Rolling Classical 2020

Very much interested and appreciated! I'll be working my way through.

Tõnu Kõrvits – Hymns to the Nordic Lights this is simply sublime, and very moving <3

What is the word: "A musical meditation on the relationship of sound to linguistic structures"... this honestly sounds quite interesting!

It’s one of the better Samuel Beckett-inspired albums (and they are legion) I’ve heard over the years.

Tell me about spectral images of Goethe

Five settings of Goethe by Schubert undergo a series of diachronic metamorphoses for solo piano. Czerny’s transcription of ‘An Schwager Kronos’ introduces us to Hugues Dufourt’s echoic reimagining of the same. ’Rastlose Liebe’, ‘Meeresstille’ and ‘Erlkönig’ are rewritten by Liszt then thoroughly overhauled and drawn out into infinity by Dufourt. The whole thing ends with Liszt’s take on ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’, followed by silence. And although the album purportedly showcases Goethe’s Sturm und Drang period, there’s a quiet tension to Dufourt’s spectral reinterpretations, which bring to mind Feldman.

It’s pure pap for yours truly and I’m sure you’ll like it too. If you’ve heard Marilyn Nonken’s Voix voilées recital from 2012, you’ll already be familiar with Dufourt’s suitably monstrous and sprawling ‘Erlkönig’.

I have nonkens book but have not heard that disc- and it looks amazing thanks for tipping me

https://boomkat.com/products/the-heart-sutra-arranged-by-janel-leppin

latest Susan Alcorn on Ideologic Organ is well worth checking out.

Ottawa Guitar Society livestreaming a concert by Daniel Bolshoy rn: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=537306683820643¬if_id=1589655993272897¬if_t=live_video

Followed you there.

What do you think? Some of the repertoire didn't excite me that much but this Assad piece he's playing now is v nice and he is interpreting it carefully and sensitively. Liked the Barrios too.

I liked it overall but I was doing something else at the same time and wasn’t paying as close attention as I might, sorry. But yeah, some of the material didn’t really grab me.

I was washing dishes for part of it too.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/17/did-singing-together-spread-coronavirus-to-four-choirs

Has anyone heard Samuel Andreyev's Kairos monograph? I know (of) him as that rare beast: an expat Canadian YouTuber who makes videos about contemporary European art music in English, but I wasn't familiar with his compositions at all. I'm a few minutes into Iridescent Notation and I like it so far: delicate and gestural, even at its most curt, and very much in written in response to 20th century aesthetic dilemmas, which gives it a more 'classical' sheen than, say, Ryan Carter's own Kairos disc from last year.

delicate and gestural

Tbf Événements quotidiens and especially Night Division are more Stravinskian/Varèsian in terms of instrumental attack.

I find Another Timbre's releases to be fairly hit or miss (too visually-oriented, too noncommittal in terms of affect for my tastes) and am mildly annoyed by its growing omnipresence but this is a worthwhile endeavour:

https://johnsonsrambler.wordpress.com/2020/05/19/music-wed-like-to-hear-another-timbre-150-apartment-house-at-25/

By a former counterpoint student but I do think this is a very nice guitar album, released to streaming services today: https://open.spotify.com/album/09cWEgDZaHt9MsP7ickZGQ?si=x32u8ulRTh2rCpxy3hnA7w

Looks cool, I'll check it out. Thanks!

Xpost re another timbre Linda Catlin Smith is amazing. Annoying that they don’t offer digital purchases though. I don’t even have a way to ripping a cd currently - I was “forced” to download her stuff from myfreemp3

I was being cranky tbh. I like LCS's stuff, she's probably my favourite Another Timbre composer.

wait, why does jordan peterson have an hour and a half video about samuel andreyev?

if anybody can come up with a good reason for that one, let me know. otherwise i'm fuckin' done with andreyev.

Huh, really? Weird. I assume it’s got something to do with the University of Toronto. I’ll look into it.

Jon not Jon, Another Timbre is on Bandcamp: https://anothertimbre.bandcamp.com/album/drifter for example.

Welp, just saw it now, Andreyev can go fuck himself.

xp

it's exhausting. so exhausting. i'm so tired of it.

thank you for confirming/verifying, though. i just couldn't stomach it myself, you know?

I don't blame you in the least. Consenting to an interview with JP for any purpose other than explicit pushback is unacceptable, all the more so in 2019, by which point everyone with a functional brain had figured out what the fuckstain is all about.

i mean, fuck. what has been the news on ilx this week? kaitlyn aurelia smith being an anti-vaxxer, black dresses breaking up and i don't even know why because believe it or not i _am_ trying to take care of my mental health by not directly exposing myself to transphobia, whatever the fuck is going on with doja cat, and today it's this random dumb canadian motherfucker who makes youtube videos about the compositional approach of the keyboardist from pink floyd being buddy-buddy with jordan fucking peterson

true/false: "ilx is fine as long as you stay away from the politics threads"

i reiterate: i am tired of living in this world.

Fwiw based on my admittedly all too limited understanding of the Black Dresses situation, transphobia doesn't appear to have been the main catalyst; it seems to be a case of toxic fanbases spinning out of control, with no regard whatsoever for the humans who make the art they claim to adore. But yeah, it's unfortunately impossible to interact with just about any facet of aesthetics without being privy to some amount of reactionary political bullshit. My go-to mental defence is that people are fallible and easily fall prey to hateful discourse as a means of dealing with their own deep-seated anxieties. It's not much but it helps me cope.

Many Xposts
I could have sworn I checked bandcamp about 6 months ago
Looks like I owe them some downloads

Bredeson will be performing via livestream in about 20m here: https://m.twitch.tv/concertsfortheendoftime

I missed the stream, unfortunately, but I'm listening to his album right now, and it's lovely. Just the right time for it, too.

Ah, cool, glad you like it. He played the Chopin arrangement, the Mertz, and the Prelude and Allegro from the Bach in the concert. I was also impressed by a Sean Clarke piece.

Just a couple of pieces into this almost 7h-long playlist of classical guitar music by black composers: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1CUR6hLOqbHKOQJx5jiSk3?si=BJDqQVXrTVijWHtCzDBG8w

Both Thomas Flippin's "A Soldier's Sonata" and Errollyn Wallen's "Three Ships" are p good so far.

Also heard this Shelley Washington electric guitar quartet this morning, which is pretty nice and reminiscent of Fred Frith's quartets: https://soundcloud.com/shelleywashington/the-workers-dreadnought

On another note, this is absolutely lovely (recent/new music for harp and elect y Richard Barrett and Milana Zaric, streamed last night): https://t.co/PJmTR28RQg

— Tim Rutherford-Johnson (@moderncomp) June 8, 2020

Awesome, thanks for the heads up.

just found the operatic countertenor John Holiday, holy shit @ this voice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Rz4t4Al48

or perhaps more appropriate to thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6MJJrJap8w

I liked the Barrett/Zaric stream. A little softer than what I expected from Barrett, reminiscent at times of laptop ambient gigs I've seen by e.g. Sarah Peebles - which is tbc actually a good thing!

Benjamin Dwyer – what is the word

Just bought this from Bandcamp on your recommendation.

Prepared guitar piece worth price of admission.

Nice! I'm a sucker for Beckett-themed contemporary classical but Dwyer does it better than most. It also helps make up for my utter ignorance of the Irish scene.

I haven’t heard it yet but this may be of interest to you, Sund4r (and others, of course):

https://thibaultcauvin.lnk.to/BrouwerEM

Cool, I don't know Cauvin's playing that well. I will try to look into it.

I'm into Dan Michaelson's new one, Colourfield

https://dan.michaelsonscores.com/album/colourfield

That was nice.

RIP Julian Bream; there's no classical guitarist I've listened to more: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53777949

RIP

I began to explore the classical guitar repertoire through his recordings, which were never anything less than remarkable, and Nocturnal is among my very favourite recitals for any instrument. He will be greatly missed.

Do you know his 20th Century Guitar albums? The original LP is really the definitive but the two CDs are also good. I'm listening to the first rn.

Just listened to the new Roomful of Teeth recording of Michael Harrison's Just Constellations while doing dishes: https://roomfulofteeth.bandcamp.com/album/just-constellations

It's all drone-based choral music in just intonation. Wasn't totally sure what I thought yet but it was pleasant.

it's okay but it's the OTHER roomful of teeth that got me today. "Are We Death" is likely to be one of the best singles of the year for me.

https://roomfulofteeth.bandcamp.com/album/the-ascendant