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

I'm also a bit sceptical that this is the biggest or most difficult symphony there is.

guessing that mahlers 8th has been performed by the titular 1000 at some stage?

Currently digging Beethoven's early string quartets, specifically the six that make up Opus 18.

I know it's the late ones that are supposed to be the real hot potatoes, but they're as yet a bit too impenetrable for a novice like myself.

all the beethoven SQs are brilliant. esp love the rasumovsky quartets and the "serioso" and "harp" (which seem of a pair to me)

Early beethoven quartets and sonatas are amazing, no qualifiers.

Just watched Ken Russell's ABC Of British Music on youtube, it's all over the place but there were quite a few things that really impressed me.
He lists loads of neglected and forgotten composers and he makes a long list of music critics he hates.

Of the neglected composers, Elizabeth Maconchy stuck out the most.
I was pleased he liked Havergal Brian so much.

He gives a preview of Thomas Dolby playing music for Russell's Gothic, which sounded way better than I remembered.

A real standout was Nigel Kennedy performing part of his collaboration with David Heath. It has mixtures of electronic and rock. I looked for the track on youtube and David Heath has uploaded that whole album, but in a new mix that the record company wasn't interested in reissuing(he was unhappy with his original mix). Great stuff.

But the thing that really bowled me over was a clip of Cornelius Cardew. Wow! If only I can find that piece easily enough. I hope.

Here's a long but incomplete list of the things covered in the documentary.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1025804/synopsis.html

Along with his freakout Liszt and Tchaikovsky movies, Russell made biopics of Debussy and Delius, both of whom are all time top 10 composers for me.

I haven't heard Dolby's Gothic score in decades. I remember being disappointed; I was a massive t dolb fan then.

must remember to rewatch the mahler biopic sometime soon. the devils dvd has some fascinating extras with film of maxwell davies recording the soundtrack.

That documentary shows parts of his Delius film.

Since Sorabji gave the premiere in Glasgow in 1930, there have been just eight further performances of Opus Clavicembalisticum, or OC as it is, apparently, affectionately known. Now there has been a ninth, for Jonathan Powell has spent the past six months getting to grips with this monstrous piece and presented the results at the Purcell Room. The concert lasted five hours, with just one interval. While it would be good to report that it was a worthwhile experience, in which Powell's extraordinary powers of stamina, concentration and technique were properly rewarded, that, sadly, would not be true.

The programme, at least, provided plenty to while away the hours, with tributes to Sorabji from his admirers and a descriptive analysis of OC by the composer Ronald Stevenson, which never used one overheated metaphor when six could be crammed into the same sentence. The cadenzas in OC, you'll be pleased to know, "set off the architectonic counterpoint of the fugues and may be likened to the rose-quartz Aravuli mountains that rise behind the Temple of Ranpur". Such rubbish does Sorabji no favours, but then his empty-headed note- spinning can only be described in hyperbolic terms. Why a fine musician like Powell is bothering with it I cannot imagine.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/sep/18/classicalmusicandopera

Knut Nystedt has died, 99 years old. :( I think I've sung this with three different choirs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5I4UQV0Ka0

Gerald Nedarc
1 week ago

When we look to our history of violence and cold acts against humanity through the ages we must also note some of the godly creations, such as this Pachelbel Cannon in D minor as a buffer zone to allow us to be proud of our human heritage. Follow the ten commandments and listen to music like this and you can rise above the carnage of human greed and depravity.

HB Beethoven, my buddy at all times. You are even now a living human IMO.

this thread, or an earlier incarnation of it, got me into Scriabin a few years back and he became one of my favorites for piano -- but I didn't pay much attention to any of his orchestral music until I got the 1st symphony on a disc where it was paired with a vocal piece by Rachmaninov. I bought that CD for the Rocky but ended up playing it enough to really grow fond of the Scriabin symphony so now I'm digging into his orchestral stuff -- tonight, Symphony No. 3, USSR State TV and Radio Orchestra under Evgeny Svetlanov with Sviatoslav Richter on piano

Yeah I've v much neglected Scriabin orchestral in favor of piano stuff too. I shouldn't do that because I generally chime pretty strongly with late-romantic mystical gigantism-- e.g. I just started getting into Respighi who is shamelessly over the top and totally fucking rules.

The Poem of Ecstasy is a great piece, but i don't know too much outside of that

the final movement of scriabin's 2nd symphony is hilariously overwrought -- sounds like the anthem for some fascist regime.

poem of ecstasy is all-time, so is prometheus

a nice little gem is the "reverie" for orch. (only ~5 mins long)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Izcel5-z4

what do you all think of this piano sonata?

http://expirebox.com/download/363688c72277613ac55281c4e013eb7b.html

schubert - complete piano trios (beaux arts, grumiaux trios) [philips]

d. 898 is astounding

D929 for me. Amazes me every time.

Speaking of piano trios, right now argerich and co. are blowing me away in the serge rach trio elegiaque. Never heard this piece before. Not sure what it's like in a non-mind-blowing performance. Yow.

i think i may finally get into rachmaninoff in the new year. same with tchaikovsky and rimsky-korsakov and borodin. in my neotenic modernist crusader phase i instantly shunned anything that appeared merely virtuosic (and basically all romantic/late-romantic composers who weren't german or austrian).

Dude I am so into warhorses now. I can't tell you how happy the motherfucking Polovtsian Dances make me.

WKCR Bachfest innit. One day left.

It's making me very happy that the DJ is referring to each piece only by its BWV number.

i remember those before i remember key sigs

Me too

I don't remember key sigs for ANYTHING tbh. Except the b minor mass and liszt sonata lol

Was totally sincere that it made me happy btw

I heard one of them fess up that they were just very uncomfortable pronouncing German words.

Teri Noel Towe's segments were a joy.

That got me to pull out this album again: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/bach-complete-lute-works/id695290508

I love this recording. Matlik's playing is really crisp and precise. I think the fugue from BWV 998 is one of my favourite pieces to listen to.

Although I've never listened much to the National, I picked this up recently because I saw the CD second-hand for a good price and am really interested in compositions that include electric guitar: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19141-jonny-greenwood-bryce-dessner-st-carolyn-by-the-sea-suite-from-there-will-be-blood/

I've been pleasantly surprised by how strong it is. I didn't know about the depth of Dessner's compositional experience and training tbh but he has serious compositional chops. (The Greenwood piece is good but I knew it already. Good performance/recording, though.)

Sund4r what do you think about g crumb's pcs written for david starobin?

I loved "Quest" when I saw it in Toronto. I should look for a good recording. I don't think I'm familiar with "Mundus Canis" or "Ghosts of Alhambra" but I'll find them. Was Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death is obv classic.

- "Was"

There's still just the one recording of Quest afaik. Haven't heard Alhambra yet myself.

just bought a cheap ticket to see the following:

Barbara Hannigan soprano, conductor / Britten Sinfonia

Mozart Overture to La clemenza di Tito
Stravinsky Souvenirs de mon enfance
Stravinsky Pastorale
Haydn Symphony No.49, ‘La Passione’
Stravinsky Act One, Scene Three from The Rake’s Progress
Mozart Overture to Idomeneo
Mozart Bella mia fiamma, addio K528
Stravinsky Pulcinella Suite

and if you haven't seen hannigan do her singing & conducting thing before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1YPNEXQu3E

this is more awesome yet tbh, but not anything like what i'll be seeing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFpzip-SZk

Saw Feldman's For John Cage performed a cpl of wks ago with a sandwiched of Webern either side (massive meat on that sandwich then).

This I am immensely looking fwd to: http://www.city.ac.uk/events/2015/march/against-the-day-a-concert-for-simon-howard-1960-2013

Good op to finally see how Beat Furrer very 'slight' sounding music works out: https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/kammer-klang-beasts-and-beauties-georgia-rogers-be/

digging some

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/073/MI0001073246.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

also:
Dietrich Buxtehude - Orgelwerke vol. 1 (Harald Vogel)
Simons Preston's J.S. Bach The Organ Works
Leonhardt's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (all harpsichord - also watched Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach on nakh's recommendation)
Pickett's Monteverdi - L'Orfeo

Felt a sudden (and largely unprecedented) need to listen to Wagner this afternoon and have been working through Die Walküre (Marek Janowski, Jeannine Altmeyer, Siegfried Jerusalem & Staatskapelle Dresden) since then (4m into Act 3 now).

I get pulled into listening to the lions share of die walkure frequently because I need to hear that fucking storm prelude.

Also the scene with brunnhilde and siegmund where he abjures Valhalla <3

Anyone into Julio d'Escrivàn? I started checking out his music because I was working through one of his music tech textbooks. This is pretty cool imo, a movement from a concerto for USB video game controller, laptop, and orchestra.

This is a superlative Ravel/Rachmaninov recording, it wasn't what I was looking for but it is awesome.
http://www.cdbiblio.com/eingang/cdimages/img_ravel/ravel0008.jpg

That recording of the slow movement of the Ravel is heaven in a bottle.

Attended the Lahti Sibelius Festival last month. All the symphonies and more besides. Great experience. Jon Anderson was in the audience too!

Aarrrrrgghhhh the jealousy
Also I am so stoked that Jon Anderson is a sibelian

Apparently he cried through most of the performances. It was a fantastic series of concerts - really wish you had been there Jon!

Ettore De Carolis - Ciociaria - A Land Of Ancient Silences (one of my finds of the year. and why i will always love the musical heritage society. they put out so much stuff that NOBODY would have put out in the states. Italian folk stuff. children chanting. hurdy-gurdy. guitar. harmonium. mandolin. lutes. trombones. evocations of ancestral rituals. this record has it all.)

^^ This record scott wrote about five years ago is B L O W I N G MY M I N D

I'm taking note.