My listening post tonight is with a glass of cold rice milk and two slices of pumpkin bread to my right, liner notes to my left, and Season Five, CD 2, Episode 6 (“The Game“) of Star Trek: The Next Generation playing in the far background.
I have to say a word about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
And that word is: hokey.
I could add overacted…ironic…and preposterous.
Overacted, in that everyone is always shouting and getting angry – especially Commander William Riker. The guy is always barking orders, looking stern, swinging one leg over a chair before he sits down, and wooing every woman from here to Risa, the Pleasure Planet. (Riker is such a lech.)
Ironic, in that for a generation that prides itself on peace and nonviolence, these people sure do get angry with each other and threaten fights a great deal of the time. Especially Riker and Worf. They’re constantly about to simmer over and kick some ass. Even Captain Picard is known for raising his voice rather than speaking in a conversational tone. (Especially when he’s speaking to Q, the all-powerful being who occasionally toys with the captain and his crew.)
Don’t get me wrong. There were a few (a very few) really good episodes of TNG: “Darmok” being one. “Cause and Effect” and “The Inner Light” being two more. And maybe the Borg episodes. But that’s about it. The rest are fine as background. But they don’t stand up to close scrutiny.
Enough about the Enterprise and her “continuing mission.”
In my earbuds right now is the Belgian-born French conductor Andre Cluytens (1905-1967), Orchestre Philharmonique De Berlin, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F major.
I’ve encountered Andre Cluytens seven times previous to this evening, on…
Day 6. Rating: “Huzzah!” (A masterful performance.)
Day 24. Rating: “Meh!”
Day 42. Rating: “Meh!”
Day 60. Rating: “Huzzah!”
Day 78. Rating: “Huzzah!”
Day 96. Rating: “Huzzah!”
Day 114. Rating: “Huzzah!”
Frankly, I’m surprised by these ratings: Five “Huzzah!” and two “Meh!” ratings from a a hokey, Christmas-y looking CD box set that I darn near overlooked because the artwork turns me off so much is quite a twist. Seriously. Look at that cover art. It looks like the cover of a Hallmark Christmas card.
And yet, the ratings belie the crappy creative direction of the box set.
(Somewhere in the back of my mind the phrase, “Never judge a book…” is trying to work its way to the front of my mind. I’m sure there’s a lesson to be learned here.)
Beethoven wrote his symphonies in four parts (except for the Sixth, which is in five). The time breakdown of this particular one (Symphony No. 8 in F major), from this particular conductor (Cluytens, at age 52-55) and this particular orchestra (Orchestre Philharmonique De Berlin), at this particular time in history (1957-1960) on this particular record label (Parlophone/Warner Music France) is as follows:
I. Allegro vivace e con brio…………………………………..10:37
II. Allegretto scherzando…………………………………….3:57
III. Tempo di menuetto……………………………………….5:03
IV. Allegro vivace………………………………………………….7:46
Total running time: 26:43
My Rating:
Recording quality: 3 (noticeable, but not debilitating tape hiss, a few ambient noises, seems to be a little muffled, lacks a bit of top end)
Overall musicianship: 3 (by the book, uninspired, lacks passion and magic)
CD liner notes: 2 (everything is written in French, which is great if one is from Paris; plus, no clear indication of when these symphonies were recorded)
How does this make me feel: 3 (“Meh!”)
This performance bored me to tears.
I must have heard this performance a dozen times, off and on throughout the day.
It never grew on me.
And it never got better.
This sounds lackluster to me – and mot just how it’s played. How it’s recorded seems to lack pizzazz, too. It just sounds mushy to me. Indistinct. Not exciting.
I can’t describe it or explain it any better than that.
But I will say this: As soon as I’d gotten to the part in this post in which I write my review, I quickly shut off Cluytens and turned on Whitesnake’s Slip of the Tongue album. My spirits immediately soared, my head started bobbing, my heel is bouncing up and down on the floor.
When a Classical music performance is great, it makes me do that.
When it’s not great, I can’t take another note of it.
Cluytens, unfortunately, is in the latter category.
“Meh!”