New Releases

Started by Brian, March 12, 2009, 12:26:29 PM

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kyjo

Quote from: Maestro267 on February 16, 2021, 10:19:07 AM
Same. Classical music is about the composers for me. I don't care who's performing the music.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who feels this way! As a performer myself, the reason I perform is because I love the music, not for self-glorification.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

kyjo

Quote from: Brian on February 22, 2021, 11:29:04 AM
As it happens I JUST got an email from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra telling me to buy tickets to this Thursday's concert - which is Mahler 4, in a chamber arrangement by Klaus Simon. It was supposed to be the normal, big Mahler 4, but due to coronavirus restrictions, they can only have so few players on the stage, so they're going with the chamberfied version.

Per NML, the Klaus Simon version of Mahler 4 is scored for string quintet (quartet + one double bass), one flute doubling on piccolo, one oboe doubling on cor anglais, one clarinet/bass clarinet, one bassoon, two French horns (one plays in the third movement only), two percussionists, piano, harmonium, and soprano. 15 musicians. NML has a full recording (which takes a zippy 50'), I'll try some samples now...

EDIT: Well that was terrible. The violin and cello have fully developed parts going all the way through, and the pianist has to do a lot of work, but every other instrument just jumps in with its usual short solo bits, which gives the scoring a fragmented, haphazard feel as if it the symphony was written by a hyperactive 7-year-old who kept shouting things like, "now the clarinet plays three notes! okay stop, clarinet, now the oboe plays three notes! okay stop, now the horn!" Also, I skipped ahead to what I think of as The Magic Bit in the slow movement - near the end, when the clouds lift and all you have are the strings, alone, hushed, playing a super high note. And the strings here are so wimpy (Simon omits the bassist) that Simon adds the flute and clarinet. Gross.

Seriously, why perform this live? I know, because Fabio Luisi is a Very Serious Conductor who likes Mahler. But like...just do the Schubert octet, dude. I'd go to the Schubert octet.

Some musicians will come up with any excuse to play Mahler or Beethoven in some deranged form instead of actually looking for repertoire that specifically fits their instrumentation needs... ::)
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Mirror Image

Quote from: kyjo on March 02, 2021, 07:51:25 AM
Some musicians will come up with any excuse to play Mahler or Beethoven in some deranged form instead of actually looking for repertoire that specifically fits their instrumentation needs... ::)

So what. Orchestras stopped playing interesting repertoire for quite some time now. You must've missed the memo. ::)

DavidW

Chamber orchestras could do loads of baroque and classical era works (I used to attend concerts of a chamber orchestra).  A chamber version of a Mahler symphony does seem to miss the mark.

One of my fav concerts I've attended they performed Haydn's 1st symphony.  I think that would be about the same number of performers.

That could be a fun thread topic.  Do to covid restrictions you have less than 20 performers.  What do you play?

Mirror Image

Quote from: DavidW on March 02, 2021, 06:54:38 PM
Chamber orchestras could do loads of baroque and classical era works (I used to attend concerts of a chamber orchestra).  A chamber version of a Mahler symphony does seem to miss the mark.

One of my fav concerts I've attended they performed Haydn's 1st symphony.  I think that would be about the same number of performers.

That could be a fun thread topic.  Do to covid restrictions you have less than 20 performers.  What do you play?

If you look into the 20th Century, there are plenty of chamber symphonies --- those by Schoenberg, Enescu, Milhaud, Schreker et. al. Of course, these names don't draw in crowds like Beethoven or Mahler, so really the bottomline here is money and in a time of such uncertainty in regards to the arts, it seems like it might be a good idea for orchestras to play for the money at this juncture. This is a point that Kyjo has continuously failed to address. Sorry, but Atterberg isn't going to sell out a crowd of people. That's just the way it is and one needs to learn to accept this reality.

amw

Quote from: DavidW on March 02, 2021, 06:54:38 PM
Chamber orchestras could do loads of baroque and classical era works (I used to attend concerts of a chamber orchestra).  A chamber version of a Mahler symphony does seem to miss the mark.

One of my fav concerts I've attended they performed Haydn's 1st symphony.  I think that would be about the same number of performers.

That could be a fun thread topic.  Do to covid restrictions you have less than 20 performers.  What do you play?
Obviously you commission someone to arrange Mahler's Eighth for eight solo singers and twelve instrumentalists.... just imagine how majestic the opening Te Deum will sound with the massed forces of a harmonium, three pianos, some tuned percussion instruments and Amarcord vocal ensemble!

Brian

Quote from: Mirror Image on March 02, 2021, 07:07:05 PM
If you look into the 20th Century, there are plenty of chamber symphonies --- those by Schoenberg, Enescu, Milhaud, Schreker et. al. Of course, these names don't draw in crowds like Beethoven or Mahler, so really the bottomline here is money and in a time of such uncertainty in regards to the arts, it seems like it might be a good idea for orchestras to play for the money at this juncture. This is a point that Kyjo has continuously failed to address. Sorry, but Atterberg isn't going to sell out a crowd of people. That's just the way it is and one needs to learn to accept this reality.
We have a local nonprofit chamber symphony that operates with about 15-18 musicians and is sort of given permission to take over a city-owned concert hall for free a few nights a year. They have only 3-4 full time employees and their main cost is plane tickets for guest artists. They pay the bills by doing silent movie nights where they play the scores while Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin stumbles around - including newly commissioned scores! The last concert of theirs I attended was a new commission by a local woman, the Bacewicz symphony for strings, and then the original chamber-sized Appalachian Spring in order to sell some tickets. Was nice. First Bacewicz I've seen live, certainly.

DavidW - starting your thread in General Discussion!

Mirror Image

#11367
Quote from: Brian on March 03, 2021, 05:26:13 AM
We have a local nonprofit chamber symphony that operates with about 15-18 musicians and is sort of given permission to take over a city-owned concert hall for free a few nights a year. They have only 3-4 full time employees and their main cost is plane tickets for guest artists. They pay the bills by doing silent movie nights where they play the scores while Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin stumbles around - including newly commissioned scores! The last concert of theirs I attended was a new commission by a local woman, the Bacewicz symphony for strings, and then the original chamber-sized Appalachian Spring in order to sell some tickets. Was nice. First Bacewicz I've seen live, certainly.

DavidW - starting your thread in General Discussion!

Very nice, Brian. That sounds like a program that would be right up my alley. The orchestra you mention sounds like they do good work. It is good to see creativity like this in an age where one doesn't know when the next orchestra will fold up and never perform again.

steve ridgway

Quote from: amw on March 02, 2021, 08:49:42 PM
Obviously you commission someone to arrange Mahler's Eighth for eight solo singers and twelve instrumentalists.... just imagine how majestic the opening Te Deum will sound with the massed forces of a harmonium, three pianos, some tuned percussion instruments and Amarcord vocal ensemble!

I don't know the piece but in general a "rock" type group might be the most effective option. 8)

Roy Bland

#11369
Naxos future release
On October 17, cellists Nikolai Shugaev and Sergei Slovachevsky (Honored Artist of Russia) and the Rostov Academic Symphony Orchestra (RASO) will perform on the stage of the Rostov Philharmonic. The Rostov listener will be the first to get acquainted with the program, for the recording of which representatives of Naxos Records, a recording label specializing in classical music, will come to the Don capital. The CD will include "Concerto for two cellos L'Olmeneta" by G. Ghedini (the work of 1951 will be performed for the first time on the Russian stage) and "Nocturne and Tarantella" for cello and orchestra by A. Casella.

Brian

APRIL STUFF CONTINUED



The Novak tone poem for piano is 56 minutes long.



No coupling, just the one symphony. 43'


Mirror Image

It's great seeing Martinů getting performed more and more on recordings. After Janáček, I'd consider him the most important Czech composer. He's also probably the most cosmopolitan of all the more well-known Czech composers as well with having lived in many different countries.

Mandryka

#11372


Binchois and Ockeghem songs for voice and viols and viels, very very good first impressions, incandescent music making, gorgeous voices. These singers have the charisma of Solazzo ensemble, who also use strings of course. Extraordinary variety of approaches. Comes out of work at the Sorbonne on the placement of lower voices in Binchois

Review here

https://www.facebook.com/cometmusicke/photos/a.1101031239956342/3720105438048896/?type=3&theater

Booklet here

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/23/000131732.pdf
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mirror Image

#11373
Coming in April:





I really hope these labels open up the flood gates for Stravinsky as it's the 50th anniversary of his passing. It appears, as Brian posted many pages back, that many labels have box sets already with release dates. I pre-ordered the Warner Classics one, but I'm also looking at the Chailly set since I don't own all of his Stravinsky performances.

amw

Quote from: Brian on March 08, 2021, 10:35:20 AM
The Novak tone poem for piano is 56 minutes long.
54 minutes in the pre-existing František Rauch & Patrick Hemmerlé recordings; 52 minutes in the František Maxián recording (this will, as far as I know, be its fourth recording). Plus at least two recordings of the composer's version for full orchestra.

Florestan

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

vandermolen

Quote from: amw on March 08, 2021, 10:14:59 PM
54 minutes in the pre-existing František Rauch & Patrick Hemmerlé recordings; 52 minutes in the František Maxián recording (this will, as far as I know, be its fourth recording). Plus at least two recordings of the composer's version for full orchestra.
I like 'Pan' in both its piano and orchestral versions.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Todd






Also, a 44 disc Mischa Maisky box is coming.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Brian

Quote from: Florestan on March 09, 2021, 12:36:07 AM
Duly noted, thanks.
It's a reissue of a 1990s Marco Polo release, and the only recording of the ballet (or at least it was a world premiere in the 90s and I don't know anyone who's recording new Adolphe Adam these days).

André



I have this set (same performance) on the Marco Polo label. How on earth has Adolphe become Alphonse on that Naxos release ?  ???



The music is excellent, by the way.