Pianist Alfred Brendel died on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. He was 94 years old.

As a tribute, I present Beethoven’s Fantasy for piano, vocal soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra, Op. 80, as performed by Alfred Brendel and the New York Philharmonic, conducted by the now disgraced James Levine.

The Fantasy is commonly called the Choral Fantasy. Beethoven composed the Choral Fantasy in 1808. Its premiere was on December 22, 1808 in Vienna. That concert also saw the premieres of his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto, and excerpts of the Mass in C major (busy, busy!).

Beethoven wanted a “brilliant finale” that would include all the participants in the program. The first part is an extended piano solo: then, the chorus and orchestra gradually join in, and the Choral Fantasy indeed ends with a brilliant finale.

The Choral Fantasy is viewed as a precursor to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: listen 🎶 and you’ll understand.

Sam Moore, who sang ‘Soul Man’ in Sam & Dave duo, dies at 89 because of surgery complications https://t.co/OjJ8q95A2q

— Cold Cream 'n' Roses (@ColdCreamnRose1) January 16, 2025

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion by Robert Gordon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After reading Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, I read Respect Yourself. It is a much better book than Dreams to Remember.

Stax was actually founded by a white brother and sister, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, who nonetheless had their pulse on African-American music. Respect Yourself covers the various artists associated with Stax, such as Booker T. and the MGs, Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla, Otis Redding, and Isaac Hayes. It traces the history of Stax and covers the bad deals that it had with larger corporations, which also sucked the vitality of Stax. Moreover, the story of Stax is told against the social and political backdrop of Memphis, including segregation, the garbage workers’ strike, and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

There is all sorts of fascinating trivia in Respect Yourself:

– Booker T. Jones was still in high school when he recorded Green Onions
– Otis Redding drove guitarist Johnny Jenkins from Georgia to record at Stax. He hung around all day and Stax agreed to let him audition. They were blown away.
– Atlantic Records shipped Sam and Dave off to Memphis to record. They were crestfallen, as they had thought they would be going to New York and the big time. Sam recalled that he cried when he met the songwriters David Porter and Isaac Hayes. Hayes had yet to go solo and develop his persona, but he was wearing garish clothing when he met Sam & Dave.
– The Lorraine Motel was a home away from away for Stax. The Lorraine Motel was, of course, where MLK Jr. was assassinated.

I have a Starbucks CD compilation of Stax music. One of the fascinating items is “What a Man,” by Linda Lyddell, a “blue-eyed soul” singer whose career ended early because of threats from the KKK for recording black music. Surely this is a story that could have been worked into Respect Yourself.

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