coolermaster

More than Winckelmann, the most egregious mistake was made 200/300 years earlier, when Popes like Julius II, artists like Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Vasari, Bramante, and all the others began to "unearth" our past, a past that then became Italy's greatest responsibility for ancient art (and not only). If Michelangelo hadn’t believed that ancient statues could NOT be white, that those few monuments of ancient Rome that were unearthed, cleaned, and reevaluated during the Renaissance... things would have gone differently.
Although I must say that Buonarroti, when he slipped into Nero's "domus aurea," had his suspicions. But the Pope stopped him. Because for a white Westerner, it is synonymous with purity, whiteness, and innocence. And showing naked white and colored bodies is quite different. For the same reason, we had to wait until 1977 to have color TV... Because the Vatican did NOT want it... And did everything to prevent it.
Returning to music, I repeat: today we NO longer have the "biological" tools to understand it.
Conversely, and paradoxically, if a hypothetical spectator from the 1700s were to listen to a representation of music today, not just classical, they would find it an unbearable disgrace. Even a Hi-Fi system worth thousands of euros wouldn’t evoke any special emotions for them... Hearing is changing.... and the fact that 90% of people listen to MP3s on an iPod and live happily shows this.... and very few invest thousands of euros in Hi-Fi systems... Because they would perceive very few differences. This is why SACD, for example, has failed. Acoustic compression and editing arise precisely from this need. To compensate for physical shortcomings that didn’t exist 100 years ago. And anyway, taste changes....
Stepping out of classical, try listening to a jazz quartet from the Armstrong era of the 1920s.... aside from the style, without amplification, with primordial drums made of tin, instruments not always up to par (saxophones, pianos, and so on). Today it would be unthinkable.... And if you go to a jazz concert, there are dynamics and chromatics that would have been unthinkable in the 1920s.... Beyond the style, I repeat, deeply changed after the "Be-Bop" revolution of the 1940s/50s...
Best regards.

@CHAE if you want music (intelligent) to relax, I recommend some: "Nocturnes" by Chopin, Deutsche Grammophon editions with Pollini on the piano, or if you're more "sweet," also Deutsche Grammophon Maria João Pires...
Then there's Debussy, also DG, by Benedetti Michelangeli... The Etudes in this order: Chopin, Rachmaninov, Liszt... The Musical Moments and Impromptus by Schubert... The piano concertos of Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and Liszt...
The Adagio by Barber, the second Adagio by Barber taken from his Violinkonzert...
The Adagio by Albinoni...
The Art of Fugue by Bach
The Adagio by Alessandro Marcello...
The Concertos by Vivaldi (for lute, mandolin, recorder, guitar)
Some Sonatas by Beethoven (particularly 21 and 8) plus obviously the first movement of 14, called "Moonlight"...
The Lyric Pieces by Grieg

.....

I could go on.... And I've remained silent about symphonies and other composers... But you spoke of RELAX....

Well, what I've listed will give you RELAX, but the best possible....

Regards

"Allevi, the most beloved Italian pianist of this century"

After Pollini, Benedetti Michelangeli, Categoria:Pianisti italiani - Wikipedia (all these gentlemen and ladies) and I even add Tagliapietra delle Orme, Patrizio Fariselli from Area, Paolo Conte, Antonello Venditti, and even Gigi d'Alessio....

Best regards

Anyone who disparages Argento, at least up to Deep Red/Suspiria, has a vague idea of the "syntax" of Horror cinema... and I would also add the syntax of cinema in general...
In Deep Red, there are shots and camera movements (the initial dialogue between Hemmings and Lavia at the fountain of Neptune in Turin teaches us) that alone are worth entire filmographies of many directors, including Jonathan Demme...
Best regards

The first film of that subgenre of FantaHorror that in the '70s will be called "animal revenge," featuring dogs, bears, frogs, snakes, spiders, sharks, and whatever else you can think of.
But this was the first, and the dose of suspense is almost unmatched....

More than anything, Psycho is to be remembered because it marks the birth of the modern Thriller/Horror, following the German Expressionist experiments of the 1910s, which were dismissed in America in favor of "monsters" of fantasy...
Hitchcock's devices are called "McGuffin"... Go to Wikipedia and you will find out what they consist of....
Best regards

@PAOLAFRANCESCA

I forgot: I want to clarify that even though I'm a "wanker" (like 99% of men), precisely because I saw your "exciting" photo, I decided to change my sexual preferences... Just kidding, of course...

Before calling someone a "wanker" and making sure to let the community know you were contacted in PVT, think about it... I have a feeling it's you who might have some personality issues.

Best regards

Recently, Scimone said that instead we should abandon "philology"... Which is arbitrary and lacking in foundations. If Leonardo had access to Photoshop and PCs TODAY, what Mona Lisa would he create? Only with the colors of 2010? Certainly different... Indeed, he might not even create the Mona Lisa at all...
We know nothing about the execution. Because we have the scores, of course, but not the interpretation. Furthermore, it has been scientifically proven that human hearing has drastically changed in the last 100 years. We are all 10% more deaf and we have probably modified our auditory apparatus. If we were to follow Scimone's words and hold a "true" philological concert (and it's not enough to have period instruments), after 5 minutes the audience would empty. It would seem unbearable to us. Not to mention "impressing it" on CD... Terrifying compression would be needed, audio editing work even on classical music, which would be a contradiction. This is to readjust all the instrumental balances. Yes, because 300 years ago instruments sounded differently (and it’s not enough to have an original Guarneri to recreate that sound). Today, the dynamics of musicians are astounding, and even 50 years ago, music wasn’t played like this, let alone 300!!
And even if we were to conduct a trial (which neither Pinnock, Marriner, nor the others ever do), WE do not know exactly how it was played in Vivaldi's time... Nor in Beethoven's time... The last great romantic who left a mark was Rachmaninoff. Even Chopin, for example, said that LISZT interpreted what Chopin wrote much better than he did!!! And how the hell did Chopin play? Who knows... How did Liszt transfigure the Nocturnes or the Etudes? Who knows...
Classical music moves forward, thank God, moving forward precisely in execution.
And going back would discourage potential novice listeners (who are already few) and it would be a senseless operation... Can I say that the Harpsichord drives me crazy? That when I listen to the 2 books by Bach on period instruments after half an hour I feel like cutting my veins? And that I put on Grimaud or whoever you like on the piano and enjoy it like a hedgehog??
Best regards.

So. Chopin, just like Beethoven or Rachmaninoff, I have in various editions. Sticking to Chopin, nocturnes, études, preludes, ballades, I have performances by Ashkenazy, Schiff, Horowitz, Argerich, Zimmerman, and I could go on...
And yet, none of them can give (especially in certain passages) the contrasts, the chromatics, the dynamics of Pollini. I'm sorry.
Then, as we know, music is a matter of taste. Here we are not talking about some last-minute conservatory student. We are talking about professionals who often have 20, 30, 40 years of career behind them. So there is NO such thing as "I hate it" or "he's a goat".... We are not reviewing the latest CD by Coldplay or U2, with all due respect. It may not be to your liking.
For example, among all the Beethoven sonatas I have listened to (Bachaus aside), my absolute favorites are those of Emil Gilels, especially the Waldstein, Les Adieux, the Appassionata, and the Moonlight....
As for the last ones, I find Pollini's historic recording for DG from 1977 to be the best and an absolute reference, especially for the "Hammerklavier" and the 32....
Regards.

In 1970, Pink Floyd intentionally condensed the history of music over the last 100 years into the suite "Atom Heart Mother." It was a provocation, a challenge, a proclamation, albeit "imperfect." WYWH is the summation of many things, of many genres that were born towards the end of the '70s. Stefano mentioned the Zeppelin, he mentioned Tangerine Dream, King Crimson... yes, all true, but none of those albums, in my humble opinion, has the cohesion, clarity, and technique behind it like that of the Floyd. For me, and I repeat, for me, it is their masterpiece, their summation, and one of the "fundamental" albums of the '70s. In Wish You Were Here, there is everything: German cosmic rock, flashes of avant-garde, rock born from the blues... There are acoustic guitars and synthesizers... The beginning of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" alone is worth an entire album by Tangerine Dream... WYWH is homogeneous, whereas Dark Side or Meddle were fragmented and filled with pieces that weren't exactly happy (especially Meddle). It is a cosmic yet seductive, velvety journey... Each piece is perfectly arranged and played. Furthermore, it was the first album where "sound effects" made their appearance... "The simulation of AM radio," "Voices offstage," and synthesizers that became "leading instruments."
Best regards.