Rolling Classical 2021

A covid-era concert of chamber music by the Ensemble InterContemporain, featuring works by Debussy, Kurtág, Saariaho and Sinnhuber:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx8GXoMC67I

A few more Q1 favourites if anyone's interested:

Alberto Posadas – Veredas (Ricard Capellino Carlos)

Daniele Pollini – Schumann, Brahms, Schoenberg

Danish String Quartet – Prism III

Ferenc Stnétberger & Keller Quartett – Hallgató

György Kurtág – The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza (Tony Arnold & Gábor Csalog)

Johannes Brahms – Sonatas op. 120 (Antoine Tamestit & Cédric Tiberghien)

José Luis Hurtado – Parametrical Counterpoint (Talea Ensemble, José Luis Hurtado)

Jurgis Karnavičius – String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 (Vilnius String Quartet)

Michaël Jarrell – Orchestral Works (T. Zimmermann, R. Capuçon, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, P. Rophé)

Richard Barrett – binary systems

Toshio Hosokawa – Works for Flute (Yoshie Ueno)

Posadas: six bottomlessly inventive pieces for solo saxophone that I shouldn't care for on paper but that sustain my interest throughout because Posadas is just that good.

Pollini: the son of you-know-who, also a pianist of note and no less remarkable an interpreter, here tackling Carnaval, the Klavierstücke op. 119 and three sets of piano pieces by Schoenberg. Incredible stuff.

Danish String Quartet: the first couple of volumes, pairing Beethoven with Bach and another composer were EOY highlights, and this third entry (featuring Bartók's early 1st SQ) is no exception.

Snétberger (apologies for the typo in my previous post) & Keller Quartett: features excellent performances of weepy classics by Shostakovich (8th SQ), Barber (Adagio) and Dowland, as well as more recent, equally wistful pieces for guitar and string quartet by Snétberger himself. One for the Weltschmerz heads.

Kurtág: a seemingly definitive performance of one of his most important early song cycles, somewhere between Bartók, Webern and Beckett. Hungarian is a notoriously difficult language, and Tony Arnold is astounding here.

Brahms: one of the best living 'star' violists paired with an excellent pianist takes on Brahms's late sonatas, which I personally can't get enough of. The bonus lieder with none other than Matthias Goerne are a nice touch.

Hurtado: MODERNISM'S NOT DEAD says this Mexican-American composer who studied under Davidovsky, Czernowin, Lindberg, Ferneyhough and Lachenmann, and he's damn right about that if these typically demanding works for chamber ensemble are anything to go by.

Karnavičius: an obscure early 20th century Lithuanian composer presented as the missing link between Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. I was skeptical at first but these are very good works in that late Romantic / early modernist vein I love so much.

Jarrell: Swiss composers are stupidly underrated and Jarrell is no exception, yet there is so much to like about the aesthetic liberalism of these works, which draw as much upon the postwar French tradition as upon its German counterpart. This is music that aspires towards the condition of poetry (whatever that means!).

Barrett: one of my favourite living composers, just relentlessly exploratory in his approach to music-making and one of the few imo whose interest in the intersection between aesthetics and politics comes across as genuinely thought out and convincing. Follow that Rambler link I posted upthread if you're curious.

Hosokawa: another year, another Hosokawa release (in fact the second this year for Kairos), which is of course a very good thing if a less lush and more austere Takemitsu sounds appealing to you (it certainly appeals to me!).

Re: Kurtag is there any legal way to hear or watch fin de partie with English translation/subtitles?

Not to my knowledge, I'm afraid. You could follow along with a copy of Beckett's own English translation (Endgame), but that's hardly ideal.

Hope ECM or someone gets on that.

I assume Manfred Eicher is waiting for Kurtág to complete the work. Time's running out, though...

Vested interest since I'm involved with several events but I think the 21st Century Guitar Conference, entirely virtual this year and starting tomorrow, may be of general interest as well. A lot of performances, new premieres as well as talks and discussions: http://www.21cguitar.com/livestream

Looks cool. I'm too swamped to attend anything these days but thanks for the heads up and have fun!

Speaking of the 21st (and 20th) century guitar, DaCapo just released a monograph devoted to Danish guitarist-composer Lars Hegaard and it's quite lovely, on the gentler, more impressionistic end of high modernism.

Oh thanks, I'll look for that.

Another recently released record that I feel the need to stan for is Caeli by Bára Gísladóttir & Skúli Sverrisson, which is an epic (2h+) sky-touched duo for double-bass and electronics that draws on Scelsi, spectralism, Stefano Scodanibbio, ambient and noise. I'll need to look into Sverrisson's other duos (there's one with Bill Frisell from 2018, for instance).

Alejandro Tentor killing Murail's Tellur rn.

Free/PWYC Angela Hewitt livestream concert at 4:00 EDT today: https://www.thegilmore.org/event/angela-hewitt/

Thinking about it myself.

New Adam Cicchillitti/Steve Cowan album Intimate Impressions/Impressions intimes is all arrangements of music by Ravel, Debussy, Tailleferre, Jolivet, and Mompou: https://open.spotify.com/album/5hWYCrIHZuRpMXmugoQ3vL?si=cZIHrq_KRBKvL8GvGPNpeA . Much softer than Focus but pretty, intricate, and really precisely played and recorded. Adam also played Benjamin Dwyer's first etude at 21CG, which was great.

Here's a video of that Dwyer study, actually:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RYYWqcNCao

I'm a fan of the repertoire so I'll check out the album for sure.

*micropolyphonically* Nice. pic.twitter.com/rf8Ms4U5uU

— Robert Komaniecki (@Komaniecki_R) April 8, 2021

I wonder if Beethoven also had it in mind when he wrote his third cello sonata?

I am so, so into the Netherlands Bach Society videos. They're recording and uploading every single thing that Bach ever wrote. I.. have yet to hear anything that they've uploaded that hasn't immediately become "my favourite performance of this work".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr0f6t2UbOo

^ this is transcendent; I am going to replace their principal violist tho

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

Jesus fucking Christ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYT1JUq0k04

Jesus fucking Christ
This dude, Shunske Sato, also the artistic director of this group, is serving my favourite-ever performances of solo Bach and I've listened to literally thousands

btw? that famous part of the E-major prelude (0:37)? I just learned that there is a word for that technique: bariolage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bariolage

Ha, yeah, I started learning the lute version and then put it down when things came up Should pick it up again.

Anyone else here using the Primephonic streaming service for classical? I just signed up yesterday to a two month free trial. It's main selling points are superior audio quality (an option for lossless 24-bit FLAC files), an extensive catalog, and searching and browsing that's organized for classical.

That last part, although not ideal in every way, is what I've most appreciated so far. Selections are grouped mainly by composer and composition, rather than artist, album and song. After the frustration of hunting through Spotify with its messy search results for classical, it's a relief to be able to easily navigate to, say, a specific Bartok quartet and see a list of dozens of versions by different ensembles. I've only been playing around through its Sonos interface, so it may be even better on other platforms.

The catalog does appear to be up to date with new releases, although not so extensive on older recordings that may be out of print. It also may not be a place to seek out all the edgiest new shit, unless that's safely tucked away somewhere from the predominant usual longhair fare.

I can access Naxos Music Library for free through the library so it wouldn't have occurred to me to pay for a classical streaming service but are you saying you can actually stream at 24-bit FLAC quality??

Does Primephonic have booklets/liner notes? That’s the main advantage of Naxos.

sund4r, yes if your system and bandwidth can handle it, and if the recording is in 24-bit, of course. The subscription rate is 50% more than for 320k files. I'm sure my older Sonos system wouldn't support 24-bit. I didn't realize the Naxos service had become so big. Thought it just had stuff on the Naxos label.

Yes, the Primephonic Web player has booklets for many releases, not all. It's in a hi-res, very readable format.

Yeah the Naxos has a very wide selection of labels.

Nice animated video for Hahn's new recording of the Scherzo from Prokofiev's Violin Concerto no. 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDZlF7a_OJY

When getting an autograph from Hilary Hahn a few years ago during intermission at the National Symphony in DC I unwisely told her “I like your Ives”—meaning her Ives Sonata CD that came out about that time. She looked a little alarmed and I detected that and quickly hustled off. Only later did I find out that she has a stalker, and may have heard me say “I like your EYES” and may have scared her.

Haha aw

lol! Just pronounce it 'eaves' for the extra eccentric nerd cred while simultaneously skirting any risk of unintentional skeeviness.

If The old man heard you call him “Sha-rel Eaves” he’d probably hurl some homophobic imprecations your way.

Good review of Bára Gísladóttir & Skúli Sverrisson's Caeli, certainly one of the classical highlights of 2021 so far:

http://5against4.com/2021/04/22/bara-gisladottir-skuli-sverrisson-caeli/

This is really nice, just premiered on Youtube two days ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZi5L0HVnBI

Sounds like a lot of quarter-tone trills (?), also some flutter-tongue, pitch bending, overblowing and breath effects? Really sensitive dynamics.

Ok I’m going to try to listen to every album mentioned here so far, I’ve previewed some and they sound great.

Any review sites or blogs for classical music that you follow and you’d recommend?

A few English-language ones that I like, although they're hardly exhaustive:

http://5against4.com (mostly contemporary classical, with a dash of ambient on the side, and a recurrent emphasis on the British and Estonian scenes)

https://johnsonsrambler.wordpress.com (mostly contemporary classical as well, also with a slight bias towards the British scene)

https://www.therestisnoise.com (Alex Ross's website aka the New Yorker's resident classical music critic, a bit too US-centric for my tastes but still worthwhile)

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/andrewclements (Andrew Clements' reviews for The Guardian generally showcase quality releases, and I often myself agreeing with his assessments)

ResMusica is quite good if you can read French, and I'm sure there are plenty of excellent Spanish-language resources. Anglo (and especially American) perspectives on classical music need to be supplemented due to their often subconscious parochialism (this is true of all linguistic and/or lenses, of course). MusicWeb International, for instance, is at times hilariously British, with a marked preference for conservative UK composers, as is The Gramophone. ClassicsToday is the David Hurwitz show, and he's got a strong, extremely subjective sense of what he likes and dislikes, which may or may not be one's jam.

In all honesty, though, I mostly go straight to the labels I enjoy the most and take it from there. They are:

BIS
Chandos
Col Legno
ECM
DaCapo
Deutsche Grammophon
Harmonia Mundi
Kairos
Neos
Ondine
Outhere
Wergo

…and there's plenty more, but it's a start.

Mode Records too
Sono Luminus for contemporary Icelandic composers
Winter & Winter
Editions RZ

Everyone swears by Another Timbre these days. I find them very hit-or-miss because their aesthetic is too neutral and uneventful for my ears but I'm probably alone on this one. Wandelweiser takes it to an even greater minimalistic, quasi inaudible extreme and it's not my thing at all but you might be into it.

Pom you are a dear as always. Thanks!

My pleasure. :)

this is true of all linguistic and/or lenses

This should read 'this is true of all linguistic and/or national lenses' btw.

Thank u pom!

RIP Cristóbal Halffter, one of Spain's 20th century greats:

https://www.explica.co/composer-and-conductor-cristobal-halffter-dies.html

I'm pretty sure this is a Spanish-language obituary run through Google translate, but eh, it's better than nothing.

Huh, I didn't know about him. Best place to start?

Xpost: Yeah original source comes from 20minutos which is a popular newspaper from Spain.

Here’s the original source:

https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/4706197/0/muere-el-compositor-y-director-de-orquesta-cristobal-halffter/

Just as I thought, thanks.

Sund4r: I’m not familiar enough with his oeuvre to say, but I remember enjoying his 2nd Cello Concerto (dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich), the few string quartets of his I’ve heard and the Guitar Concerto (with Narciso Yepes playing the solo part).

I'm usually a little sceptical of these ideas but according to this article, they might work?

How one symphony found success by acting more like a jazz club. https://t.co/oFEr9AsV0w pic.twitter.com/K4W7CKtC7x

— Ted Gioia (@tedgioia) June 13, 2021

last couple could go either way but the rest are good and long overdue imo

could there be some kind of pay what you want thing for the programme notes if they're not included in the ticket price bc what they charge for them is nothing to some concert-goers and prohibitively expensive for others

these are good practical accomodations my only fear is if "accessibility" also means (as it so often does) doubling down on just playing the hits and marginalising (even more) anything deemed too challenging for audiences. that *and* the culture that frowns on the things in the twitter post above are what have made concert attendance so unappealing to me

I've never had to pay for programme notes?!

From a quick scan of California Symphony programmes, they don't seem that conservative, by the standards of American symphonies, e.g.

https://www.californiasymphony.org/shows/cellobration/

has been traditionally relegated more to the status of a household or parlour instrument

(I was also thinking of European predecessors to the guitar - lute, Baroque guitar, etc)

Some notes from Nicolas Meeùs's article on the keyboard in Grove Music Online:

The keyboard probably originated in the Greek hydraulis, but its role in antiquity and in non-European civilizations appears to have remained so limited that it may be considered as characteristic of Western music. Its influence on the development of the musical system can scarcely be overrated. The primacy of the C major scale in tonal music, for instance, is partly due to its being played on the white keys, and the 12-semitone chromatic scale, which is fundamental to Western music even in some of its recent developments, derives to some extent from limitations and requirements of the keyboard design...

By the beginning of the 14th century, however, the development of polyphony had caused a widening of keyboard compass and the progressive addition of chromatic keys...

The most common keyboard compass in the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century was from F to a″, often without F♯ or G♯. In Italy, upper limits of c‴ or even f‴ were common. The instruments reaching f′′′ were perhaps made at a lower pitch standard. The low limit was extended to C, often with short octave, in the 16th century. From then, the compass of string keyboard instruments increased more rapidly than that of the organ, as the latter had a pedal and octave stops that made a wide compass less necessary. However, organs with a ‘long compass’ keyboard, extending below C, were common in countries which had a tradition of single-manual organs, e.g. England and Italy from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Harpsichords reached five octaves, usually from F′ to f‴, about 1700. Pianos attained six octaves, often from F′ to f‴′, by 1800 and seven octaves, from A″ to a″″, by 1900. Pianos now usually cover seven octaves and a 3rd from A″ to c″″′ and some reach eight octaves. Modern organ keyboards rarely cover more than five octaves.

In the 18th and 19th centuries keyboard instruments gained a leading position in European musical practice. This led to attempts to provide all types of instrument with a keyboard mechanism. The most successful of these attempts were the harmonium and the celesta, and very many of the electric and electronic instruments produced in enormous numbers since the 1930s are controlled by means of a keyboard

From A History of Western Music (Burkholder/Grout/Palisca):

Ensemble music [ in the mid-18th century ] was written for numerous combinations. Very common were works for one or more melody instruments, such as violin, viola, cello, or flute, together with keyboard, harp, or guitar. When the latter play basso continuo, they serve as accompaniment to the melody instruments. But whenever the keyboard has a fully written-out part in the chamber music of the 1770s and 1780s, it tends to take the lead, accompanied by the other parts. The reason for this dominance lies in the role this music played in domestic music-making among middle- and upper-class families. The daughters were often skilled performers at the keyboard, since music was one of the accomplishments they were expected to cultivate, while the sons - typically violinists and cellists - devoted less time to practice. Therefore an evening's entertainment required works that would highlight the woman's greater expertise, while allowing all to participate.

David D. Boyden and Peter Walls on the violin in Grove Music Online, sticking to the facts, clearly (I'm listening to a Carnatic violinist rn so they have something of a point wrt its dissemination globally):

The violin is one of the most perfect instruments acoustically and has extraordinary musical versatility. In beauty and emotional appeal its tone rivals that of its model, the human voice, but at the same time the violin is capable of particular agility and brilliant figuration, making possible in one instrument the expression of moods and effects that may range, depending on the will and skill of the player, from the lyric and tender to the brilliant and dramatic. Its capacity for sustained tone is remarkable, and scarcely another instrument can produce so many nuances of expression and intensity. The violin can play all the chromatic semitones or even microtones over a four-octave range, and, to a limited extent, the playing of chords is within its powers. In short, the violin represents one of the greatest triumphs of instrument making. From its earliest development in Italy the violin was adopted in all kinds of music and by all strata of society, and has since been disseminated to many cultures across the globe (see §II below). Composers, inspired by its potential, have written extensively for it as a solo instrument, accompanied and unaccompanied, and also in connection with the genres of orchestral and chamber music. Possibly no other instrument can boast a larger and musically more distinguished repertory, if one takes into account all forms of solo and ensemble music in which the violin has been assigned a part.

The most important defining factor of the Western orchestra, ever since it emerged during the 17th century, has been the body of ‘strings’ (i.e. violin-family instruments) playing together with (usually) more than one player to a part. The violin (and violin family), however, had originated well before the 17th century – the three-string violin was certainly in existence in the 1520s and perhaps even earlier – and by the early 17th century the reputation and universal use of the violins were such that Praetorius declared (Syntagma musicum, ii, 2/1619): ‘since everyone knows about the violin family, it is unnecessary to indicate or write anything further about it’...

At the dawn of the 17th century, the violin was beginning to develop a role as an expressive and virtuoso solo instrument. New idiomatic repertory appeared at a rate which suggests an almost feverish excitement in its possibilities. Already two towns, Brescia and Cremona, had emerged as pre-eminent in the manufacture of the instrument...

If violin making was virtually an Italian preserve at the beginning of the 17th century, so too was the development of an idiomatic soloistic repertory for the instrument. It is, of course, coincidence that the greatest stile moderno composer, Monteverdi, came from Cremona – though his realization of the violin's rhetorical power and his exploration of its technical resources in such works as Orfeo (1607) or Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (1624) may owe something to his origins. Works by other composers of the period also seem to be born of excitement at the possibilities of the instrument...

By the end of the century Italian violin composition had an enormous impact on English taste. Purcell three times acknowledged the importance of Italian models for his own work: in the prefaces to the Sonnata's of III Parts (1683) and Dioclesian (1691), and in the section on composition he contributed to the 12th edition of Playford's An Introduction to the Skill of Music (1694). In the 18th century London, as the largest and most cosmopolitan city in Europe, became a mecca for foreign virtuosos, many of whom (Geminiani, F.M. Veracini, Felice Giardini and Viotti) settled there at least for a time...

As a composer of violin works, J.S. Bach neglected the main genres of his age. The solo violin concertos (BWV1041 and 1042) and the concerto for two violins (BWV1043) are in the Vivaldian mould, though they far outstrip their models in musical content (especially in harmonic complexity). But with the exception of that contained in the Musical Offering there are no authentic trio sonatas involving violin, and there are just two continuo sonatas, dating from early in Bach's career. He did, though, invent new genres of his own. The six sonatas for harpsichord and violin (BWV1014–19) are the earliest such compositions, effectively trio sonatas in which the harpsichord acts as both second violin and bass. There is a significant repertory of unaccompanied violin music before Bach's (1720): by Thomas Baltzar (in
GB-Ob Mus. Sch. 573), J.P. von Westhoff (a suite for violin ‘sans basse’, 1683, and six partitas, 1696), Biber (Passacaglia, c1676) and J.G. Pisendel (unaccompanied sonata, ?1716). But nothing approaches the Bach solo violin sonatas and partitas (BWV1001–6) either for musical architecture or for a comprehensive exploration of the technical and expressive capabilities of the violin...

The four great composers of the classical Viennese School all studied the violin. Joseph Haydn did so at St Stephen's in Vienna during his childhood, and though he was to describe himself later as ‘no conjuror on any instrument’, his writing for the violin shows a player's understanding. W.A. Mozart doubtless began his instruction on the instrument with his father, whose Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (1756) was the most comprehensive work on violin playing yet to have been published. Mozart's abilities as a violinist were exceptional, even though after he settled in Vienna in 1781 he chose to concentrate as a performer on the piano (he continued to play the viola in informal chamber music gatherings). From 1789 to 1792 Beethoven was employed as a viola player in the Bonn court orchestra; Schubert, during his years as a pupil at the Imperial and Royal City College in Vienna, became leader of the first violins in Josef von Spaun's student orchestra. All four wrote works for violin and orchestra. The last three (K216, K218 and K219) of the violin concertos Mozart wrote in Salzburg in 1775 give cause to wonder what masterpieces might have ensued had he contributed to this genre during his Vienna years. The Beethoven violin concerto (op.61, 1806), a work driven by musical rather than virtuoso imperatives, has been a cornerstone of the repertory ever since Pierre Baillot and Joseph Joachim rescued it from near oblivion in the mid-19th century. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the Viennese composers to violin repertory is in chamber music. The string quarters of all four are of exceptional importance. In his violin and piano sonatas Mozart transformed the accompanied sonata into the duo sonata. This development was consolidated and extended in the ten great sonatas by Beethoven, whose ‘Kreutzer’ sonata (op.47, 1803) establishes a new register both technically and musically for the genre; Beethoven described it as being ‘written in a very virtuoso style like a concerto’.

The chaconne has some lovely dynamic and reflective sections. Was it written specifically for guitar? I should look this up. It's as if as an antidote to mourning you took up a very complex puzzle with 1 million pieces ... Who would have that self-discipline?

No, it's the last movement of Bach's Violin Partita II in D minor (BWV1004) but it's become adapted as a virtuoso repertoire piece for classical guitarists. (A bass voice or fuller chords are sometimes added on guitar but this is one piece that doesn't absolutely need it, which is rare!) There's a v fluid Julian Bream recording. If you want to stick with Ontario, Emily Shaw did a version on Vespers from 2019 where she played it straight from the violin score.

It works better on guitar imo! I've been waiting eagerly for Chris Thile to get to that Partita on the mando, even a shitty bootleg of it is transcendent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2yEYgSI6Y8

It works better on guitar imo!

Heh, not an opinion I expected from you! I'm not sure even I'd go that far.

The E major Prelude from 1006a otoh - even Bach clearly realized it would work better on lute.

Hard disagree there. You can have the chaconne but you can't have that one

The cello suites are, in comparison, consistently "cello music"; they are idiomatic to the instrument. With the violin sonatas and partitas, Bach was intentionally writing in styles that were unidiomatic, and making it work (usually). The three Adagios off the top of each Sonata are clearly "I am writing lute music, except for the violin"-- they would theoretically work better on lute, but that's not really the point. The C-major Adagio in particular is one of Bach's greatest feats of stylistic synthesis, in my opinion, it's both "lute music" and "violin music" and there is no other piece like it in the repertoire.

The Fugues that follow those Adagios are "keyboard music". I hold the less-popular opinion that these Fugues are bad music and don't really work. The g-minor one is amazing but the a-minor and C-major do not sound like music, they sound like a failed experiment. I would argue that all three fugues would sound better on a keyboard instrument, but Bach wrote oceans of fugues and these aren't top-drawer; why bother adapting them? (The g-minor one is excepted, it's an amazing thing.)

The chaconne is an outlier. It's doubtless one of the most brutally beautiful things that Bach wrote, but the 'experiment' of "polyphonic violin writing" is less interesting than the musical material itself. I think it is the movement of the entire opus that lends itself most readily to adaptation.

The rest of the work is often adapted-- I hear the E-major prelude on guitar as often as I do on violin-- but it's violin music, you can borrow it but it's not yours

Isn't the struggle and harshness of playing chordal music on the violin part of the point, though? Confession: I've never played it all. I sight-read the whole thing at half tempo (sometimes less) last night.

Prelude from Cello Suite 1 (BWV1007) one of my favourite guitar pieces.

Ultimately I think Bach was testing the limits of violinistic technique and certain movements cross a line into "this is too difficult to deliver anything really but accuracy" territory. The a-minor fugue, like, I enjoy Hadelich's and Shunsuke Sato's renditions but it's just too astronomically difficult in its writing for even the most brilliant of A-listers

Nice short new solo piano composition by Amy Brandon (perf Jennifer King): https://open.spotify.com/track/6v0TPSAvjaIurPJwsAaPLA?si=04c23c42d2444b78

Her programme note: Frost grows in two types of movements - a flash freeze, followed by the growth of slow fractal patterns of frost flowers. With Frost Moon I tried to capture this freezing effect in sound - a violent sudden crystallization, followed by intricate lattice-work, growing and overlapping in self-same patternings.