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

[Loert 2,515]

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

Bit of an odd one. I don't really like Mozart (I know, I know - it's all just a bit... I dunno, pretty? I think if he'd lived another 30 years and some grit had entered his work, I'd probably be a bigger fan) and don't really like opera. However, I enjoy Mozart operas. At least the couple that I have. I bought Don Giovanni (LPO Haitink) at a charity shop on a whim months ago and have only just got around to listening to it. I have no idea what's going on, but as a listening experience am enjoying it immensely.

 

I can't quite put my finger on why Mozart opera is much more appealing to me than say, those by Shostakovich, Prokofiev or Bartok, composers whom I otherwise love. Or even Britten, whose non-opera work I really enjoy. I tried Peter Grimes but found it a real slog - much rather the Sea Interludes... probably because they don't feature any singing. Same with Richard Strauss, although he wrote plenty of other stuff I can enjoy instead (I have Eine Alpensinfonie (Dresden State Orchestra, Kempe) - the most dramatic musical setting for muesli ever written - currently playing).

 

I really like Carmen (although I only have two albums of highlights, tsk!) and have The Pearl Fishers, but have yet to listen to it, but Bizet could be an opera composer I actually like. I can't see me getting into Verdi (I can't even really get into his Requiem for some reason), Puccini, or even Wagner, who (despite his vileness as a human being) would probably be one of my favourite classical composers if he'd written symphonies instead of operas.

 

I should probably try and watch an opera live as I'm sure it's much more engrossing that way, but it's the one genre of classical music which is super expensive and for which it's actually challenging to get tickets (unlike your typical orchestral concert in London where you can get great seats for 50 quid).

 

Anyone else have this where they like the music of a particular composer they don't normally like in a genre they don't usually like?! Or is it just me?!

[GerateWohl 4,371]

My two most pleasant opera experiences were in small theaters, small stage, few singers little orchestra, La Traviata and something by Haydn.

When I watched opera in the big opera house on a big stage with impressive grand staging it somehow always left me cold and I thought, not my genre.

Don't know why.

 

[JTN 2,036]

- Mozart: Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter" in C major, K. 551

- Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Incidental Music, Op. 61

 

 

[Chen G. 3,950]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

When I watched opera in the big opera house on a big stage with impressive grand staging it somehow always left me cold and I thought, not my genre.

Don't know why.

 

People hurtling verse at each other is not going to be for everyone...

 

Wagnerians in a way have it easier because the through-composed nature of the works from Lohengrin on does mean you can sit back and enjoy it as a play, in a way that you really can't with Verdi, Mozart, Weber et al.

 

Obviously it also depends on the coming together of a lot of things: stagecrafts, singing, performance in the pit, acting, etc...

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

2 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

My two most pleasant opera experiences were in small theaters, small stage, few singers little orchestra, La Traviata and something by Haydn.

When I watched opera in the big opera house on a big stage with impressive grand staging it somehow always left me cold and I thought, not my genre.

Don't know why.

 

Interesting. I have no idea what type of staging I'd enjoy, although I did see a chamber version of something a few years ago which I somewhat enjoyed - it involved moving around the small venue with different scenes and some standing. I'm not sure the lack of a seat endeared me to it. As an aside, I went on a tour of the opera house in Copenhagen. The CEO of Maersk Shipping, a key sponsor, had samples of the proposed seating for the new opera house in the office to help decide which were the most comfortable. Something London's theatres and concern halls could take note of.

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

I kind of got started on Wagner (Der fliegende Holländer) right after I got into Williams, so I got accustomed to the heavy stuff fairly early on. But I was strongly opposed to Strauss's operas for several years, even while I adored stuff like Zarathustra, Alpensinfonie and Tod und Verklärung. Now my officially favourite opera is his Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier ranks highly among my other favourites, and Salome and Elektra are also stunning works that I've seen live several times. Tastes expand. But it certainly helps that I live 10 minutes (by bike - 15-20 by tramway) from the State Opera, my university was 5 minutes walking distance from there, and students could queue for leftover tickets for next to nothing.

 

I'm not too big on Mozart myself - I adore the Requiem, but I don't actively seek out most of his other stuff. But the three Da Ponte operas are excellent. Don Giovanni might actually be the toughest of the three, so you might want to give Le nozze di Figaro a try (though with opera it's always helpful to at least have a rough understanding of what's going on, even with highly accessible stuff like this). Jacobs's recording packs a punch:

 

 

 

 

(Again, I'm sure it helps that I've seen it live several times in the early 2000s, with excellent casts - including a ~25 year old Elīna Garanča as Cherubino!)

[JWScores 27]

9 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I'm not too big on Mozart myself - I adore the Requiem, but I don't actively seek out most of his other stuff. But the three Da Ponte operas are excellent. Don Giovanni might actually be the toughest of the three, so you might want to give Le nozze di Figaro a try (though with opera it's always helpful to at least have a rough understanding of what's going on, even with highly accessible stuff like this). 

 

 

Here is a great performance of "Le Nozze di Figaro", with English subtitles running along with the Italian ones. The uploader put particular care in translating the subtleties of the Italian text (including the puns) as literally as possible. I think it's very helpful for non-Italian speakers. The cast, including Damrau and D'Arcangelo, is stellar.

 

 

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

10 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I kind of got started on Wagner (Der fliegende Holländer) right after I got into Williams, so I got accustomed to the heavy stuff fairly early on. But I was strongly opposed to Strauss's operas for several years, even while I adored stuff like Zarathustra, Alpensinfonie and Tod und Verklärung. Now my officially favourite opera is his Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier ranks highly among my other favourites, and Salome and Elektra are also stunning works that I've seen live several times. Tastes expand. But it certainly helps that I live 10 minutes (by bike - 15-20 by tramway) from the State Opera, my university was 5 minutes walking distance from there, and students could queue for leftover tickets for next to nothing.

 

I'm not too big on Mozart myself - I adore the Requiem, but I don't actively seek out most of his other stuff. But the three Da Ponte operas are excellent. Don Giovanni might actually be the toughest of the three, so you might want to give Le nozze di Figaro a try (though with opera it's always helpful to at least have a rough understanding of what's going on, even with highly accessible stuff like this). Jacobs's recording packs a punch:

 

(Again, I'm sure it helps that I've seen it live several times in the early 2000s, with excellent casts - including a ~25 year old Elīna Garanča as Cherubino!)

Thanks for the videos, alas they aren't available. I have highlights from Le nozze di Figaro (Marriner) which I found most enjoyable and should perhaps seek out the full thing. Ditto, highlights from the Magic Flute (Bohm) which I'll have to revisit. I agree about the Requiem and enjoy the last two symphonies, plus the horn concertos, but I can't say I've ever had any pull to explore more. Not like I lack other classical music to enjoy... One thing that perhaps enhanced my Mozart opera listening was that, when driving, it makes you feel like you're in an episode of Inspector Morse or the start of a period drama with some Mozart aria playing accompanying a tracking shot of someone in a classic car driving down an English lane to their country pile.

 

I don't have Ariadne auf Naxos, just a symphonic suite, but perhaps I will have to give that a go as I do really love Richard Strauss otherwise (I'd add Metamorphosen to your list, especially under Karajan). I have Elektra (Barenboim) and highlights from Der Rosenkavalier although I can't say I recall either. Then again, the latter is highlights from an old BBC Music Mag cover disc conducted by Runnicles so guess that wouldn't be a top pick recording anyway. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

7 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Thanks for the videos, alas they aren't available. I have highlights from Le nozze di Figaro (Marriner) which I found most enjoyable and should perhaps seek out the full thing.

 

Shame the Jacobs isn't available to you, because it rocks. It sounds as fresh and sprightly as a rock concert. There are of course many fine "traditional non-historically informed" recordings - Shawshank Redemption famously features the Böhm/Mathis/Janowitz recording of one of the pieces I linked to above, and you can never go wrong with Janowitz:

 

But the Jacobs recording is something else. He's done all three Da Ponte Mozarts.

 

7 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Ditto, highlights from the Magic Flute (Bohm) which I'll have to revisit.

 

The Zauberflöte was probably the very first opera I heard as a kid - which is probably true for almost every Austrian. It's been ages (decades probably) since I heard the whole thing. There's certainly great stuff in it, but something about its overall concept doesn't sit well with me.

 

7 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I don't have Ariadne auf Naxos, just a symphonic suite, but perhaps I will have to give that a go

 

That would be the Le bourgeois gentilhomme suite I suppose? I first heard that in a concert by the Wiener Philharmoniker and loved it, years before I ever encountered the full Ariadne. Then I saw that and was stunned. And then quite a bit later I realised that that orchestral suite, although not fully related to the opera (the whole thing has a fascinating genesis that I won't go into here), there's some overlap that I had before been entirely unaware of.

 

I'm not going to push you into opera, but if you want to give it a go, it's really one of the most mindboggling works of art you'll find. [Warning: Lengthy gushing to follow, most of which I've posted before several times] If you give it a try, I strongly recommend that you watch a staged version and follow the story. It's got all kinds of Charlie Kaufman inception layers. The main opera is basically a play within a play populated by additional characters from a different play who are aware of invading the main story. The plot is a satire on Viennese aristocracy, a commentary on the contrast (or not) between "serious" and "entertainment" music, a retelling of a Greek myth, and a case study of depression. It's both a comedy and a tragedy, and often both at the same time. The music runs the gamut from relying heavily on sprechgesang and an actual non-singing stage actor as one of the main characters in the prologue (with a breeches part as the leading role: The composer of the actual opera that follows after the intermission) to all kinds of styles and song numbers in the opera, including an insanely over the top coloratura aria in the middle, and a gorgeous trio for nymphs that is repeated (with Ariadne's solo soprano added on top) twice at the climax. The whole work is scored for a (at least for Strauss) miniature orchestra of 37 players - but those include piano, harmonium, celesta, two (!) harps, and all kinds of percussion (three players). And yet the finale sounds as big as anything you'll hear in a Wagner opera.

 

My go-to version on CD has always been Kempe with Janowitz as Ariadne. If it works for you, I highly recommend watching the following version (sadly not subtitled - and it's so essential to understand the lyrics to fully grasp what this opera does), which again has Janowitz (and I think quite a bit more of the same cast); overall I slightly prefer the Kempe, but as a bonus, Böhm has Gruberova as Zerbinetta (the second main role), and she's hard to beat (plus the Kempe is audio only):

 

This version is also available on DVD (including subtitles). It's a filmed staging from Vienna State Opera from 1976 and the exact same one I first saw 2008, and then numerous times (at least 6 times in total) before they finally replaced it in 2011 (the last performance of which I can find a casting sheet in my programme collection was the 160th performance of that staging). I got to see Gruberova in the same role in the same staging a few times, and she was every bit as stunning 30+ years after the Böhm recording.

 

The acting is a bit stilted (as usual for stagings from that time; and the filmed version has the cast doing playback acting to their own audio recording, which can be distracting in closeups), but entertaining, and overall the scenery and direction get the story across brilliantly.

 

The followup staging at the State Opera is mostly competent and nice enough, with many lovely ideas, but as a whole it falls short in conveying the depth and emotion of the opera compared to the earlier staging. Still, I must highly recommend the Blu-ray of this version as well, because it has Thielemann delivering a musical reading that is so stunning I had to attend two performances in a row, and Daniela Fally's Zerbinetta can proudly stand alongside Gruberova's (both were/are terrific actresses, too).

 

But for watching, I consider the above linked version essential.

[JTN 2,036]

Sir András Schiff.

[Chen G. 3,950]

On 06/02/2024 at 9:26 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

My go-to version on CD has always been Kempe with Janowitz as Ariadne. If it works for you, I highly recommend watching the following version (sadly not subtitled - and it's so essential to understand the lyrics to fully grasp what this opera does), which again has Janowitz (and I think quite a bit more of the same cast); overall I slightly prefer the Kempe, but as a bonus, Böhm has Gruberova as Zerbinetta (the second main role), and she's hard to beat (plus the Kempe is audio only):

 

Wow, what a cast!

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

4 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Wow, what a cast!

 

I just checked the Kempe cast list, and there's actually no overlap besides Janowitz as far as I can see. Kempe's version was recorded in 1969 (almost 10 years earlier!) and has James King as Tenor/Bacchus, Theo Adam as Musiklehrer, Peter Schreier as Tanzmeister/Scaramuccio, and Herrmann Prey as Harlekin! His Zerbinetta is Sylvia Gestzy, who I don't think I've ever heard (of) elsewhere, but she's very good. The orchestra is Kempe's usual Strauss orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden. I've not played the Böhm much, because I've always defaulted to the Kempe, which I think is yet a bit sprightlier. And it's one of my top three Janowitz recordings.

[Chen G. 3,950]

My my...

 

To add to the variety, a pretty good production of Rosenkavalier. Kurt Rydl is always such a riot on the stage, and he has a better grasp of Ochs' low notes than one might think!

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,082]

Nice compilation album of unique arrangements. 

 

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

5 hours ago, Chen G. said:

My my...

 

To add to the variety, a pretty good production of Rosenkavalier. Kurt Rydl is always such a riot on the stage, and he has a better grasp of Ochs' low notes than one might think!

 

I've seen him in the role a couple of times. He's old now and not in his prime, but one thing he could easily do still are those low notes and Ochs's mannerisms.

 

This is one of the most highly regarded recordings:

(This one starts with the 2nd act, couldn't find a full version)

 

I like it not only because it's very good musically, but because this Otto Schenk staging from Munich is almost exactly the same he did for Vienna in the early 70s, and which is still being shown today (with updated props, partly I suppose because some of the doors wouldn't always stay closed after decades of use). I think he also re-made the same version for the Met. Curiously, the "Wiener Stadtpalais" in the 2nd act looks very different from how it does here, but the scenery for the other two acts is nearly identical.

 

I've seen it numerous times with Garanča as Octavian, and I can only hope there's a video recording of some of those evenings and one will be released at some point. She's not only one of the best mezzos, but also one of the best actors on the opera stage.

[Chen G. 3,950]

5 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I've seen it numerous times with Garanča as Octavian, and I can only hope there's a video recording of some of those evenings

 

I definitely saw Garanča as Octavian on video. Very impressed!

[Bespin 8,484]

On 09/02/2024 at 3:24 AM, JTW said:

Sir András Schiff.

 

András Schiff is an exceptional interpreter of Bach on the piano. I highly recommend exploring his renditions of the solo keyboard suites, including the English, French and Partitas.

 

 

 

 

The English Suites were composed first between 1715-1720, followed by the French Suites between 1722-1725, and finally, the Partitas between 1726 and 1730. This progression allows listeners to observe Bach's evolving style and compositional techniques over time, from the fusion of Italian and French influences in the English Suites to the pinnacle of contrapuntal complexity and expressive depth in the Partitas.

[bollemanneke 3,349]

A bunch of Mozart overtures. Such joy. Such a shame he died so young.

[Bespin 8,484]

1 hour ago, bollemanneke said:

A bunch of Mozart overtures. Such joy. Such a shame he died so young.

 

His last works are so full of poetry (Trio in E major K. 542, Piano Co No 27 K. 595 and Lieder K. 596 & K. 597, by example) and so luminous (The Magic Flute K. 620 & the Clarinet Co K. 622) that we may dream about what works he could possibly have composed if he had lived past his 35 years.
 

[Jurassic Shark 12,082]

2 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

A bunch of Mozart overtures. Such joy. Such a shame he died so young.

 

Which recordings?

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Uh, some new HIP thing conducted by... Willens? Great playing, but, you know, the strings... I can't wait to listen to Hans Vonk's album at one point, though, they sound much fuller.

[JTN 2,036]

Glinka: “Ruslan and Lyudmila”,  Overture.

 

I have listened to hardly nothing from Glinka. Now I’m definitely going to.

[Loert 2,515]

 

It's impressive how full it sounds for a string quartet.

[Loert 2,515]

 

Takes a while to get used to the instrumentation but ultimately it's quite charming!

[karelm 2,914]

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

Apologies. Low key rant about classical music publications/fans. Ignore if not interested, just needed to write it down somewhere! I've put in sub-headings if anyone feels so minded to reply but not to all of it!

 

BBC Music Magazine

This month they have reviewed an album of concert works by Miklós Rózsa (https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9543211--miklos-rozsa-orchestral-works), and basically spend the entire reviewing complaining that the works were all a bit insubstantial. I admit that they are more occasional pieces than his concertos, but given that they don't actually review that many albums relative to what's released each month, it seems a bit pointless to prioritise a 3 star review and then use it to bitch about the music. It seems a bit unfair that "new" works get far more comment about the quality of the music than older ones where it's pretty much entirely about the performance and recording.

 

I wonder if I should cancel and try the Gramophone... or just stick to online reviews?! The BBC cover discs are of interest to me about twice a year, but even then I'm more likely to want to replace a particular performance with a better one.

 

MusicWeb International (https://musicwebinternational.com/)

I don't know what everyone else's views are of this site, but their reviews always seem pretty solid, if occasionally a bit long and rambling. If nothing else, they put out a significant number of reviews so their coverage is pretty great. Having said that, I'm quite surprised by their total lack of coverage of the recent swathe of JW albums. They haven't even reviewed the ASM Violin Concerto 2 album which is on a mainstream label with a world class soloist, but the various Naxos releases or the new Cello Concerto album haven't got a look in. It's not like they are super anti-film music especially. Odd.

 

Classical Music Fans

BBC Music Magazine posted a pointlessly provocative article online along the lines of "is JW more famous than Bach and Beethoven?" to which the obvious answer is "maybe, depends who you ask". However, it was the typical classical music fan comments that were so predictably derogatory. One said something like "Jaws is his best theme and that's basically Dvorak!" - I mean I don't think many people think it's his "best" theme but it totally ignores the bulk of the score not based on that theme and the ingenuity and craft on display elsewhere.

 

I broadly ignore these people as it's like pissing into a hurricane, but it always feels like they base their views on the handful of JW's themes that have clear classical antecedents but take no account of how they are then used in the score. They are also blissfully ignorant of the plentiful material which is entirely his own invention, not to mention those scores which have no specific antecedents and/or are totally different in style to Star Wars or Jaws or whatever such commentators think all of his music sounds like. On the other hand, one of them highlighted how much better Hans was given his greater variety... I mean... no.

 

Need a lie down now.

[Jurassic Shark 12,082]

30 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

mean I don't think many people think it's his "best" theme

 

It's his best two-note theme.

 

30 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

MusicWeb International (https://musicwebinternational.com/)

I don't know what everyone else's views are of this site, but their reviews always seem pretty solid, if occasionally a bit long and rambling. If nothing else, they put out a significant number of reviews so their coverage is pretty great. Having said that, I'm quite surprised by their total lack of coverage of the recent swathe of JW albums. They haven't even reviewed the ASM Violin Concerto 2 album which is on a mainstream label with a world class soloist, but the various Naxos releases or the new Cello Concerto album haven't got a look in. It's not like they are super anti-film music especially. Odd.

 

They very rarely comment on sound quality, even when it's older recordings. Same goes for Classics Today. 

[crocodile 8,018]

I was listening to some sections of the Colin Davis-conducted Sibelius symphonies that @Incanus gave me some years ago in London. Lovely.

 

Karol 

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Mozart symphony 8 conducted by Adam Fischer. I AM LOVING THIS SET SO MUCH!!!

[Chen G. 3,950]

On 11/02/2024 at 4:01 AM, Marian Schedenig said:

This is one of the most highly regarded recordings:

 

I missed this, which is too bad because Dame Gwyneth Jones...

 

But this is just in, replete with Garanca:

 

 

 

[Loert 2,515]

 

Dum....dum..dum......

[JTN 2,036]

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, op. 92 & Symphony No. 8 in F major, op. 93.

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

A happy 200th birthday to Bedřich Smetana.

[Chen G. 3,950]

This is the first that I've sat through a complete Euryanthe: 

 

 

I don't really know any of the cast, except Wendy Bryn Harmer as Eglantine. The libretto for this opera had often been a laughing stock, but frankly, is it really that much worst than Weber's previous and much-admired Der Freischütz? At any rate, I found it workable.

 

The music is mighty pretty. I was led to believe Euryanthe was only "through-composed" in the sense that it wasn't a Singspiel (that's to say, broken up with segments in spoken dialogue) like Freischütz and Oberon, but that's not the case: beyond the two act breaks, there are virtually no complete cadences a-la Mozart to accomodate for applause, so the story can unfold pretty naturally, except for ensemble singing and the strophic repetitions in the arias. There's no German Romantic Opera or French Grand Opera that I'm aware of that's quite like this until we get to the Flying Dutchman.

 

I have written about this before, but a most unique, quasi-symphonic structural conceit of this opera is the theme associated with Emma's Ghost (the deceased sister of the tenor). Its this tense, chromatic violin divisi in the overture that only at the very, very end of the opera is resolved diatonically. Was Weber thinking of a Beethoven coda?

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Listening to Bruno Walter rehearsing the Linz symphony. This feels like such a privilege. My goodness.

[A24 4,345]

On 12/11/2023 at 2:28 PM, Thor said:

 

Is it classical? Is it electronic? Is it pop? Or is it simply a merging of everything, as the title suggests? Dudley employs choir, orchestra and electronics in a fascinating hybrid style for this 1999 concept album.

 

Pretty good, Thor. Very enjoyable. Love the recording as well.

[Chen G. 3,950]

Continuing on our Weber tour!

 

I know Freischutz and while I still maintain it has the sappiest damn ending, its musical characteristics are continually revealing themselves to me. We all surely know and love its evocation of nature and Schauerromantik eerieness, but there's much more still to be had here. 

 

The spoken dialogue sequences mean it doesn't have the seamlessness of Euryanthe, but I was surprised to see that it has a similar structural conceit: The disonant textures of Samiel and Caspar finally resolve to C major, and while it doesn't happen quite at the very end like it does in Euryanthe, here its also part of a larger tonal conceit: really clever!

 

Certainly, the dramatic-musical interpertation helps and one could hardly ask for a better hand on the wheel than Thielemann. Good cast, too: Georg Zeppenfeld is, as one would expect, fantastic as Caspar.

 

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

I'll have to check out that Thielemann video. But the old Kleiber recording is hard to beat - Gundula Janowitz, Edith Mathis, Theo Adam, Peter Schreier, Franz Crass, and the ridiculously powerful horn section of the Staatskapelle Dresden:

 

[Chen G. 3,950]

Oh sure! And there's the only movie-version that has a pretty good cast as well with Gottlob Frick as Caspar.

[Jurassic Shark 12,082]

On 20/02/2024 at 7:12 PM, crocodile said:

I was listening to some sections of the Colin Davis-conducted Sibelius symphonies that @Incanus gave me some years ago in London. Lovely.

 

Karol 

 

Not the RCA set, I hope.

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

34 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

I know Freischutz and while I still maintain it has the sappiest damn ending

 

It has a very crude and naive libretto. It works because the music is great, and the music is great by being an honest, but heartfelt and direct realisation of the naive libretto. Modern stagings of course try to inject all kind of meaning and reinterpretation into the story, but the story doesn't have enough substance to sustain that. All those attempts manage is to make the music seem shallow and grossly out of place.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,551]

Beethoven Symphony #7.

No idea which orchestra, or conductor, or when and where it was recorded, but it's my favourite Beethoven, by a country mile 

[JTN 2,036]

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Beethoven Symphony #7.

No idea which orchestra, or conductor, or when and where it was recorded, but it's my favourite Beethoven, by a country mile 

Seems like every odd numbered Beethoven symphony is amazing. 

[Chen G. 3,950]

14 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

It has a very crude and naive libretto. It works because the music is great, and the music is great by being an honest, but heartfelt and direct realisation of the naive libretto. Modern stagings of course try to inject all kind of meaning and reinterpretation into the story, but the story doesn't have enough substance to sustain that. All those attempts manage is to make the music seem shallow and grossly out of place.

 

Yes! Oberon seems to have a similar issue. The only production I can find is this, which has the upshot of having Annette Dasch whom I like very much (although she had looked better) but its plays the whole thing as a big lab experiment:

 

 

Its also translated back to German: Oberon was originally in English.

 

A historical anecdote comes to mind: When Freischutz was revived in Paris in 1841, translated to French and appended (by one of its great admirers, Hector Berlioz!) with Weber's much-loved "Invitation to the Dance" as the obligatory ballet, it was a fiasco. And Wagner (still living in Paris and working furiously on Dutchman) writes very movingly that: "They have not been able to kill it, our dear, beloved Freischutz."

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Its also translated back to German: Oberon was originally in English.

 

Interesting. Especially because it wasn't too long ago that I was surprised to learn the Mendelssohn indeed wrote his own Sommernachtstraum to a German libretto. I've long had the Previn/LSO recording (in English) and recently got the Ozawa/BPO (also in English). And it always sounded very much like it was set specifically to the English text. But I guess the German translation simply manages to more or less keep the original metres, and apparently there were a few rhythmic adjustments made to the music. I do have the Harnoncourt, in German, but I never liked that - partly because of the music making, and partly because of the text. But Shakespeare generally doesn't work for me in German, so I guess that shouldn't surprise me.

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Sibelius 6. How is this piece in D minor? It's clearly in C. And the ending sucks.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

Anyone heard Peter Boyer's Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue? I got it the other day as Boyer's other stuff is great if you want more JW in Olympics mode (sometimes surprisingly close) and his new Rhapsody was written to celebrate/coincide with the 100th anniversary of Gershwin's original. For me it's one of those frustrating works that is enjoyable enough, but the level of invention pales compared to the original. Each different section of the Gershwin has a great tune, it's almost an embarrassment of riches. Now Boyer isn't a bad tunesmith at all, but it doesn't dazzle with invention and variety, and the jazzy element almost feels like afterthought and doesn't infuse almost the entire thing. I have frequently expressed my frustration at those who complain that followups to classics aren't as memorable (see Mary Poppins Returns) especially when there's been literally a century for a work to enter the public consciousness, but even by that benchmark, it still feels a touch underwhelming, notwithstanding that it's very enjoyable.

 

 

Buying warning... it's been released as a single and don't believe it's being released as such ahead of a full album. If you buy the "full album" at Presto it's full album price, but you can buy it as an individual track for individual track price. Otherwise £8 for a 16 minute track is... ambitious.

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,082]

46 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Anyone heard Peter Boyer's Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue?

 

He should have called it Norwegian Rhapody.

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Sibelius 2. Must see finale live, must see finale live, must see finale live...