Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #38)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by George P, Jul 4, 2012.

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  1. Collector Man

    Collector Man Well-Known Member

    In referring to wanting to hear Beethoven's 9th Symphont live - that desparately ...before extinction ...perhaps we should call it Beethoven's 'bucket list' symphony. For Beethoven himself-that is what it turned out to be in any case.:)
     
  2. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    The NSO plays it every other year. I've seen it twice and don't really need to see it again. They usually pair it with a late 20th century piece, so that may get me to see it again. The last time I saw it, a lot of people got up and walked out in the middle of the 20th century piece. It's strange because those same people would probably be outraged if someone got up in the middle of something they wanted to hear.

    I just looked up what the 20th century piece was, Jefferson Friedman - Sacred Heart: Explosion. It was the world premiere and it was odd. It seemed that the composer was trying to hard to figure out ways to produce unique sounds from the instruments. At one point, the 6 trumpet players got up, stood around a tympanum and played aiming their bells down at the drum head.

    Edit: Here's a beginning of a review from one of the papers
     
  3. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    Since it's one of my favorite pieces of music, it was on my bucket list of music I wanted to see live.

    Fortunately, DC is a great city for seeing live classical music with two full time resident professional orchestras, one part time orchestra, and numerous decent amateur orchestras that are very good. We also have numerous inexpensive chamber music concerts at embassies, the Library of Congress, museums, etc.
     
  4. Tangledupinblue

    Tangledupinblue Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Just remembered I had this great recording in my collection, and been enjoying it the other day:

    [​IMG]

    TBH it's a work best enjoyed in small doses, as it's not the kind of music I could happily hear all day on repeat like Mahler's 2nd and 6th, Schubert's String Quintet, Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and 6th symphony, Liszt's Sonata in B minor, Vaughan Williams' 5th or Bach's Mass in B minor. But when I do play it from time to time I love it - be it the elemental and muscular excitement of the many singalong choruses (O Fortuna, Ecce gratum, Circa mea pectora, Tempus est iocundum), the delights of Uf Dem Anger, with its poetic lyricism and earthy dance rhythms, and In Taberna, with the humour of the mock-Verdian Estuans interius and the chilling roasting swan aria in which the tenor has to go to a top D; the icily austere neo-Gregorian Omnia sol temperat and the ethereal beauty of Amor volat undique with that extremely long high D and above all the simple but highly effective and resonant melodies and colourful orchestration, with its abundance of Les Noces-inspired tuned percussion and piano effects.

    It seems though that Orff to most is practically a one-work wonder, which I'm sure isn't the case - does anyone know of any other big pieces of his worth hearing?
     
  5. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    "I've got a little list."

    I've heard Beethoven's "Chorale" in performance. This was a very HIPP performance, the tympanist's dynamic range was between FFF and FFFFFFF. There were other issues as this was an ad-hoc ensemble of Early Musik Mavens who have played together before, just not in this configuration.

    Not that I'm in any way opposed to HIPP Beethoven. The San Francisco Bach Choir performed Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, I was lucky enough to be paid for recording the concerts. The choir, directed by David Babbitt, usually performed music of the Baroque, the ad-hoc orchestra was probably better rehearsed than at the performance of the Chorale. Other than a violin soloist who didn't adjust to different tempered scales—he was a Biber specialist—all went beautifully. I'd say the Missa Solimnis is more experimental than the Ninth and has a bigger emotional payoff, particularly if it isn't played according to the usual rule of "Reverent = Slow". Of all of Beethoven's works, the Missa requires following Beethoven's metronome markings.

    Have to say that Mahler's Resurrection was my big "Bucket List" piece. Managed to heard it in concert four times. But the most magical concerts of music I've heard were all very far away from the standard repertory.
     
  6. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Now playing the following CD, which arrived yesterday for a first listen ...

    [​IMG]
     
  7. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    I just read the review of Slatkin's performance of the 9th: Thanks to Mahler, Sapping Joy From Beethoven's Ninth :laugh: Haaa ha. The NSO plays the 9th about every other year? The reviewer should be happy that he's got multiple local orchestras and active concert schedules to allow for having big popular works played regularly. And if works do get played regularly they're likely to get experimented with by the conductor. Otherwise they can get boring or overdone.

    I suspect that pairing Beethoven's 9th with a 20th century work is a not so subtle hint by the conductor that the Mozart and Beethoven listening audience needs to expand their listening repertoire beyond the "safe" classics. I like that strategy. But it's not going to make an old fogey audience universally happy.

    I just listened to American Contrasts by DePreist and the Oregon Symphony. It was one of the DePreist CDs that I didn't have yet. It includes a piece by Michael Daugherty called "Hell's Angels for Bassoon Quartet and Orchestra". Way cool. The bassoons and some creative percussion get to recreate the sound of Harley motorcycles revving. That would certainly shock the Mozart and Beethoven audience if played during a Beethoven concert. :)
     
  8. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011

    Location:
    CT, USA
    It appears there are quite a number of composers who can join the rank of Carl Orff. I have over ten recordings by Gustav Holst and they are various versions of the Planets ... :D
     
  9. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    If getting to hear the 9th live is a sign that fate is soon to be knocking on my door then I think I'll remove it from the bucket list.
     
  10. WorldB3

    WorldB3 Forum Resident

    Location:
    On the continent.
    More late Shubert for me, except instead of the String Quintet in C Major which I played all weekend (my wife preferred the Alban Berg, I liked the Budapest for its "Old World feel" but can't say if I prefer one over the other) its been Piano Sonata d. 959 and 960 by Brendel since. Still taking it all in so no long reviews but its safe to say I am becoming a Shubert head.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  11. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    I suggest checking out Richter's Schubert. The Master 2CD set is a great place to start.
     
  12. Graphyfotoz

    Graphyfotoz Forum Classaholic

    Location:
    South-Central NY
    This recording Originally recorded for vinyl in 1974 then transferred to disc.
    I got this recording from a collection coupla years ago....RARE OOP.
    Was kinda valuable when I got it! Was going for ULN $40 then. (I paid $8)
    Original Version on period instruments.

    [​IMG]
     
  13. Graphyfotoz

    Graphyfotoz Forum Classaholic

    Location:
    South-Central NY
    Gotta love RCA for reissuing this one! :righton:


    Reissue can be had for under $30

    [​IMG]

    Past OOP ULN of the same thing.....$200+
    (Least I believe them to be the same?)

    [​IMG]
     
  14. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    [​IMG]

    Now enjoying PC#9 on this fine morning. TGIF!!
     
  15. mkolesa

    mkolesa Forum Resident

    agreed, although his way with the D. 960 may be an acquired taste because of his unusually slow tempo in the first movement. but otherwise, when richter plays schubert there's a rightness to it. i can say the same about schnabel. other versions of the D. 960 i also enjoy include annie fischer, maria yudina, the recent leon fleischer, and valery afanassiev (on ecm)... unfortunately i've never hear the brendel. he was one of those 'go to' performers when i first started collecting (the Philips equivalent of kempf on DG?) and i had many of his recordings. but as i got alternate versions of favourite pieces i realized that his were uniformly uninteresting (to me) and i stopped collecting him. but to each their own!
     
  16. kevinsinnott

    kevinsinnott Forum Coffeeologist

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    After some Respighi recommendations I grabbed a Stokowski version and was astounded how good it has held up. His RCA recordings are among his best.
     
  17. Tangledupinblue

    Tangledupinblue Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    I've been seeing a bit of Respighi discussion recently, and I was wondering, anyone a fan of Feste Romane? It's usually seen as the weak link of the Roman trilogy and I've seen quite a bit of negativity towards it, but I actually love it - it's one of his most tuneful scores, containing some of Resphighi's colourful and imaginative orchestration (which is saying a lot) and quite daring use of polytonality, dissonances and collage effects. I wish he'd written more pieces in that style.
     
  18. pescholl

    pescholl Active Member

    Location:
    Texas, USA
    Of the dozen or so Carmina Buranas I own, the Previn is by far my favorite performance. :righton:
     
  19. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    I only have one - Ormandy - but I love it! and it was under a buck!
     
  20. john greenwood

    john greenwood Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Schubert's compositions during his final years are an astonishing body of work. Benjamin Britten once said - and I paraphrase slightly - that the richest and most productive eighteen months in music history were the period in which Franz Schubert wrote his final compositions.
     
  21. Greg Arkadin

    Greg Arkadin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit
    Great recommendations, to which I'll add any Schubert performed by Radu Lupu, Sokolov and Kovacevich. If you can tolerate fortepiano, Andreas Staier also is excellent.
     
  22. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    I'll second Lupu and raise you a Pires. Kempff's set is beautiful and worth owning, but does not give the complete picture of the composer IMO.
     
  23. Growl

    Growl Member

    Location:
    South of France
    [​IMG]

    As far from "Moise und Aron" as you can get. I think Arnold Schoenberg doesn't get the recognition, as an artist, he deserves. It's time to stop thinking about him just being a theorician and giving him his place as a great composer among Bruckner, Mahler, Bartok, Janacek.
     
  24. Growl

    Growl Member

    Location:
    South of France
    I had my set thanks to "1001 Classical recordings you must hear before you die" :shh: First I wanted to go with the LaSalle Quartet, but as I already have the Berg quartet on the DG collection, and don't care about Webern (which is really hard to my ears), so I followed the book. Don't regret it, sound is good and the playing is intense. Can't get enough of the second quartet with this great progression from conventional sadness to atonal melancholy.
     
  25. George P

    George P Notable Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    NYC
    :righton:
     
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