Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1910s

Last year when I was sick and wasting away with a very severe flu I put on Symphony No. 4 and suddenly Sibelius clicked for me like never before; I felt physically in tune with this music, when I couldn't bear to listen to most other music. Later it was interesting to read that Sibelius composed it at a time when his health was precarious, having recently had operations to remove throat cancer, and fear of death was much on his mind.

not loving that you had a mega flu but loving that post

Luonnatar, the Dryad, the Lizard (Odlan) and parts of the Everyman (Jedermann) music share some of that gnawed vibe

Re: Lili Boulanger, it's a lovely little piece, but not top 50 material imho.

Assuming this is in reference to D'un matin de printemps and not to Faust et Helene? Although both were named.

7: Maazel/VPO has all the same fierce qualities as the same team's 4th and never fails to slay me. This is the other symphony besides the 5th where elderly Colin Davis on LSO Live hit a transcendent peak. Mravinsky is a must-hear. My favorite of all now is a live radio capture from Charles Munch and the Boston SO but it's not fair to talk about bootlegs.

I'll do the rest of the orchestral works later today

― valet doberman (Jon not Jon)

interested in hearing more about the munch/boston SO recording, mostly because it's your favourite.. (only recording i could find on youtube was munch conducting the RTF in helsinki)

Assuming this is in reference to D'un matin de printemps and not to Faust et Helene? Although both were named.

Correct.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Xpost

I mean it’s my favorite right now because I’m just so bowled over by its singular vision but it wouldn’t really be a “responsible” choice for an “all time favorite” Sibelius 7th - it’s really really slow, almost certainly the slowest ever, like in the 28 minute range; I didn’t think it’d work at all but it does, like crazy. Drama and tension never lets up. It can’t be what Sibelius wanted but it kills.

wellll i was kind of fishing for a ysi since it's not commercially available :)

Btw, for the 1920s poll, pls don't forget Heitor Villa-Lobos - Douze études pour guitare. Probably won't defeat the best of Bartok/Webern/Schoenberg but the 11th is still probably my favourite thing to play.

Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp is peak music

Don't worry Sund4r, I've got you covered. I've got reservations aplenty about Villa-Lobos's output but those Etudes are all-time.

Xpost quite possibly my favorite piece of chamber music

So many cool prototypical and influential ensembles from this general time period

That Debussy trio
The “Pierrot ensemble”
Bartok two pianos and percussion

OTM

Yeah, that's 100% otm.

I'm really struggling here. Might just go with The Oceanides in the end but Vers la flamme is equally tempting (they all are).

Fuck it, I'm going with Mahler's 9th, which was probably the most important music ever to me as a 19 year-old.

the first movement is about as good as music gets

Yep. And when Jascha Horenstein is conducting it, the whole thing.

i'll give this one to scriabin sonata 10

Deserved imo. Which reminds me:

My Tenth Sonata is a sonata of insects. Insects are born from the sun ... they are the kisses of the sun.

Ok Alex.

you know he's right

I never heard back from mark! Did the description of sprechgesang give you something to process and disagree with?

Almost ran out of time again. Somewhat arbitrary late vote for the Ravel (D&C) I had in mind before I even saw the list. Aaargh.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Poor moonstruck Pierrot.

Hard to argue with the winner, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Art_works_that_caused_riots

I respect Stravinsky far more than I enjoy his music but it's impossible to argue with the Sacre.

Onwards, fellow travellers:

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1920s

While I feel the best piece won this poll, I'm now listening to the Ralph Vaughan Williams compositions for the first time and these two here are unbelievably sublime. The Lark Ascending and Fantasia are just magical pieces of music. Possibly a bit on the tail end of fashion given their romantic roots, but good lord what sheer beauty.

yeah they're wonderful, just an absurdly rich decade

Indeed they are, and Arvo Pärt's now ubiquitous compositional style seems unthinkable without the Fantasia in particular. It's tempting to think of Stravinsky (and Prokofiev) as the torchbearers of 'primitivism' in the 1910s, but Vaughan Williams's musical language in these pieces also taps into an imagined 'archaic' consciousness, one grounded in endless melody instead of polyrhythm and not all that dissimilar Erik Satie's own self-consciously naïve experiments in simplicity.

By the way, Andrew Davis's studio recording of the Fantasia with the BBC Symphony Orchestra is stellar, but I think I like this live performance even better:

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

*dissimilar from

all these last posts otm

pom could you suggest a relatively recent piece which exemplifies “Arvo Pärt's now ubiquitous compositional style” and wherein i might hear this RVW influence ?

I hear echoes of both in Dobrinka Tabakova's music.

Btw Pärt's Silouans Song strikes me as a good example of what he (consciously?) owes to RVW.

The Lark Ascending and Fantasia are just magical pieces of music.

Indeed they are. Thanks for linking to that Davis' recording Pom!