Let's talk music, no genre boundaries

@mahgister 

That 5 minute video was very interesting. Looks like a channel I’d enjoy exploring further, although I suspect much of it is above my head. 

I’m curious: what would your top recommendations be for recordings of Scriabin solo piano on CD that are readily available? 

The best is to explore the interpretation and sound recording on youtube before ordering ...

Igor Zukhov is not available...I cannot recommend to you Sofronitsky bad recordings  but listen to him on youtube to understand why he is a god pianist...

 But this version is sonically good and the interpret is  able to play it but not at the highest level though...

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Piano-Music-Dmitri-Alexeev/dp/B09HHK42FS#averageCustomerReviewsAncho

Personally i like, out of the Russian school,  Michael Ponti a super Italian virtuoso able to gave justice to Scriabin...I own it... But the recording is atrocious but the price low...I want to kill the recording engineer myself... but Ponti play at a level unknown  out of the Russian school...And his takes is enlightening...

There are 2 sets :

Begin with the complete work set :

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Piano-Works-Scriabin-MICHAEL/dp/B00007J4SI?crid=14GST0TJD51GK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.GpWayqSvFUJm4uo-3pRTNgH3vRCXKFynjRcSjzOOjWqro8VRW_l0ByysJTFf2zmb-RTGJnDQ7wtTGOukXJ8ss_H1qUbsl3T7gL-nVZEDPP36TsS2bQUhK8q0YuGVOQAI9EEi-WcbP0sP6h3t0OQC6w.opyLCmY2ank-pz2VDudeRkNhITl9XLDstiF5CtTksY4&dib_tag=se&keywords=Scriabin+michael+Ponti&qid=1753987966&s=music&sprefix=scriabin+michael+ponti+%2Cmusic-intl-ship%2C135&sr=1-2

 Add the sonatas set : 

https://www.amazon.com/Scriabin-Complete-Sonatas-MICHAEL-PONTI/dp/B00007J4SK?crid=14GST0TJD51GK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.GpWayqSvFUJm4uo-3pRTNgH3vRCXKFynjRcSjzOOjWqro8VRW_l0ByysJTFf2zmb-RTGJnDQ7wtTGOukXJ8ss_H1qUbsl3T7gL-nVZEDPP36TsS2bQUhK8q0YuGVOQAI9EEi-WcbP0sP6h3t0OQC6w.opyLCmY2ank-pz2VDudeRkNhITl9XLDstiF5CtTksY4&dib_tag=se&keywords=Scriabin+michael+Ponti&qid=1753988170&s=music&sprefix=scriabin+michael+ponti+%2Cmusic-intl-ship%2C135&sr=1-1

To change the topic entirely, I am not a huge Dylan fan. With all the great poets in the world, I didn't think he deserved the Nobel Prize in Literature. I do have a lot of his albums and play them from time to time. I am probably a bigger Judy Collins fan. I have worn out a few of her albums and had to look for mint copies on the used market. So, I'm posting Judy Collins singing "Just Like Tom Thumb Bllues," one of my favorite cuts. You'll see th album cover on my post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcCcA6O6QLU

@mahgister 

Thanks -- too bad about the SQ issues. 

@audio-b-dog 

Was he given the award for poetry?  If so, I’d agree with you.

I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, he’d received it for songwriting. 

It’s a (in my opinion) popular misconception that song lyrics are poetry set to music. Songwriting is a discipline all its own, and not at all an easy one, if one wishes to become even moderately skilled. 

If the award was given to him as a songwriter, I cannot disagree with the committee. He, more than anyone, opened the door to writing song lyrics that honestly and unflinchingly address human experience. Yes; he drew upon the influence of others-- Delta Blues, UK and US folk song, Hank Williams, Standards, etc. but he synthesized these diverse influences in a way that no-one had before while at the same time developing a unique creative voice and perspective. In my view, he is a titanic figure in American music. Without Dylan, I very much doubt there would have been a John Prine, Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson, Neil Young, Robert Hunter, Robbie Robertson, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, James Taylor or Jackson Browne, to name but a few.  Who else has had exerted such an influence upon the craft? While I don’t listen to all of his output, there are certain periods I still enjoy very much. 

You’re comparing Judy Collins singing Dylan to Bob Dylan writing "Just LIke Tom Thumb’s Blues" but Dylan didn’t get the award for his singing. There are thousands of competent singers who could sing that song. But they couldn’t have written it. 

If anyone says I failed to list all of Dylan’s influences, they are of course, correct. Jazz, Vaudeville, Bluegrass, Singing Cowboys, Urban Blues, Country artists in addition to Hank, Gospel are some others, not to mention poets and novelists. . . 

And while it's true the lyricist from teh so-called "Golden Age of Songwriting" addressed plenty of "grown up" topics, it was typically obliquely, often utilizing clever word-play to suggest and imply, rather than spell out clearly. No doubt there's a craft and certain sophistication to such an approach but it also adheres to social taboos that many who grew up in the 50's and 60's found to be claustrophobic and stifling to the spirit.  

@stuartk 

I'm listening to Wayne Shorter's "Speak No Evil." It is beautifully recorded on Qobuz. Otherwise I would have bought the album. Thanks for the tip.

Dylan might have received the Nobel Prize for Literature. I can't remember. I know what you're saying about song writing being different than poetry, but some song writers are much more poetic than others. Probably Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell go on the top of my list for poetics. Also Paul Simon. I think the best poem/song Dylan ever wrote was "All Along the Watchtower." It works like a poem with an open ending to draw the reader in, and have them go back and pay more attention to what led up to the open ending.

I'm not comparing Judy Collins singing to Bob Dylan's writing. I just think that's the best version of "Tom Thumb's Blues" I've ever heard. Did you catch Ry Cooder's guitar? He's unmistakeable. There are a few musicians I can always tell. Stevie  Wonder's harmonica. In jazz, of course, Coltrane's sax and Miles Davis' trumpet. Stan Getz and Chet Baker. I don't think we ever talked about Paul Desmond and the west coast jazz players on the jazz forum. I am a fan. 

Back to Bob Dylan. I had some musician friends when I was at Berkeley and I remember one, David Lieberman, excitedly playing "Hey Mister Tamborine Man" for me. He had never heard anything like it. Although, I don't know if you could say a new type of song writing wouldn't have happened without Dylan. Newton and Leibniz discovered calculus at the same time. To me that proves that when something is ready to happen, it will. But, yes, let's give Dylan credit. The biggest problem I have with him is the misogyny in his songs. Women often take a bad rap. And on that topic of gender, I must admit that "Mr. Jones" was brilliantly filled with inference.

But if any song writer should have gotten the Nobel Prize for Literature, I think it should have been Leonard Cohen, who was a poet as well as song writer. I don't think he was influenced by Dylan, but having Dylan open up the field for new types of music probably helped him. I heard Dylan interviewed and he compared himself to Paul Simon. He said he couldn't write melodies like Simon. He wrote words and put them on old tunes. I don't know if that's always true, but it is true a lot of the time.