Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 10, 2022 14:47:14 GMT -8
We have mention of a Pharisaer:
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 10, 2022 15:00:12 GMT -8
All three hotels are top notch and within spitting distance of each other. I would probably choose the Imperial if money were no object and I wanted to put on the dog.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 10, 2022 15:04:13 GMT -8
The Ruedesheimer Kaffee is very similar to the Pharisaer. We have a set of 4 of those cups and saucers, shown in the link, which we bought in Ruedesheim. We finished our Asbach Uralt brandy so we haven't had one of these in a long time.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 10, 2022 15:19:01 GMT -8
Exquisite photos. I'll stay with The Imperial for now.
Wow. The Rüdesheimer Kaffee sounds splendid. Not just a cup of coffee. A ceremony in a cup.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 10, 2022 17:31:09 GMT -8
You are absolutely correct. Watching it being made at your table is wonderful. It tastes pretty good as well.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 11, 2022 8:54:24 GMT -8
Okay, I've made it through all the Max Liebermann novels, having just finished A Death in Vienna. The main plot is rather artless and dull. But the bits around it keep the novel interesting. We see, for instance, Max's growing eye-rolling subtle distaste with his fiancé's – how shall we say – superficial obsession with all things fashionable, luxurious, and upper-class. This is touched on in some of the later novels. But we get a real clear dose of it in this first one. And we see Amelia Lydgate (now...should have started with the first novel) as more of a real person rather than the automaton she became in the later novels. But that ending. Oy veh. The author strains once in a while to take Freudian psychology to Valkyrian heights. Such is the attempt in the final scenes of this book with Max confronting the murderer in The Riesenrad. I won't tell you who the murderer was. And, as I suspected, it's really of no import. That entire central plot had gone cold and lifeless by at least halfway into the novel. We just don't care by the time we get to the end. Anyway, Max's brilliant plan is to lock himself up inside one of the gondolas with a man who is taller and much more powerful than he is (and who, in fact, has already brutally bludgeoned a man to death). He will try to provoke him to a murderous rage while….while . . . while . . . Well, one of the most brilliant minds in all of Vienna has no plan. In fact, his plan (such as it is) is to get his ass kicked and almost thrown out of the gondola in a scene clearly written with a movie adaptation in mind. It was completely awful. Worse was Max's thin explanation to Rheinhardt (after the fact, sitting around the fire with brandy and cigars) for why this meeting had to be in The Riesenrad (as opposed to, say, some cafe). Square peg. Round hole. Nothing fit. A completely failed attempt by the author to make psychoanalysis the main hero. Still, looking back, I'm glad I didn't start with this novel or I may not have read more of them. The ending was that bad.
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Post by kungfuzu on Jan 11, 2022 10:24:07 GMT -8
As I recall, the whole scene at the Riesenrad was highly improbable, if not implausible.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jan 11, 2022 11:08:35 GMT -8
Improbably and implausible.
But my favorite part was when Herr Liebermann goes to Freud to get his opinion on Lydgate. His opinion was that it was very possible that Lydgate was traumatized because she had some introverted sexual attraction to the guy who tried to rape her.
Freud had to have been a crank to some degree. I mean, imagine me being mauled by a tiger and being traumatized by this. And then to have Dr. Freud say, "Vell, Bradley, You probably have zome zecret attraction tzu cats."
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 8, 2022 20:50:47 GMT -8
I just heard this exact piece on WRR and immediately thought of the Liebermann and Rheinhardt detective novels. It is movement 4 of Mahler's 4th Symphony. The vocal part is extremely difficult and the singer is fantastic. I listened briefly to another more recent singer and she was not a patch on this one. This particular concert is performed in the Vienna Musikverein, which we have discussed in the past. I might have to sit down and listen to all of Mahler's symphonies again/or for the first time. Mahler's 4th Apparently, this and Mahler's previous two symphonies were written around an old German collection of poems and songs titled, "Des Knaben Wunderhorn." I know of this as it was something I encountered while studying in Vienna back in 1973-74, and the title struck me as wonderful. The lyrics of this piece are very pastoral and seem a bit odd as they are archaic.
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Post by artraveler on Mar 8, 2022 21:27:26 GMT -8
It has been a while since I listened to the middle symphonies, perhaps 20 years. My favorite is Mahler's first and that is on speed dial. IMHO, Mahler got into some weird tonals in his later symphonies. Much the same as Bruckner, but with better fugues.
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Post by kungfuzu on May 7, 2022 15:13:13 GMT -8
Happy 189th Birthday, Johannes Brahms.
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Post by artraveler on May 7, 2022 16:52:38 GMT -8
Brahms was notorious hater of cats and hunted them with bow and arrow. Now in Arkansas the rule is if you kill it you eat it. I don't know about the Germans.
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Post by kungfuzu on May 7, 2022 17:03:33 GMT -8
Perhaps he had this made for him. Geschnetzeltes mit Roesti. Very popular in Switzerland. He could call it Katzenjammergeschnetzeltes. (Caterwauling sliced creamed meat with hash browns.) I prefer it with pork.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on May 9, 2022 13:59:16 GMT -8
Most of the photos of Brahms have him older in a long beard. I prefer this younger photo. You can see the intelligence in the eyes, if not the cat-hating aspect. And, yeah, I don't want to injure them. But cats can be annoying in ways a dog could never think of.
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Post by kungfuzu on May 15, 2022 12:46:19 GMT -8
I believe that last November, I mentioned somewhere at R&T that an old friend who I have known for almost 50 years, found out that he had stage 4 lung cancer.
Well, it grieves me to say that he died yesterday morning . He would have been 71 years old in August. Goodbye dear Karl, we love you.
Since my friend was Austrian and we met in Vienna in 1973, I felt that this string was an appropriate place to mention this sad news. I expect he is enjoying good times in heaven, at least a good glass of wine and Wienerschnitzel.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on May 15, 2022 14:53:04 GMT -8
Rest in Peace, Karl. I wish we could have met.
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Post by kungfuzu on May 15, 2022 16:32:39 GMT -8
He was a good friend with a sunny disposition. He was also funny and brought some happiness into the lives of others.
You would have loved meeting his parents just as much. They were, perhaps, the kindest people I have ever known. There is no "perhaps" about his mother being the best cook I have ever known. I think I mentioned her in some of my posts in the Mephisto Waltz string.
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Post by kungfuzu on May 16, 2022 9:24:07 GMT -8
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on May 16, 2022 10:14:10 GMT -8
According to Wiki: I never even knew there was a Eurovision Song Contest. One of the true mega-bands. The best thing to come out of Sweden since the Smörgåsbord. They've got that on Apple Music. Listening now. And not thinking impure thoughts about Agnetha.
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Post by kungfuzu on May 16, 2022 10:48:33 GMT -8
Neither had I, and this was one of the reasons that, initially, I did not know what everyone was talking about. Of course, ABBA was new so I had never heard of them.
Sadly, I don't think she looks anything like that today. If only we could all go back 48 years.....
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