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

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

You might be interested in this, @Disco Stu, in case you haven't found it already:

 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3600912?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

 

I'd send my downloaded copy to you, but I get the message that you cannot receive messages.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

You might be interested in this, @Disco Stu, in case you haven't found it already:

 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3600912?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

 

I'd send my downloaded copy to you, but I get the message that you cannot receive messages.

 

I am very familiar with it!  I have JSTOR access through work and I’ve often trawled through looking for good Copland papers.

 

I actually looked up the author because she wrote about Copland so well and frequently for about a decade but nothing in years.  Sadly I found her Twitter account and discovered she’s an extreme left wing nut job.

[SteveMc 2,674]

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

20 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I am very familiar with it!  I have JSTOR access through work and I’ve often trawled through looking for good Copland papers.

 

I actually looked up the author because she wrote about Copland so well and frequently for about a decade but nothing in years.  Sadly I found her Twitter account and discovered she’s an extreme left wing nut job.

 

When I started reading the last sentence, I thought it was going to be and discovered she's dead. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

On 5/20/2019 at 5:57 PM, The Illustrious Jerry said:

Any reccomendations on Grieg (aside from Peer Gynt Suites, Piano Concerto)? Any favourite lyric pieces? I think I'll dive into some of his music next. 

 

The full Peer Gynt. And the gorgeous Holberg suite that has already been mentioned. And Sigurd Jorsalfar.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

26 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

And Sigurd Jorsalfar.

A great suggestion! I'm only familiar with the Homage March.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

55 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

A great suggestion! I'm only familiar with the Homage March.

 

My own Grieg knowledge doesn't extend to much more than Gynt, Holberg and Sigurd, but I'd recommend these:

 

 

 

The Karajan has the Gynt suites, the Holberg suite and the usual three pieces from Sigurd Jorsalfar (all excellent performances and IIRC better than Karajan's later digital remake) and Järvi has the complete incidental music for both Gynt and Holberg.

 

Or rather, I wouldn't buy the Järvi 2 CD set individually, but rather look for this:

 

 

Twice as expensive on Amazon US compared to Amazon DE, for some reason. It has the full Gynt and Sigurd (same recordings - I assume?) plus 4 more discs with Holberg, the piano concerto, and more. I've been meaning to pick it up myself, to finally get the piano concerto and some new Grieg I don't know yet.

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

"Simple Gifts" - The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Shaker Village

 

A lovely little live album of chamber music themed around "rustic" America.  I loved the Dvorak Violin Sonatina, the last of his America themed works from the mid 1890s.  But the Barber and the Copland are the real highlights.

 

The Copland is the chamber arrangement of the Appalachian Spring orchestral suite.

 

If you don't know, Appalachian Spring exists in 4 distinct versions:

 

1. Original complete ballet for chamber ensemble (13 musicians [2 string quartets + double bass, flute, clarinet, bassoon, and piano])

2. Original orchestral shortened suite

3. Shortened suite but using the original chamber ensemble

4. Complete ballet but arranged for full orchestra

 

#3 is what is on this album, #2 is what is most commonly recorded.

[SteveMc 2,674]

 

[Fabulin 3,510]

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[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

25 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

Symphony No. 5 in B flat major by Prokofiev, played by the Concertgebouw under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. I am not a big fan of Prokofiev, but this symphony has quite a few "forerunner moments" towards Empire Strikes Back, so I could enjoy it through Williams' blessing. (Mov. II I liked on it's own)

 

The final movement is great, though, and reminds one of Lieutenant Kijé.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

I hadn't realized Ashkenazy also conducted. I have a few of his piano albums, with Previn too! 

 

A great selection @Fabulin! Two wonderful composers! 

[Fabulin 3,510]

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[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

20 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

I hadn't realize Ashkenazy also conducted.

 

He's quite electric.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Shostakovich: Piano Quintet (Op. 57) 

I am extremely attached to that finale. Shostakovich is a master of the piano in my mind, never ceasing to create the most uniquely delicious of melodies!

[publicist 4,643]

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

 

[Loert 2,510]

Certainly a unique piece...

[Fabulin 3,510]

.

[SteveMc 2,674]

[SteveMc 2,674]

 

[Bespin 8,480]

Itzhak Perlman’s Brahms and Dvorak violoin concerti.

 

🧜‍♂️

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

 

Also, I'm still caught on that finale from Shostakovich's Piano Quintet. I'm sitting at my keyboard thinking, "How the hell did he do that?". This has become the case for many of Shostakovich's works now, and he's easily moved into my top five favourite classical composers. 

[Bespin 8,480]

Russian composers...

 

[KK 3,307]

They're the best!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

yoooooo does any one else think the very beginning of piston's third symphony sounds like thomas newman?????  thought i'd accidentally put on shawshank.

 

dat opening oboe phrase tho

 

 

Sorry for non-American folks, this is probably geo-locked

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

I guess you mean that Newman sounds like Piston.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Listening to Britten's Spring Symphony again, which I'm becoming obsessed with.  As someone who doesn't find as much appeal in the Roman Catholic musical traditions as others, I'd probably pick this over the War Requiem as his greatest large-scale masterpiece (this is not me saying the War Requiem isn't a masterpiece, it absolutely is).

 

I've always loved Britten's quirkiness and goodness the Spring Symphony has quirk in spades.  A very odd, non-traditional "symphony." Just listen to the irresistible "Spring, the Sweet Spring" section where he has the two solo vocalists impersonating bird calls.  I love it!

 

https://youtu.be/dw-sW83vF4o?t=653

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Look what I procured last night  

 

 

(it’s the piano. i was offered a free piano if I could arrange to move it)

[SteveMc 2,674]

Nice!

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Oh man! Nice Stu! How'd you manage to move that puppy? It's more difficult than you'd think sometimes!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

This morning I'm listening to this very eclectic album by harpsichordist Patrick Ayrton.   All of the pieces are 20th century and it's very refreshing to hear a harpsichord album that isn't Baroque or Renaissance music.  There are several jazz pieces included!

 

The composers are as varied as Gershwin, Stravinsky, Schnittke, Satie, Poulenc, and Copland (it was the last one that brought me to the album of course).

 

The centerpiece is British composer Joseph Horovitz's 1965 Jazz Harpsichord Concerto.

 

 

 

14 hours ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

Oh man! Nice Stu! How'd you manage to move that puppy? It's more difficult than you'd think sometimes!

 

I know a retired gentleman who has a side-business of moving and tuning pianos.  He was really just there to make sure me and the 3 guys I got to help moved the piano correctly without damaging it.  He's coming back in 2 weeks to tune it.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

John Corigliano - Symphony No. 3 "Circus Maximus" for Wind Band

 

[Loert 2,510]

 

6:44 onwards is just

[karelm 2,903]

Now I'm confused between the difference between this thread and the classical music recommendation thread.  Is this thread for music we last listened to but don't necessarily recommend or are these in fact the same thread??

 

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Ah, yeah. I know that this is an issue and I get that some might find it possibly pedantic or unnecessarily repetitive. This was meant for everything and anything classical that you listen to, like a "what is the last score you listened to?" thread for classical music exclusively. I was under the impression that the Classical Music Reccomendation Thread was more for lesser known works that people may not otherwise know, so I created this thread. I tried my best to explain in my original post.

 

On January 25, 2019 at 8:48 PM, The Illustrious Jerry said:

Yes, we have a Classical Music Recommendation thread, but I feel that that thread is more so for lesser known works to point out to other enthusiastic listeners as opposed to all classical music that one might listen to on a regular basis. 

 

I know I for one listen to a lot of classical music, even more than film scores I suppose. My love of film scores sprung from it, and I'm sure many other members will have the same stories. There are also many other members who are just as passionate about classical music as I am, and so this thread will take the form of the What is the last score you listened to? but for classical music exclusively. 

 

Share the last classical album/work that you listened to, and discussion may or may not follow. Again, it's just like the What is the last score you listened to? thread but for classical music exclusively. 

 

Begin!

 

If members would prefer to merge this into the Classical Music Reccomendation Thread, feel free to inform the moderators so they can deal with it, if they so choose.

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

I really don't see the problem of two classial music threads. The more, the better. Good work, Jerry!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

For easy, limpid Saturday morning listening I put on Ferde Grofé’s programmatic suites.  He was such a filmic composer, it’s a wonder he didn’t do more in that arena.  All of his 20s work very much sounds like 30s film music.

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

That's nice, but IMO he was best when arranging other people's music.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

K

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

[Fabulin 3,510]

Interesting concert of an orchestra of Kazakh folk instruments arranged in an European fashion. Truly unique sound. Pity I have no idea how to determine what pieces are they playing. I only know it includes "musical pieces by renowned Kazakhstani composers such as Kurmangazy Sagyrbayev, Akhmet Zhubanov, Karshygi Akhmediyarov, and Nurgissa Tlendiyeva".

I find the unison of all these dombras surprisingly pleasant for plucked strings, and the piece at 56:33 especially beautiful.

[Loert 2,510]

Rachmaninoff - Sonata No.2 (at 6:00)

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Attacca Quartet - Orange (String Quartets of Caroline Shaw)

 

Caroline Shaw is I guess the closest thing my generation has to a serious composer who's crossed over to semi-mainstream (hipster-ish) consciousness (she's like 6 years younger than Mason Bates, who I didn't realize was in his 40s!).

 

Anyway, I enjoyed this album!  It's not exactly my native musical language and she probably won't be a new favorite composer or anything, but there's sufficient personality and musical narrative shining through to hold my interest, which is saying a lot in terms of my engagement with contemporary music.  I will certainly be listening to her music going forward.

 

I especially recommend the piece, "Plan & Elevation"

 

Anyone else listened to Shaw's music?

 

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 2

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Is anyone else starting to question if the influence of film music on concert music in general is actually a good thing?  It strikes me that art music, whether orchestral or not, has tended toward being too programmatic in (lack of) form.  Like, even new pieces of music written with the intention of being presented on their own often seem to have some unspoken visual narrative in the mind of the composer.  Or so it seems to my ears.  Maybe it's the circular nature of these things, the return of the Romantic notion of music needing to represent some visual or narrative idea beyond itself, even if the formal language is pretty far removed from the 19th century.  I wonder if it's because for composers today, much of their earliest, pre-language exposure to music is accompanying a visual, edited story.  Composers today even feel the need to name their pieces some descriptive, expressive title; although I think that might be more the influence of album-oriented pop music than film music.

 

Anyway, I'm just rambling about something I don't have much first-hand knowledge of.  Just a thought that struck me as I'm diving deep on Walter Piston, who seems the antithesis of this programmatic trend in modern music.

[Marian Schedenig 8,174]

Is that such a new thing, though? "Absolute music" has often been hailed as a long standing ideal, but Romantic music (and Post-Romantic, obviously) was often strongly programmatic, and consider what some of the major "genres" were before that: Songs (with programmatic lyrics), and sacred choir music. Which always had the same programme, but sacred choral music, especially pre-Classical, follows every word of the liturgical text as closely as a mickey mousing film score follows its film's editing.

[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

16 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Composers today even feel the need to name their pieces some descriptive, expressive title

 

Yeah, I definitely prefer something like Overture No. N instead of some stupid pretentious title.

[Fabulin 3,510]

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[Jurassic Shark 12,030]

28 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

 What are some examples of stupid pretentious titles?

 

Choose a random piece by a contemporary composer, and it's likely to qualify.