Wish I could have been in town for Hewitt.Is there anything coming up in Ottawa that you're looking at attending? I was just looking at the September Beethoven concerts at the NAC, trying to decide what I want to see.
― jmm, Thursday, 9 August 2018 15:03 (five years ago) link
I wound up getting tickets to the last four nights, symphonies 4 to 9. Very excited. I've never been to a symphony.
― jmm, Friday, 10 August 2018 16:59 (five years ago) link
Who’s conducting?
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Friday, 10 August 2018 22:13 (five years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Shelley
Know him?
― jmm, Saturday, 11 August 2018 00:53 (five years ago) link
Hey jmm, I haven't looked at the NAC listings yet. I'd def be interested in some of the Beethoven symphonies but I'm mot sure what September will be like yet. Hopefully, I'll be working a lot of evenings.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Saturday, 11 August 2018 14:01 (five years ago) link
Never heard of Alexander Shelley but I'm excited for you, jmm! Going to see/hear a symphony always feel like an event, and Beethoven never gets old in my book.
― pomenitul, Saturday, 11 August 2018 14:21 (five years ago) link
Otm
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 11 August 2018 21:38 (five years ago) link
A review of Tim Rutherford-Johnson's Music After the Fall: Modern Composition and Culture Since 1989, by Alex Ross:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/27/the-sounds-of-music-in-the-twenty-first-century
― pomenitul, Monday, 20 August 2018 20:37 (five years ago) link
Ross to Rutherford-Johnson: 'but AMERICAAA' (already a leitmotiv in The Rest Is Noise). Your pop culture took over the world long ago, give it a rest now.
― pomenitul, Monday, 20 August 2018 20:51 (five years ago) link
Where do I begin…
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/arts/music/atonal-music-deutsche-bahn-drugs-trains.html
― pomenitul, Friday, 31 August 2018 15:50 (five years ago) link
The plan was dropped, at least in part because of this atonal protest concert that drew 500: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/31/art-shouldnt-be-weaponised-the-atonal-concert-championing-berlins-homeless
My FB comment when the plan was first announced, anticipating a prospective outcome: "The experiment was not entirely successful, with local drug users describing Kontakte as 'extra trippy' and Le Marteau as 'intense on mescaline'."
― The inexorable rise of identity condiments (Sund4r), Friday, 31 August 2018 16:50 (five years ago) link
Listening to Hahn's disc of Mendelssohn's and Shostakovich's violin concerti over and over in the van these days.
― The inexorable rise of identity condiments (Sund4r), Saturday, 1 September 2018 20:07 (five years ago) link
I wasn't overly keen on Linda Catlin Smith's previous releases, but Wanderer is definitely doing it for me. Bits of it remind me of Mark Hollis's S/T shorn of the man's voice. I should give Dirt Road and Drifter another go, I probably wasn't paying enough attention.
― pomenitul, Monday, 24 September 2018 12:43 (five years ago) link
My crush Víkingur Ólafsson has a Bach piano solo album out. Turns out Bach is great!
― faculty w1fe (silby), Monday, 24 September 2018 15:18 (five years ago) link
I saw a wonderful performance of Beethoven's Ninth this weekend. The festival was great, though I'm sad to have missed all of the string quartets.
― jmm, Monday, 24 September 2018 15:25 (five years ago) link
Missed it all.:( I'll probably start going to more concerts again when I get more work hours.
― The nexus of the crisis (Sund4r), Monday, 24 September 2018 16:26 (five years ago) link
Kukuruz Quartet: Julius Eastman - Piano Interpretations
^^^
this is blowing me away rn, awesome.
― calzino, Wednesday, 26 September 2018 09:21 (five years ago) link
I've often wondered why some performers approach fin de siècle French chamber music in a deliberately cloying, saccharine way, minimising its modernity as much as possible (actually, I think I know why). Debussy and Ravel generally survive such opulence, but I can't say the same about Fauré, especially his later, more harmonically prickly pieces. Few things are as refreshing, then, as hearing Pierre Fouchenneret, Raphaël Merlin and Simon Zaoui's takes on Fauré's works for strings and piano (quartets and quintets notwithstanding). They remind us that, despite appearances to the contrary, this isn't Parisian salon music, except, perhaps, as painted by the Nabis (Pierre Vuillard, Edouard Bonnard, Maurice Denis). I haven't listened to many new classical releases this year, but I'm absolutely loving this one (titled Horizons), which also features a pitch-perfect performance, by David Lefort, of the brief song cycle L'Horizon chimérique.
I've also been listening to Mihai Ritivoiu's first recorded recital, showcasing works for piano by Enescu (who was Fauré's pupil), Franck and Liszt. The album's title is Transcendence, and I daresay he gets there without resorting to tired tricks such as slowing the tempo down to a crawl. Enescu's first sonata is the highlight as far as I'm concerned, and I hope Ritivoiu will record the rest of his output for solo piano, as well.
Speaking of Romanian composers, NEOS just put out an Hommage à Horațiu Rădulescu, gathering all of his works for piano (including the concerto) in performances by Ortwin Stürmer, to whom Rădulescu dedicated several scores, including the 'Lao Tzu' sonatas, which contain metaphysically bumbling titles such as 'settle your dust, this is the primal identity' or 'like a well… older than God'. Most of this material was already available elsewhere, but it's nice to have the sixth sonata on disc, as well as a few odds and ends, all of which are quite fascinating due to the collision between the piano's limited microtonal range (at least when played conventionally) and Rădulescu's spectralist aspirations, which tend to imply the use of string instruments. Somewhat surprisingly, the concerto reins in the strings somewhat so as to remain in 'tune' with the piano. It's definitely one of his most conventional efforts – a tribute to Brahms, as it were. As a side note, I really hope Mode will be able to continue its piano sonatas and string quartets cycle with Stephen Clarke and the JACK Quartet. That first disc was incredible.
I haven't listened to much living contemporary music, however, aside from the aforementioned Wanderer by Linda Catlin Smith and Bent Sørensen's meltingly beautiful Pantomime; Rosenbad, the second and third parts of his Schumann-esque Papillons trilogy (the first instalment, Mignon, came out in 2016). There is still time to catch up, I suppose, and I'll no doubt switch back to an almost exclusively classical diet once I get bored with the rest anyway (I go through cycles).
― pomenitul, Saturday, 13 October 2018 09:49 (five years ago) link
Wanderer is amazing, need to get some more L C Smith in my life.
― calzino, Saturday, 13 October 2018 10:19 (five years ago) link
She actually did a concert in the cultural dead-zone that is my neck of the woods last year, but tbf our contemporary music has got q
― calzino, Saturday, 13 October 2018 10:34 (five years ago) link
keyboard fail!...got quite a big rep in recent years.
the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival that is.
― calzino, Saturday, 13 October 2018 10:35 (five years ago) link
The HCMF sounds amazing indeed. I should like to check it out now that I live, well, less than 300km away, but I doubt I could afford to spend ten days there, which is the amount of time I'd need to see both musikFabrik and the Arditti Quartet. I'm also an idiot for not having a driver's licence.
― pomenitul, Saturday, 13 October 2018 10:45 (five years ago) link
(On an unrelated note, it occurs to me that 'driver's licence' is a Canadian shibboleth: neither 'driving licence' nor a 'driver's license'.)
― pomenitul, Saturday, 13 October 2018 10:49 (five years ago) link
I've been a Canadian composer or composition student for 20 years and I never knew until now that Linda Smith's middle name is not "Caitlin".
― The nexus of the crisis (Sund4r), Saturday, 13 October 2018 14:31 (five years ago) link
György Kurtág's opera adaptation of Samuel Beckett's Endgame is currently playing at La Scala, in Milan. I didn't think he'd ever finish it, to be honest, especially since he was apparently too ill (he's 92) to attend the premiere. Anyhow, it has effectively become his largest work – perhaps an unexpected way to cap a career almost entirely dedicated to wisps and fragments.
Someone posted a radio recording to YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFOUf9WAY8Y
― pomenitul, Monday, 19 November 2018 14:12 (five years ago) link
holy crap a kurtag opera?
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Monday, 19 November 2018 17:50 (five years ago) link
My fiancée has given it a thumbs-up half an hour in.
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Monday, 19 November 2018 18:03 (five years ago) link
I think it's the lyricism.
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Monday, 19 November 2018 18:05 (five years ago) link
That Beckett should have exerted such a pervasive influence on contemporary notated music is testimony to his understanding of literature's inherent musicality. Kurtág's works often spring from linguistic elements even as he gives voice to the difficulty of turning speech into song, so it's a natural pairing that rests on a similar conception of lyricism as a necessary and salutary object of desire that punishes the speaker/singer by placing him/her under duress. Kurtág has had considerable time to practice before Fin de partie, incidentally: pas à pas… nulle part and Samuel Beckett: What Is the Word, from the 1990s, are both incredible settings in their own right.
― pomenitul, Monday, 19 November 2018 18:33 (five years ago) link
Reposting from EOY lists thread:
Listening to the Frederic Hand album from the Textura list and this is definitely up my alley. I have to say, though, that I'm a little intrigued by Textura's love of Hand. They listed him in 2016 too. I never see other classical guitar albums on their EOY lists. I think e.g. John Gordon Armstrong's album from last year and Steve Cowan's from 2016 were really good and more envelope-pushing. William Beauvais had a decent album in 2016 in an accessible style not that far removed from Hand's.
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Friday, 14 December 2018 16:12 (five years ago) link
which is to say, I think, are there any good eoy classical lists? I'd be happy to wait until the year is actually over but everyone seems to be publishing them now. I'm especially interested in recs of more 'difficult' compositional music (atonal, complex, spectral, ...), just because it's harder to find as much on it. I saw a lot of good concerts this year and ofc that's the primary medium for the tradition but it's always a good thing to have recordings to listen to on a day-to-day basis.
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Friday, 14 December 2018 16:16 (five years ago) link
I've mostly put classical music on the back burner this year, so I can't help you as much as I would like. I haven't looked for classical EOY lists either, partly because I'm already burnt-out on non-classical ones… That said, here's some of the stuff I enjoyed among this year's releases (late 20th/early 21st century only):
Alexander Knaifel - LukomoriyeAnna S. Þorvaldsdóttir - AequaBent Sørensen - Rosenbad; PantomimeBrian Ferneyhough - La terre est un hommeGérard Pesson - Blanc méritéHeinz Holliger - Choral UtopiaHorațiu Rădulescu - Complete Piano WorksJörg Widmann - Viola ConcertoJulian Anderson - The Comedy of Change; Heaven Is Shy of EarthLinda Catlin Smith - WandererOctavian Nemescu - ApokatastasisOndřej Adámek - Sinuous VoicesStefano Gervasoni - Pas perduToivo Tulev - Magnificat
It's not much, but it's a start. I definitely plan on checking out 5against4's list when it comes out.
― pomenitul, Friday, 14 December 2018 18:05 (five years ago) link
OK, wow, I haven't listened to any of those, except the online excerpts from LCS. Thanks! New album from Ferneyhough!
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Friday, 14 December 2018 18:46 (five years ago) link
i'm not a real serious classical head but here are the 2018 releases in my library tagged classical:
alexander melnikov - four pianos, four piecescharlie looker - simple answersensemble orchestral intercontemporain - adamek: sinuous voicesgyorgy kurtag - fin de partieipek gorgun - ecce homojohn bence - killlinda catlin smith - wanderertanya ekanayaka - 12 piano prisms
also, sorry for not appropriately crediting, but i copied and pasted this list of works from another thread earlier this week and they're on my "to listen" list:
Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir - AequaCassandra Miller - Just So: String QuartetsEva-Maria Houben - Breath for OrganLaura Schwendinger - QuartetsLinda Catlin Smith - WandererSarah Nemtsov - Amplified ImaginationSéverine Ballon - InconnaissanceSuzanne Farrin - La dolce morte
― errang (rushomancy), Saturday, 15 December 2018 00:49 (five years ago) link
I didn't know Fin de Partie had been recorded!
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Saturday, 15 December 2018 00:56 (five years ago) link
I've been working through the Ferneyhough album one piece at a time via Naxos Music Library since Friday. On "Liber Scintillarum" now (first piece on the album but the last one I'm listening to). I'm really loving this stuff. Tbh, I never dug too deeply into the guy's work before, although he was a hero to some in my grad programme and I've seen some performances over the years. I did like "Cassandra's Dream Song" a lot. I've never actually listened to any of these pieces before. Even though I don't fully understand them, even with the liner notes, there's just so much going on and such visceral richness and detail of sound that they grab me and make me want to investigate further. I expect I'll be able to keep getting more out of these pieces with more and more listens.
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Sunday, 16 December 2018 16:21 (five years ago) link
William Beauvais had a decent album in 2016 in an accessible style not that far removed from Hand's.
After listening to both of them the other day, I feel p comfortable ranking the Beauvais higher tbh.
sorry for not appropriately crediting
That was me, in response to the relative dearth of women above 35 in the EOY lists. All of those albums are very much worth hearing, so I'm glad you're looking into them!
― pomenitul, Monday, 17 December 2018 09:47 (five years ago) link
As for Fin de partie, I think rush was referring to the radio recording that's been making the rounds (the YT link I put up a month ago is no longer available, though).
― pomenitul, Monday, 17 December 2018 09:48 (five years ago) link
And I'm happy to hear you're enjoying the Ferneyhough, Sund4r. I found his music forbidding the first few times I tried listening to it 15 years ago (I think it was that Montaigne disc with his string quartets nos. 1-3 performed by the Ardittis). For whatever reason, I opened up to it once I realized that several of my favourite living composers (including Kaija Saariaho, Chaya Czernowin and Richard Barrett) studied under him. It also requires a bit of a leap of faith at times, more so than with other 'difficult' composers, since the overwhelming complexity on display is a deliberate challenge to our narrative/structural expectations. I'm also fascinated with the notion of hypernotation as conducive to performative freedom (you can't possibly follow every single instruction to the letter, so you have to 'transcend' them, in an almost Lisztian sense, by actively looking for a workaround).
― pomenitul, Monday, 17 December 2018 10:01 (five years ago) link
Oh and since I don't want to leave out the dead, I also very much enjoyed these 2018 releases:
Andreas Haefliger - Perspectives 7Barbara Hannigan - Vienna: Fin de siècleClaude Debussy - Les trois sonates (Faust, Melnikov, Queyras, et al.)Dénes Várjon - De la nuitDitta Rohmann - Solo Cello PortraitEdvard Grieg - Violin Sonatas (Vineta Sareika & Amandine Savary)Gabriel Fauré - HorizonsHeino Eller - Violin Concerto; Fantasy; Symphonic Legend; Symphony No. 2Mihai Ritivoiu - TranscendenceOlivier Messiaen - Catalogue d'oiseaux (Pierre-Laurent Aimard)Robert Schumann - String Quartet (Engegård Quartet)Till Fellner - Beethoven, LisztWilhelm Stenhammar - Symphony No. 2; Serenade (Herbert Blomstedt)
― pomenitul, Monday, 17 December 2018 10:11 (five years ago) link
I am very much hoping from the title of that Hannigan album that it includes schoenberg op.10. I have a glitchy broadcast capture of her doing that and have been really hoping for an official recording.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 20 December 2018 23:17 (five years ago) link
Googling, I see it’s not. Darn. Soon, I hope.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 20 December 2018 23:34 (five years ago) link
― pomenitul
yeah that was the one
― errang (rushomancy), Friday, 21 December 2018 00:40 (five years ago) link
for my NYC types: http://prototypefestival.org/perhaps of particular interest is carolyn shaw's Partita for 8 Voices, performed live and free in Times Square at 4pm and 7pm. only a half hour long!http://prototypefestival.org/shows/out-of-bounds/
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 21 December 2018 02:31 (five years ago) link
Have the roomful of teeth recording of Partita, absolutely not missing Partita.
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Friday, 21 December 2018 14:24 (five years ago) link
let's plan on doing it together jon! times square in january, what's not to love?
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Friday, 21 December 2018 16:51 (five years ago) link
#classicalfrenz :)
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 21 December 2018 17:33 (five years ago) link
for sure and def, consider it written in stone
(LL u should listen to partita if you haven't it will floor u!)
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Friday, 21 December 2018 17:46 (five years ago) link