Gurn's Classical Corner

[DavidW]

How about Gurn's favorite atonalists list?

[Gurn Blanston]

"Gurn's Post-Gurnian Era Tonalists by Gurn Blanston"

Get on that too.

Boy, there's some nice ones on that list. I like about half the composers in the 19th century, so I guess they'd all make it.

[Gurn Blanston]

How about Gurn's favorite atonalists list?

When they talk about making the short list, that'll be this one...

[Dr. Dread]

Navneeth,

You got it. Heh.

[Dr. Dread]

Has Gurn even ventured forth into the 20th century to find tonalism?

[Opus106]

Navneeth,

You got it. Heh.

Huh? What?




Anyway, the following is the list (I deleted):

[Dr. Dread]

Huh? What?




Anyway, the following is the list (I deleted):

Stop trying to confuse me. 

[Opus106]

[Gurn Blanston]

Has Gurn even ventured forth into the 20th century to find tonalism?

Sure. Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Bartok (sorta tonal), Bloch, Rachmaninoff, several others of that persuasion. We are not barbarians, Dave...

Also we are quite fond of Stravinsky and R. Strauss, although we wouldn't want it bandied about...

[Maciek]

Do I detect a whiff of sydneygrewism?

[Dr. Dread]

Sure. Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Bartok (sorta tonal), Bloch, Rachmaninoff, several others of that persuasion. We are not barbarians, Dave...

Also we are quite fond of Stravinsky and R. Strauss, although we wouldn't want it bandied about...

Hm. I'll take Rachmaninoff out of that bunch.

[karlhenning]

Has Gurn even ventured forth into the 20th century to find tonalism?

Gurn has heard music of the 21^st century! He even likes some of it!

[karlhenning]

Do I detect a whiff of sydneygrewism?

Thought it was getting a little punky in here 

[Gurn Blanston]

Do I detect a whiff of sydneygrewism?

More than a whiff, a positive stink.

[Gurn Blanston]

Hm. I'll take Rachmaninoff out of that bunch.

Not a bad choice. You might give Bloch a try, something like his concert piece for cello & orchestra (Solomon (Schelomo)). Very nice.

[Gurn Blanston]

Gurn has heard music of the 21^st century! He even likes some of it!

Sad but true. Post-Gurnian in the extreme 

[Maciek]

He has actually listened to a certain Pawel Szymanski piece TWICE!

[Maciek]

I would rather crap in Gurn's thread.

More than a whiff, a positive stink.

Oh, the stuff people miss by staying away from this thread...

[DavidW]

Oh, the stuff people miss by staying away from this thread...

That was a great convenient alignment.

[SonicMan46]

Well, a number of pages back Gurn brought up the composer below w/o much response - there is a thread on Vanhal that has not received much 'serious' attention, so tonight I left a post (quoted below) in that thread after receiving a 'new' recording of Piano Quintets by him today - thought that those on the Gurn Classical Thread might be interested - Dave 

Well, time to get this thread back on track, esp. since I've just received an excellent disc of his Piano Quintets, described later:

Johann Baptist Vanhal (1739-1813), born in Bohemia and trained early by local muscians; because of his excellent violin playing he was taken to Vienna in the early 1760s and given lessons by Dittersdorf; he eventually was well accepted into Viennese society as a performer, composer, and conductor; as Poju stated in a post, he was certainly one of the early muscians to make a comfortable living without the need of royal patronage.  Another 'claim to fame' is that he was often a member of the probably the most famous Quartet of the Era, i.e. often playing w/ Mozart, Haydn, & Dittersdorf - BOY, can you imagine just being there! 

In the old forum, Gurn started a Vanhal Thread, which just went for a few pages (I was there along w/ others); not too many recommendations made but a short bio given; for those interested, check out the bios on Wiki and on Naxos - despite his obscurity now, he was a well known & respected 'all around' musician in Vienna at the height of its classical glory!

Vanhal was a prolific composer - just a short quote from the Wiki article 'and attributed to him are 100 quartets, at least 73 symphonies, 95 sacred works, and a large number of instrumental and vocal works' - plenty of chamber music!  Personally, I now own just a half dozen discs of Vanhal's music:  Symphonies on Naxos & Chandos (more releases have been made on Naxos); Oboe Quartets on Helios w/ Sarah Francis; Double Bass Concertos on Hyperion (w/ Dittersdorf; not thrilled w/ this disc); and String Quartets w/ Kubin Quartet on Ceska - HEY, I'm just scratching the surface! 

My most recent Vanhal acquisition is shown below, i.e. Piano Quintets, Op. 12 w/ Miklos Spanyi on fortepiano & Authentic Quartet on period instruments; excellent review recently in the last issue of the American Record Guide - on first listen this is an outstanding production; Spanyi is superb on the fortepiano & the recorded sound well done.

If you are interested in music of this period, then this is a composer to explore seriously -