Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #20)

To Her Royal Cragginess...

Some time ago on a round trip flight to the left coast, the airplane's internel music system was featuring women composers. There was all kind of stuff; they even played some chant from Hildegard von Bingen, the first time I heard that name. Another new one for me was a short piece called Celebration. Heard it twice on the way out and two more times coming back. Weeks later I couldn't get that music out of my head. (It turns out that Andre Previn chose the work to launch his music directorship of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in October 1985.) Here's some craggy of the first water...

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Symphony No.1
Celebration
Prologue & Variations
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
John Nelson

 

A world premiere for me tonight.

A friend of mine (former professional musician) commissioned a chamber music piece by John Steinmetz.

http://www.johnsteinmetz.org/CSSBiography.htm

She and several friends will perform it for the first time this evening.

And I get to record it.

 

On what instruments? Vocals too?

 

Very cool. Good to see someone here supporting new music.

I am counting down the hours till tomorrow's concert at Disney Hall: Dudamel/LA Phil play Mahler 9...at 11AM (Coffee Concert). I'll be in the balcony. :-/

 

It's a trio for clarinet, french horn and piano. The concert will also include Rochberg's trio for the same instruments (new to me) and Debussy's Premiere Rhapsody.

 

Enjoy the concerts John and Eddie

 

"Coffee concert" on a Friday morning. Mahler, no less. By the time the final note sounds, it'll be naptime in my time zone.

Please give us a review. Do you know the work well? (I don't.)

+1

 

Mine came today - very brief listen so far - very impressed.

Thanks George for putting me on to this.

Best Wishes
David

 

I am so glad you guys are lovin this CD as much as me!

 

Listening now in fact - I think this disc is going to become a 'go-to' disc pretty quickly.

Best Wishes
David

 

Dudamel

Yes, I know Mahler 9 very well, have many recordings and I've heard it in concert once before, in November 2008 by David Robertson/Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. Very good, but not the gripping, transcendent experience that the best can offer. Then again, it was the first time Robertson had conducted the work. He addressed the audience before the concert and said he had wanted to play it for a long time but that he was waiting till he turned 50 to give it a try. I never sell short the extraordinary talents of Dudamel, but for such a long, structurally-complex (how will he negotiate the Rondo-Burlesque?) existential work I have doubts that a 29 year-old can get everything out of it. The Ninth is certainly, in my opinion, the greatest symphony ever written. So you could say I am looking forward to it.

 

wow I didn't know that was tomorrow. I'm actually going up to Santa Barbara tomorrow to see you know who. 300 seat hall that just got a 15 million dollar make over for acoustics.

We are going to The Hitching Post, the restaurant made famous by the movie Sideways for an early dinner before the show.

 

No excuse. I'm going to see Fu Manchu tonight, Dudamel tomorrow morning, and the Melvins tomorrow night. Well, the two rock shows are literally across the street from my place (with friends putting me on guest list) so it's not exactly an inter-county excursion. Have a great time ogling Miss Wang!!

 

I cant wait to delve into my next group of arrivals!!

 

Am I missing the boat since I still do not have the CD?

 

Now playing CD12 - Bach Cello Suites from this set for a first listen ...

 

A+ Here!!

This deserves a BIG
A RARE very limited release Gem only a few own!
George is the man.....I don't care what Stuart says about him.

 

tonight i braved the cold (22) & was rewarded by this:Carmen,w/Price,Corelli,Merrill
& Freni/Vienna Philharmonic/Von Karajan,RCA LDS-6164.this is a 3-lp box,Soria Series,
w/64-page printed-in-Italy booklet.recorded 11/63,produced by John Culshaw,engineered
by Gordon Parry & Jack Law,released 7/64.records are a bit noisy,but packaging is in
good shape.the space on the labels where the dog & gramophone would normally be is
blank.this makes me thing the records were for a market (like the U.K.) where RCA did
not own the trademark,but otherwise the package looks American.
another thing i wonder about:some of the recordings that Decca did for RCA seem to
later have reverted to Decca,while others like this one did not.it would be interesting to
know the details.

 

I'm not in NYC that week but maybe some of you New Yorkers are interested:


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hello,
there is a poll for favourite symphonies at www.talkclassical.com...
here are the first 100

1. Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 'Choral'
2. Mahler - Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection'
3. Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 'Eroica'
4. Mozart - Symphony No. 41 'Jupiter'
5. Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5
6. Mozart - Symphony No. 40 'Great'
7. Beethoven - Symphony No. 5
8. Beethoven - Symphony No. 7
9. Schubert - Symphony No. 9 'Great'
10. Brahms - Symphony No. 4
11. Dvořák - Symphony No. 9 'From the New World'
12. Beethoven - Symphony No. 6 'Pastoral'
13. Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 'Pathetique'
14. Schubert - Symphony No. 8 'Unfinished'
15. Mahler - Symphony No. 5
16. Sibelius - Symphony No. 5
17. Mahler - Symphony No. 6 'Tragic'
18. Mahler - Symphony No. 9
19. Bruckner - Symphony No. 8 'The Apocalyptic'
20. Mahler - Symphony No. 4
21. Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique
22. Prokofiev - Symphony No. 5
23. Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10
24. Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 4 'Italian'
25. Bruckner - Symphony No. 9
26. Nielsen - Symphony No. 5
27. Brahms - Symphony No. 1
28. Mozart - Symphony No. 39
29. Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2
30. Mozart - Symphony No. 38 'Prague'
31. Sibelius Symphony No. 2
32. Haydn Symphony No. 104
33. Mahler Symphony No. 1 'Titan'
34. Beethoven Symphony No. 8
35. Brahms Symphony No. 3
36. Dvořák Symphony No. 8
37. Bruckner Symphony No. 7 'The Lyric'
38. Haydn Symphony No. 94 'Surprise'
39. Mozart Symphony No. 36 'Linz'
40. Haydn Symphony No. 103 'The Drumroll'
41. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5
42. Prokofiev Symphony No. 6
43. Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 'Organ'
44. Messiaen Turangalila
45. Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 2 'A London Symphony'
45. Sibelius Symphony No. 4
46. Nielsen Symphony No. 4 'The Inextinguishable'
48. Dvořák Symphony No. 7
49. Mozart Symphony No. 25
50. Schubert Symphony No. 5
51. Mahler Symphony No. 8
52. Prokofiev Symphony No. 1 'Classical'
53. Webern Symphony
54. Schumann Symphony No. 3 'Rhenish'
55. Beethoven Symphony No. 4
56. Brahms Symphony No. 2
57. Franck Symphony in D minor
58. Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 'Scottish'
59. Honneger Symphony No. 3 'Liturgique'
60. Glière Symphony No. 3 'Ilya Muromets'
61. Sibelius Symphony No. 7
62. Bruckner Symphony No. 4 'Romantic'
63. Prokofiev Symphony No. 3
64. Martinů Symphony No. 6
65. Hindemith Mathis der Maler
66. Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
67. Haydn Symphony No. 100 'Military'
68. Liszt Faust Symphony
69. Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 'The Year 1905'
70. Górecki Symphony No. 3 'Symphony of Sorrowful Songs'
71. Sibelius Symphony No. 6
72. Myaskovsky Symphony No. 6
73. Elgar Symphony No. 1
74. Bizet Symphony in C
75. Janáček Sinfonietta
76. Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 7 'Sinfonia Antartica'
77. Stravinsky Symphony in C
78. Mozart Symphony No. 35 'Haffner'
79. Bruckner Symphony No. 5 'Tragic'
80. Bax Symphony No. 1
81. Mahler Symphony No. 3
82. Schönberg Chamber Symphony No. 1
83. Schumann Symphony No. 4
84. Berwald Symphony No. 3
85. Berio Sinfonia
86. Copland Symphony No. 3
87. Shostakovich Symphony No. 7
88. Alfvén Symphony No. 4
89. Prokofiev Symphony No. 2
90. Ives Symphony No. 4
91. Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements
92. Mahler Symphony No. 7
93. Nielsen Symphony No. 3
94. Roussel Symphony No. 3
95. Scriabin Symphony No. 4
96. Rautavaara Symphony No. 8
97. Suk Asrael Symphony
98. Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5
99. Penderecki Symphony No. 3
100. Beethoven Symphony No. 2

 

I just watched two DVD's that are at the end of the Rostropovich box set. The complete Bach Cello suites are performed in a beautiful church in a small town in France. These are apparently the same performances that are on the double cd set. This was my first time hearing his performances of the suites.

I'm glad that I watched the DVD's before just listening to the music. He starts out speaking (subtitled) of his lifelong regard for the suites. He explains that he only recorded parts of them twice, much to his regret. It took him forty years for him to perform and record them properly. You get the impression that the suites are like the North arrow in his own personal compass. He gives a short narrative before playing every suite. The combination of beautiful setting, composition and playing is pretty impressive.

I'm sure many here are much more familiar with this story than I was. I'm fairly new to classical and I haven't seen any DVD's up to this point. I don't usually watch many music DVD's despite having many favorites and listening to music constantly. I'm glad I took the time to watch these. They really gave me even more appreciation for what a tremendous musical achievement the Cello Suites are. I guess you can never give Bach enough respect. Any other must see DVD recommendations out there?

 

One recommendation and one story - neither new to this thread.

Recommendation - "The Trout" a documentary by Christopher Nupen about a legendary performance of Schubert's "Trout Quintet"

http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Grea...ef=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1295016017&sr=1-1

And the story - I'm pretty sure I posted this several years ago. One day, when I was a student at Harvard a friend knocked on my door and told me to come with him. I did so, and he took me to the Dunster House Library, where I found about 30 students mostly sitting on the floor listening to a cellist play the Bach suites. It was Yo Yo Ma. I think by then I had the Suites on LP, but I had definitely not heard them live. It was thrilling.

 

Still working on it, selected some of the early recordings today.

 

Today's Wall Street Journal contains reviews of memoirs by Byron Janis and Leon Fleisher.

 

Lists are always arbitrary and subject to debate of course, and although each of us might compile differing lists, IMO that is a pretty good compilation.