Rolling Classical 2017

I don't know Kosma that well tbh. (Obv, "Autumn Leaves" is a classic.) Ime, though, in an American context, 'neo-Romanticism' usually refers to a sort of bombastic syrupy orchestral music that has little to do with what I love in Schubert or Chopin. (I don't even necessarily have something against bombast and syrup per se but this style of orchestral writing just doesn't speak to me.)

I love the Romantic era and any contemporary music that successfully captures its spirit is a wonder to behold. You're right, though, too much of it is, to quote Boulez's diss against Shostakovich (which I vehemently disagree with, by the way) a 'second, or even third, pressing of Mahler'.

A thread dedicated to exploring awesome neo-Romantic music would be nice, though we'd have to determine what 'neo-Romanticism' stands for in the first place.

We could probably do that here. I've given my one nomination (idk awesome but satisfying).

On the more traditional end of things, I'm rather fond of Pēteris Vasks's concerto for violin and string orchestra, Distant Light. For a less literal take on the neo-Romantic aesthetic, I'd nominate Jörg Widmann's Messe.

Still need to check those out. A couple of nights ago, I saw this concert by NYC's Tak Ensemble (soprano/flute/clarinet/percussion). It was lovely: I was surprised that they opened with Soper's Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say: Charlotte Mundy's take on the vocal part was a bit softer and less intense than the versions I've seen before but really brought out a neurotic, humorous quality to the piece. Other highlights were Matthew Ricketts' Ms Speaker and Jen McLachlen's new piece. David Bird's Series Imposture was cool, too.

A thread dedicated to exploring awesome neo-Romantic music would be nice, though we'd have to determine what 'neo-Romanticism' stands for in the first place.

― pomenitul

one of the most frustrating things about contemporary classical music to me is this hyper-factionalization, this separation of anything left of the "western classical" tradition into mutually exclusive enclaves in a way that, honestly, reflects everyday life in 2017 but is _not_ reflective from the way i experience all other forms of music. this feeds a little bit into the _most_ frustrating thing about contemporary classical music, which is the apparent impossibility of keeping up with what's happening in it, hearing new compositions other than by happenstance.

i also am frequently stymied by my ignorance of so much of the classical music of the past; i have a hard time (in any field of music) confining myself to talking about what's going on now when most of what i listen to is new-to-me older stuff.

one of the most frustrating things about contemporary classical music to me is this hyper-factionalization, this separation of anything left of the "western classical" tradition into mutually exclusive enclaves in a way that, honestly, reflects everyday life in 2017 but is _not_ reflective from the way i experience all other forms of music.

I'm somewhat conflicted about this. On the one hand, I'm not sure I agree that this is more true of contemporary classical music in 2017 than of any other style, tbh, unless I'm not understanding you. (Maybe it was true in 1967?) Those Chamberfest concerts I was posting about from the summer were fairly diverse, e.g. the Penderecki String Quartet concert of Mozart, Schumann, Penderecki's 3rd, and Kelly Marie Murphy. I don't think a single concert by most metal or IDM (let alone mainstream pop/rock) groups would be anywhere near that broad. I know a composer/performer who e.g. writes spectral music as well as neo-Romantic Americana and play drums in a jazz fusion group. At the same time, I sometimes DO feel like I don't fit in anywhere as a composer or performer but this might be a function of the diversity and lack of aesthetic direction in today's new music world idk?

The last few albums I posted about here were honestly all things I just found by looking under "contemporary classical" on Bandcamp.

I'm listening to Distant Light now btw. P good so far. I like the folky theme around the 13m mark in the Ondine recording.

So admittedly, this is largely in the vein of the type of neo-Romantic music that I usually avoid but I can see the appeal and will listen some more.

well... i don't think the hyper-factionalization is something that occurs among the musicians themselves. i think it's more a factor of the listening community.

let's take metal for an example. if i want to know what the great metal records of 2017 are, lots of people are going to have opinions on what those are. i may not agree, but at least i know where to start listening!

what are the great compositions of 2017? i can ask you. i can ask pomenitul. i can browse bandcamp, which is a great site but positively stuffed with crossover on the classical side and when one gets away from crossover, prone to tumbleweeds.

it just seems like there's a state of nearly total structural breakdown when it comes to classical music as a form of _communication_.

Oh, yeah, totally. I feel like the problem there has to do with something other than factionalization but it frustrates me too. Maybe it's just a function of how small the audience has become?

Well that + WAM was never a tradition that was built around the release and promotion of recordings. Composers write scores, performers study them, concerts are organized, eventually someone might make a recording, but it is normal for a piece to be written years before a given listener might hear it, usually in the context of a concert where it is played next to pieces from other composers and eras. Then it might take a long time before they ever hear it again.

I think the fact that the culture isn't based around recordings is what makes it difficult. I could point to several important new recordings from the last few years (Hans Abrahamsen - Let Me Tell You, Andrew Norman - Play, John Luther Adams - Become Ocean, Caroline Shaw - Partita) but it only provides a skewed introduction to what's going on. Still, that's as good as it gets, I think, and it's good enough for me.

If you want to be as cutting edge as the rolling metal thread, you probably need to be a musician and/or composer yourself, and even that will only allow you to keep up with what's happening in your neck of the woods due to the privilege still granted to live concerts over recordings, at least in this particular field.

I'm not a journalist so I don't care about being a couple of years late. Does it even matter when it comes to so-called classical music? Even 'contemporary' is taken to mean something like 'the past thirty-odd years' or 'notated music made by living individuals.'

Anyway, relatively old-fashioned methods are still effective as far as I'm concerned: I check out various blogs, newspapers and magazines, as well as the catalogues of specific record labels (Aeon, Neos, Wergo, Kairos, Harmonia Mundi, ECM, Dacapo, BIS, Ondine, DG, HatHut, Mode, etc.). I tend to use Bandcamp when I want to hear more music by composers I'm already familiar with but who are underrepresented on record.

This approach probably wouldn't suffice if I were a professional, but it's good enough for me, especially since I listen to lots of other kinds of music as well.

Aren't we all overwhelmed, though, regardless of the genres we favour? Opening the 2017 end-of-year lists thread is a vertiginous experience for me despite the fact that it narrows the set by focusing primarily on pop music (in the broad sense).

Honestly, the general failure (dotted with myriad specific counterexamples) of "classical culture" to come to terms with the existence of recorded music is a pretty strong argument against the perpetuation of "classical culture" as distinct from "popular culture". At the same time I genuinely love many forms of classical music and would not like to see the classical idiom become a "dead language", particularly now that it finally has the opportunity to be something other than a male dominated nationalist/colonialist enterprise.

That's why I care about being able to know what's going on now. Because "classical music" is going the way of Latin. Only the most elite even know how to read it anymore. Nobody writes it. I love a lot of the different kinds of music that's out there today, but I think that music would be even better if more people knew how to write fugues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZM4yxbE0ZE

Most people don't care about such art forms, especially not in North America. Some things just aren't meant to be popular, and that's okay. It just decreases the likelihood of making a living out of it but that's just a function of late capitalism.

Honestly, the general failure (dotted with myriad specific counterexamples) of "classical culture" to come to terms with the existence of recorded music is a pretty strong argument against the perpetuation of "classical culture" as distinct from "popular culture".

Maybe it's not a failure?

Also, the new music world has definite problems but there's not really a shortage of composers or performers (or even scholars for that matter), unless I'm misunderstanding "only the most elite can read it; no one writes it".

Anyway, I do actually agree that I'd like to have more contemporary classical recordings in my mix, and/or I sometimes wish there was more going on compositionally in a lot of other music, so yeah idk maybe.

Well, this years winner of the Grawemeyer award, Bent Sørensens L’Isola della Città, can be heard on NYT. Second Danish winner in three years btw 8)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/arts/music/grawemeyer-award-bent-sorensen.html

Also, the new music world has definite problems but there's not really a shortage of composers or performers (or even scholars for that matter), unless I'm misunderstanding "only the most elite can read it; no one writes it".

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r)

well it seems like there's this very nearly open hostility from some corners towards the notion that people who aren't musicians trained in the classical tradition might want to listen to composed music. i understand that the (continuing) popular rejection of serialism probably hurt many people deeply, but i'm not sure forming essene communities is the best reaction to this.

Congrats to Sørensen! I haven't heard that particular piece yet, but his music never disappoints.

The Sørensen piece sounded good on first (slightly distracted) listen. The integration of contemporary techniques with more Romantic material was satisfying.

Rushomancy, I have a lot more exposure to people who i) desperately want a broader audience and strain to try to find one or ii) have resignedly given up. I really don't come across the "who cares if you listen?" attitude all that much from North American composers and musicians under 45 in the present day. Maybe with some more examples, I'd see what you're talking about. Are you thinking mainly of New Complexity types?

Come to think of it, Sørensen is an excellent example of a living neo-Romantic who doesn't elicit any skepticism on my part.

Rushomancy, I have a lot more exposure to people who i) desperately want a broader audience and strain to try to find one or ii) have resignedly given up.

I mean, also a bunch of iii) people who are happy with the audience they have, regardless of their educational background.

i'm not talking about the composers themselves! i'm talking about the _scene_. so many really great people but at the same time so much scenester bullshit :(

I honestly can't think of a single musical genre for which that statement doesn't hold true.

2018 Classical and Opera Grammy Nominees Spotify Playlist

Meh.

That said, props for listing Barbara Hannigan, György Kurtág and Maria Lettberg.

I wish I could come up with a counter-playlist but I always forget whether the 'classical' stuff I listened to this year came out, well, this year or in times of yore.

Thanks, ulysses! I was planning to listen to a bunch of those. Esp curious about the Higdon piece. Listening to Hannigan's take on the Berio vocal sequenza now.

Her Lulu Suite is equally exquisite. What an incredible musician.

I'll listen to that. There's this famous one, too, of course.

Ugh: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/arts/music/james-levine-sexual-misconduct-met-opera.html

Ugh x2

Rumors have been around forever, knew it was him as soon as I saw the link that was posted in the Weinstein thread.

For awhile a year or two ago, there were a lot of predators being unveiled around the classical and early music world in the UK, most of it was written about on ian pace’s blog. Philip Pickett comes to mind

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/06/sound-of-mega-orgasms-female-composers-london-contemporary-music-festival-new-intimacy

a work by Kajsa Magnarsson “for strap-on and electric guitar”

After watching, I think I preferred Anvil's take on this concept.

“Modernism was about removing the body from art,” says festival director Igor Toronyi-Lalic. “About removing personal identity and prioritising science, abstraction and objectivity.

Also, this is emphatically not what the Second Viennese School did imo.

Yeah that statement does not ring true for me at all

Favorite records of 2017 I should consider checking out before doing my ILM EOY list? Potentials for me are Canticles of the Wind by John Luther Adams, Last Leaf by the Danish String Quartet and Crazy Girl Crazy by Barbara Hannigan.

Ten personal favourites, in no particular order:

Arturo Fuentes - Broken Mirrors; Liquid Crystals; Ice Reflection; Glass Distortion
György Kurtág - Complete Works for Ensemble and Choir
Tõnu Kõrvits - Moorland Elegies
Bent Sørensen - Mignon
Pascal Dusapin - Quatuor VI « Hinterland »; Quatuor VI « OpenTime »
Alberto Posadas - Sombras
Michael Jarrell - …mais les images restent…
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir & Kaspars Putniņš - Schnittke: 'Psalms of Repentance'; Pärt: 'Magnificat' & 'Nunc dimittis'
Quatuor Psophos - Constellations
Chaya Czernowin - Hidden

Shit I need that Kurtag. I keep forgetting.

Noticed the Jarrell on eMusic yesterday. Thinking about it. His orchestration of a few of the Debussy Etudes was brilliant.

Not saying it's aoty but I got this recently and am getting a lot out of it, as more Canadian solo guitar stuff goes (gnarlier than most of the Victoria disc):
http://www.johngordonarmstrong.com/my-new-cd/

really enjoying that Last Leaf album, thanks for that!

For those compiling your year-end lists, this playlist includes all the available tracks on this thread, organized roughly chronologically in order of mention:

ILM's 2017 Rolling Classical Thread Spotify Playlist

it's worth noting that this thread (along with electronic and jazz) is where the spotify catalog gets a bit punchy.

The Danish Quartet (Mk 4) is great, yeah. Also notable is their Carl Nielsen sq cycle (for Dacapo).

Will check that out, thanks!