Mitsuko Uchida in recital: Beethoven Sonatas Nos. 30, 31, 32 February 26, 2023

I am hardly an expert on classical music, but I like it, and it challenges my musical acumen and tastes beyond my usual pop, rock and jazz interests. My wife and I subscribed to Cleveland Orchestra performances for some 10-12 years, seeing between four and six concerts per year, although we stopped attending regularly a few years ago. 

During the time we went frequently, we became enamored with Misuko Uchida, who performed and conducted from the piano a series of Mozart Piano Concertos. Twice. The second time around they were recorded live for release on Decca CD. I discussed one of those performances previously.

Yesterday we saw Ms. Uchida perform Beethoven's last three piano sonatas in solo recital at the orchestra's home in Severance Hall, a beautiful place worth seeing even without music. Beethoven has a heavier hand than Mozart certainly, and these late period pieces are challenging both technically for the artist and for the listener. Strong, powerful music, expressive and emotive. Mitsuko Uchida thrilled us.

While Sonatas 30 and 31 challenge and expand the form, 32 is a very real derivation. Parts of the structure had a jazz-like quality, and it almost felt at times like Ms. Uchida was playing one of Kieth Jarrett's solo improvisations. Someone with more understanding of classical music forms could explain it better. It was a little strange to these ears, but in a good way. I guess I liked the first two sonatas more, but the entire evening was riveting.

Johnny Rivers Anthology 1964-1977 1991

While I'm here in the sixties, why not take a look at another classic sixties artist. Johnny Rivers had a bunch of big hits: seven in the top ten in the sixties and another two in the seventies, and many others that rode a somewhat higher chart position. Like many artists that didn't write most of their own material (although he did write his biggest #1 hit, Poor Side Of Town), Rivers was seen as a lesser artist by the late sixties/seventies hippie set. But the guy had a great, slightly nasal voice, and with producer Lou Adler, could find great songs to cover. He was a sharp rhythm guitarist that played some fine lead riffs when necessary (Secret Agent Man comes to mind), and he produced no less than 30 original studio and live LPs.

His sixties and early seventies records featured the cream of the crop of LA studio giants Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn, and Marty Paitch, with Adler producing, and his records were well received critically even if they didn't always sell that well. He continued to record occasionally in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, and he never stopped playing live until 2021 when the covid threat finally got him off the road. 

The hits were great. Poor Side Of Town started a string of ballads featuring covers of Motown classics The Tracks Of My Tears and Baby I Need You're Lovin'. Before those he mostly rocked out in his Louisiana rockabilly style with Memphis, Mountain Of Love, Seventh Son, and Secret Agent Man. In the seventies he broke the top ten with Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu and his last big hit, the 1977 mellow styling of Swayin' to the Music (Slow Dancin'). This two-CD anthology that Rhino produced in 1991 probably has a few more songs than you need, as it is filled out with album tracks and non-hit singles, but it holds up really well, and it seems like every single CD or LP best-of leaves off something really great. Some of those singles that didn't make the top ten are as good as the ones that did.

I was surprised when I read that he continued to perform live until fairly recently. There's some hot recent performances on YouTube.

The Best of The Box Tops... Soul Deep 1996

The Box Tops were the band that got Alex Chilton started in a pop career that had surprising longevity through his work as a solo artist and the band Big Star. The band released four LPs from 1967-1969, all produced by songwriter-producer Dan Penn or Chips Moman, both regulars at Moman's American Sound Studios, which produced many hits for pop, country and soul groups in the sixties, and where Moman produced Elvis Presley's From Elvis In Memphis, arguably Presley's best record.

Of course the hits The Letter (#1) and Cry Like A Baby (#2) are here, but their other charting songs as well as the album tracks included here make this more than you'd probably expect from a sixties pop group with two hits. She Shot a Hole in My Soul is a stone classic, as is I Met Her In Church. Neon Rainbow, a pop gem, and Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March are both fun. They do a solid cover of I Shall Be Released (!), and there are a few early Chilton writing efforts that are good. And then there's Soul Deep, which got to #13 on the charts and deserved better.

While mostly a footnote these days, The Box Tops were a fine vehicle for Chilton's strong singing, and this compilation is a good way to appreciate their best work.