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

just got a huge stack of 70's/80's New World Records vinyl. looking forward to digging in. 20th century americana up the wazoo. gonna start with William Parker (baritone) (with piano and string quartet) doing the vocal works of Ernest Bacon, Robert Evett, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Lee Hoiby, John Jacob Niles, and Ned Rorem.

Wish I could go to that Elision concert! *jealous*

now playing: Frank Lewin - Innocence and Experience (a cycle of songs from poems by william blake)

soprano and chamber ensemble. don't think i've ever heard any Lewin before. or i don't remember hearing any.

(the other side of this record is music for the new family of violins. you know, those violins made by carleen hutchins.)

(oh and i like this blake thing. seems properly blakeian.)

been constantly playing khachaturian's adgio from gayane (as heard in 2001). so damn beautiful. i could listen to this every hour for the rest of my life

Have kind of burned out on the Stravinsky box set for the time being, so decided to switch it up:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/10/f3/7f4592c008a0ae53b0cda010.L.jpg

Brilliant music that seems to spring from the symphonic tradition that goes from Beethoven to Sibelius and Nielsen. It's complex, emotional, classicist, and has an inexorable logic overriding all the musical material.

arvo part - Music for Unaccompanied Choir (amazing)

andriessen/california ear unit - zilver

Brahms - Violin Concerto (Itzhak Perlman/Barenboim)
Webern - Complete String Trios and Quartets (Arditti String Quartet)

You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

I cannot emphasize this man's greatness enough

@subversive time travel (FACK) re:can i have some classical recommendations? i wanna listen to some, but i have no clue what to listen to:

classical 101, first weeks listening assignments:

http://www.amazon.com/Pachelbels-Canon-Favorites-Johann-Pachelbel/dp/B0000025TV/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516347&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Lute-Suites-1-Essential-Classics/dp/B000069JK1/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516388&sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Requiem-Augér-Bartoli-Wiener/dp/B0000041ZS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516502&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Holst-Planets-Gustav/dp/B0000041S7/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516550&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Puccini-Pavarotti-Harwood-Karajan-Highlights/dp/B0000041TR/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267516644&sr=1-4

@helpful "dissonant but pleasant" suggestions: thanks, searching now for several of those atm

@everyone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Boccherini i've been digging onto a collected works comp a cd or 2 at a time and it's all good; this guy's not especially innovative but his works are v easy on the ears

rock and roll, stick it to the record companies moment circa 1761:

"In 1761 Boccherini went to Madrid, where he was employed by Infante Luis Antonio of Spain, younger brother of King Charles III. There he flourished under royal patronage, until one day when the King expressed his disapproval at a passage in a new trio, and ordered Boccherini to change it. The composer, no doubt irritated with this intrusion into his art, doubled the passage instead, leading to his immediate dismissal"

How is Sibelius' 4th so impossibly beautiful?

Tonight, I am obsessed with Hans Krasá's "children's opera" 'Brundibar'. It's so lovely.

Never even heard of the guy, ty! Will investigate.

Is he 20th century Czech?

btw one thing I'd really like (that I have no idea whether exists) is a service/rssfeed/infocentral/whatevs that informs on premiere ie first-time recordings of "classical" works.

Of course, I want info on new works properly CD-recorded first and foremost, but also interwar archivism, (1/2/3)-viennese-school revisionism, minor scores showing up in attics, diggings-ups in Renaissance music, or whatever. It is a bit silly, but I loves the importance/triviality stuff that comes with first recordings. :-D

xpost re: Sibelius' 4th--

Because even though it is obsessively based on tritones and whole tone melodies it isn't all 'ooooh scary kids!' about it? It's like music from a world where tritones and whole tone scales are simply right and natural.

So many moments in the 4th when I just have to stop whatever I'm doing and close my eyes. And what a fucking ending.

anatol that would be really cool. Fanfare should add a tag to that effect in their online review archive. Maybe I'll write to them suggesting it.

Then again, sometimes it can be so hard for a writer to say for sure something hasn't been recorded before. There were a shit-ton of weird indie classical labels already in the 1950s...

Good point about not really knowing, but "first on CD" should be close to verifiable, possible and doable. And if someone turns up and says "hey no we actually released this on CD in 1989 you are not first ner ner", then is anyone the worse off? No.

My wishes about this was really about newly-written works; thing is (sorry to drag anyone into my own obsessions) I have deep deep worries abt the academization of the classical ("classical") tradition; new major ("major") works of eg poetry appear in academic press, to be read by academics in exactly same positions at other institutions... I wouldn't like the COUGH COUGH ivory tower model to carry the day or something. Am very conflicted, cannot deny the might of Boulez or Stockhausen or Berio or those guys, but I feel like clearing the air in my head and just sometimes... listen to music without having a 16-ton weight of Tradition or Non-Tradition (aka fucking Ideology) above my head.

Heheh, I've had a few glasses, as you will notice. Want want want info on new stuff.

New works written in the last decade which do not require 16 ton weight:

Kalevi Aho, last few symphonies on BIS label, especially the most recent disc titled 'Rituals'.

Kajia Saariaho, Graal-Theatre for violin and ensemble (multiple recordings available already)(or anything else by Saariaho!)

Per Norgard, 6th symphony on Danacord label.

These are certainly contemporary composers, with all that implies, BUT you can approach their works purely instinctively.

All of the above are from Scandinavia/the Baltic-- that wasn't on purpose--!

does anyone here like milton babbitt's 'transfigured notes'

Hurrah mr Gibbon Man! Will try. Have pre-softened spot for Saariaho already; Nørgård & Aho I know by name only so far.

Is he 20th century Czech?

Jewish origin but yes, lived/died in Prague. The opera was... "written first in 1938 and revised
in the Nazi transit camp Terezín (or Theresienstadt in German), for children’s choir with ten solo vocal roles and a chamber ensemble of strings, percussion, piano, and guitar." You can hear Akt 1, scene 1here.

Re: Sibelius 4th

Because even though it is obsessively based on tritones and whole tone melodies it isn't all 'ooooh scary kids!' about it? It's like music from a world where tritones and whole tone scales are simply right and natural.

Yesssssssssss. It's so magical.

-

Anyhow, speaking of Terezín, I'm kind of obsessed with Sylvie Bodorova's Terezin Ghetto Requiem for Baritone and String Quartet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5TjPMb9Ovk&feature=related

does anyone here like milton babbitt's 'transfigured notes'
*raises hand*

(but not as much as the solo and chamber pieces, generally)

it's most unlike anything else of his i know and more obviously alluring than his earlier fundie serialism stuff, some of which makes early stockhausen sound like saint saens

Maybe. The only commercial recording is so full of wrong notes, it's hard to say for sure...

they had to find chamber players because orchestral players found it too taxing iirc? can't imagine it will be improved upon any time soon so who knows

any other recommendations within that american serialist sort of vein?

xfigured notes history: commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, but rejected by them as "unplayable." Gunther Schuller collects a group of freelance string players, schedules 12 rehearsals and two performances, all at his own expense. The recording is pieced together from the best bits of the two live performances. It is possibly the most accurate recording of any orchestral work by Babbitt, although the bar is low. Schuller's liner notes are rather touching actually:

... there was little chance that the resultant performances would be technically letter-perfect... Herewith then, GM Recordings presents the results of [this] "valiant effort", less-than-perfect though they may be. (A little honesty in liner notes is, I think, not a bad idea! Everything can't be "the greatest".) The performance of the Babbitt is, at least, very 'representative' of the work, in mood and character, and in all its polyphonic, rhythmic/metric and structrual splendor. To boot, it has the drama and excitement of a live performance -- coughs and a creaking podium and all.

I should give the piece another chance, hadn't thought about it in years. If the lyrical, subliminally Romantic side of Babbitt appeals to you most, I would also recommend his chamber pieces Groupwise and Consortini.

I've said more here and here (focusing on Carter)

My how I love low-register reeds!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYQYT2F_gwY

I'll look for "Transfigured Notes". "Soli e Duettini" for flute and guitar is an almost surprisingly lyrical Babbitt piece. I also really like "For Brass". A lot of intensity to that.

Oh, obviously, "Philomel" is my favourite!

I'm listening to "Transfigured Notes" now though (on Youtube!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATtsF8Hr9gU&feature=PlayList&p=73890135EECBD3F1&index=0&playnext=1) and it is almost shocking that this is the same composer.

Listened now to David Starobin's performance of "Sheer Pluck", which is kind of exhilarating to a geek like me.

man, i kinda overdosed the last couple of weeks on the big stash of New World Records albums that came into the store. all from the 70's and 80's. like, a zillion american composers i'd never heard. i should have taken notes. some stuff was good, but there was a lot of not very memorable stuff.

i'm going ancient this week. waaaaaay ancient.

Wish I could go to that Elision concert! *jealous*

― Enoki Doki (Paul in Santa Cruz), Monday, February 8, 2010 Bookmark

There is another one at King's Place tomorrow night - a timely revival.

This is late but I'll say here that last month's was welcome for the Lim and Hubler pieces alone. It was a mixed affair though. The Barrett was exasperating, the more I see combinations for instruments and electronics the more I feel these are incompatible. I Know there is plenty out there that does work. The Evan Johnson was the best of the ones I hadn't heard before.

This Friday there is a lunchtime recital by Ian Pace - Brahms and Lachenmann.

scored big at the thrift store today. everything either mint or near mint. been listening all day.

handel - 12 concerti grossi op.6 - english chamber orchestra/raymond leppard (philips)

jan dismas zelenka - lamentationes jeremiae prophetae - ars redivia/milan munclinger (nonesuch)

heinrich schutz - cantiones sacrae vol. 2 - gachinger kantorei/helmuth rilling (mhs)

dietrich buxtehude - four solo cantatas - bach collegium/helmuth rilling (nonesuch)

schubert - symphony no.7 in e major - radio symphonie orchester berlin/gabriel chmura (schwann/musica mundi)

sibelius - the tempest - royal liverpool philharmonic orchestra/sir.charles groves (emi)

telemann - 3 concerti (trumpet/oboe/recorder) - the telemann society/richard schulze (vox)

telemann - suites d'orchestre (don quichotte/l'mperiale/l'espiegle/la bouffonne) - orchestre de chambre de rouen/albert beaucamp (philips)

telemann - three cantatas (der schulmeister/die landlust/von geliebten augen) - collegium aureum (basf/harmonia mundi)

bach/telemann - actus tragicus/trauerkantate - collegium aureum (basf/harmonia mundi)

telemann - musique de table/tafelmusik - austrian tonkuenstler orchestra/dietfried bernet (mhs)

michel corrette - concertos comiques - antiqua musica/jacques roussel (philips)

mouret/lully - ceremonial music from the court of louis XIV (mhs)

jean-baptiste lully - ballet d'alcidiane et polexandre (excerpts) (mhs)

jean-baptiste lully - te deum (mhs)

frottole - works by mantovano, cara, bartolomeo, tromboncino, pesenti, milanese, and fogliano (candide)

william byrd - madrigals, motets, anthems and keyboard music (mhs)

edward elgar - symphony no.2 in e flat (enigma)

carl maria von weber - der freischutz (basf)

handel - violinsonaten (da camera magna)

baroque flute music - roswitha staege (flute) (odeon)

gavinies/leclair - 18th century french violin concertos (philips)

elgar/williams - enigma variations/fantasia (capitol)

jean gilles - gilles requiem (mhs)

bellini, molique, moscheles, reitz - oboe and flute works played by holliger/nicolet (philips)

vivaldi - five concerti (mhs)

vivaldi - four concerti (mhs)

schumann - compete works for piano vol.1 (mhs)

fanfare - philip jones brass ensemble (argo)

beethoven - incidental music to goethe's egmont (mhs)

16th century court and village dances (cbs)

palestrina - masses and motets (odyssey)

joannes ockeghem - requiem (hnh)

hotteterre - musique de joye (amphion)

jean gilles - requiem (westminster)

schutz - musikalische exequien (vanguard)

jean-noel hamal - in exitu israel (mhs)

andre campra - requiem mass (mhs)

monteverdi - vespers of the blessed virgin mary (vanguard)

carl nielsen - saul & david (unicorn)

joachim/godard - concertos (candide)

wilhelm stenhammar - symphony no.1 in f (bis)

josef foerster - symphony no.4 in c minor (nonesuch)

max reger - string trios (basf)

respighi - trittico botticelliano (argo)

marschner - der vampyr (voce)

glinka - you know, stuff by glinka (vox)

novak/suk - string quartets (crossroads)

nielsen - symphony no.5/saga-drom (nonesuch)

ippolitov-ivanov/glazunov - more stuff (mhs)

babbitt/bavicchi - old stuff (cri)

dvorak/vorisek - czech stuff (philips)

heinrich marschner - hans heiling (melodram)

rachmaninoff - symphony no.1 (philips)

sibelius - the tempest - royal liverpool philharmonic orchestra/sir.charles groves (emi)
I have four or five recordings of this, but not this one. Some of my favorite music by Sibelius, and one of the very last things he wrote. Little swatches of mysterious essence.
schumann - compete works for piano vol.1 (mhs)
Who is this, Jorg Demus? You can find some great performances on these old MHS cheapies.
joannes ockeghem - requiem (hnh)
This should fulfill your 'ancient' agenda. Such strange music. Recommend weed.
monteverdi - vespers of the blessed virgin mary (vanguard)
We were just talking about this on another thread!
nielsen - symphony no.5/saga-drom (nonesuch)
Scott you will love Nielsen's 5th. Unless this is a shitty performance. But even then you'll be able to tell you SHOULD love it.

"wilhelm stenhammar - symphony no.1 in f (bis)"

this is wonderful! never even heard of him.

Stenhammar had one of the best composer names, that's for sure. I've always feared that if I listened to him he wouldn't live up to that name.

Such strange music. Recommend weed.

haha OTM

Let us know what the Reger string trios are like, Scott, when you get a chance to listen.

haha awesome nick, P

:-)

was listening to the short german opera der freischutz - the marksman - and enjoying the overture a lot. i know nothing of carl maria von weber and it makes me think i should look out for some of his orchestral work. there can't be much as it seems he died at the age of 40 (1786-1826). anyway, if you are looking for something REALLY german, this might be for you. break out the schnapps.

"Such strange music. Recommend weed."

i have some records of ancient spanish music that are truly stonerific. i'll have to dig around for titles. hypnotic vocal stuff that 4AD should have reissued when they were at their mock-baroque height.

oh man this french candide pressing of a joachim violin concerto sounds amazing. it would make an analog lover out of anyone. maybe even geir since it is the concerto "a la hongroise". aaron rosand on violin.

Weber didn't do much substantial orchestral stuff outside of his operas. The overtures from his operas stand on their own pretty well though (Freischutz overture = awesome, Oberon and Euryanthe ones also great, can't remember the others). Maybe look out for a Weber Overtures collection. I should do the same!

As a point of trivia, Der Freischutz and Tom Waits- The Black Rider are derived from the same source material.

Also Liszt made a solo piano fantasy out of Der Freischutz which is super fun.

it's a nice day and i have my door open and i'm blasting the mozarabic antiphonary of silos onto main street. nothing says hip happening record store like 7th century spanish monk music!

Tell them its the new Om record.

sometimes its all in the pickin'. put on american string quartet doing dvorak string quartets and...blehhhh. just sounded bleh. by the book bleh.

so now i'm playing lenny bernstein doing ives symphony no.2 instead. so not bleh.