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


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8 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Oh, I'm not denying its influence at all. I'm just saying I hated it. Two completely different things.

 

You also said it's crap. Two different things as well.

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Thank you. I am not going to listen to it again, though. While some pieces have grown on me after repeated listening, this is just too harsh and brutal for me. I feel like I have better things to listen to.

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3 hours ago, Glóin the Dark said:

Kalevi Aho Symphony No. 9

 

 

Nice to see another Aho fan! I can't see the youtube, assume it's the recording on BIS with the Cello Concerto on the same album? Will have to give it another listen.

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17 minutes ago, Glóin the Dark said:

That's the one; I have the actual disc here. It (the symphony) was the first Aho I ever heard, if I remember rightly, in a broadcast of a Proms performance nearly twenty years ago.

I’m going to give it another listen later. I took a while to get into Aho but really enjoy his stuff now. Think I have almost all of the BIS releases to date. 

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23 hours ago, Glóin the Dark said:

Kalevi Aho Symphony No. 9

 

 

A very fine composer and I especially love this disc but he's a fantastic contemporary symphonist, now with 17 symphonies.  He has a great range too.  The early symphonies (1-4) are dark and deeply influenced by Shostakovich.  The mid period (5-11) are complex and generally polyrhythmic like two meters at the same time.  The late symphonies (12 and after) are more narrative, for example his latest symphony (No. 17) can be performed as individual tone poems.  He is extremely focused on concertante having written concertos for most concert instruments and many of the symphonies include concertante elements as you see with No. 9 for trombone and orchestra.  A very fine composer of depth, immediacy, and range.

On 28/10/2021 at 6:27 AM, bollemanneke said:

Can you use arguments to validate that claim? I'm not worshipping something because I'm told I should. Seriously, my head!

He influenced a century of composers (and continues to).  I could explain how for me but just about any composer says the same and some are more articulate than I am.  This is not an "argument from authority" fallacy, we all conclude this individually and converge.  When all experts individually converge on the same consensus through independent means and you disagree, you might want to investigate why you might be wrong. 

 

I would say for starters, start here: How Stravinsky's Rite of Spring has shaped 100 years of music | Classical music | The Guardian

then follow up with this excellent documentary: 

 

Do you like Beethoven's Eroica Symphony (No. 3)?  It was the Rite of Spring of its day and one of the most impactful single works EVER!  If you want me to defend Rite of Spring, we'll start with Beethoven then go through music history.  History requires you have context first.  If you really want to understand why this is so significant a work and have read/watched the links I provided, I'm very happy to explain why this was a life defining work for me before anyone had introduced me to the composer or his music and why so many other composers individually came to the same conclusion.

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You know that thing where for a long time you only have one recording of a classical piece and you listen to it so much that it's hard to listen to any other because it's so ingrained as what the piece is "supposed" to sound like?  I think this is the case especially for classical pieces I got attached to as a teen because (a) I tended to listen to things many times in a row more and (b) there wasn't any music streaming to sample other recordings easily.

 

Anyway, this thought brought to you by this very random, not especially popular recording of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 by a Slovenian orchestra that was the only version I heard for many years.

 

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4 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Yes I have actually, the 2019 album, not the 2005.  It's my new first choice for Winterreise

 

His voice is just completely mesmerising, with so much expression!

 

2 minutes ago, Bespin said:

I don't listen to music wrote before the 30's now.

 

The 1130s is so passé.

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Just a heads-up, guys.

On BBC Radio 3, on Friday night, at 19:30 GMT, there is the world premiere of UP FOR GRABS, by Mark-Anthony Turnage. It's all about the final game of the Premiere League 1988/'89 season, between Arsenal and Liverpool. Whoever wins the game takes the title.

Should be good.

 

Ps, we won :)

 

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Classic performances (in amazing sound too) of two of my favourite works… the Concerto for Orchestra is probably the more famous but I think I enjoy the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta to be an even more transcendental experience. Absolutely superb.

 

A friend from school used to ask me as a running joke if I’d listened to any Bartok recently at a point when I really did only listen to film music. I now make a point of telling him if I’ve listened to some Bartok! My tastes broadened and became more sophisticated over the years…

1CC57B1C-6617-4EC8-B9AF-8F0A2EF5E3C0.jpeg

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Quick question: you have a single piece of classical music (or a opus) each to show the following emotions of music:
Melancholy, (the life-affirming one) 
epic enormity and majesty,
chaos,
transcendentalism, resp. spirituality.
Which would they be?

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5 hours ago, Michael G. said:

Quick question: you have a single piece of classical music (or a opus) each to show the following emotions of music:
Melancholy, (the life-affirming one) 
epic enormity and majesty,
chaos,
transcendentalism, resp. spirituality.
Which would they be?

 

Ein Heldenleben, maybe? At least the latter three are perfectly encapsulated in Eine Alpensinfonie.

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OK. First of all, thank you! Perhaps unclearly formulated; actually I wanted a piece or opus for each of these emotions! To get these 4 emotions under a hat is almost impossible! (well, Strauss is almost only like that but no matter):lol:

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On 4/11/21 at 4:56 PM, Naïve Old Fart said:

Whoever wins the game takes the title.

 

 

On a point of order, Arsenal had to win by two clear goals.  Had the match ended in a draw or Alan Smith's goal been the only one of the game, Liverpool would have won the title.  Nice to see Brian Moore's legendary commentary referenced in Turnage's title, by the way.

 

"Arsenal come streaming forward now, in what surely will be their last attack..."

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3 hours ago, Michael G. said:

OK. First of all, thank you! Perhaps unclearly formulated; actually I wanted a piece or opus for each of these emotions! To get these 4 emotions under a hat is almost impossible! (well, Strauss is almost only like that but no matter):lol:

 

Whoops! OK then, here are some ideas...

 

Melancholy, (the life-affirming one)

Mahler, 9th symphony (4th movement)

Tchaikovsky, 6th symphony (4th movement)

Rachmaninoff, "The Mournful Iron Bells"

 

epic enormity and majesty

Liszt, Les préludes

Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (overture)

Walton, Symphony No.1 (4th movement)

 

chaos,

Honegger, Symphony No.3 (1st movement)

Leifs, Hekla

Norman, Play: Level 1

 

transcendentalism, resp. spirituality

Wagner, Lohengrin (Prelude)

Scriabin-Nemtin, Prefatory Action

Scelsi, Konx-om-pax [or anything else by him...]

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On 06/11/2021 at 4:28 PM, Michael G. said:

Quick question: you have a single piece of classical music (or a opus) each to show the following emotions of music:

 

Take #1:

 

Melancholy, (the life-affirming one) 

(It's upbeat, but I think with all the Mahlerian pathos it still qualifies)

 

epic enormity and majesty,

 

 

chaos,

 

 

 

transcendentalism, resp. spirituality.

(for Mendelssohn's chillingly inspired use of the boys' voices)

 

 

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OK, interesting. For me that feels too "peaceful" to be called melancholic, but some melancholy is definitely present!

 

What about "Tsarina Adrift At Sea In A Barrel" by Rimsky-Korsakov? You likely know it already if you know Kalinnikov, but that piece definitely has a melancholic feel to it. It also ends in major, so can be called life-affirming. :D (For me it brings to mind a lone old man wandering through a snowy mountain range...so exactly the opposite of what the title says)

 

 

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Mmmh. Rimsky. Always a pleasure. I didn't know the piece exactly, IMO a mixture between adventure and melancholy (maybe the old man stops, looks at the mountains and thinks back to his life:lol:). 

What I really love is his Symphony No. 2, especially the first movement

 

https://youtu.be/67vbY-053c4

 

In general, the Russian late Romantics (Kallinikov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gretchaninov, Lyapunov,....) are just beautiful, that's what I feel most comfortable in.

 

 

Oh, that makes me think of Gretchaninov, 

https://youtu.be/1uBLqkDzxkE

The second symphony movement 2. the "finale" from around minute 8 in it is so beautiful, these deep horns, oh generally everything!!!! My favorite Andante or 2nd movement of a symphony ever!

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3 hours ago, Loert said:

OK, interesting. For me that feels too "peaceful" to be called melancholic, but some melancholy is definitely present!

 

I don't find the combo "melancholy" and "life-affirming" easy to pin down, but for my taste, the Mahler I posted is a good fit, at least some parts (if you don't want to count the bouncingly jolly bits, despite their Mahlerian undercurrents). The Kalinnikov isn't what I'd personally consider a match, or at least not in its entirety (if that was implied) - the parts that sound like Dvorak's "tragic" mode don't sound particularly life-affirming to me.

 

Anyway, take #2:

 

This should, be definition (i.e. its programme) tick a couple of the boxes. The death throes (5:45+, and returning at 12:50) may perhaps count as chaos, while the noble main theme (the one that doubles as Williams' Superman love theme), first heard at 14:14, could be both (reflectively) life-affirming melancholy and certainly by definition, and especially in how it is treated (along with the other themes) at the end of the piece, as transcendentalism. (I would even also attribute epic enormity and majesty to it, which seems to be what Strauss ascribes to the life being looked back on in the work).

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