Music or ? What did you listen to when shaving today?

Traffic, not cars & horns. The good kind, with Dave Mason.

and Steve Winwood

I do have a love/hate relationship with guitars, this HUGE tune came over my speakers shaving today and followed with a big Prince Solo tune too.  Right about 3.5 mins in on the first one the late and great Prince shows his stuff! 

https://youtu.be/6SFNW5F8K9Y

https://youtu.be/UG3VcCAlUgE

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto - Horowitz/Toscanini  Opening hits like a freight train and never lets up!  Maybe the greatest performance ever by these masters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ksVduF2rr4

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto #2  in E Minor  -  Nigel Kennedy (yes I know same CD as Bruch but this a magical recording)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_PkfjV0eU

I have always shaved in silence. I knew others played music but always thought that I preferred the quiet so I never tried it. Well, for the past week I have been playing some Blues while shaving and I really have enjoy it and glad that I tried it.

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto #2  in E Minor  -  Nigel Kennedy (yes I know same CD as Bruch but this a magical recording)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_PkfjV0eU

Dan, I have this CD and couldn’t agree with you more.  In fact, I have several CDs featuring Nigel Kennedy.  His version of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons remains my favorite.

I have always shaved in silence.  I knew others played music but always thought that I preferred the quiet so I never tried it.  Well, for the past week I have been playing some Blues while shaving and I really have enjoy it and glad that I tried it.

Fenster, I am glad you gave it a try.  For some reason, I find my morning shave and music just go together.  Sometimes it’s classical music with Joshua Bell on violin, sometimes it’s Leontyne Price singing Un Bel Di from Madama Butterfly, sometimes it’s country or even bubblegum music from the 60s.  It’s just what I’m in the mood for at the time and if I don’t have music playing while shaving, the silence is deafening.

Interesting you state that.  Same here re Kennedy and indeed have the 4 Seasons but Gil Shaham's, while being completely and utterly over the top, remains my favourite - plus Kreisler long a furtive favourite - my tastes tend to peasantry as evidenced by being the only person on Earth liking Porgy & Bess too.

Interesting you state that.  Same here re Kennedy and indeed have the 4 Seasons but Gil Shaham's, while being completely and utterly over the top, remains my favourite - plus Kreisler long a furtive favourite - my tastes tend to peasantry as evidenced by being the only person on Earth liking Porgy & Bess too.

Uh oh, you're not alone on the planet.  How can anyone not like Porgy & Bess?!  Dan, I truly lack any sophistication at all when it comes to classical music.  If I like it then that is all that matters.  Someone once asked me how I could like opera if I could not understand what was being sung.  I didn't know how to reply because how does one explain that he is floating on the voice of Leontyne Price singing Un Bel Di from Madama Butterfly, that he is somehow being taken to a different space.  Even as I type this I realize how odd it seems but that is as close as I have ever been able to come to explain why I like some music.

I absolutely loathe rap/hip-hop and hate being stuck in a place where it is being played.  However, that just makes me appreciate why someone wouldn't like opera or classical music or, for that matter, someone who might appreciate the roots of all music.  My tastes may be more eclectic than some and considerably weaker than others so Vive la différence.

P.S. I did not know of Gil Shaham (see, I told you I was a music Neanderthal) but found Vivaldi's "Spring" from the Four Seasons by him on You Tube and was blown away!  However, I might still give the edge to Nigel Kennedy (though it's now a tight race) because I have always loved the rapidity with which he plays the piece.  I'm sure other's might think that speed is completely wrong but it works for me.

Kennedy version to my uneducated ear is much more technically executed whereas Shaham is purely emotional with embellishments. He really is quite the personality on stage too akin to Pearlman or Zuckerman, even Mutter as much as she has a sense of humour. Sarah Chang pretty impressive too Combining passion with technical acumen