London and Lisztomania!

I have been in London for almost a week now and this city just seems to breathe with music!  After flipping through a book about British popular music in which I learned that the theme song in the film A Clockwork Orange is actually an electronic adaptation of the music Henry Purcell composed for Queen Mary's funeral in 1695, I have felt inspired to listen to some british music.  Mostly Billy Bragg, The Smiths, The Kinks, and David Bowie.


Aside from this British invasion in my music listening, I have also been paying homage to the bicentennial of Franz Liszt! The Lisztomania that is sweeping the classical world right now is producing some fun album covers and some great interpretations of the works of the musical genius that died 75 years ago.  Yesterday I bought the album Lang Lang recently released, Liszt My Piano Hero, which has a flashy cover and includes a video.  I've only listened to the album through once but it seems like a well-chosen and diverse repertoire executed magnificently. Although to be completely honest Lang Lang's playing does at times strike me as emotionally vacant, there is no arguing his technical virtuosity.
In the liner notes it makes reference to the 1975 film Lisztomania in which the lead singer of The Who, Roger Daltrey, plays the young Franz Liszt (the movie also includes an appearance of Ringo Starr). It's a funny film imbued with the psychedelic character of the era, and also a reminder of the superstar attention classical composers and musicians like Liszt received.



The morning after watching the film I was on a train to Oxford to meet with Cambridge professor

and musicologist Nicholas Cook and was reading his book Music, a short introduction to try to get a loose grasp on some of the perspective that form the canon of his work and when I opened the book Liszt's name was the first word I read! I guess it may not seem that surreal considering he is such a well-known figure, regardless, the recurrence of his name and music throughout my stay here has given me the feeling that we should all be listening to Liszt right now!