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

Be sure to post here once you've listened to them. :)

Now playing on LP: Handel Recorder Sonatas, Op. 1 (Gustav Leonhardt, August Wenzinger, Hans-Martin Linde)

NP:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/fa/01/c109c060ada0dcc09e0fc110.L.png

I used to work in that building!

Where is it?

It's the Renzo Piano tower at IRCAM (Paris).

(And I only worked there for about six months way back in 2001.)

That's really cool though. I really hope to visit IRCAM one day.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41qB4N9j12L._SS500_.jpg

Revisiting this set, my first complete Sib. I'm listening to the disc with syms. 5-7.

This is the best music ever btw.

Buxtehude, baby.

Cool, I don't know much by him other than a few organ pieces that are in the Gustav Leonhardt box set. What do you recommend?

Listening:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/16/ba/33519833e7a0ab8c18713110.L.jpg

LvB - Große fuge
Conlon Nancarrow - String Quartet No. 3
Ruth Crawford-Seeger - String Quartet
Roger Reynolds - Coconico... A Shattered Landscape
Iannis Xenakis - Tetras

that's a great cd, my fav version of grosse fuge, xenakis and c-s pieces excellent

Yes, and the Nancarrow is a lot of fun and the Reynolds piece was a surprise, I'd never heard him until now.

Tonight saw Cliff Colnot conduct the Civic Orchestra in Sibelius's 4th and the 2nd suite from Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé. Orchestra sounded good but the tempi in the Sib were... weird, but the Ravel went off without a hitch.

I don't even know if William Brittelle's new Television Landscape is even "classical," apart from the fact that the whole thing is notated, but I don't know where else to mention it on ILM. It's really fantastic.

I listened to a bit, would probably say it's pop, but pop in the vein of Van Dyke Parks with really good arrangements. The vocals are a little off-putting.

Went to my first recital in an age last night. Highlight was a piece for violin and piano, played by Tim Parkinson and Angharad Davies.

From the pre-performance intro Tim gave you can conclude that, if it was composed in the 1850s people would have dismissed simply as out of tune, but because of the baggage that history accumulates over time something like this, executed with a straight face, could work. I actually like the violin passages at the end where it was reaching certain frequencies where it sounded so out of tune. The old notes but not in this way.

When a young group gets together for their first gig its their naivety and perhaps their ignorance (and that you know of this) but also enthusiasm that makes anyone listening invest emotions to make up for any gaps in tech. But here you know they are aware of history and that they have a technique. Usually I'd dismiss but there was almost a serious attempt to codify naivety. Except that its the lack of investment on part of your ear that is felt the most.

I guess I wanted to feel cheated, somehow.

Also heard a performance of Earle Brown's December 1952 (piano/saxophone). Made much more of an impression than any recording.

Neat, I went to a similar concert on Sunday held in a loft and put on by a few local musicians — the guy who put it together is a composer/pianist. He played some short piano pieces by a Uruguayan composer whose name I can't remember, a piece by French composer Allain Gaussin (of whom I'd not heard before then) and Feldman's Piano Piece 1956 A. After that a trio played improvisational electroacoustic music with electric guitar, amplified flute and a home-built instrument that had various objects amplified like metal springs, a pewter chalice, hair combs and small pieces of metal that made a sound like a thumb piano. After that a quartet of clarinet, flute, piano and modular synthesizer played some improvisational music with a more structured character.

Listening this week:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41i5lJ%2B1guL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

NP:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pPp3YFGAL._SS500_.jpg

Martha Argerich playing Bach's Partita no. 2 in C minor and English Suite no. 2 in A minor... beautiful and very brilliant

http://www.musicweb-international.com/film/2001/Aug01/Dekalog.jpg

Re: the Nono I posted above — remarkable stuff. The early Due Esspressioni seems to be an extension of Webern's muted dynamics and constantly shifting instrumental color. There are some really unique instrument doublings in the latter half of the piece.

A Carolo Scarpa is surprisingly Scelsi-like, gravitating around a single tone and alternating stretches of silence with exclamations from the orchestra (with a hefty percussion battery).

Post-Praeludium is scored for tuba and live electronics, but is surprisingly delicate and quite beautiful really. The actions of the player come back as echoes and eventually the lines pile up, weave across and interact with each other. Very ghostly.

"fragmente-stille" is famous. I've heard the Arditti recording but it's been probably four years, so I couldn't compare, but I remember the piece as being extremely static and dull — so funny how our perceptions change. There is so much drama in this piece and I find it excitingly varied and engaging. Need to hear the other recordings.

Or see fragmente-stille live. Saw the Arditti play that with one of Schoenberg's quartet and it works really well!

I hope that I'll be able to in my lifetime! Where did you see the Ardittis?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51r65Ld7cfL._SS500_.jpg

Scando-tonal syms from a composer that died too young (only 64). Neither are incredibly groundbreaking but both are very personal and unique. The 3rd is surprisingly bleak. He eventually wrote a total of 8 syms and 11 string quartets (which I especially want to hear).

Corey - At the QEH in London.

Listening to this week:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NR6KVZfcL._SS500_.jpg

The Ligeti (from his bizarre-yet-accessible late style) I know and love, but I'm new to the Nørgård pieces. I'm a huge Nørgård fan and think he's one of the greatest composers living today.

Listened:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411xebUY1CL._SS400_.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knqsx6_Ku1Q

― Gorecki or Go Home (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, September 15, 2010 4:48 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm foolishly attempting to learn this one. It's probably going to be an all-year affair, and I usually seem to tackle Prokofiev, get halfway through and give up. So we'll see.

I was a fairly serious pianist when much younger, and I worked on Prokofiev 3, but getting halfway and giving up was my speciality, too. But it's a great piece, even though the energetic and lyrical sides seem stitched together awkwardly at a few points. I hope you stick with it! What else are you playing?

Agree about the stitching together aspect, tho it seems that's true of a lot of the Prokofiev I like.

As of right now, this is the only P piece I've managed to make it all the way through (and not, obv, up to speed):

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

Right now, mostly working on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJgku8ssPZI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlNfF7be3kY

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYp53nPchp4

If you play a recital I want to be there! Lotus Land is the only Cyril Scott piece I know, thanks to this anthology:

http://assets.sheetmusicplus.com/product/Look-Inside/covers/3603869.jpg

(Which has a much plainer cover design in the edition I own.)

Oy, that I could ever get enough pieces in recital condition at the same time! (What else is in that anthology?)

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/An-Anthology-Of-Piano-Music-Vol-4-The-Twentieth-Century/3603869

Click on the "Song [sic] List" tab, then click "see all..."

It's been so long since I've played Kabalevsky.

This was one of the first songs I remember playing that I remember also liking playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub872y6IS_g

I guess I have been partial to the Russians from day one.

So cuet! His feet don't even reach the pedals. I never played that one but I did play the Sonatina in the Anthology I mentioned above.

Listening to later today:

http://home.swipnet.se/sonoloco2/Rec/Stockhausen/IR05.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do1NJL4SIwE

Musical-score videos of obscure repertoire on Youtube are my favorite thing ever!

Serious LOLs -- the Kapustin Etude at ca. 0:20 is EXACTLY the theme song of The Price is Right.

Haha, a YouTube comment says the same thing. I hear it in the melody, but only fleetingly. (Talk about obscure, this guy's stuff isn't even available to buy in the U.S.)

http://automaticheartbreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/SomeoneWillTakeCare-Cover.jpg

is this disc classical? it's interesting, it feels classical in some ways, and it's on the new amsterdam label (a classical label iirc).

horrible cover, btw.

I think so — I've been following his Twitter for a while. He usually has interesting things to say about queer rights and music. That is a really bad cover though.

Oh, that's a nice discovery for me. Not a million miles away from Owen Pallett's Heartland. (But leaning a bit towards Bang-on-a-Can.)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ciGVdi3SL._SS400_.jpg

Maybe it's poor form to post this, but it's the main reason I haven't been listening to more of other people's music lately. I guess I'm "currently digging" it; at any rate I'm relieved to have finally finished it after two months of pretty intensive work.

MIDI mockup of a new composition for solo piano

I hope maybe some of the folks who hang out in this thread and who enjoy stuff like Carter, Babbitt, Wolpe, Rakowski, and Imbrie will enjoy my work as well.