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

Love Janacek. Especially in chamber music. Mad at myself for not making it to the Met production of From The House Of The Dead that just ended.

Friday night I was uncharacteristically early leaving work so I was able to make it to Academy Records before closing. Found two used Szymanowski things which have been on my want list for quite awhile: the complete Mazurkas for piano on the polish Dux label and the complete Songs on 4CDs from Channel Classics. Looking forward to digging into these today.

Classical record reviewers should still write like they did in 1956, y/n?

"Mozart: Concertos for Violin and Orchestra: No. 4, in D, K. 218; No.
5, in A ("Turkish"), K. 219

"Mischa Elman, violin; New Symphony Orchestra, Josef Krips, cond.
London LL 1271. 12-in.

"No one who can bring himself to listen to this record will deny Mr.
Elman's ownership of a few seraphim, whom he keeps in his violin. Not
to argue a cause already won, let it be admitted briefly that this
fiddler has more sweet unction in his strings than any other of our
times. All his records are anointed with it, particularly this one,
engineered to catch delicately every lambent hemi-demi-semi-quaver.

"The stylization suggests a sure grounding in Coleridge-Taylor. It
is the work of a free man, a little dazed. (Freedom sometimes cannot
be borne.) The pace is languid, inclined to swoon, the phrase
unshaped, as if stuck in molasses on the bow. In this independence of
spirit Concerto No. 5 is a hymn to melting butter, an apotheosis of
goo. This originality is not sustained during No. 4, which in many
places sounds like Mozart. In both the orchestra is tame, we may guess
from sheepishness. C. G. B."

Concerto No. 5 is a hymn to melting butter, an apotheosis of
goo. mmmm...

"Just wondering what percentage of everyone's listening is exclusive v. while doing other things, what music works for what, etc."

i listen to music all day in my store, so that's a good time to listen to just about anything. but i like having the time to be at home on the couch reading liner-notes and really absorbing what i'm hearing. i make an effort at home to so some deep listening, because so much classical music is unfamiliar to me. and that includes things that i've heard more than once. i'm a simpleton and a rockhead, so it definitely benefits me to be attentive. as it is, i probably only absorb and retain about 5% of the liner-notes i read. and the music doesn't always stick either without repeated listening. (though, don't get me wrong, there is plenty of easy/immediate pleasure to a lot of the classical music i listen to.) so i re-read them. and re-listen. i think it's fun though. and rewarding. i am the opposite of an expert and instead of this scaring me, it instead encourages me to go in over my head. to listen to too much stuff from too many different eras and not worry too much about a coherent approach to my scattershot autodidactic education. it's kinda how i've always listened/read/learned anyway, so it's a little late now to change. i'm thinking in 30 or 40 years i'll have some grasp of western music and its history. then i'll tackle asia.

oh and i don't have an ipod or listen to music in the car much. the last time i had a walkman was 15 years ago.

so i re-read them. and re-listen. i think it's fun though. and rewarding. i am the opposite of an expert and instead of this scaring me, it instead encourages me to go in over my head. to listen to too much stuff from too many different eras and not worry too much about a coherent approach to my scattershot autodidactic education.

OTM x 1000 this is my classical music listening career in a nutshell. (not so much with liner notes, but i read Fanfare magazine every issue and digest a few heavy composer biographies a year)

it's not categorized precisely as classical, but right now i'm listening to sylvain chauveau's 'nuage' album and it's really working for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZPG7ZwQru4

Big hit of the day for me is this Szymanowski songs collection. If you dig Debussy's songs or Scriabin's solo piano stuff, you should check out Szymanowksi's voice w/piano stuff. He's decadent, he's devilish, he's orientalist (Songs Of The Infatuated Muezzin and such).

Speaking of decadent/symbolist intoxication, went back to Charles Mackerras' recordings of Delius short pieces and was sound-drunk all over again.

I'm enjoying a a performance of La Traviata with Maria Callas from the 50s. Also Mahler's 6th (Mariss Jansons) and 9th (Kettle). The Andante Moderato movement from the former is beyond delicious.

Anyone into Baroque organ music? Listening to recordings of Frescobaldi's Book II, Twelve Toccatas, from 1627. Some are played on the harpsichord and some on the organ. A few of the organ pieces seem like they're right on the cusp before functional tonality took over. Contrapuntal texture is very thin and they seem to be very much about the progression of harmonies. They're really beautiful

oh yeah i love baroque organ music, and i love hearing the variety of tones and sounds in dutch and belgian organs of the time. seems to me that 1627 is just before the great age of baroque organ composition (buxtehude was born in 1637) so that's interesting what you say about contrapuntal texture.

re Daruton's q. i just let it as i live it; music is an everpresent constant for me, and just exists alongside the busyness of whatever i have to do, and if that means i don't do deep listening as i would wish to, i don't mind; i find memory does its job here, and retains or recalls things at other times so i become acquainted with pieces in a conveniant way, and they thrill me whether they're in the air around me or in my head (can't listn on headphones, sadly). the length and structure of most classioal pieces mean they are best enjoyed/made for the concert hall, in one go, note after note from the beginning right to the end, and listening to them on record is a most unnatural way of experiencing them, but as i can't be there most of the time, i accept this and allow myself to listen to them piecemeal, skipping to movements, my mind on something else etc. my playlists have loads of things queued up and i often just stick them on shuffle and get a taste of several centuries in a couple of hours.
however if im able to listen to the full evening concerts on radio 3 i will. which reminds me of the george crumb concert from the other night that i must listen to.

anyone like brian fernyhough? really loving his etudes transcendantales atm

Yes I like Brian Ferneyhough, and I think Etudes Transcendantales is the pinnacle of his work.

Went to the Wigmore Hall the other day -
Dvorjak: Sonatina for Violin and Piano in G op.100;
Shostakovich: Piano Trio in E minor op.67;
Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor op.50.

Utterly fantastic - the dusky bohemian sentimentality of the Dvorjak, the funereal passion of the Shostakovich, with the ethereal opening and closing strokes of the violin and tumultuous and rippling piano sections. The Tchaikovsky was a curiosity; a sweet opening theme, followed by a series of variations (one short one was very memorable - a tinkling music box theme) and a final section that starts off with the gaudy vivacity that seems characteristic (the gaudiness of his emotions that is) and which I like so much, before yet more funereal solemnity - dying, weeping piano notes and violin & cello strokes, reminiscent slightly of the final movement of his amazing sixth symphony.

An evening well spent, and ended up in the pub afterwards, where there was a chap playing the piano, a delightful coda, one that a composer like Constant Lambert, who loved pub and popular music (not faux pub folk stuff like Warlock) would have appreciated.

I've been on a Shostakovich kick lately; his Bach-inspired cycle of 24 preludes and fugues is some of my favorite solo piano ever. the string quartets are great too, but a bit demanding/overwhelming for the kind of casual listening I tend to engage in.

that sounds like a great night gatalie, who was the trio?

i am reading 'music ho!' by lambert. it is a riot tbqh.

you mentioning dvorak reminds me of this bit:

The 'nineties themselves had no music, properly speaking, and the writers of that period were consequently driven to desperate similies when trying to add appropriate musical touches. Poor Wilde in his search for the 'curiously coloured scarlet music' that his soul desired could find nothing better than the piano pieces of Dvorak...

Frogman-- tell me more about this George Crumb broadcast concert--?

'tis here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p8hp7

Echoes of Time and the River; Little suite for Christmas AD 1979 for piano; Star Child

still havent listened to it, ive been maxing out on ferneyhough all day

Wow his orchestral pieces are very rare in performance. I'll have to listen to that!

Henry, do you know the music of Jason Eckhardt? I suspect you'll get a kick out of his stuff if you're into Ferneyhough.

Frogman - It was the Razumovsky ensemble - not a permanent set of members I think, but a changing group of musicians who like chamber music.

Music Ho! is great, isn't it? A very good read.

The 'nineties themselves had no music, properly speaking, and the writers of that period were consequently driven to desperate similies when trying to add appropriate musical touches. Poor Wilde in his search for the 'curiously coloured scarlet music' that his soul desired could find nothing better than the piano pieces of Dvorak...

The 90s were weird. A lot of stuff which would soon give Wilde all the colors he could possibly need was just bubbling under. All of Europe was still transfixed by Wagner, but young composers were finally appearing who were stubborn and prickly enough to take what they wanted from Wagner at the same time as rejecting him.

Debussy's 'Faune' appeared, where luxuriance and stasis and ambiguity finally becomes an end in itself, and Mahler's earliest symphonies (if Wagner took Beethovenian symphonism to the opera, Mahler took Wagnerian mega-symphonism back to the concert hall, adding a much needed dose of irony and humor).

Meanwhile Satie on the piano had already shown the way out the side-door of the Wagner dilemma. The sardonic and crepuscular piano epigrams of Liszt's late years (1870s to his death in the mid 80s) had already cast figures of Schoenberg and Scriabin, but nobody heard Liszt's late visions until long after Schoenberg et al had done their thing...

hey I just want you kind thread regulars to know I bought a Sibelius symphony box set (Deutsche Grammaphon, Berlin Philharmonic, Karajan & Kamu) cause I lurk here. thanks for the informed discussion.

That set should serve u pretty well as a starter. Do know that Karajan prioritizes sweep and atmosphere and a kind of impressionist pallet in these works and you can check out others later if you want hyper-detail or mythic grunt. I don't think there are any dud performances in that set.

Some of you, I'm sure, know the Candide label LPs from the '70s. If you ever get a chance to hear the Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli album they put out in 1973, it's really something.

"Karajan is the only man who really understands my music."
— Jean Sibelius

Sibelius said things like that about Beecham too, and Robert Kajanus-- he was basically super psyched whenever someone recorded his music well and could be a bit of a quote whore (I seem to recall Messiaen was a bit like this as well)?

I wasn't denigrating Karajan's Sibelius in any way-- his take is v distinctive and strong; there's no one 'correct' angle on Sibelius.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/12/22/arts/music/22met1/articleInline.jpg

I can never resist a good James Levine photo.

Whoa where's his traditional sweat-towel?

haha yes re: Messiaen being a quote whore, too.

Been neglecting this thread as of late, as I haven't really been left alone long enough to listen to anything with any degree of attention. :\

Lately I've been breaking my usual habit with CM and listening to the Mozart symphonies (Pinnock/English Consort), for the first time in fact! No. 40 is played to death but still beautiful, 41 is very impressive (esp. the final movement), but so far I've enjoyed No. 38 the most. The slow movement is especially gorgeous. I love the "shiny" timbre of the HIP ensemble.

Daruton, one of my favorite classical discs of the year was a Profil disc of Sawallisch and the Bavarian Radio SO performing symphonies 35 and 41, a live radio broadcast performance. These are not HIP performances, of course, but exciting high-energy modern orchestra renditions that somehow just sound totally right. Finally a recording of the 'Haffner' symphony that I can totally get with (I am a bit obsessed with #35).

I have a lot to say but I just thought I'd chime in that Villa-Lobos' "Etude 11" may be my favourite piece to play on guitar. The Ginastera Sonata for Guitar is essential, of course.

I'm studying the Mozart piano sonatas at the moment. (Analysing, not playing.)

Stream from my tumblr: http://themagiclantern.tumblr.com/post/286006568

Leoš Janáček - String Quartet No. 2, ‘Intimate Letters’ - II. Adagio, performed by the Talich Quartet

:D

lately i've been digging on toru takemitsu - why cant other modern composers make dissonance and otherwordly melodies that are actually pleasant to listen to?

I know what you mean, but... a lot of them have!

Have been just blown away by my discovery of Prokofiev's 3rd Symphony (Muti/Philadelphia). I had avoided him before due to a bad experience with his piano concertos, but this is just amazing.

xxp Late Feldman? Rautavaara? Ligeti? Messiaen?

speaking of Rautavaara, I have a couple naxos discs (the one with Cantus Arcticus and the one with Angels and Visitations) that I bought a few years ago and never really got into, but I was listening to his Piano Concerto No. 1 the other day, and man does that thing cook! don't know how I never noticed it before.

I know what you mean, but... a lot of them have!

i suspected as much, but i rarely come across any - suggestions for more pleasant dissonance then?

Late Feldman? Rautavaara? Ligeti? Messiaen?

tbh i've never even heard of these guys - i'm not a complete noob when it comes to classical but there are huge gaps in my knowledge to be sure...

haha, it's cool; I followed a pretty similar trajectory, actually. I first heard of Takemitsu thru a piece that Leo Brouwer (really good cuban guitar composer) dedicated to him, and then basically followed Amazon.com recommendations to find other 20th century stuff I dug.

btw, not to belabor the point, but seriously, this is great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjMtX1GLkTc

Have been just blown away by my discovery of Prokofiev's 3rd Symphony (Muti/Philadelphia). I had avoided him before due to a bad experience with his piano concertos, but this is just amazing.

― You give me falun gong, four in the morning (Daruton), Tuesday, December 29, 2009 3:49 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

Prokofiev is easy: stay away from the early work. He went from being the Worst, most Unidiomatic composer (age 10-28, basically everything before the Classical Symphony) to being the poster child for idiomatic writing. His woodwind writing in Romeo & Juliet and Cinderella is so, so great.

Listening a lot to Britten's Turn of The Screw. I think it's the Britten/Pears version but I copied it to mp3 ages ago and lost track of some details so not 100% sure. In any case I prefer it to the Daniel Harding/Ian Bostridge version on Virgin, which I've been comparing it with. The kids' singing is more childlike in the Harding, thin and slightly insecure treble voices, which may be more authentic but I find them a bit irritating. Also Gergiev's cycle of Prokofiev symphonies, especially, by coincidence, the 3rd which is less familiar to me than 1,5 or 6. Quatuor Ebene's recordings of the Ravel/Debussy/Faure SQs - even if you think the first two of these in particular are overfamiliar it's worth checking out these revelatory performances.

I was lucky enough to see Turn Of The Screw performed in Seattle ~15 years ago; so eerie and awesome. It was my first live opera. I don't have the Britten/Pears or the Harding/Bostridge but the one on Collins Records with Langridge and Bedford conducting.

Prokofiev's 3rd symphony is tremendous fire-breating modernism. I think it's my favorite thing he did for orchestra (though I also stan for Romeo, Cinderella, the 2nd symphony and the succulent fairy-tale Violin Concertos. Like daruton, I have not had good mileage from his piano concertos, BUT BUT BUT as a solo piano composer he is one of the century's finest.

i suspected as much, but i rarely come across any - suggestions for more pleasant dissonance then?

George Crumb and Kajia Saariaho. Both utterly uncompromising, both intensely beautiful in an almost palpable way.

I can never resist a good James Levine photo.

― .gif of the magpie (Jon Lewis), Monday, December 21, 2009 9:32 PM

Saw him in action a few times this year, most recently when he returned from his post-surgical convalescence to conduct Tales of Hoffmann. That was a lot of fun.

messiahwannabe, you should check out Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time," Ligeti's Violin Concerto, Schnittke's Piano Quintet, Shostakovich's string quartets (all of them, really), String Quartet No. 4 by Peteris Vasks, Dutilleux's 'Ainsi la nuit' string quartet...

The textures of "La création du monde" by Darius Milhaud are so gorgeous.

@snowy, Thanks for posting the Rautavaara concerto; there's a composer I've always ignored & will now check out...

@messiahwannabe meanwhile, another noteworthy purveyor of "dissonance and otherwordly melodies that are actually pleasant to listen to" is Henri Dutilleux

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEYsu6xXWWQ

In addition to that quartet, favorites from Dutilleux include Tout un monde lointain (a cello concerto); L'arbre des songes (a violin concerto); Metaboles; and especially Timbres, espace, mouvement (go for the revision with the Interlude for cello ensemble)... I'm unfamiliar with the solo piano music.