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   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Feb-2025 13:37:44 JST Paul Cantrell

   In an effort to bring something good to the world and keep myself on my feet, I’ve been working hard to revamp the music section of my personal web site — some parts of which actually •predated the widespread availability of CSS•, if you can believe it.

   One part of that has been giving a proper presentation to some recordings by my piano teacher I first put online as a favor to him ~20 years ago. Like this one:

   https://innig.net/music/albums/betts-innervoice/

   (Please let me know if you encounter any issues with compatibility or accessibility!)

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Feb-2025 13:46:07 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Don was a remarkable musician, with a remarkable life story. Among other things, he escaped infantry duty in the Korean War by illegally sneaking off-base to get a spot touring Japan with a military band, playing Rhapsody in Blue and the Emperor Concerto over and over. He did the classical numbers, and there was another pianist who did the jazz numbers. “His name was Bill Evans,” said Don, and then with no trace of irony, “Have you heard of him? I guess he got pretty famous.”

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Feb-2025 13:50:04 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Don was a student of Hedwig Rosenthal, student and wife of Moriz Rosenthal, who was a student of Liszt. He was thus a connection to a now-nearly-lost pre-recording 19th-century musical tradition.

     You can hear that tradition in the ferocious youthful technique in the Mephisto Waltz here, but even more in the exquisitely played Chopin Ballade:

     https://innig.net/music/albums/betts-dimensions/

     And that recording of the Beethoven 111, particularly the second movement? Unreal. It has the cosmos in it. Nobody plays that way anymore.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Feb-2025 13:53:26 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     His own compositions on those pages are both 19th-century romanticism and 20th-century expressionism. The raw, dissonant anguish of Soundings XI on that first album above is one for our present moment.

     But if you want to go to bed with something healing, listen to the nocturnes on this album, the last of his I shared on my site:

     https://innig.net/music/albums/betts-chopin/

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Feb-2025 13:58:35 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     We lost Don to Covid in 2021, at the age of 92. He was one tough nut: made it through heart surgery and multiple cancers, including a sarcoma the size of a volleyball. Beat it all. And he beat Covid, too, but after recovering, he had nothing left and just…faded.

     I miss him.

     I always felt bad about the increasingly outdated and shoddy presentation of his recordings on my site. It feels really good getting them all spruced up, hopefully with the treatment they deserve. Paint is still wet on the new site. Let me know how it works for you.

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     Advanced Persistent Teapot (http_error_418@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Feb-2025 17:44:54 JST Advanced Persistent Teapot

     in reply to

     @inthehands that really made my morning. Thank you.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 07-Feb-2025 10:28:40 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • janggolan

     @janggolan
     If you checked any of it out, thank ••you••!

   • Embed this notice
     janggolan (janggolan@mastodon.cloud)'s status on Friday, 07-Feb-2025 10:28:41 JST janggolan

     in reply to

     @inthehands thank you!