Personal Playlists

The topic of personal playlists came up recently, so I started writing up some notes, and ended up with a long enough list in several parts, that I thought I'd collate + archive this for the next time anyone asks...

The truth is, the actual full list of individual stuff is long enough that the total runtime (of the abridged version I have on my phone for random shuffle playing overnight/other times) exceeds 24 hours...   (That version obvious excludes any of the full hour-long albums / soundtracks / and longer classic pieces though...) 

It's grown that long as I do actively hand-curate it, adding things to the list when I find stuff I like...

So, if you want the full list, here goes: 

Part 1 - All Time Favourite Music

If I had to name only a single song/piece that I got to listen to, it would be:

Borodin's Polovtsian Dances

HOWEVER, like with close runner up Bizet's Carmen Suites, I am *EXTREMELY* picky about which recording it is.

Criteria:
* It *cannot* start with the "On The Steppes" lead in. That stuff sucks / is useless filler. "Oboe-over-offbeat-pizz" opening or it doesn't happen.

* Half the recordings out there are too effing slow (especially in the opening section). Limp, lifeless, elephant dart stuff.

* Some of the recordings (notably the much vaunted Karajan ones IIRC) are TOO BLOODY FAST in the fast sections, such that the orchestra is veering out of control into a muddled mess

* I can't remember the exact one I currently like, though there are copies of a nice one from a Russian theatre where they have both singers + dancers with staging, which really helps add some extra context to it.

Why I like it:
IIRC, I've played this was 1-2 different orchestras. The 2nd time was the first with a "levelled" up one with a notable concertmaster at the time. In any case, along with Holst's "Mars", this is one of the most fun pieces to get to play as part of a large ensemble!

(On that note, those two are TBH one of the few things you can get me out of retirement to play... what you CANNOT convince me with however is Beethoven Pastorale/Egmont/???, or Mahler of any sort...)

Part 2 - Close Classical Favourites (For Listening, NOT for Playing)

Favourite Violin Concerto:

* Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto  - Favourite Recording: Sarah Chang's one with Sir Colin Davis.  (There are a few other ones that I now rate too, but that one is still the best)

Close Favourites:

* Bruch Violin Concerto  -  (I can "mostly" play all of this, except for the final movement)

* Wieniawski 2 

* Khachaturian 

* Korngold 

 

Love/Hate (Violin Concertos): 

* Mendelssohn -  Depends on the day and/or the snippet... 

* Sibelius - Yes the melodies are memorable and soaring, but on the other hand, the emotional torture present in those themes (and the inevitable internal twisting you go through if you had to play it) make me not like it that much

 

(*)  You will also notice that the top two here in the love/hate category have this partial 1-2 bar fade-in where the violin entry is kinda subdued in a way...   

 

Outright Dislike (Violin Concertos): 

* The opening movement of the Beethoven as a whole is similar in my books - i.e. to me, I always think of it as exposed scales + arpeggios ("exposed in that you have to absolutely nail the purity", not necessary in terms of the soloist having any cut-through in the arrangement + overall staging of that movement, where they effectively only accompany the melodies in the orchestra)... So yeah, so that's kinda what I don't like in Violin Concertos.  

* Brahms - What a mess!  Horrid melody, etc.  Yuck!

* Most "modern" / "post-modern" violin concertos - Err... yuck! 

 

Favourite Symphony:

* Shostakovich 11  ("The Year 1905") - I love how he so brutally captures the cinematic atmosphere in sound in this one. 

 

Favourite Classical Composers (In Order):

* Tchaikovsky

* Ravel

* Khachaturian 

* Bizet  

* Stravinsky

* Borodin

* Respighi

* Beethoven > Mozart

* Vivaldi 

 

Least Favourite Classical Composers:

* Bach 

* Mahler 

 

Part 3 - Soundtracks For a More Common "Long Listen While Working / Relaxing"

The following soundtrack albums are on that list...

Top of that list:
* Finding Nemo

Close seconds:
* Thomas Newman: Shawshank / Joe Black / Lemony Snicket / + a bunch of other specific tracks

* John Williams - Memoirs of Geisha. (Then of course a bunch tracks from the classics)

* John Powell - How to Train Your Dragon - The trilogy

* Hans Zimmer- "The Holiday"

* BBC Blue Plant II

* "Dave"

* Rahman - "100 Foot Journey" 

 

Part 4 - Musicals

Closely linked to soundtrack albums are all the musical related ones - Things in particular that occupy top billing there (from capturing my attention, becoming earworms, and being on repeat a LOT while working on stuff):

* Disney Renaissance stuff - I won't list them all...

* Prince of Egypt

* Enchanted

* Into the Woods

* Moana

* Waitress

* Avenue Q    (NOTE:  This one is NOT on standard rotation for obvious reasons, but yeah, it is on the list) 

* Red Book (Korean)

* And two random Korean musical ones, in the following order:

    1) "Angels in the Tress"  (from "The Man Who Laughs")

    2) "That's All I Am"  (from "Bungee Jumping")

* Maybe Happy Ending 

* Pitch Perfect 

 

Part 5 - KPop

Solo Artists / Groups: 

* IU
    * First one that really became an earworm was "You & I", though actually, I like "Windflower" and "Dear Name" the most

* Song Ha Yea

* Lee Sun Hee

* AKMU

* Stella Jang

Then of course, there are all the ones from various Kdrama soundtracks, in particular:
 * Crash Landing on You 
 * Moon Embracing the Sun
 * Startup
 * Her Private Life
 * My Only One

Soundtrack related ones from the following artists too often make the list:
 * LYn
 * Kim Sejong
 * Sondia

Part 6 - Songs

Finally, things more commonly classified as "pop songs"

In general, most things from the following artists (with a few exceptions for a few tracks I don't like):
* Celine Dion - But in particular, "It's All Coming Back to Me Now"
  (Which is perhaps the song I most associate with my recently departed car, as I loved + most remember hearing that come up on the radio when - A) Passing by the power-plant on Greers Rd with all the powerlines, then B) Riding front-seat for the first time on Hamilton Ave)

* Mindy Gledhill - In particular, I have found "Anchor" to be most effective for calming down after some really stressful / disturbing times

(Equally effective at those times is Haiku from Finding Nemo)

* ABBA + Bee Gees

* Fleetwood Mac - The band whose name I never knew until a few years ago, but whose songs were instantly recognisable as the "just normal good music" that I was used to from the radio

* Taylor Swift - Yes Taylor... Though I don't really like her pandemic era albums, Reputation, or any of the increasingly-frequent potty mouthed ones...  

 

And a few other notable things:
* Whitney Houston - "Greatest Love of All"
(As I've mentioned before on here IIRC, I had this on repeat in my head one morning before what was set to be a particularly bruising meeting with my thesis advisor - "I believe the children are our future. Teach them well, and let them lead the way....")

* Pōkarekare Ana - Yep, had that on head-DJ repeat all afternoon one grey rainy afternoon a few weeks into living in Europe feeling rather homesick

* Somewhere Out There  - Linda Ronstadt version, not the shrill mouse version

* Roger Whittaker - "Good Morning Starshine"   -  As mentioned before here, I once planned out an entire opening montage for an animated film featuring hedgehogs that would play out over this song...

* Two similar types of songs that were quite popular on the radio around a similar time that I quite like (and were near the top of my list when I started curating my playlist):

   * Bob Carlisle - Butterfly Kisses

   * Martina MacBride -  In My Daughter's Eyes

Part 7 - CantoPop

There is a long list here, but my personal favourites are:

* Theme Song from "My Date with a Vampire 2" 

* Theme Song from "Speech of Silence" - "Intuition" by Joyce Cheng  

* Vincy  - "騎膊馬"

* Eason Chan's Theme Song from the original "Triumph in the Skies" 

* Joey Yung's Theme songs for "On Call 36" (1st and 2nd series)

* Hubert Wu - 一生一心－胡鴻鈞

* Hubert Wu - 明白了－胡鴻鈞