Rolling Classical 2019

I'll give that Nelsons set a try; the only Beethoven cycle I own is the Chailly box on Decca, and that gets pretty symphonic power metal at times. I might like something a little more settled.

Yeah, I don't get Chailly's aesthetic at all. Abbado's second (live) BPO set has similar aims and blows it out of the water.

Fun excerpt on how 'out' Bach was in his own time, from Gioia's new book:

“They never learned about Bach pulling a knife on a fellow musician during a street fight. They never heard about his drinking exploits.” https://t.co/4t8HuyaorK

— Jeff Beck (@jeffnbeck) October 16, 2019

Heh, I had no idea.

Cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir is giving a solo performance at Scandinavia House in NYC on Thursday night. I'm thinking about going; I interviewed her back in June, and her album Vernacular is great.

Album was alright, a little too conservative for my money.

Anybody interested in a series of decade-by-decade polls, starting in the 1800s? Just the works, curated by yours truly – we can discuss our preferred recordings as we go along. I was initially planning on doing albums, but it's too much of a hassle in the context of classical music.

Yes me interested

Well, as long as there's two of us… :)

I'll get started on it very soon.

I'll vote as well, if I know the things :)

It'll be chockfull of 19th and early 20th century warhorses. It's gonna get trickier post-1945, but that's just part of the fun.

Starting point? 1820s?

Here for it, mostly to learn

I say we start in the 1800s, lest we miss out on Beethoven’s middle period.

Ballot polls or poll threads?

We did this once, for anyone who missed it: POLLERO!: ILM's Top 100 Notated Pieces of Music Since 1890

Oh, cool, I had no idea. Thanks.

I was thinking poll threads (one per decade), which I assume we haven't done before.

Nice idea. I'm happy to be schooled.

Poll threads sound great. I was a little nervous about doing that many ballot polls. :)

Understandably so! I'm going to do it pfunkboy/Michael B-style, which means there are bound to be some grave omissions, for which I'll profusely apologize in each thread.

I have to say, I mostly know about choral works...

Starting with 1800-1810 is fine by me! Op. 32 is one of my favorite things Beethoven ever did. I was just thinking that once you get to the 1820s you get some Beethoven vs Schubert suspense whereas for the 00s and 10s you've got Beethoven and... everyone else (well Rossini tbf)

You're right, of course. Beethoven will undoubtedly dwarf everyone else in the 00s but papa Haydn was still around (The Seasons, the final two Masses) and some minor masterpieces were penned around that time, such as Boieldieu's Harp Concerto. I'll try my best to make it a little less obvious…

I greatly anticipate this educational experience; I look forward to campaigning heavily for Quartet for the end of time 15 polls in

I suspect there's be a good excuse to listen to the late quartets again. And then I'll definitely vote for Symphonie Fantastique :)

Best 'first symphony' in classical music history tbh

In case you missed it:

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1800s (the decade, that is. Also, this is Totally-Not-a-Middle-Period-Beethoven-Poll)

OK wow I just paid attention to Poulenc for the first time today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V87wGyfUQiQ

the 1810s thread has me digging into augustin hadelich. he's far too "shreddy" for my tastes. the recording of ligeti's violin concerto from this year is not bad- ligeti being a fairly astringent composer anyway - but this new cadenza by thomas ades, what the fuck, it is so bad and not in keeping with the rest of the piece. well i guess one can just stop listening after the fourth movement...

special mention of note has to go out to the really hideous cover art as well

Shreddy, really? I don't get that sense from Hadelich's Paganini at all. If anything, he gives the Caprices their due as proper music, which may or may not be a good thing.

Agree about the Adès cadenza, however. I could do without Adès's music altogether tbh, it's thoroughly mediocre.

love this Henriëtte Bosmans string quartet

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

Oh, thanks. I hadn't heard of her before but that is a nice discovery.

getting unreasonably obsessed with kurt atterberg's piano concerto

I listened to a set of his symphonies a few years ago and found them unmemorably conservative compared to, say, Stenhammar's 2nd, but I'd be curious to hear his Piano Concerto.

it doesn't really do anything novel, just a nice bit of post-romanticism

CBC's favourite Canadian classical albums of 2019: https://www.cbc.ca/music/our-20-favourite-canadian-classical-albums-of-2019-1.5335275?fbclid=IwAR01WQkjnQNtjLetJWsIk4KdMdpEMzChySg1jo8FFg9MWoOiJa0zovIJqjU

I wasn't going to post about Cicchillitti-Cowan since they are friends/colleagues but, yes, the album is really good. The Stafylakis piece actually integrates some metal influences into classical guitar music. Emily Shaw's Vespers and Cowan's Arctic Sonata also v good classical guitar albums from Ottawa/Montreal from this year.

Thanks, I'll check 'em out.

That Lisiecki and Abdrazakov are Canadian is news to me.

Lisiecki is from Calgary. Abdrakazakov seems to be Russian - they're probably counting that one bc of Orchestre Métropolitain?

Oh right, I misread (see ILX discussion about reading comprehension in Quebec).

Haha

RIP Mariss Jansons.

I don’t have a ton of his work in my collection but his LSO Live Mahler 6th is among the very best of that symphony.

His Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff box sets contain some of his very finest recordings – they've helped me gain a newfound appreciation for these two composers, whose music I otherwise find problematic (not in the modern, woke sense, mind you). He was also an excellent accompanist (see the Grieg/Schumann Piano Concertos with Leif Ove Andsnes) and some of his less well-known projects, such as Johan Svendsen's Symphonies 1 & 2 with the Oslo Philharmonic, are as persuasive as it gets. I was never wholly won over by his much-touted way with Shostakovich, however.

Alex Ross's preliminary EOY list:

https://www.therestisnoise.com/2019/11/preliminary-end-of-year-list.html

We don't really see eye to eye (hear ear to ear?) but the Danish Quartet's Prism II and the Riot Ensemble's Speak, Be Silent both deserve to place. At the risk of repeating myself, I'm burnt out on Feldman, found Zosha di Castro's monograph to be full of hotshot smugness and have yet to hear George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence (I'm generally a big fan, even though I'm less interested in his operas).

I’ll definitely plan to hear that Honeck/Pittsburgh Bruckner 9th - I cant think of a better US conductor-orchestra combo on record this decade

NAC in Ottawa commissioning a Philip Glass work in honour of Peter Jennings: https://abcnews.go.com/US/philip-glass-write-orchestral-work-honor-news-anchor/story?id=67679791

shuddering with pleasure at the idea of Philip Glass composing 30 second stingers for news broadcasts

went to the guggenheim last night for Tigue and Roomful of Teeth and Caroline Shaw presented a new piece that was as lovely as anything I've heard all year.

This is how workers at Opéra de Paris go on strike (sound on, please). pic.twitter.com/SN682BM6ze

— Ted Gioia (@tedgioia) December 18, 2019

PROMO: The latest cd from my choir is out now: https://open.spotify.com/album/4k1FnvR7AIzP2IQCfrFEoz?si=gqG6dtAaTi-2UpcRWuY6Bw Danish choir music, amateur choir, but the Vagn Holmboe is pretty great, at least.