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The Classical Music Recommendation Thread


Muad'Dib

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Can't find the third movement on youtube (pity, because it's a fantastic climax), but it makes me wish John Adams would try his hand at film scoring one day.

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All three are on there!

Delicious music.

Adams actually has tried his hand at film scoring, and described the process as very difficult for him. I didn't get the impression that he felt he was cut out for it, or that he would ever try again.

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Ahh, those videos can't be found in Canada it seems!

But yes the whole piece is wonderful stuff.

Adams actually has tried his hand at film scoring, and described the process as very difficult for him. I didn't get the impression that he felt he was cut out for it, or that he would ever try again.

Interesting. I suspected as much. What did he score?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwAsRnUT_5c

He describes it as "a score of stunning mediocrity." He was in the midst of a bit of a creative slump. And he also wasn't happy with the recording process. As you can hear, there's nothing stunningly mediocre about it - it's typical 80s Adams and I really enjoy it. But I suspect the whole experience soured him to the idea of trying again.

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Having fun listening to this grand Aaron Copland Piece (and Copland does the narration):

PM me if you wish to read the full score for Lincoln Portrait.

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Anyone ever read Hindemith's writings on his methods? I suspect we have similar approaches based on his general sound, as I explore more of his work.

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Last night, I attended the premiere of the restaging of Apocalypsis, a massive production based on the 2 hour oratorio composed by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. Schafer is considered to be one of Canada's leading exponents on graphic notation and experimental/avant-garde material. While it had its flaws and its excess, it was quite the spectacle, with about a thousand performers (both musicians and dancers) involved. I believe there were 12 choirs, many orchestral ensembles and a throat singer! The final product was not unlike Tavener's own Fall and Resurrection. While the work meanders a bit at times, it was both visually and musically quite something.

I can only find the second more "ethereal" half on youtube. You can hear the more nightmare-ish bits in the rehearsal footage.

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Time for some Russian fun with a cello and pitched percussion!

Does anybody know who the artist is whose work accompanies the video?

 

Last night, I attended the premiere of the restaging of Apocalypsis, a massive production based on the 2 hour oratorio composed by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. Schafer is considered to be one of Canada's leading exponents on graphic notation and experimental/avant-garde material. While it had its flaws and its excess, it was quite the spectacle, with about a thousand performers (both musicians and dancers) involved. I believe there were 12 choirs, many orchestral ensembles and a throat singer! The final product was not unlike Tavener's own Fall and Resurrection. While the work meanders more than I'd prefer, it was both visually and musically quite something.

 

I can only find the second more "ethereal" half on youtube. You can hear the more nightmare-ish bits in the rehearsal footage.

 

That is some crazy stuff right there!  Do you know if there's ever been a recording released?  I looked up the piece and found out CBC was streaming today's performance all too late (hopefully somebody ripped the stream).  That score looks wild though - I'd love to see somebody release a study score.

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Cool video I just came across.

Interesting comments from him about how he orchestrates. I always love to hear other people talk about music in non-musucal or abstract ways that line up with the way my own brain works.

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I figured it'd be right up your alley Grey! ;) Wish you were there to see/hear it live. Quite surreal.

That is some crazy stuff right there! Do you know if there's ever been a recording released? I looked up the piece and found out CBC was streaming today's performance all too late (hopefully somebody ripped the stream). That score looks wild though - I'd love to see somebody release a study score.

You can borrow the score from the first half I believe: https://www.musiccentre.ca/node/8827

I'll try and see if I can get my hands on it. One of my friends was also a trombone player in brass section for the performance, so I'll see if I can get anymore info.

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Good call on the Scriabin, Grey. Was just listening to his "Le Poème de l'extase" (The Poem of Ecstasy) the other day. Love that work and most, if not all, of his symphonies. I have to revisit them.

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Bruckner scherzos tend to be overly repetitive, even when compared to the rest of Bruckner in general.

Regardless, the one from his 9th is wonderful, energetic and powerful. I also really like the one from his 6th.

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The discovery of the Gershwin Fantasy album recorded with Joshua Bell, gave me the interrest to discover more about this (not so) young violonist.

 

Maybe three good ones to start with, at least three of my crunches!

 

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Bell is maybe not an evident choice for Bach, his style is more romantical... but it's respectfull and very well played (hey he plays with the ASMF!). Maybe a good starting point to discover Bach too, if your not familiar nor a fan of more rigorous Baroque interpretations.
 

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To continue on the Joshua Bell recommandation, this score is a must have too:

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In another subject, after watching the great "A John Williams Celebration" BD, I was impressed and I must say seduced, by the style and energy of Gustavo Dudamel.

Anyone can recommend some of his works?

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In another subject, after watching the great "A John Williams Celebration" BD, I was impressed and I must say seduced, by the style and energy of Gustavo Dudamel.

Anyone can recommend some of his works?

I made some research and decided to start with these two:

Beethoven: Symphonies No 5 & 7 / Gustavo Dudamel

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Tchaikovsky And Shakespeare / Dudamel, Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra

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These two appeals to me too:

Mahler: Symphony No 9 / Dudamel, Los Angeles

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Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra / Dudamel, Berlin PO

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The last movement is astonishing. Pandiatonic Bach.

Any other Harrison fans? I conducted his piano concerto (the slow movement of which is right in the Williams ballpark) years ago but am only now starting to really dig into his work. It seems quite singular and horribly neglected among the usual American repertoire.

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Extraordinary piece, made even more moving after reading the composer's notes on it.

It is an extraordinary fact that in the centuries before the Reformation the number of known executions for witchcraft in Scotland was in single figures; but in the years between 1560 and 1707 as many as 4,500 Scots perished because their contemporaries thought they were witches. The persecution of witches was a phenomenon known to Catholic and Protestant Europe at this time but the Reformation in Scotland gave an impetus to the attack on ‘witches’ which became a popular and powerful crusade. Medieval notions of good and evil spirits had been repressed by the Reformers – to seek the intercession of saints was no longer a virtue but a superstition, to leave out milk for the fairies or to give oatmeal to a witch was seen as a Satanic act. And so Scotland’s experiences with witch-hunting can be seen as defensive responses to the fear of alien traditions and cultures, and to the more basic fear of those who were different from the majority.

Many of the victims were women whose sex alone seems to have been the inspiration for their persecutors’ zeal. Mass hysteria surrounded the suspicion of theses women from whom confessions were extorted through torture of the severest kind. In 1662 Isobel Gowdie from Nairn confessed to having been baptised by the devil and joining a coven of 13 who met at night; she had journeyed to the centre of the earth to feast with the King and Queen of the fairies; she could fly, or become a hare, a cat or a crow; she used waxen images and bags of boiled toads to cause inflictions; she had killed a ploughman with elf-arrows the devil gave her; sometimes the devil beat her and raped her: "he would be beating us all up and down with cords and other sharp scourges like naked ghaists"; he was a stag of a bull, or "a very mickle, black rough man". She was subsequently strangled at the stake and burned in pitch amid scenes of hysterical fright and sadism.

Initially I was drawn by the dramatic and programmatic potential of this insane and terrible story but the work soon developed a far more emotional core as I attempted to draw together various strands in a single, complicated act of contrition. On behalf of the Scottish people the work craves absolution and offers Isobel Gowdie the mercy and humanity that was denied her in the last days of her life. To do this I Have tried to capture the soul of Scotland in music and outer sections contain a multitude of chants, songs and litanies (real and imagined) coming together in a reflective outpouring – a prayer for the murdered woman.

This work is the Requiem that Isobel Gowdie never had.

James MacMillan

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I regard Bruckner as the origin of Glass style minimalism.

Which of his symphonies would you recommend for exploration by someone who often has trouble getting into the mammoth, hyper-expressive music of that era, then?

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I regard Bruckner as the origin of Glass style minimalism.

Which of his symphonies would you recommend for exploration by someone who often has trouble getting into the mammoth, hyper-expressive music of that era, then?

The most popular ones I guess: #4 and #7.

Much of the opening movement of the fourth is based on a simple motif (played by horn right at the start over a string tremolo) that's mirrored and stacked in counterpoint throughout. It also has the best coda ever written (quoted by Horner in Enemy at the Gates and The Perfect Storm, by the way).

No. 7 is all about the adagio, which has a length mammoth buildup and climax based on slow arpeggios.

With Bruckner, choosing the right performance is critical. There are horrible mutilations of his symphonies out there by major conductors. For #4, I recommend Wand (especially his late Berlin recording with a gorgeous opening horn) and Celibidache/Munich (his performance of the coda is beyond any other music I've ever heard). For #7, Celibidache/Munich is unbeatable for me (very slow - but it has to be).

I like all his symponies, and count everything from #3 (original version for this one) to #9 among my favourites.

Or if you want to avoid the big cathedral orchestra stuff, try his motets:

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6 is what got me started, go with Skrowaczewski. There are many versions that are far, far, too slow. That one is right on the mark for me. His complete symphonies is a must get. Considering all of them, I would say 6 is the most "friendly", though 9 is a close second.

Personally, I wouldn't try 7 first.


With Bruckner, choosing the right performance is critical.

Agreed. Bruckner will make a fool out of even the most popular conductors if done improperly.

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