GMG Classical Music Forum

The Music Room => General Classical Music Discussion => Topic started by: blablawsky on December 26, 2017, 04:28:16 AM

Title: Night Music
Post by: blablawsky on December 26, 2017, 04:28:16 AM
Hi all, this is my first post on this forum. Hopefully it will be appropriate.

Discuss and/or recommend me 'night music'. I am not specifically looking for nocturnes, but am looking for anything that feels like the night. Some examples I have in mind are Carter's string quartets (especially 1, 3 and 5), Night Fantasies, Webern's Op. 7 (and a lot more), Berio's Epifanie, as well as some non-classical music like this:

https://www.youtube.com/v/S39sB1ps29Q

https://www.youtube.com/v/u8oal_1_YUk

Bartok may be an obvious example, but his music feels too rich for me.

I am mostly looking for modern and contemporary music, but I am interested to hear any 'night music,' including early music.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Mandryka on December 26, 2017, 09:12:37 AM
Try dipping into these

https://www.youtube.com/v/vohdiXPN5nY

https://www.youtube.com/v/YrTgPCxbfWY

https://www.youtube.com/v/qJrclYubteg

https://www.youtube.com/v/vue4Xi9zKrs

https://www.youtube.com/v/fmP41Am2oPk

(https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0003/484/MI0003484339.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/818XXZNG7RL._SY355_.jpg)

(https://ecmreviews.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/night-sessions.jpg)

(https://ecmreviews.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/der-bote1.jpg)



(You can't see it on the image but the Formenti CD is called Notturni. Formenti has a CD called Night Studies but I haven't heard it. )

The first things that came to mind was in fact Act II of Tristan, and the opening of Act 4 of Figaro, there may be someone quite evocative music in Wozzeck to, the last interlude maybe. I'm sure someone else will suggest parts of Mahler 7 - it's just so long since I last heard it!


Added - I'm forgetting one of the most unforgettable,  Schubert Nacht und Traume - try to see the film Samuel Beckett made for it.

https://www.youtube.com/v/Ewa1SugylEE
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: kyjo on December 26, 2017, 09:30:03 AM
Of course, Bartok described many of his slow movements as "night music". Some of Ginastera's slow movements and scherzi also have a mysterious, nocturnal quality.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Rinaldo on December 26, 2017, 11:58:57 AM
Busoni's Nocturne symphonique:

https://www.youtube.com/v/q9IxrPipr1c
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: blablawsky on December 26, 2017, 08:38:44 PM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 26, 2017, 09:12:37 AM
Try dipping into these
...
These are on point. That Schubert piece is great, especially.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Mandryka on December 26, 2017, 09:59:29 PM
If night means sleep and sleep means dreams, then a whole world of surreal music opens up. Try, for example, John  Cage's fabulous Music Walk here

https://soundcloud.com/faustseele/music-walk-1958
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: some guy on December 27, 2017, 01:38:57 PM
That Formenti album is vastly entertaining. So now I want to have the other one you mentioned.

Otherwise, I think your last post to this thread was so perfect on so many levels. I've been enjoying that almost as much as if it were poetry. (Well, it was poetry, I guess, as I needed it. ;) So thanks for that.)
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: vandermolen on December 27, 2017, 01:54:10 PM
Esenvalds: 'Visions of Arctic Night' - a beautifully atmospheric work; part of a great CD:
[asin]B00RC7L6TS[/asin]
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: North Star on December 27, 2017, 02:08:12 PM
Mompou - Musica callada
Silvestrov - Silent Songs
Rakhmaninov - All-night Vigil
Sibelius - Tapiola
Ives - Unanswered Question, Central Park in the Dark
Decaux - Clairs de lune
Ysaÿe - Sonata for solo violin no. 2
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Mandryka on December 28, 2017, 09:20:38 AM
Quote from: some guy on December 27, 2017, 01:38:57 PM
That Formenti album is vastly entertaining. So now I want to have the other one you mentioned.

Otherwise, I think your last post to this thread was so perfect on so many levels. I've been enjoying that almost as much as if it were poetry. (Well, it was poetry, I guess, as I needed it. ;) So thanks for that.)

I still haven't heard Night Studies, but I did play a Formenti CD called Nothing is Real, which is where that Cage on soundcloud comes from - I liked it very much.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Maestro267 on December 28, 2017, 10:01:43 AM
I always find Shostakovich's 15th Symphony great to listen to in the dark. Especially the slow movement. It's quite an eerie experience.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: kyjo on December 28, 2017, 11:01:14 AM
Quote from: Maestro267 on December 28, 2017, 10:01:43 AM
I always find Shostakovich's 15th Symphony great to listen to in the dark. Especially the slow movement. It's quite an eerie experience.

I listened to the 15th in the dark the other night - an eerie experience indeed.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Roasted Swan on December 29, 2017, 08:16:47 AM
Hi - one of the most extraordinary pieces of the 21st century for me is "hymns of the night" by the Swedish composer Tommie Haglund.  Basically a 38+ minutes single movement violin concerto but its an extended meditation of pain, loss and a final acceptance.  A quite remarkable piece.  There is just one recording currently - a very fine one - but the word is that BIS are looking to record it sometime soon....

[asin]B003QF0J6Q[/asin]
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: motoboy on December 29, 2017, 02:01:11 PM
Since you included non-classical, I would suggest Miles Davis' (I mean Bill Evans') "Blue In Green."

Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Alek Hidell on December 30, 2017, 12:54:24 PM
Quote from: motoboy on December 29, 2017, 02:01:11 PM
Since you included non-classical, I would suggest Miles Davis' (I mean Bill Evans') "Blue In Green."

The entire Kind of Blue album could be included, for that matter. :)
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: kyjo on December 30, 2017, 02:27:39 PM
Two colorful third symphonies: Szymanowski's Symphony no. 3 Song of the Night and Rangström's Symphony no. 3 Song under the Stars.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Mirror Image on December 30, 2017, 07:13:31 PM
Then there's Sibelius' Night Ride & Sunrise.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Wanderer on December 31, 2017, 01:41:16 AM
Medtner's Sonata in E minor, op.25/2, "Night Wind", one of his most grand and potent creations. It is a vast one-movement work in two major parts: an Introduction and Allegro sonata-form, followed by a Fantasy capped by a shadowy but active Coda, the latter entirely based on material presented in the Introduction. In Geoffrey Tozer's words, this sonata "has the reputation of being a fearsomely difficult work of extraordinary length, exhausting to play and to hear, but of magnificent quality and marvelous invention."
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Mahlerian on December 31, 2017, 11:25:21 AM
https://www.youtube.com/v/Ux2l7bZYdyg

Gorgeous stuff.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: some guy on December 31, 2017, 03:30:18 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6WjS7Wp1b0
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: pjme on January 03, 2018, 09:25:53 AM
"I am mostly looking for modern and contemporary music, but I am interested to hear any 'night music,' including early music."

Camille Saint Saêns:
"La nuit", for soprano, female chorus and orchestra: https://youtu.be/wDO6EnqDIhM

Charles Koechlin wrote many works that reflect/were inspired by the night:
Hymne à la nuit :
https://youtu.be/sjkipI5cIKI
Vers la voûte étoilée: https://youtu.be/ctPTaigcRTE

Silvestre Revueltas: La noche de los Mayas: https://youtu.be/gRwExCe6iFc

Henri Dutilleux: Ainsi la nuit - string quartet: https://youtu.be/n5OES3j8284

J.P.Rameau: O, Nuit (Hyppolyte et Aricie) : https://youtu.be/H3wxBIHLw90

Mahalia Jackson: Silent night, holy night : https://youtu.be/cxDr-KCcQGA

Luigi Dallapiccola: Piccola Musica Notturna: https://youtu.be/-1h2PFKLjNQ

Arthur Meulemans: May night : https://youtu.be/IDfyBQSeav0

Simeon Pironkov: Night music: https://youtu.be/PMlpfI1Vmro

Alphons Diepenbrock: Lydische nacht ( for orchestra) : https://youtu.be/PMlpfI1Vmro
and "Die Nacht" (alto & orchestra) : https://youtu.be/8AypRUaXuRs (Janet Baker + Haitink/ A'dam.)
+ "Hymne an die Nacht" (soprano & orch.) : https://youtu.be/XmgOEdc8-sk (Arleen Auger / Chailly)

Enescu: Carillon nocturne : https://youtu.be/ruhW-B8YLQs


Etc.
P.







Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Christo on January 03, 2018, 09:47:49 AM
Night Flight Op. 19a, a reworking of the slow movement of the discarded Second Symphony by Samuel Barber, after the novel 'Vol de nuit' (Night Flight) by Saint Exupéry, based on his own experiences flying over Patagonia in the 1930s. 'The work is slow and subdued, and sounds like an elegy for the doomed flyers, pulled to climb up by the calm of the starry night above but trapped by the unforgiving storm below. A repeated piano note suggests the radio beacon calling helpless in the night.' (Hector Bellman)
Great performance:
(https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/152/MI0001152735.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: bwv 1080 on January 03, 2018, 09:56:32 AM
Schumann - Nachtstücke op 23

Britten - Nocturnal after John Dowland's Come Heavy Sleep
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: relm1 on January 03, 2018, 04:46:44 PM
I have a stupid question but how exactly do you define "night"?  Would a sunset qualify such as the dawn and sunset sequence in Strauss's Alpensymphonie?  What about On the Beach at Night Alone? https://youtu.be/6qw-3jdtfro?t=1213  Should a work inspired by outer space quality like Whitacre's Deep Field? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnvFLlWSAYU
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Mirror Image on January 03, 2018, 06:39:10 PM
Quote from: Christo on January 03, 2018, 09:47:49 AM
Night Flight Op. 19a, a reworking of the slow movement of the discarded Second Symphony by Samuel Barber, after the novel 'Vol de nuit' (Night Flight) by Saint Exupéry, based on his own experiences flying over Patagonia in the 1930s. 'The work is slow and subdued, and sounds like an elegy for the doomed flyers, pulled to climb up by the calm of the starry night above but trapped by the unforgiving storm below. A repeated piano note suggests the radio beacon calling helpless in the night.' (Hector Bellman)
Great performance:
(https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/152/MI0001152735.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)

And what a beautiful work (second movement in Symphony No. 2) it is! I never have understood some listener's disdain for this symphony. While I do agree it's not on the level of some of Barber's well-known masterworks, it certainly is an enjoyable work. The first and second movements are my favorites. This work is just about as underrated as his later output. The works composed after the failure of Antony and Cleopatra are truly fascinating.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: ritter on January 04, 2018, 04:43:35 AM
More about "sleep" than "night" as such, but this jewel (from Lully's Atys) may qualify:

https://www.youtube.com/v/nFgyzGhxLLw
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Mirror Image on January 04, 2018, 08:26:19 AM
Quote from: Mahlerian on December 31, 2017, 11:25:21 AM
https://www.youtube.com/v/Ux2l7bZYdyg

Gorgeous stuff.

Indeed. I quite enjoy Takemitsu's piano music. (Of course, I'm incredibly biased since he's one of my favorites.) :)
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: Spineur on January 04, 2018, 12:28:33 PM
A nice "night music" CD with

- Debussy clair de lune (suite bergamasque)/les soirs illuminé par le charbon/ feux d'artifices
- Satie Gymnopédies/Gnossiennes
- Abel Decaux Clairs de lune
- Fauré Nocturnes
- Ravel Gaspard de la nuit

[asin]B015WORG0K[/asin]

Also listened earlier to Mompou Musica Callada, la quintessence de la musique de nuit


Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: premont on January 05, 2018, 06:49:15 AM
Quote from: Mandryka on December 26, 2017, 09:12:37 AM
Try dipping into these

https://www.youtube.com/v/qJrclYubteg


I suppose this is the Alla Francesca recording.
Title: Re: Night Music
Post by: blablawsky on February 07, 2018, 03:19:25 PM
Quote from: some guy on December 31, 2017, 03:30:18 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6WjS7Wp1b0
I really liked this. Do you have anything similar in feel?