Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Capriccio Italiene by Tschaikovsky

By golly, I can spell! The three words in the title above are all acceptable spellings. There are variations in the transposition of the Cyrillic alphabet to the one we use in English, so some folks spell the surname of the composer, Peter, son of Ilya, differently. Anyhow, I'm listening to Tschaikovsky's Italian Caprice right now from Minnesota Public Radio, resurrecting the memory of my sojourn 49 summers ago at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. God, how I wish I were there and it was then! Just for a little while, just a short while: the smell of the smoke of Camel cigarettes and Kiwi shoe polish, the evening sun coming in the unshaded barracks windows, the sarcastic banter I traded with Stavins, the lawyer from Chicago, and the music emanating from his portable 33-and-a-third, either Cappricio Italiene or the 1812 Overture. How I wish I were there and it was then!

2 comments:

johnnie said...

I have the infamous Telarc recording of Both Capriccio Italiene and 1812, you know the one with the live cannon shots that will toss the needle out of the groove and blow up your speakers. I'm proud to say that both of my phono cartridges will track all the cannon shots without batting an eye. (That's a big deal). The record is courtesy of you, pop, I doubt our old Zenith all-in-one or the Sears all-in-one we bought to replace could do it, though one never knows.

JT Evans said...

Glad your equipment works so well and glad to contribute the LP. Antal Dorati and the Minneapolis Symphony?