn’t sound great – at least the mono version sure doesn’t – and it doesn’t sound anywhere near as dynamic as it must have then.

  2. Charles Mingus: Pithecanthropus Erectus (10/10): The beginning of Mingus’ prime as one of the most interesting jazz band leaders in the world. (Mingus is my favourite jazz musician/arranger.)

  3. Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps: Bluejean Bop! (9/10): Rockabilly and rock and roll.

  4. Mingus at the Bohemia (9/10): A stellar set showing off everything that makes Mingus great (at this band size, anyway).

  5. Ellington Live at Newport (9/10): A legendary Duke Ellington concert.

  6. Dizzy Gilespie: World Statesman (8/10): Diz does big band.

  7. Elvis (8/10): This record generally seems to be regarded pretty well, as an improvement on his incredible debut. I agree that Elvis himself sounds more confident on the crooning side of things but, on the whole, I find this pretty disappointing in relation.

  8. Johnny Smith: Moonlight in Vermont (8/10): Generally considered a landmark in the history of the electric guitar in jazz, but pretty middle of the road.

  9. Harry Belafonte: Calypso (8/10): A massive hit, it supposedly launched a calypso craze that is entirely forgotten now.

  10. The New Miles Davis Quintet (7/10): An early version of the “first great” quintet which doesn’t impress anywhere near as much as the music they recorded on May 11th and October 26th (which produced four albums released in later years).

Riley’s Best Music of 1946:

At this point I stop having a main list for albums because, you know, LPs didn’t exist.

  1. Dizzy Gillespie: “52nd Street Theme” (10/10): Written by Monk a few years earlier, this was their set-opener and/or closer when Gillespie, Monk, Parker and Roach were codifying bop. One of the first bop recordings on a major label.

  2. Dizzy Gillespie: “Anthropology” (10/10): The same goes for this track, from the same session as above.

  3. Dizzy Gillespie Sextet: “A Night in Tunisia” (10/10): A classic bop standard from the same session. Includes some weird changes and a great solo from Diz.

  4. Tippett: String Quartet No. 3 (9/10): I like this significantly more than Tippett’s second quartet, which is calmer.

  5. Dizzie Gillespie Sextet: “Ol’ Man Rebop” (9/10): A good bop track from the same session as above. (Don’t ask me to explain the credits.)

  6. Honegger: Symphony No. 3 ‘Symphonie Liturgique’ (8/10): This thing does manage to conjure a feeling of the world at war, so I guess it does what it sets out to do. It’s still pretty much late Romantic stuff written half a century too late (ish), but I can’t help but like it.

  7. Benny Carter and His Orchestra: “Jump Call” (8/10): A super up-tempo number with lots of great writing and fast solos. Really fun.

  8. Memphis Minnie: “Shout the Boogie” (8/10): A full band performance, this is one of the most playful things I’ve heard of Minnie’s. She’s a little less dominant than on some of her other recordings, and that could be because of the piano solo or the backing vocals. It’s fun, anyway.

  9. Benny Carter Quintet: “Lady Be Good” / “Deep Purple” (7/10): On “Lady Be Good” Carter shows off perhaps his most adventurous playing, at least that I can remember hearing.

  10. Hindemith: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d: A Requiem for Those We Love (7/10): For FDR. This is more of Hindemith’s strict neo-classicism – though you could call this a more “American” version of that neo-classicism – that I struggle with so much. And though it’s undoubtedly very pretty, it’s conservative and I like my music mourning loss to be very different than that.

Riley’s Best Music of 1936:

Clearly I need to listen to more music from the 1930s:

  1. Webern: “Variations for Piano” Op. 27 (10/10): A major serialist set of variations, perhaps the major piano variations of serialism (I really don’t know). This is one of those pieces I wish I could write about better. I should listen to it again.

  2. Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra: “Jim Town Blues” (9/10): This just jumps right into the big band thing, but sounds more sophisticated (and less obviously “swing”) than some of their other tracks from this period. It sounds like there is a clear desire to move beyond swing to something else.

  3. Benny Carter and His Orchestra: “Gin and Jive” (9/10): This is a super upbeat, energetic swing number with fun group playing and a real dynamism. Great solos.

  4. Benny Carter and His Swing Quartet Featuring Elizabeth Welch: “When Lights Are Low” (9/10): A track I’ve heard numerous times but not recently. This is the original so it deserves more attention than the Miles Davis version, which I’m not sure is enough of a departure. (Though I haven’t listened to it in ages.) There’s a guitar solo which feels quite rare for this time period.

  5. Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra: “Grand Terrace Swing” (9/10): This is another class swing song wherein all the conventions are internalized to the point where it’s hard to tell whether the band is moving forward or treading water.

  6. Memphis Minnie: “I’m a Bad Luck Woman” (9/10): This one’s got a really engaging lead part with a some foot stomping and a typically great vocal from Minnie.

  7. Benny Carter with Kwai Evans’ Orchestra: “Blue Interlude” (8/10): Another song I feel like I have heard a million versions of. It’s one of those swoony songs from the period that I’m a real sucker for.

  8. Benny Carter and His Orchestra: “Accent on Swing” (8/10): This is a fun, upbeat swing song with some pretty good group writing.

  9. Benny Carter and His Orchestra: “These Foolish Things” (8/10): I have heard so many versions of this song – none of them recently – that it’s hard for me to sort out which is more definitive. But this is pretty early. The sound quality in this particular collection is not amazing.

  10. Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra: “Stealin’ Apples” (8/10): This is actually kind of forward thinking, as when Chu Berry (or whoever it is) comes in, the band is still missing. It’s basically dixieland though, not proto-bop. It’s about 2 minutes in before it sounds like big band.

Riley’s Best Music from 1926:

  1. Berg: ‘Lyric Suite’ (10/10): Berg’s suite is just a fantastic early example of serialism at work. It provokes and delights in equal measure and it’s a wonder that people thought music like this – that is, this beautiful – was somehow bad, or problematic, or whatever insult various traditionalists threw at the serialists. This is just a great work and, for me, one of the great string quartets of the 20th century. A real pleasure.

  2. Puccini: Turandot (10/10): One of my favourite operas ever. You know “Nessun dorma.”

  3. Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra: “Hot Mustard” (10/10): “Hot Mustard” is a bouncy track with a tuba fill, which is cool. You can hear the writing getting more and more sophisticated for backing the solos. This has some of the great swooning of earlier dixieland too. Also, Henderson plays a rare piano solo.

  4. Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra: “The Chant” (9/10): “The Chant” has a bonkers organ part on it. An organ! AN ORGAN!!! Okay, sorry, that just wasn’t very common in jazz in 1926.

  5. Janáček: Cappriccio (9/10): The Cappriccio is a neat little chamber piece that sounds extremely modern – there’s a jazz influence, I think, though I don’t know that Janáček would have known jazz (it could just be the influence of the Viennese school and I’m getting things confused).

  6. Durufle: Scherzo, Op. 2 (9/10): Durufle’s first published piece for organ is a dynamic thing full of contemporary ideas packed into not a whole lot of space. I like this thing and it has echoes (to me) of more recent film music.

  7. Janáček: Sinfonietta (8/10): The Sinfonietta instantly strikes a chord with me because Emerson, Lake and Palmer covered the opening Allegretto on their debut album. So, right away, all attempts to objectively judge it fly out the window. It’s certainly not one of Janáček’s most daring works but it is engaging and energetic and certainly demonstrative of his ability to pack lots into relatively short pieces.

  8. Uncle Dave Macon : “Way Down the Old Plank Road” (8/10): Excellent banjo playing through the recording hiss. Macon’s voice is fine. Someone is using their hands for percussion unless he is using his feet, which is amazing if he is.

  9. Uncle Bunt Stephens: “Sail Away Lady” (8/10): A fiddle tune. Despite being included on a volume of the Anthology of American Folk Music that mentions “singing” in its title, there is only fiddle and (very faint) foot-stomping. It’s a upbeat and reasonably catchy.

  10. Charlie Poole with the North Carolina Ramblers: “White House Blues” (8/10): I’ve definitely heard a version of this, about the assassination of McKinley. (I did just re-watch The Roosevelts so it’s entirely possible they used it.)

  1. Ives: Symphony No. 4 (10/10): From the opening bars of Ives fourth symphony, it’s clear this is Ives and he’s going to do whatever the hell he wants. The opening movement has to be one of the most unconventional opening movements in the history of the form, if not the most. There is perhaps nothing else like it. It may be Ives’s greatest work. It’s certainly among his most daring for large orchestra, and that’s something, considering the man we’re talking about.

  2. Ives: Violin Sonata No. 4 “Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting” (10/10): The fourth sonata is almost, almost one of those Copland-esque jaunty little American tunes. But fortunately Ives is too interesting for that. At one point he even quotes “Go Tell it On the Mountain,” which is very Romantic of him, but it’s just emblematic of his “clash” of sounds. In this sonata Ives seeks to recreate a ‘20s camp experience and he does.

  3. Szymanowski: Masques (8/10): I find this piece pretty compelling but not my favourite among his work. It’s certainly more modern than some of his early stuff, which I should appreciate but I am just less in awe of it than some of his music.

  4. Holst: The Planets, Op. 32 (8/10): It’s justly famous.

  5. Stravinsky: Renard (8/10): The music is typical of Stravinsky of this time; thumpy and vibrant and engaging. (I saw this live in a really interesting production at the COC.)

  6. Delius: Violin Concerto (8/10): Delius’ skill is aural “images” and this concerto doesn’t let you down in that regard. As with his best music, Delius paints a picture in your mind (or, in this case, a series of pictures) of a recently departed, idyllic past only every occasionally interrupted by the extreme emotions of his contemporary composers (and the war raging when he wrote this).  Yes, he’s conservative, but he’s very good at what he does.

  7. Delius: Dance Rhapsody No. 2 (8/10): This is quite the “dance” and seemingly much more of a rhapsody I think. It’s a sprightly thing with some surprises in addition to the usual lyricism overdose. I like it more than some of his other stuff. Still very Delius.

  8. Szymanowski: 12 Études (7/10): I can’t help but feel like these are a little slight, though some of them are quite fun. And they absolutely contain some of his hallmarks. Also, he has fun with his ending, as he often does.

  9. Delius: “Late Swallows” (7/10): Presumably this is adapted from a movement of the string quartet and not the whole thing. Anyway, it’s typical Delius and it makes me think that the quartet may be boring. Of course, this would be the slow movement, but still. Not mournful enough for me and once again just over-infused with that pastoral quality of his that just seems to permeate (nearly) everything he wrote. There are hints of life here and there, but not enough.

  1. Glazunov: Symphony No. 8 in E-flat (9/10): This is absolutely my favourite thing of Glazunov’s that I’ve hear to date. It’s almost obnoxiously Russian-Romantic, and I love it. So ridiculously bombastic. Wonderful stuff. It almost makes me want to listen to his entire cycle.

  2. Faure: Barcarole No. 8 in D-flat (8/10): One of Faure’s more radical takes on the genre to my ears. (Not that I would know anything about that!) It’s a piece that reminds you he can do complicated and weird in addition to moody and dreamy.

  3. Faure: Impromptu No. 4 in D-flat (8/10): There’s a huge gap between this one and the third and it is recognizable pretty much immediately. It almost sounds like a different composer at times. This one is much more in line with my idea of Faure than his earlier pieces in this genre and I like it considerably more than them.

  4. Elgar: The Kingdom (7/10): Listening to the two completed parts of the proposed oratorio trilogy I find myself liking this one less than the first. It is simpler and less provocative. Apparently the choral writing is quite good but I don’t really see why I should listen to this over other oratorios (even Elgar’s own). It’s fine, but that’s it…like so much of his other work.

  5. Satie: Passacaille (7/10): Not familiar with the form, I can’t tell if this is a parody or an attempt at the real thing. Satie’s music is rarely showy and this is, well, slightly showy… showy enough for Satie that you wonder about his motivations. It’s engaging stuff and almost utterly unlike anything else of his I’ve heard.

  6. Satie: Prélude en tapisserie (7/10): Compared to the earlier preludes, this feels a little more ostentatious. I don’t know whether or not it has anything to do with the subject matter, as the early ones did not. This definitely feels more tied to something. (You know, an emotion or something.)

  7. Ravel: “Cinq melodies populaires grecques” (5/10): I can find virtually no record of the “Cinq melodies populaires grecques” anywhere and I can understand why they have disappeared from the canon. This is among Ravel’s least interesting work, and perhaps the fact that he didn’t even orchestrate these himself has something to do with it.

Also put a placeholder at the top for Mahler’s 8th symphony which I listened to in my 20s and is on my plate to review sometime this month.

  1. Faure: Barcarole in E-flat (8/10): Though still containing plenty of traditional elements, this one feels to me closer in feel to the nocturnes, which I generally greatly prefer. I quite like it.

  2. Faure: Dolly (6/10): This is a series of piece for two pianos written over a number of years. It’s very pleasant but kind of simple at times. I guess it was meant to be performed by an adult with a child. It’s nice enough.

Placeholder for Mahler’s 3rd symphony.

  1. Grieg: Peer Gynt (9/10): Unfortunately I didn’t listen to the complete Peer Gynt as the recording I chose was recorded prior to the discovery of the complete score in the 1980s. But the versions I listened to still contains all the “big tunes” that we are familiar with. It’s hard for me to try to objectively judge something so famous,. The music is classic, most of it has become so popular that it is etched indelibly on our minds. It’s hard to really know what else to say about pieces such as “Morning” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King.”

(Almost) All Mussorgsky all the time.

  1. Smetana: The Bartered Bride (9/10): Far from my favourite opera but, given that it apparently started the tradition of Czech operas being taken seriously by the rest of the world, I think I have to rate it this highly.

  2. Mussorgsky: “Darling Savishna” (9/10): I don’t know what it is about this simple, brief song exactly but it shocked me. It is the most immediate thing I think I’ve ever heard from Mussorgsky outside of maybe Night on Bald Mountain or one of the pictures from Pictures at an Exhibition. It also kind of feels…rough. And I don’t mean that critically. I find it rather fascinating how simple the piano part is and how difficult the vocal is, as well as how “unschooled” it almost sounds. Really, really cool.

  3. Mussorgsky: “The Seminarist” (9/10): This is another song that sees Mussorgsky playing around with singing technique, and this time with tempo too. The singer must do all sorts of things, some of which are quite strenuous and/or feel quite raw, quite “unschooled.” The tempo also varies widely and wildly. It’s such a far cry from European “high art” music of the day, outside of opera.

  4. Mussorgsky: “Hopak” (8/10): I’m always somewhat surprised when it’s a full orchestra backing his song because most of these are piano and voice. This is very jaunty and also feels quite “Russian.” When you read about how Mussorgsky helped define Russian music in opposition to European music of the time, it’s songs like this they’re referring to, I suspect.

  5. Mussorgsky: “Dearest, Oh Why are Your Eyes Sometimes So Cold?” (7/10): This is a somewhat brief lament that still manages to have a few different parts to it, which is cool. (Pardon the pun.)

  6. Mussorgsky: “Desire” (7/10): This is a reasonably pretty song that manages to make romantic or sexual desire sound sad.

That’s about as far back as I can go, it seems. Hope you found something to check out.