Rolling Classical 2020

Bitte schön.

Chronologically working your way through just about any single one of these cycles is the most straightforward approach. It makes it easier to tackle the next cycle, and so on, until you hit the Missa solemnis and go 'wtf' because so many of his late creations are downright bizarre, including the finale to the 9th, imo among the most surreal (if you'll allow the anachronism) of normalized/institutionalized classical warhorses and impossible to hear with fresh ears until you suddenly do (that 1942 Furtwängler recording is what did it for me, appallingly bad nazi sound notwithstanding).

Btw finding the exact Abbado set I was talking about can be a bit confusing because it's a live re-recording of a to-him-unsatisfactory studio attempt (and I tend to agree with that assessment).

thank you. it’s hard to just wade in with this stuff when you have no context for it

This is the one:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7965665--beethoven-the-symphonies

It seems to have also been reissued as part of the DG's Abbado Symphony Edition boxset, which is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

cool thx

I don’t hate the 9th finale I just don’t know what the hell it’s trying to do most of the time. I will probably have to listen to the nazi one at some point

I'm not sure I do either tbh. One last thing: I didn't have much of a context for this stuff either when I got started, beyond a few pieces my dad was into when I was a kid. I just thought some of it was really moving and stayed with that feeling. I still can't read a score or play an instrument, but amateurishness is a huge step up from the legions of bougie concert-goers who dgaf about the music to begin with and who just show up to be *seen* and to mingle during the intermission (ye shall know them by their conspicuous absence whenever a post-1900 work featuring a smidgeon of dissonance is included in the concert program).

whether the rite of spring counts as music is still controversial in some of those circles

Some recent guitar stuff to check out:

https://www.lafolia.com/string-theory-35-mostly-guitars/

Thanks, putting on the Fongaard now.

Heh, these are definitely not inventions in Bach's sense of the term.

Ferneyhough’s Renvoi-Shards is not so different from the surrounding Fongaard

Haha what

I haven't listened to the album yet but that also made me go o_O based on Covell's description alone.

It's interesting but a long double album. I will come back to the later pieces.