Hi guys!  I'm sort of stupidly excited about this.  I think the only thing I love more than music is talking about music.   I just want to kick things of by talking a little bit about Jeremy Denk, and why I think he's so cool. 

I had never heard of Denk until about a year ago when I read this essay on the Goldberg Variations in NPR's Deceptive Cadence blog.  I read it and thought, this is the best music writing I've ever read. 

Then, as I have a way of doing when something gets me excited, I went on to find out everything I could about this guy.  For instance, he has a blog that isn't updated terribly often, but, you know, quality over quantity.  The writing style is a little flowery, but I find it utterly engrossing.

Also this.

So basically, Denk became this guy that I was following online that I kind of wish I could have a beer with and talk about Bach.

When the Ligeti/Beethoven album came out, I gave it a listen while cooking dinner one evening.  I'm interested to hear what you guys think about how he relates the Beethoven sonata to Ligeti's atonal (polytonal?) counterpoint.  Is it brilliant or gimmicky?

Ciao!

It all started with a post on Molly's blog: Singers: Stop Listening to other Singers All the Time. It's Good for You.

Then a conversation started on Molly's Facebook about it:

So, there it is. Molly made a collaborative Spotify playlist, we'll take turns adding things to it, we'll all listen to it, and post it here. You should listen, too, and join in our conversation!