Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #43)

20th Century Masterpieces



CD13
1964
Olivier Messiaen
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum (Salle Wagram, Paris, 1968)
Ensemble de Percussion de l’Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre de Paris
Serge Baudo
1965
Harrison Birtwistle
Tragoedia (No1 Studio, Abbey Road, London, 1967)
Melos Ensemble
Lawrence Foster
1970
Henri Dutilleux
Cello Concerto ‘Tout un monde lointain…’ (Salle Wagram, Paris, 1974)
Mstislav Rostropovich, cello
Orchestre de Paris
Serge Baudo

I had to take extra time with this disc, as all this music is challenging.

The Messiaen [And I wait for the resurrection of the dead] is great, with its Messiaenic tone clusters. The other two composers are new to me.
Harrison Birtwistle...great name!

 

With Bach, I tend at times to get the impression he was forever composing sewing emboirdery music on the one hand or depictions of turgid thick sludge on the other. With Handel's vocal music ...I see throat gargling mouth wash music.

 

For anyone who has read the novel, Cloud Atlas, the elederly composer in the second part was purportedly modelled on Delius. (I did not see the movie.)

 

Listened to the Birtwistle and Dutilleux for the first time yesterday. The Birtwistle was particularly challenging for me.

I need to get more Messiaen.

 

Methinks you may be listening to the wrong performances.

 

This CD is in my collection as well and was quite nicely done ...

 

With Bach I hear music of the spheres. With Handel I hear one of the finest composers for voice. if Bach sounds like embroidery, either the performer or auditor is absent. If it sounds like sludge most likely it's the performers fault. If Handel sounds like gargling, it's probably the singer's fault. But if Bach never sounded Mindblowing to you, I'd seek professional help.

 

I am in total agreement with respect to your opinion on Bach. It is a shame that MAK disbanded as Reinhard Goebel felt that DG Archive had relegated his ensemble to the second string status in favor of the English ensembles such as the English Concert under Trevor Pinnock and English Baroque Sololists under John Eliot Gardiner. In all fairness, I do enjoy many of Bach's works by the English Concert over the MAK. Although I have rediscovered the MAK in recent years and as you pointed out, the ensemble generally has done an excellent job re-introducing Telemann to the baroque music lovers and that Telemann was not exactly the Antonio Salieri of the baroque era ...

 

Who doesn't?

 

With probably close to 2000 CD's/LP's (sorry it is not easy to enumerate the exact number of titles since I never archived my LP collection on compuer) of works by Bach in my classical music collection, I can say some of the performances are so sublime that I wonder how any mortal could possibly have composed such works. I feel the same way for some of Handel's choral works. No wonder Beethoven thought Handel was the greatest composer of choral works ...

 

Now playing the following SACD, another recent arrival from across the pond just before Christmas for a first listen ...

 

I like them both but I prefer Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33. I have the recording by Steven Isserlis on RCA

 

I have that recording. Everyone should own it IMO.

 

Messiaen rocks. Dutilleux and Birtwistle are the bomb. Cool stuff.

 

This must be a new one.....never saw it before!

Oppsss didn't see second part of message!

Yeah it's gonna hafta wait....kinda expensive right now.

 

I would just like to echo the praise for Krips' Mozart. I heard one Symphony a while back and immediately bought the box. I haven't listened to anyone else's Mozart since then. He brings a certain swing that almost sounds like a touch of Jazz big band to me. The best Mozart performances always seem to have a certain special flow and that is what I hear in spades here.

I also tend to listen to the earlier Symphonies more than the more popular later ones. I seem to enjoy Mozart and Haydn's earlier Symphonies more than their more well regarded later efforts.

 

Now enjoying this fine 2CD set.When it finishes, I will have completely caught up on my listening of new (to me) CDs. Actually, no, I have one on the way (Earl Wild's Chopin Ballades/Scherzos), after that I will be up to date.

Having spent a lot of time over the last few years focusing on performers, I'd like to spend 2013 focusing a bit more on the music and on the composers, listening from a different perspective.

 

Agree completely, the slow portion of the first movement can pull you in from across the room, as it did to me quite literally last night. I've never heard it live and therefore have to be missing the full effect of the finale, but it was still a very enjoyable thing. This was the Bernstein recording with the NYPO.

 

Interesting . . . same here, in a way. I actually went through the CD collection over the past couple of days and parked a bunch in the closet in boxes. This may sound counterintuitive, but I believe I'll do more listening with fewer choices to make. Largely what I put away were different versions of the same stuff. Your reasons are probably a bit different, but it occurred to me that I just need to know much more about a lot of the music I might listen to, and that my appreciation would benefit from it.

 

Cool.

 

+1 It's amazing what the old church organist came up with.

 

Just picked this up since Sinfonietta was mentioned in Harukami Murakami's latest novel. I really like what I've heard so far--but the Sinfionetta is tacked onto the end, so I haven't heard it yet.

 

I really liked this whole CD. The music is interesting--very off-kilter in places, but still very melodic.

 

Can't sleep, so I turned to this one for comfort. It's working.

 

a friend got a copy of this LP for $1.50 a couple of days ago.i have the recordings on a 2-CD Delius/Beecham box from 1987.they were recorded
in Abbey Road Studio No. 1,11/7/56(Dance Suite),11/10/56(Florida Suite) & 4/2/57(Over The Hills).produced by Lawrence Collingwood.engineered by Christopher
Parker.original releases were HMV ASD 329 & Capitol SG -7193.