What is the last piece of classical music you listened to?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

21 minutes ago, Loert said:

 

That's a bit like saying "I would enjoy flying more if airplanes didn't have wings".

On a more serious note, sometimes the vibrato can get annoying...Older recordings don't suffer from this problem so much I've found. It also helps a lot if you understand what they are singing!

 

Yeah, often I'm much more liable to enjoy an opera by, say, Britten or Adams because I can also engage with the libretto and not just the music.  When I have enjoyed a non-English opera in the past it's usually a light or comic opera like Abduction from the Seraglio or Die Fledermaus, where it can get by just by being bouncy and entertaining.  No matter the language they're almost always too long though!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

A new album of Gabriel Prokofiev music is released today

 

cc @KK who I remember expressed interest in him

 

 

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

Not sure if I've ever heard Bach played with this much romance. (It's on piano)

Man, the harmonies are amazing here.

[KK 3,307]

On 9/27/2019 at 9:48 AM, Disco Stu said:

A new album of Gabriel Prokofiev music is released today

 

cc @KK who I remember expressed interest in him

 

 

 

 

Cheers Stu! Excited to dig into this

 

On 9/27/2019 at 1:18 PM, SteveMc said:

Not sure if I've ever heard Bach played with this much romance. (It's on piano)

Man, the harmonies are amazing here.

 

Olafsson is great. His delicate, minimalist touch shines in a lot of the Baroque stuff.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

RIP Giya Kancheli

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

Transcendent.

 

 

[Loert 2,510]

Gives me chills every time:

 

 

[Score 770]

6 minutes ago, Loert said:

Gives me chills every time:

 

 

 

One of the best pieces ever written for an opera! It's a beautiful performance, although I prefer a slightly faster tempo for the first part.  

[Fabulin 3,510]

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[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

Perhaps the remainder is not that great.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Just went on a walk and listened to Williams' Horn Concerto.  It was really the perfect music for the Fall weather.  Transporting!

 

 

[Jay 37,287]

You were able to go for a walk today?  It's been raining all day here.  I should have planted grass seed this weekend!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

3 minutes ago, Jay said:

You were able to go for a walk today?  It's been raining all day here.  I should have planted grass seed this weekend!

 

We're in the middle of a pretty terrible drought.  No significant rain where I live in 3 months.

[Jay 37,287]

3 months?  Holy cripes!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

The southeast isn't doing so great!

 

[Ii2 210]

https://www.11alive.com/article/weather/extreme-drought-metro-atlanta/85-d56ec861-208c-4dab-a9a9-37dd2f228445

[Dixon Hill 4,233]

Last thing I listened to was a rough read through this morning of a large scale piece I'm working on for alto flute, harp, viola, and bass.  After listening to some students talk at length about their own very innovative works in progress I was feeling like quite a square to be doing something so academic by comparison.  Much to my surprise they found my music engaging and "trippy" so perhaps I've still got it.

 

 

[Loert 2,510]

 

[Romão 2,274]

This is just lovely:

 

 

[Fabulin 3,510]

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[Disco Stu 15,495]

The album of Caroline Shaw string quartet compositions, "Orange," that came out earlier this year, has really grown on me over the months (especially the piece Plan & Elevation)

 

Here's Marine Band chamber players performing the excellent Valencia, which was also featured on that album.

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

1 hour ago, Modest Expectations said:

Turandoooooot 

 

My favourite opera!

[Fabulin 3,510]

.

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

Plot is secondary, by a good margin.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

7 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Plot is secondary, by a good margin.

 

Strauss would have to say something about that (or did, in Capriccio).

 

Incidentally, my favourite opera is Ariadne of Naxos - both the music (by Strauss) and the libretto (by Hofmannsthal).

[publicist 4,643]

 

...utilizes the russian ballet from 'Red Sparrow'. Conventional, but very assured and rigorous.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Easy listening radio friendly arrangement of Bolero from 1930.  I find these kind of time capsules fascinating.

 

 

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Heard this on the radio evening last. Lovely piece that really struck a chord with me. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

Then you should check out his violin concerto!

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

https://www.gso.se/en/gsoplay/video/grieg-pianokonsert/

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

Mendelssohn knew how to do a melody right.

 

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I always have kind of a thing for piano transcriptions of orchestral pieces.  It really strips down the composition to only what is absolutely necessary.  It sometimes helps me better appreciate a piece when I go back to the orchestral recording.

 

Anyway, this one is Halloween appropriate thanks to the 1931 Dracula.  Just wait until I start gushing about Stewart Goodyear's awesome Nutcracker transcription come December.

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

A concert I attended yesterday.  The orchestra really played their hearts out, the finale of the Symphonic Dances was fiery!

 

The whole program was very enjoyable!

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

Interesting program. Which orchestra?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

https://www.richmondsymphony.com/

 

Their long-time music director has retired and each subscription concert this season is conducted by a different candidate for the position.  I thought the gentleman I saw, Roderick Cox, was very good.

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

It's not often you see a single baroque piece in a program of romantic and newer music. But two thumbs up for Charpentier!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

1 minute ago, Jurassic Shark said:

It's not often you see a single baroque piece in a program of romantic and newer music. But two thumbs up for Charpentier!

 

You're probably thinking of Marc-Antoine Charpentier.  Gustave is a late-romantic composer who seems to be remembered only for the 1900 opera Louise.

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

Ah, I only read the surname.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

 

Happy Halloween!

[Fabulin 3,510]

.

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I voted today and listened to Copland's "Canticle of Freedom."  Back on my bullshit 

 

Dating from the mid-1950s, it's a work for orchestra and choir and I think it's quite fascinating, especially in comparison to some of his more well-known "nationalistic" works like Lincoln Portrait.  For one, the text sung by the choir is not American, but a 14th century poem by John Barbour about the Scottish struggle for independence from England.  It's divided into a three section structure: a moderato orchestral prologue, a more intense middle section, and the finale for orchestra and chorus.

 

It strikes a less lofty, less optimistic tone than Lincoln Portrait.  It's more sort of earthy and defiant.  It's very much written by the Copland who had been through the Red Scare and testified before Joseph McCarthy.  I highly recommend listening to it because it's one of the last large-scale, nationally minded pieces that Copland wrote.

 

The text and audio is below:

Quote

Freedom is a noble thing!

Freedom makes man to have liking;

Freedom all solace to man gives,

He lives at ease that freely lives.

A noble heart may have no ease,

Nor aught beside that may him please

If Freedom fail

For free liking is yearned for over all other thing,

Nor he that aye have lived free

May know well the misery,

The anger, and the wretched doom

That is coupled to foul thralldom;

But if he have essayed it

Then throughout all he should it wit

And should think freedom more to prize

Than all the gold in world that is.

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Lukas Foss' cantata The Prairie, text by Carl Sandburg.  Performed by The Gregg Smith Singers with the Brooklyn Philharmonia, conducted by Foss.

 

This is a masterpiece.

 

 

I'm especially in love with the "In the Dark of a Thousand Years" section.

 

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I went on an early morning walk, listening to Rachmaninov's first Piano Concerto (the Cleveland/Ashkenazy recording from the 90s).  The slow movement is a wonder, both incredibly sensuous and melancholy at the same time, which makes sense being written by a teenager.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Attended a Hamilton Philharmonic concert last night at Hamilton Place. The guest musicians for the night were the fairly famous Canadian Brass Quintet. It was an eclectic and assorted program, so there were no real headlining pieces. I heard Summon the Heroes live for the first time though!

 

What was the real interesting takeaway for me was the Canadian premiere of a piece called New York Cityscapes by a composer named Jeff Tyzik. I'm not sure if anyone has heard it, but it's pretty darn cool, especially when heard live. So many unique sounds and styles. Highly recommend it for days when you're subject to the boring soundscape of daily life and could use something fresh for your sound palette. Shades of Bernstein, Mancini and what not. 

 

 

This is the first of five movements, but there's a lot of variation hereafter. I'll just page @Disco Stu and @Nick Parker, because I thought of you guys first when I heard it. 

 

[karelm 2,903]

On 11/3/2019 at 4:44 AM, Modest Expectations said:

This is the jam. Woodwinds in particular.

Oh, previous post is also Saint-Saens? Hmm... maybe it's time to honour him with learning a shortcut for a dotted e.

Edit: Alt+0235

Super fun one to perform too!  Here I was playing it with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and was maybe one foot away from the bass drum during it's ending thwacks.  Quite jarring to have that concussive force rattle your body up close like that!  I'm the loud rising/falling bass trombone part really coming through at the end.  Unfortunately, the bass drum wasn't picked up by my phone.  Frequencies were too low for a phone's mic I guess.

 

[Fabulin 3,510]

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[karelm 2,903]

2 hours ago, Modest Expectations said:

Well played!  

Thanks.  I learned alot about acoustics from hearing how it sounded from the room.  For example, in loud passages like this, you don't really hear much beyond the immediate rows next to you.  I would virtually hear none of the strings if brass is at triple forte and above and percussion smacking next to you.  So you have little idea how it actually sounds, how loud you are compared to everyone else, etc.  Brass instruments have a bore which is like an internal nozzle for jet fuel (you're air stream) and the wider the bore, the wider/more diffuse the tone.  The narrower the bore, the more focused and penetrating the tone is.  I was playing very loud and thought I couldn't be heard because I could barely hear myself because I'm behind the instrument rather than in front of it.  So I would sort of overplay.  Then I hear in the room, damn the sound travels and is very penetrating.  Luckily, the conductor doesn't mind low brass and its idiomatic to exciting theatrical music such as this.  I could have played this passage with much less effort and achieved a similar result.  Also interesting, the timpani right behind me is dragging.  It is VERY VERY difficult to play when someone loud right in your ear is playing the wrong tempo.  You can't hear the rest of the orchestra and can barely see the tiny conductor from so far back but ultimately that is all you have to go on is that timpani is off so ignore him and focus on the sight of the conductor and hope it's correct though the guy playing in you ear is late.  In looking back at the video, I can see his colleague (the very fine musician, James Wyman) is signalling to him "faster, faster...don't drag" non verbally. Haha.

[Fabulin 3,510]

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[Loert 2,510]

 

A real gem.