Game: This or That

Well, maybe Brahms's pain just resonates more with me, so I notice it better.

I was expecting Debussy! I would be hard pressed to decide.

Vivaldi most likely.

Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata or Tolstoy's?

Oh, you have your eyes on a married woman, too? ;)

Beethoven's, by a country mile. I read the Tolstoy 5 years ago, and it felt rather pathetically moralistic. I did find the reason for why he didn't go after the pianist amusing, though.
Ravel is one of my very favourite composers, Debussy is among the top 15. Everything in Ravel is just so perfect, and nothing is overdone.

Prokofiev or Shostakovich?

Shostakovich.

Yes Tolstoy became weirdly obsessed with morals late in life.

This or this?

Ah, Rembrandt! I haven't actually seen Girl at Window before. It's beautiful, of course, but I'll go with the avant-garde mastery of A Woman Bathing in a Stream.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_du_..._de_la_Galette or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Lilies ?

Good choice :)

Water-Lilies. So over-the-top, color-wise.

Church At Auvers or this trippy wheat field?

I don't know, the trippy wheat field has more pleasing colours, but Church at Auvers is very striking even for van Gogh - it's quite a bit like Picasso. Cubism quite a bit ahead of the curve, Vincent. I'd rather have the golden wheat field on my wall, though.

Wivenhoe Park or Het Steen

The Constable, as I think I mentioned earlier I'm not a huge Rubens fan.

Picasso's Blue or Rose period?

Blue period.

Schumann or Schubert?

'Bert. Schwanengesang!

Good choice on the blue by the way.

Appassionata or Hammerklavier?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lykren

'Bert. Schwanengesang!

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"Leise flehen meine Lieder Durch die Nacht zu 'dir" :) Fine choice.

Quote:

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Appassionata or Hammerklavier?

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Hammerklavier. That slow movement, that finale.

Elgar or Britten?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by North Star

Hammerklavier. That slow movement, that finale.

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Correct. We have a winner!

We have a loser, too. I barely know Elgar except through the Cello Concerto, and Britten even less. Where to start, if you please?

Since I flunked out, let's change gears.

Reading sitting or lying down?

Lying down.

Ernie or Bert?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lykren

I barely know Elgar except through the Cello Concerto, and Britten even less. Where to start, if you please?

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Britten: Les Illuminations, Serenade for tenor, horn & strings, Nocturne (Bostridge & Rattle's recording of those three). Then there's the VC, Ceremony of Carols, the cello suites, SQ2/3, the operas (Grimes is a good place to start those - you could also listen to the Sea Interludes & Passacaglia first, it's a rather popular item separately, too, then there's Midsummer Night's Dream, Turn of the Screw, Billy Budd, Death in Venice... add to that the songs, and you see that Britten used rather good texts in his works). For starters. ;)

Elgar: Sospiri, Dream Children, Music Makers, Sea Pictures, Violin Sonata, Enigma Variations, Falstaff, Violin Concerto, Dream of Gerontius

Quote:

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Since I flunked out, let's change gears.
Reading sitting or lying down?

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Lying down.


Bert.


Cezanne or Degas?

Cezanne...although I'm not much of a fan.

Rothko or Diebenkorn?

Rothko.

Inchbold or Millais?