Rolling Classical 2012

i am currently digging the hell out of roussel's 3rd symphony

Born ca. December 2, 1893
Kremenchuk, Poltava, Russian Empire
Died February 24, 2002 (age 108)
Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States

that's ornstein

roussel doesn't seem too familiar to me.....i don't think i know french interwar modernism well

king of french interwar modernism for me is Koechlin, seek anything he wrote for orchestra.

Roussel went through some quite distinct phases iirc. I only own a disc from his early impressionist-exotica phase (the Spider's Feast and the Padmavati suite) as I have a deep weakness for that particular strain of CM...

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

he was of an older generation, so any contemporary influences were filtered through whatever language he had developed to that point, but it has a surprising fierceness and an admirable structural reflexiveness.

xp

and koechlin is indeed brilliant

I wrote a paper that discussed Ornstein once. There was this quote from, if I remember correctly, a concert notice from really early, maybe the 1910s:

"I do bewail the murderous means with which Leo Ornstein patrolled the piano. He stormed its keys, scooping chunks and slag and spouting scoria like a vicious volcano. Heavens!"

yeah koechlin i know (via present company)

i hope that writer never got to hear ustvolskaya

i still love alkan alkan alkan

Enjoyed the Roussel.

<3 this, reissued as "Istikhbars & Improvisations" this year.

http://weirdorecords.com/zen/images/13600.jpg

Mustapha Skandrani - "Musique Classique Algérienne - Stikhbar" [Pathé Marconi, 1965]
Really amazing music from Algerian pianist Mustapha Skandrani – music that effortlessly links up European traditions and North African roots – in a blend that's completely sublime, and unlike anything else we can think of! At many points, Skandrani plays with a complex, virtuostic quality that's right up there with Glenn Gould – but the overall setting is a lot freer, too – with these long, drawn-out tunes that are half improvisations – piano lines stretching forth, based on Algerian vocal modes (even though the set is just piano) – in ways that almost illustrate the same sort of African influence that Randy Weston explored with his 60s piano – yet expressed here by Mustapha in a completely different way! Titles include "Mode Araq", "Mode Raml Maya", "Mode Moual", "Mode Zidane", and "Mode Sika" – plus a number of untitled improvisations.

It's almost like a noodlier, sped-up Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. I want more.

Cage night at the Proms was v enjoyable

Looking fwd to this:

http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/langham-research-centre-john-cage-tape-electronics.shtm

Don't know about this but is happening in the same week:

http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/john-cage-indeterminacy-stewart-lee-tania-chen-steve-beresford.shtm

Talking of centenaries has anyone caught any performances of Pierrot Lunaire?

Been listening to that Mustapha Skandrani reissue quite a bit

really curious to hear that Novak now—two of my favorite things are cycles of 24 preludes+fugues, and weirdo avant-garde experimentation with traditional forms (a one-voice fugue??? preposterous!!!)

a one-voice fugue??? preposterous!!!

I kind of did a double-take at that too.

some of bach's solo works (for cello, violin) have one-voiced fugues don't they?

I've N=never heard of one but perhaps it may be possible; you can find all sorts of things in his fugues. Do you know of an example? I've always understood fugues to be polyphonic by definition: you need at least a subject and answer, surely? There's a two-voice fugue in WTC, Bk 1 (Em, #10) and even that's pretty wild.

"I've never..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6BjTN25VbE&feature=related

?

??? The answer clearly enters in a second voice around 0:07.

You can see it on the score here: http://imslp.org/wiki/Violin_Sonata_No.3_in_C_major,_BWV_1005_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)#Scores

Johann Sebastian’s fugues for unaccompanied violin from the Sonatas, BWV 1001, 1003,

and 1005, play a central role in the violin repertoire. Bach’s conceptualization of the fugues for

solo violin, an instrument that would appear to preclude this sort of contrapuntal writing, is

unique in the Baroque repertoire. This paper identifies precedents to Bach’s creation of fugues

for solo violin. While Bach’s unprecedented and unmatched skill in the fugal genre provided for

the creation of the violin fugues, he drew ideas from existing compositions and techniques.

Specifically, he adopts the formal adaptation of the sonata da chiesa to the solo violin sonata

which occurred in the Italian school of violin playing, notably Arcangelo Corelli. Furthermore,

he builds upon early experimentation with the unaccompanied violin sonata and the development

of virtuoso techniques within the German school of virtuoso violin playing of the late

seventeenth century. Bach’s fugues for solo violin, therefore, represent a synthesis of the Italian

and German traditions of violin playing.

right....multiple voices on an instrument that is conventionally univocal

nb i don't have any theory knowledge

The violin is not a monophonic instrument. Check the score I linked: a second voice enters in m. 4 and a THIRD voice enters in m. 10.

2xpost

no.....but i don't think anybody wrote for the violin like this prior to him? biber maybe?

maybe Corelli

Baltzar, Biber, Walther, and Westhoff are listed as German antecedents here: http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/2912/1/umi-umd-2703.pdf

Talking of centenaries has anyone caught any performances of Pierrot Lunaire?

I've missed one that I know of in NYC, probably more I didn't notice. I should really keep a sharper eye out; this is a bucket-list piece for me to see in performance

I guess that a fugue could be of ideas and/or rhythms and need not be polyphonic? Or you could just play a single voice of a fugue and it'd be beautiful and the polyphony would be implied?

Anyway there's some/lots of polyphonic music for violin/cello pre-Bach but those solo sonatas/suites were revolutionary insofar as they extended 'violinistic technique'. (Also, those violin fugues are uh 'bad pieces' as far as I'm concerned, save the g-minor, they're the hardest to learn and the hardest to sell)

I've just never known of another single-voice fugue so I'm interested to see what this guy did with this idea. It's likely that it's along the lines of what you suggest.

who have you been trying to sell them too ówen?

too

Me personally? Nobody, those fugues are good for nothing but auditions. You can't play them at weddings or funerals. They're not flashy enough for a recital or beautiful enough for church service.

The high-water mark in Bach solo violin polyphonic writing is imho the Adagio from Sonata 3 (C major), pretty much the most beautiful thing ever written, Youtube it, I'll listen to Hahn, Ehnes and John Holloway playing it back-to-back-to-back

Fuck it this is so beautiful I'm gonna post it on the drone thread

lack of flashiness no bad thing

xpost of course I don't have any of those three -- I have Kremer II, St. John, J. Fischer, and Grumiaux

milstein for all that

kremer ii i have heard, perlman

zehetmair is v dry if u go in for it

I kiss Gidon for his Ysaye forever but his Bach makes me want to [do something negative]. Milstein and Grimeaux are good.

People are all *roll eyes* when people say Hahn anything but her robot technique works excellent for me on Bach and if she ever records the complete sonatas/suites I'll buy ten copies.

Seriously: seek out John Holloway for his Baroque performances, he gets a little shaky on some of the toughies but his tone and intonation are just heartwrenching

Holloway is on iTunes, get a sample over there

I have zero Holloway recordings somehow! I remember his Biber Rosary Sonatas got rave reviews back in the day.

I have nothing against Hahn. She somehow came up with a new recording of the Sibelius concerto that felt fresh to me after all the ones I've had and loved. The Schoenberg on the same disc was also awesome.

^ don't tell a Finn that

Rachel Podger's Bach recordings (with historical instrument) are very good

The high-water mark in Bach solo violin polyphonic writing is imho the Adagio from Sonata 3 (C major), pretty much the most beautiful thing ever written, Youtube it, I'll listen to Hahn, Ehnes and John Holloway playing it back-to-back-to-back

Listened to Hahn's recording twice yesterday.

...thoughts?

Oh, it was very nice, sorry. Really good piece. I haven't listened to other recordings of it enough to make comparisons about the performance.

I guess that wasn't the most informative post, ha. Just chiming in that I was listening to your recommendation, I guess.