Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, writing these here notes to the strains of Mr. Gustav Mahler’s second symphony, recorded in 1935 by Mr. Ormandy with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. They struggle a bit in the opening movement and have some intonation issues, but things improve after that. This was only the second complete recording of the symphony, the first occurring, astonishingly, in 1924 conducted by Oskar Fried. Ormandy is fine in his interpretation and shaping of the symphony, from a time when a piece of Mahler’s was barely performed. Mahler didn’t become a popular “thing” until Mr. Bernstein’s recordings with the New York Philharmonic for Columbia. I’m really enjoying these early recordings, historical though they may be. One can just close one’s eyes and picture yourself in your living room in 1935 playing these 78s (both sides of a whopping six discs) and listening to them on your new gramophone, when that sound was considered to be state of the art. Having really enjoyed the 1934 recording of the Rachmaninoff second with Ormandy and Minneapolis, I actually found the first recording from 1928, conducted by Nikolai Sokoloff and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and I have to say that’s a better band and I really liked that one a lot, too. Of course, even with the cuts from back then, Ormandy’s stereo recording for Columbia is still a benchmark recording. Ormandy knew Rachmaninoff well and his Symphonic Dances is dedicated to Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Meanwhile, a very good soprano is singing in the penultimate movement of the Mahler second – she’s very good. Then the final movement is 33:00 long, which would be three sides of 78s and maybe even a small portion of a fourth side. I’m feeling very historical myself, frankly, like an ancient pelican, which is what they call John Wayne in The High and the Mighty. Prior to my listening, I had to do a quick CVS run, which I did quickly, to pick up more Pepcid, which I’ve been out of for three or four days. And prior to that, I’d watched some interesting YouTube videos, dozed off for a bit, then never got around to a motion picture entertainment.

Prior to all that, I got almost eight hours of sleep, was awakened by my book gal’s calling me back, we figured out my order and I’ll actually place it either today or tomorrow – at least that’s the hope. We really do need some modern major miracles around these here parts. Every day brings new drama, and no number of tacos can circumvent it. I, for example, had two tacos from the Mexican jernt I like, La Fogata. They were excellent. Since the calorie count was pretty light, rather than having another meal, I decided on a piece of cheesecake with whipped cream – that was very good but at my age it’s too much sugar overload and I really have to stop doing that. But calorie-wise, I was okay for the day. No call from the glasses place – they were supposed to be ready on Monday and here we are on Thursday and I really need them badly. Hopefully, the call will come in the morning so I can get them by noon or thereabouts. That was really about it, day-wise, and night-wise, and here we are.

Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll hopefully go pick up glasses and if it’s early enough I’ll try to get down to the venue for that meeting. If not, I’ll definitely get there tomorrow at two. I’ll eat something reasonable, no sugar for a while, I’ll do some writing, and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax.

Tomorrow, if I haven’t gotten to the venue I will, otherwise no real plans that I know of and I may or may not see a show over the weekend.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do whatever needs doing, hopefully pick up glasses, maybe get to the venue depending on the time, eat, write, and watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite pieces of Mahler and Rachmaninoff? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that in the future two tacos will circumvent drama.