#230 The Smell of Snow Paperweight

I smell how artificial and distorted this music is. It's like behind a thick round glass, always kind of out of focus, and never real. All the dramas are just a comedy, fights between plastic figures: and snow, snow everywhere.

Pešek's reading is precise, and maybe a little bit distant, keeping it–despite the orchestration–on the colder side.

Composer: Josef Suk
Work: A Fairy Tale, II. Playing at Swans and Peacocks
Recording: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Libor Pešek

#134 The Smell of Starting Again

The music starts in a relaxed, serene way. A little structure is build, a little love is given (the movement is called Two in Love), and there's a foreign element: something's happening (1'25''). Maybe something wrong, outrageous. Could we start again please? We can (2'12''): and nothing wrong will happen this time.

Mácal and CPO deliver very warm, rustic performance with a good drive. The sound is rich and solid.

Composer: Vítězslav Novák
Work: Slovak Suite, III. Two in Love
Recording: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdeněk Mácal

#108 The Smell of Pouring

It's easy to talk about folksy settings and square dances. What else do you want to smell here? I smell reunion in progress–small streams in a forrest, coming together, forming something bigger, of a higher call. They unite and continue in their way down, gurgling: smiling, sunny, festive.

You need to say Bernstein when you say Copland. A wonderful account, hearty and hilarious. Spring's in the air.

Composer: Aaron Copland
Work: Appalachian Spring Suite, 4. Fast
Recording: New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein

#59 The Smell of Downbeat

A dance that starts so brightly is slowly decaying, turning into a nightmare. Down, down to depression, all the light is gone. It is–somehow–comfortable. During the last minute, there's not even one happy tone, and yet the last one is so sedative.

I'm not sure how Isserlis can play the cello and dance at the same time but he does. This is the best of modern recordings of these suites.

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Work: Suite No 3 for Solo Cello, VI. Gigue
Recording: Steven Isserlis

#54 The Smell of Edification

The finale of The Firebird gives you the unique feeling there's Good and there's Heaven. It's uprising, forcing you to stand up and tell it: Yes! Do whatever you have to do but keep the music playing!

It cannot be played too slowly, it cannot be too exciting, there's no "too much" in this piece, no excess is enough.

Composer: Igor Stravinsky
Work: The Firebird Suite, Finale
Recording: Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein

#50 The Smell of Mountains

I know, it's The Great Gate of Kiev. But I've never seen the picture. What I've seen many times is the grand view of mountains. Majestic, with white tops, half hidden in a haze. As you come closer, they're bigger and bigger, above all and anything ever seen.

Pogorelich's wide playing totally fits the smell. He has enough time, there's no hurry, no pressure. Face the proud music and feel humble and small.

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky
Work: Pictures at an Exhibition, The Great Gate of Kiev
Recording: Ivo Pogorelich

#46 The Smell of Arrogance

The bar is dark. Smoke. Gin. Long legs. Steps. Money. Dance. Lust. And the smell of arrogance: it's them and it's us, and they know we can watch but cannot join. So we watch and drink and pay.

Brunello's recording is for solo cello and breathing. They both dances in wry waltzes, they both choke on the same nostalgia.

Composer: Gaspar Cassadó
Work: Suite for cello solo, III. Intermezzo e danza finale
Recording: Mario Brunello

#39 The Smell of Dancing Lessons

Electric guitars, saxophones and drums in a suite from an opera. And I smell my first dancing lessons. Crisscross of legs, babel of movements.

However, it's not an ordinary lesson. This one has a touch of David Lynch (listen at 0'12''). Like if you're one of the dancing dwarfs. A one time experience you don't want to go through again.

Composer: Michael Tippett
Work: Suite from New Year, V. Donny's Skarade
Recording: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox

#23 The Smell of Natalie Portman

For me, the finale of Swan Lake was never beautiful. It's a nervous, fragile, unstable piece of music. The main theme goes too fast, the pauses in harmonies are scary, the harp rhythm is perverse.

After watching the film Black Swan, the demons are even worse and darker. The dreadful, lethal music cries for help but the rising sun is black.

Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Work: Swan Lake Suite, IV. Finale
Recording: Wiener Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan

#12 The Smell of Energy

This is Prague Philharmonia at its top. Wonderful, soft sound, excellent dynamic shading, spontaneous.

You can gulp the energy coming from the recording. You can listen to it ten times in a row and it will never pall on you.

Composer: Antonín Dvořák
Work: Suite in A major, II. Allegro
Recording: Prague Philharmonia, Jakub Hrůša

#10 The Smell of Countryside

There's music where's everything. It's funny, it's moving, it's majestic. The mood is changing every minute.

But above all, you can smell grassroots. So clean, easy to understand. Beautiful humbleness, no ornaments. Earthy, full-bodied, proud American music.

Composer: Aaron Copland
Work: Billy The Kid
Recording: San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas

#6 The Smell of Jollity

Today it's literal–Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity. I haven't heard better six horns unisono and more joyful and rich playing than from LSO. It's a moving, blithe piece. It's forcing you to stand up and dance.

Do you feel how the tempo is uprising, how the theme is exalting? It's like if you should be proud of something, of yourself. When I feel blue, I listen to Jupiter. And I smell it's helping me getting better.

Composer: Gustav Holst
Work: The Planets, IV. Jupiter
Recording: London Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis

#5 The Smell of Unexpected

Why unexpected? One, this dixieland ballet was written in 1927; two, the orchestra is actually only a sextet (piano, violin, cello, trumpet, basoon, and clarinet); three, tango, really?

Yes, tango. After the beginning, sounding like an ending, the rhythm is there, in piano. It's a dance kept unexpectedly low, with soothing trumpet solo. The second part is even darker, ending in void. It's the smell you don't expect from Martinů. I was not prepared to hear something like it at all.

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů
Work: La revue de cuisine, II. Tango
Recording: The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Christopher Hogwood