an attempt at a general "What are you currently digging re. classical music" thread

With Harrison, my favorite recorded pieces are scattered across various CDs. Also, there is a tendency for every Harrison CD to be a compilation of pieces in very different styles, off from completely different phases in his career (e.g., a 1940s percussion piece, a semi-traditional piece for symphony and oratorio, and a piece for microtonal guitar). I wish there were more recordings where like material was grouped with like material, because I don't remotely like all his sub-styles equally. Maybe there are now, I haven't been keeping track. I'm at work, but from what little I listened to it with the volume way down, that live recording you just posted sounds lovely, Paul.

scott, you have or have heard "Three Pieces for Gamelan," I assume? That was on a CRI compilation. "Perilous Chapel" is good, esp. the version of an Albion records compilation. Also Rhymes with Silver is good overall. I can't remember in detail what I like and don't like about it, but it works better as a listen straight through than most of the other Harrison collections I have.

i've heard gamelan stuff, but not sure of the title? sounded very cool. i will definitely look for the cri album. found this online and might download tomorrow:

http://vaubu.blogspot.com/2009/03/lou-harrison.html

I think I have that first collection of compositions on a different compilation (not sure if they're the same recordings). I don't care for them quite as much as "Three Pieces for Gamelan" (I don't know if that's the actual composition title--I don't think so--or if they were just put out like that as an EP (?) so to speak.)

i have a great record of concertos for violin and percussion and organ and percussion. like that a lot. later compositions, i think. i'm guessing he was big on the + percussion combo. guitar and percussion. flute and percussion. which is cool, cuz i'm big on that combo too! (what can i say? i'm a rockhead.)

Percussionists = by far the biggest beneficiaries of 20th century classical composing. There have to have been hundreds of pieces with prominent/wild/unusual percussion parts written in the last 100 years.

(My fave max-out-on-the-percussion composer is Crumb).

It's a Brahms chamber music thanks to Skot. Piano Quartet #1 (Tamas Vasary/members Berlin Phil/DG) followed by the Clarinet Quintet (Thea King et al/Hyperion). These are both nearly ideal performances of these pieces I gotta say. Skot I'll bet you have this set of thr Piano Quartets on vinyl!

So I have never heard this album but this orchestra is conducted by a good acquaintance/occasional boss and was just nominated for a Grammy so I am totally pimping it here:

http://www.hbdirect.com/album_detail.php?pid=1043361

BMOP has gotten nothing but rave reviews that I've seen (mostly in Fanfare mag).

'Wilde- a symphony for Baritone and Orchestra'. Sounds intriguing. I'll check the samples out on eMusic.

Just ordered this:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/public/pictures/products/standard/BISCD1767-68.jpg

I've been wanting to hear these forever without stooping to downloading but the individual discs were going for $20, but the whole set is only ~$30 from the UK. Can't wait.

Mm. Impressive. I have a couple of them stii on ol' Melodiya vinyl, I think.

Is that all-new recordings?

BIS is on eMusic and priced at a straight 1 credit per track so the set could be pretty affordable from them (albeit in non-physical format).

I think it's the same old recordings. Would be nice if they also contained the "filler" pieces from the original discs but I'm not getting my hopes up.

BIS' symphonic box sets are generally awesome. I recommend the shit out of their Holmboe- Complete Symphonies box.

I really want to hear that but would find it hard to justify spending $60 on a composer I'm not even sure I'll like (even though there's a very high probability that I will).

I take it you don't do purchased downloads? (eMusic is VBR 192kbps, Amazon MP3 is 256kbps).

That's how I buy lots of BIS releases these days.

Not really. I feel weird paying for downloads when I can just pirate a FLAC rip online.

Mainly I do it for Robert Von Bahr (BIS owner) cuz he is such an awesome dude and I want him to keep doing stuff through emusic.

Does anyone know anything about Ligeti's 3 Fantasies After Holderlin for choir? What time period do these come from?

listening to brahms' german requiem. dgg box with von karajan and the choir that premiered the requiem: the weiner singverein. lovely stuff but i'm not feeling all that requiem-ish right now. karajan has always been my go-to dude when it comes to brahms symphonies, but i feel like i need to branch out and listen to some other takes. karajan was just so...german. which is cool, don't get me wrong. but i want to hear someone open brahms up for me a little more. not be so rigid. (opera singer gundula janowitz on this requiem though, man, what a dream. so beautiful.) this box also includes variations on a theme by haydn, but i think i'll save it for another day.

cuz i'm curious about this album of piano stuff i have with pieces by people i've never heard before. charles griffes! dane rudhyar! ben weber! all very mod. the record is from the late 50's. and i actually have heard the pianist playing this stuff, william masselos.

I've heard of Rudhyar mentioned as one of the early American "ultramodernists" like Ruggles, Crawford-Seeger and Cowell. I'll definitely be interested hear your thoughts.

This thread is fantastique.

Scott-- Try Charles Mackerras conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the Brahms symphonies. This was recorded in the digital age so it's not on vinyl, but recorded very well by Telarc and the performances are nimble, vivid and fresh.

Also there's a new Brahms 1st from Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra on Channel Classics which is getting raves. Fischer and the Budapest are kind of the team to beat right now. Their recent Mahler recordings have been stupendous, as have their not as recent Bartok series.

Guys why doesn't anyone here talk about Mieczysław Weinberg (Moisei Vainberg)? His 18th Symphony is seriously one of the most beautiful things ever. But he was so prolific! Any Weinberg fans here?

Never heard of him! Will investigate...

I have this:

http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/61U6a5x%2BagL._SS500_.jpg

I'll have to give it a listen once my Hindemith marathon is over. Thanks for reminding me. :)

:D His piano quintet is amazing.

Also, what do we all think of Gloria Coates? GLISSANDI/CLUSTERS madness. The 5th String Quartet is still so unsettling and gorgeous.

"I've heard of Rudhyar mentioned as one of the early American "ultramodernists" like Ruggles, Crawford-Seeger and Cowell. I'll definitely be interested hear your thoughts."

very cool. and yes way ultramod. all the true hepcats must have dug him. cuz he was one of those mystical jungian ancient-non-western-music-loving deep thinkers. i want to hear more. and i need to listen to this piece again. it's called *Granites*. he wrote a book called *Art As Release Of Power*. he wrote more than one book. he wanted to transform society with his music. there is a very cool and far out short article written by rudhyar on the back of this album. he sounds stoned.

here's a piece called "yearning" from a larger work that should give you an idea of where he was coming from:

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

and this site, yowza, see for yourself:

http://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/

you can read everything he wrote about music on that site and some of it is really interesting. i am definitely an ultramod sympathizer and support their fight against the stranglehold of the western note!

"Be it as it may, the spectacle of this group of French composers is a sad one for whomsoever loves the truly progressive life, and is trying to feel the great pulse of humanity as it vibrates toward a deeper and more intrinsically realization of the essence of a conscious, free, sincere and spontaneous Manhood and womanhood, toward universal compassion and international brotherhood. The music of Milhaud and of his friends is a denial of the dearest aspirations, of the most vibrant hopes, which a Scriabin, for instance, had roused. It "goes back" to Mozart and Mendelssohn — what more to say! It is cold, heartless, superficial, artificial, unmoving, chauvinistic. We must recognize that it is supremely clever, well made, well orchestrated; that it generates new and striking effects, that its technic is masterly. But it is dead, spiritually, ethically, emotionally."

Charles Alkan (crushed by a falling coat rack)

The going story for a while IIRC was that he was crushed by a bookshelf as he reached for a volume of the Talmud, but this was later proven to be apocryphal - I don't think he was actually crushed at all.

But strange death aside, Alkan's totally fascinating and a fucking virtuoso. Contemporary and friend of tons of well-regarded composers, underappreciated until recently (and imo still underappreciated). Marc-Andre Hamelin's three albums of Alkan material are all Classic, but if you haven't heard anything of his before, the one to hear is Le Festin D'Esope (No. 12).

Gah. Five days and already so many amazing sounding recommendations to catch up on.

Cosign on Hamelin's Alkan discs. Each one's a gem. (My preference as a dyed-in-the-wool Dionysian is still with Liszt, but Alkan's knife-edge sangfroid makes for great listening).

Today and yesterday-- a couple of live radio broadcasts captured to good MP3 by a friend-- an old german radio one of Kubelik leading his Bavarian orchestra in Messiaen's colossal La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jesus Christ (which I think I like better than the commerical recording I have of the piece) and one from this year on Radio France with Nicholas Angelich and the Capucon brothers playing all three Brahms trios in one concert (huge, snorting romantic performances with lots of rubato, totally great).

Now bumping Villa-Lobos' Forest Of The Amazons on Delos Records. Should have mentioned this alongside the Choros the other day. Big raucous sentimental craziness with birds, rivers, natives, a soprano. I think this was born out of a film score?

Cannot stop listening to The Sparrow and the Gentle Dove by Purcell (Hyperion recording).

Good to see Brahms being mentioned a lot - his alto rhapsody (Ferrier I think, although I quite like the Klemperer as well) and his first symphony.

Constant Lambert's Prize Fight is quite a good alternative getting ready to go out music.

John Ireland's Mai Dun and The Legend are, as they were intended to be, the perfect accompaniment to my Arthur Machen kick a while ago - mixture of pastoral mysticism and ancient English militarism.

I would think Delius would also go well with Machen...

digging Bruckner Symphonie No. 4, "Romantic"

which version should i hear? and what others?

I don't have a million Bruckner 4s, but my favorite now is the Klemperer on EMI. Klemps and Bruckner a perfect match to my ears.

I'd recommend proceeding to the 5th, then the 9th, then the mighty 8th.

thanks jon. i've got two versions of 4, but can't remember either at the moment, but i don't think i've got Klemperer. will seek this and the others.

BTW, lots of ppl also swear by the karl Bohm Bruckner 4 most recently reissued in the Decca Legends series. I haven't heard it though.

I would think Delius would also go well with Machen...

Definitely. Delius was buried in a churchyard near where I grew up in fact, although the only material effect this had on my musical taste was that every time I cycled or walked past the church and remembered Delius was buried there, I would break out into 'Delia's Gone' by Johnny Cash.

I will remedy this.

For the darkling magical side of Delius try 'Song Of The High Hills' and 'North Country Sketches' imo.

"which version should i hear? and what others?"

if you want to make your head spin, listen to bruckner's massive 8th symphony and then put on some of his motets which are these brilliant miniature masterpieces of church music. so beautiful.

I've never heard the Motets!

Oh shit, really?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8no8t0saHI

actually this a better boychoir rendition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWK4sF84M1I&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSC5Kjq4aIw

listening to arturo benedetti michelangeli play haydn piano concertos in d & g (with zurich chamber orchestra). kinda jaw-dropping if you are into piano shredders. he didn't record a ton of stuff apparently. cuz he was such a prefectionist. thrilling really to hear.

here is him and some beethoven:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z8VxIxZVOI

definitely recommend the recording (on angel) if you like haydn or piano or great pianists or just great performances.

i don't know what bruckner motet recordings to recommend on cd. there are probably a bunch. i have old vinyl recordings and can't think of any specific favorites.

Yeah Michelangeli was the ultimate perfectionist piano hermit really. Listening to his studio Debussy (Images book i and ii and Children's Corner) feels almost hallucinatory, everything is so perfectly placed and shimmering.

It's funny re: the perfectionist thing, Michelangeli's most notorious recording, Ravel's Gaspard De La Nuit, is live-in-studio for radio and in not-great sound quality.

Pianists playing today who bring this kind of 'hallucinatory clarity' are Zimerman, Kocsis, and especially Ivan Moravec. Thankfully none of them are quite as restricted in their repertoire as ABM.

An interesting bit of trivia abt Arturo is that he was chronically obsessed with The Master And Margarita...

great thread, and thanks for all the good Bruckner recommendations

This book looks very interesting (to me). Not in any local library yet. May blind-order.

Joseph Straus - Twelve-tone Music in America
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521899550