The Classical Music Recommendation Thread

[karelm 3,013]

I am not sure if this qualifies in the classical music thread since it is film music but it is by a classical music composer. Alfred Schnittke's score to "The Story of the Unknown Actor". The whole score is great and very different from his concert music. There is a four volume recording of his film work and all of it is of very high quality.

and agony (sort of reminds me of Ennio Morricone)

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

Terrifying.

[Wojo 2,456]

Can anybody recommend a good recording of Gustav Holst's Suites for Military Band? I have files from Napster, which are very old and low quality.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

I am not sure if this qualifies in the classical music thread since it is film music but it is by a classical music composer. Alfred Schnittke's score to "The Story of the Unknown Actor". The whole score is great and very different from his concert music. There is a four volume recording of his film work and all of it is of very high quality.

and agony (sort of reminds me of Ennio Morricone)

Some really gnarly orchestrations in these - very nice.

Terrifying.

Evocative...

Can anybody recommend a good recording of Gustav Holst's Suites for Military Band? I have files from Napster, which are very old and low quality.

I'd go for Fennell with the Cleveland winds if you can get your hands on it.

[Wojo 2,456]

Thanks! It turns out that is the album I downloaded, so I'll buy it.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Anyone know of any good papers/books/dissertations on Ligeti and micropolyphony?

[Muad'Dib 1,852]

This is not a serious piece, but a comedic one done with excellent taste and love. It's from an Argentinian musical-comedy group called Les Luthiers that are very famous all around in the spanish speaking world caracterized by the fact they invent their own instruments and in their beggining did a great deal of classical music parodies, mixing it up with other genres of music. This one for example is one of their best, a mix between a Vivaldi-styled piece and an Argentinian indian-flavored piece resulting in an exquisite clash of different cultural music. It's delicious, I love every minute of it.

The actual piece starts at 0:19 after a little intro in Spanish:

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Gorgeous Whitacre piece. Strangely unrelated video.

[nightscape94 965]

Has the same basic problems I have with everything else I've heard from Whitacre. Sonically pleasant, sweet and unobtrusive, but rather dull, generic and without challenge.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Lot of people seem to feel that way here. Guess it depends on what you find challenging.

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

Composers who Whitacre probably despises. Like say.

 

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

That's all well and good, but why should everything be like that? Sometimes I want Boulez challenging, and sometimes Whitacre challenging.

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

That's all well and good, but why should everything be like that?

That's not my point. I like spacey, ambient, slowly evolving classical music - but I require colour and soul. Whitacre's music is about as colourful and soulful as a piece of Ikea furniture.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

What fits the bill for you then, in that category, speaking of living composers?

[nightscape94 965]

Jennifer Higdon's music.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

See, with all due respect to Ms. Higdon, that's what I would call dull and generic. Well crafted but with nothing that touches me.

[nightscape94 965]

I'm not exactly sure what it is you hear in Whitacre's music that would make him stand out. He seems like a failed rock musician who has more talent than most rock musicians, but not nearly enough skill or writing strength to compose on the same level as Classical composers, or to be taken seriously in such an arena.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

The man excels at small scale, tightly constructed pieces. Like finely wrought gems. Some verge on or become overbearingly mushy/tacky. Others, most, are inviting little musical spaces with seriously satisfying emotional arcs.

There's also a purely sonic level to my enjoyment: I really like the sound of close vocal harmony. Is he the first guy to do that? Nope. But he does it really well, in an idiom that is relevant and with a level of compositional honesty that is nearly unrivaled as far as I'm concerned.

His music is one of a very select few artistic objects that manages to stir up that feeling that I treasure so much and have sought out ever since I was really young. I can't tell you what that feeling is; there's no word for it, and no way to describe it, it just has to be experienced. It's a little bit like being reminded of something from a dream, or some impossibly distant memory, something just on the edge of perception that disappears if you try to focus on it.

An attempt at conveying what makes it stand out for me.

I really do want to know what Sharky considers contemporary examples of slowly evolving, ambient, spacey classical music. Because aside from 1980s John Coolidge Adams (and select new pieces like The Dharma At Big Sur), and current John Luther Adams, I think there's something of a gap there lately. There's a long evolutionary line, in my mind, that starts with guys like Victoria, Monteverdi, and Vivaldi and Bach, down through Faure and Debussy and Durufle and the like, taken up by Ligeti and company, finally ending up with Riley/Reich/Young/Glass (though his music lately is far more earthy than it used to be), and the Adams', and Pärt, Tavener, Gorecki, Lauridsen, Whitacre, etc. I'd like to slip in there since only one or two are still alive and exploring that particular realm. I think there's plenty more to be found there, especially with more active inclusion of electronic elements and techniques.

Higdon's music fails to reach me I think because it still has too many trappings of the past. I also resent her for the Youtube comments that her music draws.

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

What fits the bill for you then, in that category, speaking of living composers?

 

That's thing the though. Almost all the composers who I admire for that sort of writing (my favourite piece within that 'world' is Giacinto Scelsi's Hymnos while Ligeti's Lontano is a close second) -- are all dead. The only ones still living are really Pascal Dusapin and Marc-André Dalbavie. Otherwise I'm trying to fill that void myself.

 

His music is one of a very select few artistic objects that manages to stir up that feeling that I treasure so much and have sought out ever since I was really young.  I can't tell you what that feeling is; there's no word for it, and no way to describe it, it just has to be experienced.  It's a little bit like being reminded of something from a dream, or some impossibly distant memory, something just on the edge of perception that disappears if you try to focus on it.

 

This piece hits that subconscious place for me.

 

 

 

While I can't deny the clear beauty of Whitacre's 18 part divisi clusters, they have none of the ambiguity, menace or otherworldliness of my childhood dreams, which were normally somewhere between dreams and nightmares. Whitacre's pieces are too clean, too pristine. The strangeness of this piece somehow comforts me more.

 

Shit, I'm gonna get out my score and study it again now.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

I'm going to delve into this after dinner. Looking forward to it.

Ok I seriously like that piece by Dalbavie.

Check out the comments by the scholars on here... or maybe don't.

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

What a disappointment. The work is conventional, impatient, full of clichés. Why the worst "Western" reflexes of pushing, conquering, trying to win...Win what? Accelerandi,followed by "lyrical" stretch, this is all so didactic, so narrative, so literary. Sorry..

Lol.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Now this. This is fucking interesting, man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvVvHgtN5pY

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Really into that one. ^

Glad you mentioned his name. Hadn't heard it for years and never properly followed up on it.

Definitely the sort of thing I've been wondering if anyone else has started to explore.

Now checking out this guy in depth. Pretty wild. Plus, synths!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJK18qvsCVQ

[KK 3,308]

What fits the bill for you then, in that category, speaking of living composers?

That's thing the though. Almost all the composers who I admire for that sort of writing (my favourite piece within that 'world' is Giacinto Scelsi's Hymnos while Ligeti's Lontano is a close second) -- are all dead. The only ones still living are really Pascal Dusapin and Marc-André Dalbavie. Otherwise I'm trying to fill that void myself.

His music is one of a very select few artistic objects that manages to stir up that feeling that I treasure so much and have sought out ever since I was really young. I can't tell you what that feeling is; there's no word for it, and no way to describe it, it just has to be experienced. It's a little bit like being reminded of something from a dream, or some impossibly distant memory, something just on the edge of perception that disappears if you try to focus on it.

This piece hits that subconscious place for me.

While I can't deny the clear beauty of Whitacre's 18 part divisi clusters, they have none of the ambiguity, menace or otherworldliness of my childhood dreams, which were normally somewhere between dreams and nightmares. Whitacre's pieces are too clean, too pristine. The strangeness of this piece somehow comforts me more.

Shit, I'm gonna get out my score and study it again now.

Very cool!

And I agree on what's been said about Whitacre. I've said this here before, and I enjoy a couple pieces from him, I feel most of his body of work is oversaturated with his appealing clusters and such that they offer pleasantness on the surface but have little to say to me underneath. It's just very easy to get tired of I suppose.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Speaking of Whitacre, I've been listening to this piece by John Mackey, one of his pals. I think it's lovely.

I hear a Whitacre influence (Equus), and, funnily enough, hints of Horner and JNH which may or may not be imagined.

[karelm 3,013]

Anyone who likes John Williams (there might be one or two of you on this site who are fans) should check out the concert music of Kevin Kaska. Extremely Williamseque. The booklet even has a picture of him with JW.

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIvgXLQghOM&feature=player_detailpage#t=249

his website:

http://www.kevinkaska.com/listen_to_mp3s.html

[KK 3,308]

Nice. The name looks familiar, hasn't he orchestrated a couple of film scores?

Here's a pretty nifty visualization of Reich's Piano Phase.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've seen Kaska's name on some Zimmer conductor's scores as orchestrator.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

A couple more tonight.

Listen to the whole thing, or don't listen at all.

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

[Marian Schedenig 8,891]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've seen Kaska's name on some Zimmer conductor's scores as orchestrator.

He also wrote additional music for Lair.

[KK 3,308]

THAT'S where I've seen the name.

His cues had a rather distinctive Williams-like vibe to it.

[Marian Schedenig 8,891]

There's a lot of ESB and Conan in the score, but I haven't yet checked which cues by which composer contain which allusions.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Listening to this gem for the first time. Probably a sure hit for Williams fans.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Listened to this for the first time in years. The last few sections are particularly magnificent, especially the penultimate one.

[Romão 2,317]

I adore those last sections.

BTW, the second track, Fortuna Plango Vulnera is clearly the inspiration behind Riders of Doom from Conan The Barbarian.

[Sharkissimo 1,974]

I rather like the tranquilllo stuff in Carmina Burana, but I find the rest pretty crass and tedious.

[Naïve Old Fart 10,297]

Heard some Icelandic music on a Prom broadcast on Radio 3, last week. I have no idea who wrote it, but I liked it.

[Muad'Dib 1,852]

[Omen II 1,251]

Heard some Icelandic music on a Prom broadcast on Radio 3, last week. I have no idea who wrote it, but I liked it.

Yes! I really enjoyed listening to that Prom too. One of the pieces was the marvellous Geysir by Jon Leifs, of whom I had never heard previously. I've been checking out some of his other stuff on YouTube and it's great.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Oh I really like that! I'll have to investigate him further as well.

[Omen II 1,251]

That's one of the things I love about the Proms, you often hear stuff that is completely new to you. Check out his Requiem, it's sublime.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Request. Post your favorite Youtube videos like this: performances in cathedrals.

[Marian Schedenig 8,891]

There was a whole documentary about the preparations for this specific performance I believe (if I'm not mixing things up).

[Romão 2,317]

That was beautiful. Everything about it

[Bespin 8,673]

Started my day with Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate, divin!

Mozart: Exsultate Jubilate, Etc / Kirkby, Hogwood

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=56866

[nightscape94 965]

I rather like the tranquilllo stuff in Carmina Burana, but I find the rest pretty crass and tedious.

Probably one of the most overrated popular works I've ever heard.

[Dixon Hill 4,236]

Really glad this composer was brought to my attention via this thread.  Go easy on the volume with this one.

[Muad'Dib 1,852]

[Romão 2,317]

I never heard of Jon Leifs. His music is fascinating! This thread is often a treasure cove