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

[Disco Stu 15,517]

This new recording of Rautavaara's Vigilia is good "on the far edge of a hurricane" morning music.  Both the work and the composer are new to me and it's very nice choral writing indeed.

 

[Disco Stu 15,517]

This album from 1996 by Swiss group the Amati Quartet is so specific to my musical interests it's like they recorded it for me.

 

Their performance of Piston's Quartet No. 1 is masterful.

 

[Loert 3,110]

Mendelssohn''s Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream never fails to brighten up my day:

 

 

[Sunshine Reger 3,713]

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[Disco Stu 15,517]

Been on a Lukas Foss kick this weekend.

 

Symphony No. 1 (1944)

Symphony No. 2 (1958)

For Aaron (2002)

 

 

And in addition to those more neoclassical/Americanist works, I've listened quite a bit to this solo piano piece from 1981, an excursion into minimalism for Foss, clearly curious to try it out in the wake of Glass, Adams, Reich, etc.

 

I think it's a very successful piece!  It's minimalism but with Foss' own sense of syncopated voicings.

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

3 hours ago, Modest Expectations said:

I hope to get a Marston Records CD set of such recordings at some point.

 

Here it is:

 

https://www.marstonrecords.com/products/legendary-piano

 

[Sunshine Reger 3,713]

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[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

2 minutes ago, Modest Expectations said:

I know where it is  I just don't know where the money is!

 

It is expensive if purchasing directly from the label, and I haven't found it on any online CD store.

[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

[Disco Stu 15,517]

John Corigliano's "Snapshot Circa 1909" for string quartet.  Eerily reproduces the feeling of getting lost in memories.

[Disco Stu 15,517]

I'm currently reading a transcript of an audience Q&A with Aaron Copland from February 24, 1937 following a "Composers' Forum" concert in New York City.  It's pretty amusing to see how an audience reacted to Copland's "modernist" music at the time (this was right at the transition point for Copland toward his more "populist" works).

 

Example questions:

 

"I have just had a hard working day.  Your music does not contribute to my evening relaxation.  Is that my fault?"

 

"Why do you use so many dissonances?"

 

"Your music makes me feel nervous and restless.  Is that how you felt when you wrote your compositions?"

 

"Does your music have any social significance?"

 

"I prefer very much Gershwin"

 

The last one was even of that infamous genre "more of a comment than a question"!  I enjoyed his answer to the social significance question: "All music that is any good has social significance."

 

I also enjoy his summation of his own music, which really does sort of work as a bare bones description of why I enjoy it.

 

Quote

The salient characteristics [of my music], as I see them, are in the first place, a certain massive sense and a certain attempt at quite a large and grandiose effect.  Not so much "effect" but a large and grandiose feeling in the music.  The second, is an attempt to get an alive rhythmic vitality in the music.  And the third characteristic, I should say, is an attempt to write music which is always logically constructed.

 

[Marian Schedenig 11,617]

On 8/31/2019 at 3:07 PM, Loert said:

This must be one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever listened to:

 

 

 

Especially in his recording, because the same holds true for Janowitz's voice in general.

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

8 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

John Corigliano's "Snapshot Circa 1909" for string quartet.  Eerily reproduces the feeling of getting lost in memories.

 

That's a stunning piece.

[Disco Stu 15,517]

30 minutes ago, Dixon Hill said:

 

That's a stunning piece.

 

“Heart-wrenchingly bittersweet memories” is a hard tone to get just right. It’s pitch perfect in its emotional-narrative arc.

[SteveMc 2,687]

 

[Sunshine Reger 3,713]

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[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

1 minute ago, Modest Expectations said:

I read 

 

Good for you!

[Thor 9,349]

As mentioned in the "What are you drinking tonight?" thread -- live performances of Stravinsky's FIREBIRD and Ravels' DAPHNE & CHlOÉ yesterday.

 

I don't own DAPHNE, but I have a CD set of Michael Tilson Thomas' Stravinsky set. 3CD set that includes THE FIREBIRD, PERSEPHONE and THE RITE OF SPRING. Brilliant (but weirdly mixed -- highs are too high, and lows are too low).

[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

I reckon they performed one of the suites from Daphne. I recommend getting the whole work - there's a very good recording on Naxos by some French orchestra, but I'm too lazy to get up from the couch to check which one.

[Thor 9,349]

They did, yes. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out. It was weird going from Stravinsky to straight-from-the-heart impressionism, but it worked!

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,361]

A few selections from Leonard Bernstein's repertoire, namely Three Dance Episodes from On the Town, excerpts from On the Waterfront and West Side Story, and Fancy Free Ballet, a fine treat. Conducted by the composer himself, with guest Andre Kostelanetz, and the New York Philharmonic. 

 

Also, what better way to start ones day than with two of my favourite Debussy standalones: Tarantelle Styrienne (orch. Ravel) and Rhapsodie for Clarinet and Orchestra, a real beauty. 

 

 

[Bespin Copilot 10,738]

Bach's big Mess in B Menor. 

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

Mass, you mean.

[Bespin Copilot 10,738]

Fucking troll.

[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

Reported!

[Sunshine Reger 3,713]

2 hours ago, Modest Expectations said:

The resurrection premiere (after 150 years) of Symphonies No. 1 and No. 2 by Emilie Meyer by Norddeutsche Rundfunk Radiophilharmonie. Apparently done so recently, in July 2019. Wow! While not as great as her later masterpieces, it is still clearly the same inspired, powerful voice of "lady Beethoven". Very interesting to hear for the first time earlier works by a composer whose later works one is intimate with.

 

For a couple of years I have been bitter about paying the obligatory radio tax, since I use no radio services, but if it goes into work like this (not to mention other awesome recordings done by German radio orchestras)... I actually feel good about how it is used  (even if a little inefficient)

 

So far only freely distributed 320kbps MP3s that make my ears hurt a bit, but later this year a CD is supposed to come out. I hope that, just like both of the other recorded symphonies, they will end up on streaming services as well.

And what is more, apparently the manuscript of the second symphony, which, among other qualities, has a very memorable theme worth of Bizet or Tchaikovsky, has only been found in June this year. I just read a post of the discoverer on another forum. Isn't it great to be able to witness such re-discoveries being made as we speak?

[Thor 9,349]

1 hour ago, Bespin said:

Fucking troll.

 

Wow, really? Because he corrected you from the humourous "Mess" to "Mass"?

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,361]

Please take any comments pertaining to trolls to the appropriate thread:

 

 

Thank you. 

[Jay 45,889]

Hey Bespin take is easy will you? No need to lose your temper because you made a typo and someone noticed it. 

[Disco Stu 15,517]

It's funny how Bernstein's absorption of Copland's 1925 suite, Music for the Theatre, as an influence is so complete that listening in 2019, the "Burlesque" movement just sounds like a Bernstein composition!

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,517]

Copland looking remarkably like Stravinsky in this New York Times photo from 1965

 

 

And here's Leonard Bernstein at the same charity event

 

[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

Yes, especially in that white dress!

[Disco Stu 15,517]

2x5 is definitely the coolest sounding piece Steve Reich has ever put together, for me.  Those clean-sounding bass and electric guitars are superb.

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

2x5 is definitely the coolest sounding piece Steve Reich has ever put together, for me. 

 

He put it together especially for you? You lucky, lucky bastard!

[Disco Stu 15,517]

Not to be a name-dropper but....

[Loert 3,110]

 

[Sunshine Reger 3,713]

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[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

No wonder the forest is burning!

[Bespin Copilot 10,738]

Yesterday I listened to some piano favorites of mine.

 

Not as fluid as I really like, but of one the best interpretations of these works we can find today.

 

[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

A great set of waltzes! Which one's your favorite? Mine's no. 11.

[Bespin Copilot 10,738]

Mine is 
 

[Jurassic Shark 16,376]

That's the boring textbook answer!

[A24 5,129]

I listened to something by Bach with recorders and string orchestra. People say Bach is cold and mathematical. While the latter might be true, the former certainly isn't.

[Bespin Copilot 10,738]

On 9/21/2019 at 7:30 AM, Alexcremers said:

I listened to something by Bach with recorders and string orchestra. People say Bach is cold and mathematical. While the latter might be true, the former certainly isn't.

 

There's no more joyous, sensible, luminous and and warmer music than the one of Bach.

 

And "Something" is perhaps among his best works, nice choice!

[Sunshine Reger 3,713]

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[gkgyver 1,647]

First act of Lohengrin. The prelude makes the universe audible. Incredible.

[Disco Stu 15,517]

I have this video of a live performance of Copland's Third by Slatkin and the DSO from 2015 I think.  The performance of the 2nd movement, the scherzo, is so gloriously cathartic I get really into it every time I watch, really swept along by the grandiosity of it all.  And then the audience breaks into spontaneous applause as soon as it's done.  Usually something of a no-no to clap between movements but you can tell the audience was just so overwhelmed they had to show their enthusiasm.  It's fucking great.  A real magical moment I'm so happy was on camera.

[Disco Stu 15,517]

I think I'd like Wagner operas more if they didn't have all that annoying singing

[Naïve Old Fart 12,923]

On 9/14/2019 at 9:35 PM, Bespin said:

Bach's big Mess in B Menor. 

 

 

Bach's big Mess! 

 

 

 

 

On 9/6/2019 at 2:22 PM, Disco Stu said:

This new recording of Rautavaara's Vigilia is good "on the far edge of a hurricane" morning music.  Both the work and the composer are new to me and it's very nice choral writing indeed.

 

Stu, try his ANGELS series. 

[Loert 3,110]

3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I think I'd like Wagner operas more if they didn't have all that annoying singing

 

That's a bit like saying "I would enjoy flying more if airplanes didn't have wings".

On a more serious note, sometimes the vibrato can get annoying...Older recordings don't suffer from this problem so much I've found. It also helps a lot if you understand what they are singing!