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The Classical Music Recommendation Thread


Muad'Dib

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Einaudi is more of a pop musician than a "classical composer".

 

I have little patience for most of his stuff, but occasionally he makes some nice ear candy:

 

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Yeah, and a lot of tracks that aren't very interesting.

 

16 hours ago, KK said:

Einaudi is more of a pop musician than a "classical composer".

 

I have little patience for most of his stuff, but occasionally he makes some nice ear candy:

 

 

That sounds very much like a Pärt rip-off.

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Oh definitely! But it's fun.

 

It's like most modern pop. Nothing's original. At best, you get some pretty ear candy, at worst, meandering sentimental bullshit. Depends on your tolerance for this kind of stuff.

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Einaudi is from Turin. When we went there for a choir trip several years ago, the whole city was plastered with Einaudi banners advertising some upcoming anniversary or something.

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Not sure.  Himself maybe?

 

I like this short work for Bassoon and Piano he did last year.  I'm getting some Williams vibes in parts. 

Just 17 or 18 years old apparently.  I shall watch him with interest.

 

 

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Wonderful classic PBS program for Copland's 80th birthday (1980).  This was right near the end for Aaron as a public figure.  He'd already been off the guest conductor circuit for a couple of years and even at this point was sometimes not lucid enough to conduct or appear in public.  Dementia is so tragic.

 

 

 

Here's a funny-sad story about Copland in the 80s from the composer David Conte:

Quote

A both humorous and sad example of how Copland dealt with his memory loss occurred when I accompanied him to conduct Appalachian Spring for a benefit for the Martha Graham Dance Company at the New York State Theatre in July of 1982. I was assigned to escort Copland into the theater and sit with him for the first half of the program and at the intermission to take him backstage to conduct his work for the second half of the program. We arrived at the theater and settled into our seats. Copland opened the program and said in a perfectly straight-forward tone of voice: “I wonder who’s conducting my piece this evening.” I turned to him, startled, and said: “Aaron, you are.”

 

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As a tribute to the late Danish composer, Ib Norholm who died yesterday, I give you his first symphony which reminds me of Williams and Copeland Americana in some places with a dash of Sibelius.  A lyrical and vigorous work well worth hearing.  He went on to compose 13 symphonies, Concertos for violin and cello, operas, and much else.  His early music was tonal but later he explored possibilities of serialism and graphic scores inspired by Boulez, Stockhausen, and others.  Later he returned to tonality. 

 

 

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If you're at all curious about Latin American classical composers, I highly recommend this 1991 piece by the Peruvian composer Celso Garrido-Lecca, Duo Concertante.

 

It's a duo for classical guitar and charango, an indigenous stringed instrument of Peru.

 

 

His guitar concerto is also excellent.

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4 minutes ago, Loert said:

...not enough woodwind runs...

 

True, the orchestration is not precisely his style, but there's something about the rhythm of that opening top-line melody that sounds so Williamsy to me.

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33 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

Dude you've really caught on the Piston train.

 

He's my self-assigned homework for this Summer!  Reading books by and about him, and becoming more than passingly familiar with at least one of his works every week.

 

As my musical idol, at this point I'm probably as familiar with Copland's entire oeuvre as it's possible for a person without real music education to be.  He's still the central pillar of my music listening these days, but I'm trying to be more than just a dabbler in the rest of the 1920s-60s American music canon.  Piston, Schuman, Barber, Harris, Sessions, Bernstein, Thomson, Antheil, Persichetti, Dello Joio, Hanson, Rorem, Carter, et al.  And I'm throwing in some notable Euro expats with strong ties to America whose styles fit my taste to varying degrees (like Stravinsky, Hindemith, Schoenberg, and Martinu).

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19 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

@Disco Stu I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts on Leonard Bernstein as a composer.  I have my thoughts but I won't share them this moment. 

 

I'm admittedly not overly familiar with his "pure" concert works.  So my assumption right now is that he's strongest in his "Heir to Gershwin" works for the theater (ballet, musical, opera).

 

For me his legacy right now as a composer rests on 4 theatrical masterworks:

 

On the Town

Wonderful Town

Candide

West Side Story

 

Wonderful Town is crazy underrated.  The Rattle/LSO recording released last year is essential listening for anyone who loves that jazzy musical comedy style.

 

 

All that said, I will become more familiar with his concert works in time.

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37:14 - 37:45 is one of those moments where music, performance and recording come together in perfect harmony. Simply miraculous!

Of course I post this here (and not in the Short Moments thread) because the whole album is wonderful. Hard to believe it was recorded almost 60 years ago...

16 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

All that said, I will become more familiar with his concert works in time.

 

This is quite entertaining:

 

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If Newman was less bored and challenged himself more again, maybe with concert music, I imagine it'd sound somewhat like this:

 

 

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Antique Violences: Trumpet Concerto by John Mackey

 

The recording of John Mackey's trumpet concerto finally released this month.  It's about 20 minutes long in 4 movements, performed by Christopher Martin (he of Lincoln/"being the most notable orchestral trumpeter in America today" fame) and the Dallas Winds.  It has a pretty cool approach for a trumpet concerto, exploring 4 different styles of playing in semi-historical contexts.  It's all very much in Mackey's usual musical language.

 

1st movement: militaristic trumpet

2nd movement: Baroque, reserved trumpet

3rd movement: Mournful, romantic, expressive trumpet

4th movement: Extroverted, humorous, jazzy trumpet

 

I certainly recommend the concerto, the album, and John Mackey in general.

 

 

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I'm on a Part binge.  Absolutely sublime.  Tabula Rasa is a musical composition written in 1977 by the Estonian composer, Arvo Part.  In two movements, "Ludus" and "Silentium", it is a chamber concerto for two solo violins, prepared piano (piano with metal objects in its strings) and strings. It's a heart achingly beautiful work full of pathos, fury, questioning, and ultimately silence.  

 

 

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I really enjoyed "Rapture", a new work from the young American composer, Patrick Harlin (b.1984) who I previously never heard of.  The music is energetic and reminds me of John Adams and Michael Daugherty in their sense of rhythmic variety, dramatic intensity, accessible lyricism, and vitality.  I definitely want to hear more from this young composer.

 

 

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Generally I'm not the most enthusiastic listener of lieder/art songs, but holy monkey Copland's setting of "The World Feels Dusty" kills me

 

 

Quote

The World feels Dusty
When We stop to Die
We want the Dew then
Honors taste dry

 

Flags vex a Dying face
But the least Fan
Stirred by a friend’s Hand
Cools like the Rain

 

Mine be the Ministry
When thy Thirst comes
Dews of Thyself to fetch
And Holy Balms

 

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I really enjoy this warm and contemplative symphony from Stephen Albert.  He died in a car accident in 1992 and this symphony was edited/completed for premiere by Sebastian Currier.

 

It's really nice, but there's a recurring theme in the first movement that reminds me so much of the Rodgers & Hart song "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewlidered" that it's a bit distracting.

 

 

 

The recording I bought is different from the one in the Youtube video.  It's by the LSO from last year (obviously I bought the album chiefly for the Piston).  Really excellent album with A+ performances.

 

71Qttbf%2BTdL._SY355_.jpg

 

 

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A child prodigy and famous piano performer, Ruth Gipps also wrote several orchestral works (four symphonies), all in the style of late british romantic, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arnold Bax, Elgar, Holst etc. Especially her number four is a striking one, full of robust and painterly moments.

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I just found out that Vivian Perlis died on July 4th at age 91.  She was an incredibly important musicologist at Yale.  Her Oral History of American Music is a career defining project.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/arts/music/vivian-perlis-dead.html

 

She was Aaron Copland's official biographer/historian and her two books/oral histories of Copland's work are basically the foundation of all scholarship on his music.

 

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Here's another great photo of her interviewing Copland and Leonard Bernstein:

 

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