Monday, June 15, 2015

Ezra, G., & 'Budapest'


George Ezra (above) is a Brit from Bristol, and is a singer with a voice that seems weathered and worn by far more years than its owner has lived. He is 22. You can hear it and see him in the music video for his top ten song 'Budapest',

I can't get my head around the fact that someone born in 1993 is today 22 years old!

Continuing in a vein musically, I recently started listening to some Anton Bruckner symphonies, prompted by nothing more mundane than talking to someone one day about the south Bronx, and what a horrible stretch of road the Bruckner Expressway is...

At his most heavy-handed, Bruckner may make you feel like you are a helpless passenger in a small, flimsy car, as enormous juggernauts bear down on your tail at hysterical speeds, on the Bruckner Expressway; if you are screaming, no one can hear you, because of the deafening roar of pistons, gasoline, sparks, shocks, thundering wheels...

I was most surprised in listening to Bruckner again, that many themes came up that I would have almost certainly have said were the work of Mahler.

And I also did not know until today that a Bruckner symphony which he did not think was coherent enough, has been designated his Symphony # 0... For what it's worth, here are the opening bars...: