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

oh wow. Huge presence, RIP indeed.

Classic for his old Philips traversals of Sibelius and Berlioz alone. I got to see him twice in all-Sibelius programs in the 00s and will always remember the power he conjured up.

carl nielsen

i remember listening to the helios overture on radio 3 during a period of insomnia in early 2008 and now i feel inclined to listen to it for the first time since then

are there any advocates here? thinking c0rey because he loves those nordic composers

jon, i suspect, given his proclivities

nielsen is fantastic. he probably gets short shrift bc his music is not as "difficult" as the more modernist of his contemporaries or as easy to enjoy as the more grandiose symphonists, but his music, esp the syms have the feeling of an extremely logical construction. his later music gets quite strange -- sparser, clipped, just within the bounds of tonality.

Symphonies 4 and 5 are as good as any music I know. The Aladdin suite has some amazing stuff in it, like the movement where he has multiple village bands playing at once (before he could have known what Ives was up to). The 6th symphony is deeply warped. Nielsen rocked.

So, no discussion of Caroline Shaw's "Passacaglia", which won the Pulitzer a few days ago?: http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2013/04/15/177348405/caroline-shaw-30-wins-pulitzer-for-music

I'm listening to the Roomful of Teeth recording available for streaming via Naxos Music Library. It sounds excellent, much better than that Youtube. This is a very nice piece, rich in timbral and textural variation, concisely and attractively structured, and something that I can actually put on often.

Wow, just noticed she beat out Aaron Jay Kernis and Wadada Leo Smith!

I've got to admit, though, I never really know what the criteria are for things like this. This piece is, as I said, very pleasant and listenable and well-crafted, but it's not necessarily exceptionally innovative or hugely ambitious. I haven't listened to the runners-up.

you've pretty much described all american contemporary classical music that gets any kind of acclaim

Really digging

Trying to find the rest now - that track is amazing.

Liking this album by Nadia Sirota a lot. American viola player overdubbing herself, covering Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzolli, and others...

This week I'm finally getting a breakthrough into the Baroque, courtesy of avant-garde oboist Heinz Holliger: his set of Zelenka's Tri Sonatas on ECM ae amazing. Its all witty with plenty of dances and extravagancies, without being in any overbearing. Not sure how he manages this, and I won't start to ask questions now.

Trio Sonatas

My trouble with classical is that it's not only the individual works, it's the player(s)/orchestra and the conductor that have such a huge bearing. Take the example of something like Beethoven's 9th; that piece may have hundreds of iterations available with an equally wide palette of flavors -- so, how can one sift through it all to find those few examples that really do it for you?

I have a small collection of Columbia Masterworks and Angel imprints that i enjoy, and have so far trusted that those guys back in the 50s and 60s did the necessary homework to make sure these pieces were given their due due justice, yet, i have no idea. I'm still on the lookout for guidance in this realm as i don't have the time or the money to explore the field with an equal amount of zeal that i've tapped to explore, roughly, all other musical forms.

Example. I may have heard 50 different iterations of Toccata and Fugue, but not a single one so resonates as a version i found from a "local" early 60s version played by some no-name geezer in his hometown church.

Really reaching a breakthrough on Baroque music. If I look at things from a contemp music lense everything becomes clear. Like it could be anything, so now I'm looking at the discog of Musica Antiqua koln and really feeling the Leclair Chamber Music recording.

But of course the key is 'Koln' => the city of Stockhausen and Kagel.

So last Thrus I went to Camden's Forge venue, watched Mark Knoop and EXAUDI's Juliet Fraser perform songs by Ives and Kagel, Shlomowitz and Laurence Crane. Just loved the combination of Ives' awkward romanticisms and Kagel's uninhibited joy in clowning around. A combination that simply worked and a good link between the early and later years of the 20th century. Juliet had not only to sing but act (with both body and voice), speak, and later on w/Shlomowitz, to read straight and fast.

Crane's piece was the one oddity: he started out in the 80s and I'm getting the sense there was a vogue then for writing playful pieces (this one has the winning countries of the Tour de France) as lyrics; pieces that rode against complexity perhaps. But the lyrics were sorta nothingy, an I prefer Kraftwerk's music.

Saw Mark Knoop and Ian Pace playing w/two percussionists (Nicholas Reed and Tenley Martin) at Goldsmiths last night, putting on an exciting programme, although I'm not sure the Nebulae in my mind has cleared yet to see what James Dillon was up to. I think its the (from the programme note) "nebulous character" that acted as a bit of a crutch, you couldn't see the "simple expansion and contraction" of the material at times, whereas in Ferneyhough's Sonata clarity was achieved, the two pianists really doing a great job in making sure the "cells" did their work on the audience. All those precise physicalities at ends of sections...the job of any performer is to make these structures clear and they do so. Shlomowitz Hi-Hat and me was a brilliant, witty performance piece, and all credit for programming this in as it wasn't as physical an experience, it reminded me of Hugh Metcalfe doing percussion and poetry at the Klinker over the years. Zaldua's Brumaires (apart from the Bartok the only other work in the programme to make use of the full line-up) was the weaker piece in the whole programme. I'm not sure we needed as many starts and stops, too many metallic explosions w/out seeing the joins: you could perhaps see this was a 'progression' on Ferneyhough and Dillon (and Bartok!) but I'm not sure how exactly this is meant to operate as commentary on Marx's text, in the end leaves an impression of a piece that is anxious to be seen as 'progression' whereas Shlomowitz there was no commentary (no programme note on it apart from who it was written for), he's really trying to work at something else (as was the case with the songs of his that were played at the Forge), and all the better for it, without lapsing into gimmickry. Possibly unfair to compare both but I do so as they wrote the younger pieces on the programme.

Hey classical heads, I have a bit of a question to you. I was listening to Mendelssohn's Liebe ohne Worte, and noticed that the tune titled Frühlingsliede ("Spring Song") sounded very familiar. I'm sure it's been used a lot in TV and movies, but Wikipedia doesn't list any examples. IMDb says it's in a bunch of Warner Brothers cartoons, but I'm sure there other examples as well. Can you recall any?

Sorry for the typos, it's "Liede ohne Worte", and "Frühlingslied".

that is such an excellent question because it has been used so much that it's impossible to think of even one example, it feels like. like it's "morning scene" default music, but is there a specific place it actually got that rep? hmm

Yeah, I guess it's so widely used I've just picked it up without consciously acknowledging where I heard it. It's interesting though, with most "stock classical tunes used in movies/TV", I can name at least one example of their usage, like "Morning Mood" in The Simpsons, "Ride of the Valkyries" in Apocalypse Now, "Carmina Burana" in Jackass The Movie, etc, but with this one I can't think of a single one.

yeah i'd guess that originated w/ carl stalling, i'm not even sure i've seen it anywhere outside of warner bros cartoons (and if i did they were definitely referencing warner bros cartoons) but i can imagine once they'd done that gag it was a useful well to go back to. obligatory - http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/looney-tunes-classics/n10049/

Can't watch that video in Finland, what's it about?

Pretty sure I've heard the Mendelssohn as "morning" music in a Buster Keaton short (The Scarecrow?) Music in silent films is highly variable, and often just a bunch of classical things performed solo and strung together haphazardly, which is perhaps why IMDB wouldn't list it for something like that at least.

Enjoying

http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/imgs/s300x300/4791180.jpg

RIP Janos Starker. Probably not enough interest on ILM to start an entire thread, but I am currently digging the hell out of this:

http://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS-3WsEMvX4usO_iqfc149ba4wC2sz5pn3UzuZ1_inqIX74qpX_Iw

i take it all back about band of susans. Love Agenda is killing me at the moment. my apologies.

RIP Janos Starker. Probably not enough interest on ILM to start an entire thread, but I am currently digging the hell out of this:

i take it all back about band of susans. Love Agenda is killing me at the moment. my apologies.

― scott seward, Wednesday, 1 May 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Apols accepted :)

is coptic light supremely ~unheimlich~ or is it just because i am reading wiki pages about rare & lurid & lethal fungal diseases

it is not chill by any means

it becomes unnerving with duration even though it's fairly short for feldman

biber's passacaglia for unacommpanied violin is wonderful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M9BvpikuAk

For the first time really in my life, I've been diving headlong into Romantic-era symphonic music the past few weeks. I played tuba quite seriously for eight years when I was a student, so these aren't completely uncharted waters for me. But I'm in a much different place now, and I think my ability to appreciate these works has deepened considerably.

Mahler's 9th has been a particular obsession. I recall being floored by a performance of it by the Virginia All-State Orchestra (a bunch of high school kids!) when I was in the All-Virginia Band back in 1998, and rediscovering it has re-lit fires in my brain. This is all classical fan 101 stuff I realize, but just hearing how different conductor/orchestra combinations can bring out such different emotional, structural, textural, etc., nuances from the piece is astonishing. The one I keep coming back to is Carlo Maria Giulini's recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1977; there's something meditative and ethereal about it. In fact, I adore all the Giulini I've found--Bruckner's 9th, Brahms's 4th, and Beethoven's 7th.

I've also been digesting Mahler 9's from Otto Klemperer/New Philharmonia, Bruno Walter/Vienna (1938 version), and Georg Solti/London. This stuff sounds incredible on LP (maybe just because my cartridge cost twice what my CD player did!), and it's kind of amazing how much classical is out there on vinyl for the taking--and not for very much money. This is such a rich and involving piece that every performance--even if it's not my personal favorite--brings out things that others don't.

I'm rambling, but man does digging into these long, involving, deep works ever remind one of the finitude and scarcity of free time. I feel like I could pick four or five symphonies I really love and spend years and years just digesting all the different renditions. But then I'd miss out on so much! It's all so anxiety-inducing. Anyhow, in addition to Mahler's 9th (and 3rd, 5th, and 6th), I've also been loving Bruckner's 8th and 9th, Sibelius's 4th, Brahms's 1st and 4th (how had I never listened to Brahms before?!)... And I'm trying to figure out who to dive into next.

Such a great feeling - have been on a similar roll since the end of last year, albeit with different emphases. Enjoy!

http://bangonacan.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/BIG/death-speaks-front-cover.jpg

try the nielsen syms clarke, partic 4 and 5

Bought a Musical Heritage Society album of Purcell overtures on cassette at a thrift store today to listen to in the car.

Played Khachaturian's "Violin Concerto in Dm" a coupla weeks ago.

Atembogen and Five pieces for Organ and tape are frieghteningly good.

Available here off this double set: http://www.schott-music.com/shop/resources/598610.jpg

Great youtube clip of Heinz playing Mozart's Concerto for Oboe, must've been the hottest ticket in town...assuming he doesn't play anymore.

Clouds, thanks... I found a David Zinman/Rotterdam Orchestra recording of Nielsen's 5th on LP yesterday, and will spin it today.

Derp, that was my Janacek Sinfonietta I was thinking of; I mean Horenstein/New Philharmonia on the Nielsen.

There's really nothing like Mahler, is there? I mean, his has to be some of the strangest music ever composed. I find myself constantly asking, "How did he take it THERE from where it was? How did he think to overlay those instruments, those rhythms? What is this texture he's created? What is the emotional content of this? Is he joking with this?" The music moves and breathes and pulsates as if one single organism rather than a bunch of interlocking parts driving toward a resolution, but not in that drift-minimalism way I'm so used to. I cannot get my head all the way around it, but I love it.

Very interested to get into Mahler.

I feel like I could pick four or five symphonies I really love and spend years and years just digesting all the different renditions.

I couldn't do that (my ear wouldn't be that discerning) but there are certain pieces I could just spend lifetimes on. They provide immersion like little else.

Am on a good run:

Alban Berg - Pieces for Clarinet and Piano together w/ several pieces by Bernd-Alois Zimmermann (Canto di Speranza, Cello Concerto, Metamorphose, Presence, Sonata for solo viola and Tempus Loquendi (flutes)). Both stand perfectly alongise one another: they are hyper-expressive and both undercut with bits of music not from classical (jazz, 'film music', cabaret). This invites BAD WRITING as people will talk how postmodernist it all is.

Kevin Volans White Man Sleeps, Mbira, She Who Sleeps, Leaping Dance.. Really like this, it sounds careful about what its inferring (years earlier than Paul Simon's Graceland if you're looking for an example within pop) but it doesn't let that care strangle the potential for expression and expansion. A great fusion.

Andriessen - Die Staat and Workers Union. Love the ending of the latter, could be Neil Young...he's so much better than Glass or Reich, really my idea of minimalism, its full of politics.

Oh man, if you're into Berg you should definitely check out Mahler's 9th and 10th. As you can see from the above, I'm deeply enamored of the 9th, especially the outside movements. He's really pushing against the limits of tonality, but not at all in a dry or forced manner--it's just gorgeous, flowing, and unpredictable but uncannily right-feeling. Need to investigate Andriessen myself.

#9 is as good as late romanticism gets, there's a late karajan digital recording i like a lot

I'm tempted to say it's as good as symphonic writing gets, period! I haven't heard a Karajan version of it yet--I should. I have mixed feelings about Karajan, but I think the Bruckner of his I've heard is unstoppable. I just got a used CD of Eliahu Inbal and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra doing M9, and it's really, really good--a somewhat emotionally restrained reading, but the tempos are perfect and the production sound is just incredible.

XXXXXXXXXXXXP = Saw a performance of Death Speaks at the weekend w/ Nico Muhly and Nadia Sirota, was ace.

MareNest - were you at the Barbican thing?

I'm still mulling on the Philip Glass études from last night. Overall of the three concerts I saw over the weekend, it was a bit hit and miss. Some of the good bits were very good, but then there was some really dull bits too.