#smalin

Harmonic colouring animation of the final two movements of Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132 - following on from this video of the slow movement or ‘Heilige Dankesang’ which I posted about previously. 

I enjoy The Guardian's Harangue The DJ interviews, where various maestros of mixing 'empty the contents of their psychic record bags', even though I can't hear their selections(!) 

So I imagined emptying the dusty contents of mine, mostly classical tracks I last heard for real in the 20th Century.

The track I’ll be opening my next DJ set with

Gabriel Prokofiev - Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra: I never had a chance to experience this innovative pairing, but Gabriel’s granddad already has good form in dance music.

The track I always play to rescue a dancefloor

John Adams’ 80s classic The Chairman Dances has a deceptively understated start, but its body-popping repetitions and suave tango will sweep everyone back onto the floor.

The track that currently gets the most rewinds

My most frequent ear-worms are the sabre-clashes, smooches and heavy breathing from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture.

The track I wish I’d signed to my label (if I had one)

Messiaen's gaudy, iridescent, feelgood Turangalîla Symphony: the end of Joie du Sang des Étoiles gives me so much gooseflesh, I start to honk and fly in V formation.

The track I’d play to show off my eclectic tastes

This section from Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata is as catchy as it is obscure.

The track I think has been unfairly slept on this year

Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty - asleep for 100 years...

The track that should have been a crossover hit

David Bedford’s Sun Paints Rainbows on the Vast Waves - scored for windband and wine bottles. Its glorious blazes and swells of sound swept me away on the first live hearing.

The track that got me out of bed this morning

As chance would have it, today’s Deaf Dream Track is Beethoven’s own ‘apotheosis of the dance’. 

The track I wish I’d never played

Never got the hang of Harrison Birtwistle’s compositions - more like a quarryful of grinding rocks.

The ideal festival track

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring: demented, chilled out, mosh-pit brawls, sensual, frenzied and ecstatic.

The track I’d play at my auntie’s wedding

Another ‘80s classic (albeit 1880s) Johann Strauss’ Roses from South: schmaltz and sentiment for the late evening’s nuptial nostalgia.

The best track by my favourite new artist

I haven’t heard any new artist for 16 years, so I was going to omit this response. Then I recalled Stephen Malinowski, whose animated graphical scores reveal anew their music’s structure, tempi and counterpoint. 

Here’s his vision of the same Rite of Spring ‘festival’ track:

The track I’d play at sunset in Ibiza

Richard Strauss’ Im Abendrot - literally 'evening-red’, deep and tranquil. Although, not so much Ibizan chillout as the chilling awareness of our mortality.

The track I’d play at my funeral

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