#151 The Smell of Bitter Waves

Big shapes, big areas. Grand harmonies. It's really chorus-like orchestral sound. The waves are coming from and disappearing to nowhere. It is calm and it is bitter.

Sharp string echoes, and the smell is returning again and again, pulsing bitterness. Forget about Beethoven: At 10'37'', this is the fate knocking on the door, this is the tempest. After that, sky is clear. All conflicts are gone.

Composer: Arvo Pärt
Work: Symphony No 4, II. Affannoso
Recording: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen

#150 The Smell of Fraction

How dancing and playful it is. But the movement is also every fractional, the numbers are splattering from it. Orchestra is suppressed, almost like muted, the sound is very unified.

Zimmermann's playing is full of joy and energy. Sometimes it seems like the music is calling for help, exhaused, violin unnerved. But it's all numbers, small fractions in a landscape of beauty.

Composer: Igor Stravinsky
Work: Violin Concerto, IV. Capriccio
Recording: Frank Peter Zimmermann, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Gianluigi Gelmetti

#149 The Smell of Quiver

Very humble touch with a great upheaval–this is big and very moving. Humility and submission mixed with high expectations.

A famous, well-known aria but always fresh with young Price. Listen to her and you just want a better destiny for Madama Butterfly.

Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Work: Madama Butterfly, "Un bel di vedremo"
Recording: Leontyne Price, Rome Opera Orchestra, Oliviero de Fabritiis

#148 The Smell of Nobleness

A classy composition and a classy recording. Very noble and aristocratic. It somehow shifts from romanticism to decadence.

I don't understand Tortelier's Bach but his approach to Schumann totally suits me.

Composer: Robert Schumann
Work: Cello Concerto, III. Sehr lebhaft
Recording: Paul Tortelier, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati

#147 The Smell of Caprice

First, there's innocence. Then, duality and attack. Exhaustion of love. Humpiness of anger. Attempts of reaching out. Mockery, humiliation. So many caprices in one movement!

This recording has a firm and solid leading from both the conductor and the soloist. Across all the moods, there's constant inner shining in it.

Composer: Béla Bartók
Work: Violin Concerto No 2, II. Andante tranquillo
Recording: André Gertler, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Karel Ančerl