I’m almost at the end of 1000 albums to listen to, and am embarking on another big listening project to provide a different approach to what to listen to, alongside new stuff and my playlists and albums.
In previous years I’ve worked through the complete catalogues of Prince and Dylan. No need to work through The Fall’s mighty oeuvre consciously as I do that out of pure pleasure!
So 2026 is amongst other things for me the year of the symphony.
I’m working through an arbitrary ‘A list’ taking Mozart as a rough starting point and Mahler as a rough end point. Yes there are many great ones before and after, but this does mean not listening to Haydn’s 104 symphonies just yet. Maybe Haydn in 2027. Mozart’s 41 I might also cherry pick. But (deep breath) Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Glinka, Franck, Smetana, Dvorak, Borodin, Bizet, Sibelius, Tchiakovsky, Greig, Rimsky-Korsakov, Elgar, Debussy, Strauss etc.
So who is resolving to listen to all the Jazz Messengers studio albums (47) or the 170 odd Buckethead albums listed on Spotify, a mere taster of his complete works?
Maybe you’re just gong to listen to every song with the word ‘orange’ in the title..
So far have listened to the cycles of Brahms (4) and Schubert (6? 7?) and have been motivated by the latter to buy the Abbado recording on CD. This may end up costing quite a bit!
You can rest assured that it will cost you financially but the reward is great. I’m still working my way through all the studio recordings of Maria Callas and enjoying it immensely, unfortunately I keep getting distracted by other “stuff” so it’s taking some time.
Loved the post about your dad btw.
@pencilsqueezer I am always in awe of people who can confidently say that this conductor and orchestra’s version of that symphony is better than someone else’s. My view is that – at my age – I’m probably only going to buy one version of Schubert’s symphonies so it should be a ‘good one’ even if it may be lost on me.
BTW My dad’s Callas Lucia Di Lammermoor is the Gobbi/Di Stefano/Serafin EMI recording.
I also found on the shelves a Phillips 6-CD version of Mozart’s early symphonies by Marriner and ASMF (my one classical namedrop is I know a former CEO of the Academy of st martins in the fields) – so those are in play too. They were one of the very few CDs left by my wife’s parents in their collection when they died. Amazing that a symphony started as something barely 10 minutes long.
It’s a bit of a minefield frankly. There is SO MUCH of it. It would be impossible to hear all of or even a meaningful amount of say all the recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies. I don’t even know how many recordings of Beethoven I own. It’s a lot including at least seven complete symphony cycles and yes I do have my favourites but that doesn’t mean the others lack interest or quality. It’s just a matter of personal preferences and that can vary from day to day depending upon my mood and I can be a right moody bugger. All the classical lovers I know, which is not that many tbh have a tendency to own multiple versions of at least their particular favourites and have a habit of collecting them compulsively. For me that would be Shostakovich, Debussy, Ravel, Mahler, Sibelius and at least a dozen others. That’s why I said it can get to be very expensive but the rewards are immense. Enjoy your explorations and if I can ever be of assistance don’t hesitate I’m always happy to help.
For me it’s usually about the first version of a piece that turned me on to it. For example through a record club I bought Barenboim playing and conducting Bartok’s Piano Concerti 1 and 3, and while he’s maybe not especially known for Bartok (or maybe he is, what I mean is he’s more a “straight classical guy”), if I hear another version, say on the radio, it sounds “wrong”
Not my own experience, I must admit…
Having said that, had I stuck with the first performances I heard, my bank balance would be bigger and my shelves would be emptier!
I buy so much music and so many books I can’t afford shelves.
I get that and will often settle back into the comfort of the familiar. Other times I’m in the mood for hearing a familiar piece handled differently and having my ingrained reactions challenged. Sometimes I find a favourite piece supplanted but it’s never completely replaced, it’s still there waiting for those occasions when nothing but that interpretation will do.
Don’t forget Shostakovich’s 5th. Today, I have decided it’s my favourite symphony. Start with Petrenko’s version.
I’ve just ordered Miles Davis’s Complete Plugged Nickel. I may be lost for some time.
Shosty 5 kicks ass and the Petrenko recording of him waving his arms at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a treat.
I too have the Plugged Nickel set on pre-order along with the Antal Dorati box of Haydn symphonies which at long last is being reissued by Decca. I cost myself a fortune.
I prefer the 15th meself! Or the 10th, on upbeat days…
I don’t listen to much Haydn – but when I do, I’m happy with my Beecham set.
I don’t have a set listening project, as such – but I notice that I am tracking down and listening to a lot of Bartok at the moment…
I was listening to some Bartok piano concertos only last night.
Same here! Géza Anda with Fricsay/Berlin RSO.
New release for me. Tomáš Vrána with Gábor Káli/Philharmonic Ostrava. Streamed it on Qobuz.
Another wrinkle, @moseleymoles – modern versus vintage performance!
Not music, but I recently picked up 12 early Hitchcock movies on Blu-ray (about half of which are silent). I now own about 40 of his films on Blu-ray and others on DVD and a few on 4K HDR. So I plan to start working my way through these (mainly) chronologically, around one a week will use up most of the year. Have seen most of them before, some many times, but will be nice to concentrate on a lot of the lesser known ones
No. 1 will be The Lodger (Criterion collection version), no. 3 Downhill is on the same disk. In between will be The Ring which I saw once in the cinema with live music (Zurich, 1994). Was an evening that changed my life (not because of the film)
We’re on a Hitchcock kick too. Mainly due to my gobsmacked response to my partner admitting on New Year’s Eve that she’d hardly seen any. She has already seen the error of her ways.
We’ve dived in pretty haphazardly, not always going for the obvious choices – North by Northwest (my favourite film, now hers too, just perfect), Shadow of A Doubt, Trouble with Harry, Strangers on a Train, Rope, Frenzy, Topaz, Lady Vanishes, Torn Curtain (rewatching this was soooo much fun – it really should be a cult classic – what was Hitch on?) – all so far this month. They are almost all so good. And even the lesser ones have something to recommend them.
Accompanying them reading Hitchcock on Hitchcock – he was an amusing and insightful writer on film but did say more or less the same thing over and over again. Will then follow up with a reread of the Hitchcock/Truffaut interview book and finally a rewatch of the documentary. So there’ll be a lot of him in this house too. But I find you really can’t have too much. Hitch.
Of course watching or reading projects are just as important as listening. However mine tend to take several years. So I have 3 novels left on my complete chronological reread of JG Ballard and am about halfway through a similar Douglas Coupland re-read- his recent work has been very hit and miss so may stop a couple short. In film am again about halfway through a Cronenberg rewatch, started at least two years ago. The big one for me will be a second reread of all 33ish Philip K Dick novels which I really do need to commit to this year.
My last rereading project was Kurt Vonnegut early last year. I made it through, very quickly, reading chronologically, to Jailbird (1979). I’d loved him 30 years ago and was delighted to find that I loved him even more and got even more out of it in my 50s. But after 9 novels on the trot I did need to take a break so at some point this year I’ll tackle the final 5 novels and the short stories.
Some interesting initial choices there North by Northwest is indeed perfect, as is Shadow of a Doubt. I enjoy most of the others greatly, but for me Topaz is a bit of a slog and Torn Curtain also drags a bit and needs a stronger female lead than Julie Andrews (she’s great in her normal type of film though).
Topaz is indeed a bit of a slog. But we both absolutely loved Torn Curtain, partly because of its flaws. Way too much use of matte painted backgrounds, sometimes good, sometimes clunkingly poor, some very dodgy studio sets – the hill where the leads have their romantic clinch is straight out of Wizard of Oz – and it’s a surprise she doesn’t burst into song. Julie Andrews is indeed poor (Hitchcock didn’t want her) – she just looks confused. Paul Newman just looks pissed off like he’s thinking ‘I thought this crap was going to be like North by Northwest, Hitch’. Zero chemistry between them.
But we laughed a lot (sometimes at it) and were never bored. It’s a bonkers film.
Talking of Hitchcock and Truffaut I am on a Truffaut kick at the moment, prompted by a course at Home Manchester on the French New Wave (which in turn was prompted by Richard Linklater’s new movie Nouvelle Vague about the making of Godard’s A Bout de Souffle). I hadn’t appreciated how much Truffaut, Godard et al were influenced by Hitchcock but it’s obvious when you see a film like La Peau Douce. So, will try to work my way as many of his films as I can get hold of.
I want to listen to more Nina Simone – I have about 10 of her albums which is a drop in the Ocean.
Also want to acquire the Marianne Faithfull albums I don’t currently own.
I also would like to watch the old Twilight Zone episodes that I recall with great nostalgia from bygone years.
Hear all 36 concerts from the Dylan 66 tour on their anniversary… the first one is at White Plains, New York on 5th February 66, most are in May.
I’m also working through that Uncut 500 60s albums list, listening to the ones I haven’t heard (mainly modern jazz) and avoiding the Rat Pack, anything that looks middle of the road and rawk!
My favourite album, It’s My Thing by Marva Whitney, isn’t even in it. Or my favourite Stones album. Or my favourite Zappa album. It’s a useful list, but boy has it got some chaff, and anything connected with the VU is way too high.
I have that Dylan set. reckon I have listened to about 8 of the shows.
I suspect that’s the average.
I’m doing 36, but I won’t be doing the ‘six listens to each’ test.
I decided the other day to catch up on the Richard Thompson albums I’ve missed, along with various side projects, session appearances etc. He even pops up on an Everything But the Girl album!
@Twang he also plays rare slide guitar on John Cale’s Momomma Scuba on the Fear album.
Ta Steve will investigate.
RT’s even on one of my tall chum’s albums, a favour after supporting RT on a UK tour.
If it’s who I think it is I saw him last year supporting Iain Matthews and Andy Roberts.
I have decided to document every album I listen to in full. Rather that just pop up a #nowplaying message on Mastodon, I’m keeping a list on my notes app. I’m wondering what my capacity is. 13 so far this year.
More Bach.
All Bach would indeed be a project. Over 1000 works in the BWV – 3 per day!
Yeah – and those 1,000 works are just Johann Sebastian Bach (JSB). If someone really wanted “more Bach”, they’d have to get stuck in to the work of the multitude of composers of the Bach dynasty.
The earliest was Johannes (aka “Johann”) Bach (1604–1673) – JSB’s great grandfather.
Then there’s also:
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788) – JSB’s fifth child
Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782) – JSB’s 11th son(!)
Johann Christoph Bach (1642–1703) – JSB’s great-uncle
Johann Michael Bach (1648–1694) – JSB’s first cousin once removed
… plus at least another 7 or 8 Bachs who also did the odd bit of composing.
For anyone interested in a few motets by members of the Bach family who WEREN’T JSB, I can recommend the excellent recording by the Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis “Bach Motetten”.
https://www.discogs.com/release/18647569-Johann-Bach-Johann-Christoph-Bach-Johann-Michael-Bach-Vox-Luminis-Lionel-Meunier-Bach-Motetten
*whispers* I sometimes think that I prefer CPE Bach to JS Bach.
Heavens to Murgatroyd!
Shhh! I’m trying to keep it quiet.
Presto Music have recordings in their catalogue by 15 different Bachs bearing the first name Johann alone, plus seven other Bachs from the same era.
Now that I have successfully (re) ripped my shelves to hard disk, effectively 2 years work, repeated, I will do the same for Mrs Path’s smaller collection. I now have a big enough capacity, 2TB, to handle this. Then I will tackle the boxes and boxes of barely heard CDRs, annotating and writing details appropriately, that wait patiently as something newer comes in or demands attention. All the while cherry picking 15 songs a week for my new radio show and reviewing new stuff. Work was easier than this.
My only plan is to start adding to the playlist I made for my 40th birthday, in good time before I turn 60 next summer… The playlist has my favourite tracks from every year I’ve been alive, up to 40, so another 20 years worth of good music to add to it.
The original plan for the playlist was one track per year…I quickly abandoned that stupid idea! I ended up having around five tracks per year, and that’s tough enough.
I might also revise the original tracks, there are some I’m not as in love with anymore that I can remove, or replace with something else.
Sounds like a “Painting The Forth Bridge” style project. Once you finally get to the end you’ll notice there are some earlier bits that are in need of re-doing.
Most of my projects end up like that, because I start simple and succinct but quickly escalate it to something so complicated that it takes me forever to finish (if I ever do…I have projects I’m in the middle of that I started many decades ago)!
Oh, and since we’re now doing reading and watching projects as well:
My reading project for the year is to read as many of my short story collections as possible.
I’ve been collecting books of short stories, both anthologies and original collections, since before I really enjoyed reading them, so despite now loving a short story, I’m still massively behind. This could be the year when I finally catch up, or at least reduces my unread pile of short stories.
And for films: I’m planning to watch the films of Swedish director Hasse Ekman in chronological order, both the ones I’ve seen before and the new to me. Well, not all of them, but the many I own – he was insanely prolific (if I included the films he only wrote as well, and films by others that he only acted in, I could go on for years), and worked in every genre.
I’ve bought several box sets, but unfortunately one of them got sold out before I had the opportunity to order it, so I’m missing a few important ones. Hopefully I can find them individually, from somewhere.
Some jazz folks for me. These are names I’ve only really ever heard of, or possibly seen listed as sidemen on other people’s albums, and it’s time to delve into a deep dive…
Sun Ra (not on many other people’s albums of course
Hampton Hawes
Horace Parlan
Archie Shepp
A Hampton Hawes album? Try “For Real” (1961). It’s a good ‘un. It’s got the great Scott LaFaro on it, too!
@duco01 Thank you will def listen
The All Night Session albums (Vols 1 to 3) with Jim Hall are indispensable in my opinion.
Just listening to Vol. 1 now.
Tasty!
For Horace Parlan, try “On The Spur Of The Moment” and “Speakin’ My Piece”, both albums featuring Stanley Turrentine on tenor sax and his brother Tommy on trumpet, plus George Tucker on bass and Al Harewood on drums.
@Mike_H Thanks for those, look forward to listening. Somehow I stumbled on an album called Goin’ Home by Horace and Archie Shepp – really beautiful duo readings of classic gospel tunes. That’s what’s prompted my further investigation of both musicians
@Mousey have you heard Charlie Haden and Hank Jones interpretation of gospel songs called Steal Away?
I love it.
Yes I love it too!
For me it’s Bowie. I haven’t listened to him for quite a while now and only really started listening properly after he died, but that was obsessively for a while. So much to discover! That also started my eldest’s fandom of him – she was 12/13 and just starting to explore the stuff that wasn’t on pop radio so it was the perfect age. She now knows him far better than I do.
We’ve been listening – in the few moments we’re both available – to him in chronological order. This is partly to help us decide which of his albums we should really own on vinyl – we’ve got a fair chunk, maybe 50% of them, but how on earth do we not have Low or Lodger? There also undoubtedly a few that aren’t worth the extra expense too which is a relief.
I fancy a 4th read of the entire Aubrey/Matrurin cycle*. Should take care of most of the fiction this year.
*Reverse Of The Medal wins by an extremely short head.
I am rationing these strictly at two a year as they are so brilliant, and am up to The Surgeon’s Mate. Looking forward to Blue at the Mizzen in 2033! I introduced a friend of mine to them and she wolfed the lot in a year.
Incredibly niche project:
As both my kids are aware I did history at Uni they are always keen to quiz me about historical episodes to elicit the stock joke answer ‘not my period’. So, when they ask about WW2’s origins the answers are pretty straightforward if lengthy – Versailles, Weimar, League of Nations, economic depression, rise of fascism, etc etc.
WW1 though – ‘well son, it’s complicated and nobody still can give you a definitive answer’. So is 2026 the year in which I read the two most acclaimed works for the general reader (which I am now) – Barbera Tuchman’s The Guns of August (broadly the ‘germanys fault’ view) and Christopher Clark’s the Sleepwalkers (nobody’s fault,) and attempt a synthesis if not an answer. Both clocking in at well over 600 pages. Maybe a summer holiday project!
Both great books. Be prepared to finish the pair with the sense that it’s even more complicated than first suspected!
@bingo-little
@moseleymoles
I work in a school. The curriculum requires us to teach 11 year olds about the reasons for WW1…
Good luck @freddy-steady – that truism about the first thing about A-level chemistry is that they tell you stuff you learnt at GCSE is 90% wrong. Then when you start university Chemistry…..
It’s true of history as well.
This is very true. I got Grade B at O-level, so chose to do A-level. Hearing the news on day one, I had a sinking feeling, and struggled for two years to get an ‘E’ at A-level.
It was just about enough to get me into university, but I’ve never really recovered.
🤯
Good luck with that, Freddy!
Ah, cheers guys. Probably won’t get into it till just before SATS by which time they’ll be fried and frazzled and won’t be bothered about the Rhineland at all.
Blimey, Moles, that’s a lot of symphonies! I haven’t any such listening projects in mind, but do like to take deep dives into specific composers particularly into their chamber music which I often know less well than their symphonic works. Brahms is a big one for me at the moment. Shostakovich’s and Beethoven’s quartets are perhaps the greatest ever cycles of string quartets and I really want to go back into both of them.
And I’m defintively due to take another of my occasional chronological trips through Bob Dylans’s entire released output. I don’t think there is a body of work in popular music to match it, and I always discover new things however well I think I know it.
I’m currently giving a rather haphazard listen to all the classic-era Blue Note jazz albums, from 1955 when they started releasing 12″ albums to roughly 1968. While also keeping an ear open for more current releases from anywhere and everywhere.
Should I finish that project and still want more, I may start on the Prestige and CTI catalogues.
Big project, from the wikipedia page around 400 albums. Tempting though.
Its very interesting reading about the listening projects. That said, I find myself heading in what seems to be a very different direction. I very rarely listen to recorded music anymore., aside from a few times week when my wife has the radio on for an hour or two. Virtually all my listening nowadays is at live performances, both amateur and professional. I guess that is pretty much how it was for most people historically.
One more to add: the ongoing wonder of A History of Rock Music and its essential accompanying complete playlist of (almost) all tracks mentioned in Andrew Hickey,s series. The pod itself I am up to ep.60 ish as they are reserved for long car journeys as being the ultimate mile-melter.
This year I’m going to listen to Animals by Pink Floyd
ONLY Animals by Pink Floyd? Huzzah!
@fitterstoke
I have been advised by Ian McNabb and his online mates to give it a go . I believe it’s a bit bleak. I gave it a quick go and I couldn’t identify any tunes. Is this about right?
@Freddy-Steady
I wouldn’t go as far as saying that there are no tunes – but, yes: it’s rather a bleak album. Rhythmic and aggressive rather than soaring and tuneful – and Uncle Rog at his most nihilistic. However, the effect is cumulative: worth listening all the way through; and more than once. Dogs has some tuneful bits…
(I sound like I’m damning with faint praise – but it’s actually my favourite “later” PF album, my all-time favourite period remaining pre-DSOTM)
Thank you @fitterstoke
I will give it a proper go, I promise
Try the remix. I can’t say I actively like any version of Animals but I think the remix is best FWIW.
Up to a point, Lord Copper – if you fundamentally don’t like it, I don’t think remixing it is going to help…
I’m going to be getting to grips with The Koln Concert by Keith Jarrett. Also the books of Emily St. John Mandel, having got into Station Eleven.
I might play a single at some point.
I’ve a huge backlog of post-1950 ‘classical’ things to go through. Composers include John Cage (three albums of double piano works), Terry Riley, Julius Eastman, John Adams, György Ligeti (two boxed sets), Grażyna Bacewicz, Pierre Boulez (a box of his complete works), Iannis Xenakis, Morton Feldman, Milton Babbit and Toru Takemitsu.
Plus there’s a great heap of modern jazz to work through too.
Due to an enormous database mangling project at work, I’m listening to all episodes of Charity Shop Classics in order. I started at show #1 last summer and I’ve just clocked up show #100.
I have 425 to go (with another added every Sunday, which makes ever catching up even harder).