I'll bite

What with the beginning of classes, and my increased responsibilities on campus, I don't have loads of time for my 'blog. I hope that the mighty Interweb will forgive me. This quiz, from Soho the Dog, will undoubtedly give you a window into how my mind works. Or, at least, how I answer such questions.

1. What's the best quotation of a piece of music within another piece of music?

Gustav Mahler, in his 9th, quoting his Kindertotenlieder.

2. Name the best classical crossover album ever made.

Not my department, so I'll just say any of the Satie crossover discs.

3. Great piece with a terrible title.

Gustav Mahler: Rückert-Lieder.

4. If you had to choose: Benjamin Britten or Michael Tippett?

Britten, if only for War Requiem and Peter Grimes.

5. Who's your favorite spouse of a composer/performer? (Besides your own.)

Alma Mahler-Gropius-Werfel: she has a problem named after her, which is impressive, as she managed to mess around behind Mahler's back to the point that Sigmund Freud got a visit.

6. Terrible piece with a great title.

Shostakovich. Symphony no. 7 in C major, op. 60 "Leningrad."

7. What's the best use of a classical warhorse in a Hollywood movie?

The Andante con moto from Schubert's D. 929 piano trio in Barry Lyndon. Talk about music expressing quiet currents of fate, as opposed to blustery explosions of destiny.

8. Name the worst classical crossover album ever made.

Too many contenders to do something so small as to make a decision.

9. If you had to choose: Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye?

Marvin Gaye

10. Name a creative type in a non-musical medium who would have been a great composer.

Stanley Kubrick

EXTRA CREDIT:

For opera nerds: If you had to choose:
a) Lawrence Tibbett or Robert Merrill?

Robert Merrill

b) Amelita Galli-Curci or Lily Pons?

No preference.

For early-music nerds: Name a completely and hopelessly historically uninformed recording that you nevertheless love.

Otto Klemperer's massive and granitic (in the best sense) Matthäus-Passion. In fact, I tend to look at "Was mein Gott will, das g'scheh allzeit" from that recording as one proof that what you make up for in "authenticity" you lose in feeling.