The Diamond Mine

Started by karlhenning, March 17, 2009, 04:28:06 AM

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Rons_talking

Quote from: vandermolen on June 27, 2015, 01:04:04 AM
Totally agree with you in every way. I find the very start of No.4 very moving, sad and poignant and yet the symphony ends with a kind of defiant 'triumph against the odds' finale, which is inspiriting and life affirming. I just retired yesterday from 37 years of full-time teaching and following an emotional send-off was feeling very sad. Diamond's 4th Symphony accompanied me during my car journey both ways and I have just played it again (Bernstein, although Schwarz is just as good) as I try to take-in yesterday's experience. Forgive the personal anecdote but this music has really meant a lot to me during the last few days.  :)

Awesome! Congratulations! It was your "Diamond" Anniversary of teaching...

vandermolen

Quote from: Rons_talking on June 28, 2015, 04:01:03 PM
Awesome! Congratulations! It was your "Diamond" Anniversary of teaching...

Hehe - many thanks. Was listening to Symphony 1 yesterday which is also very fine. I,3 and 4 are my favourites, especially 3 and 4. I enjoy 2 also - it has some fine moments but does not, perhaps, hang together as well as the others. I am going back into work today to do some clearing up so will have another listen to No.2 and maybe No.8 and 'Tom'. I enjoyed the VC No.2 yesterday.
"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).

vandermolen

A plug for this great CD. I love all three pieces and although I always liked the inspiriting First Symphony I have really come to appreciate the VC No.2 and, above all, 'The Enormous Room' (after E.E. Cummings), which I find to be a classic American tone poem of great melodic appeal and movingly eloquent. Don't understand why I did not appreciate it before:
[asin]B00009NH8G[/asin]
"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).

ZauberdrachenNr.7

To commemorate David Diamond's centennial today, the NPR station of his birthplace produced this commemorative broadcast, well worth hearing.

http://interactive.wxxi.org/highlights/2015/06/diamond-anniversary

Peter Power Pop

#104
Quote from: ZauberdrachenNr.7 on July 09, 2015, 12:03:52 PM
To commemorate David Diamond's centennial today, the NPR station of his birthplace produced this commemorative broadcast, well worth hearing.

http://interactive.wxxi.org/highlights/2015/06/diamond-anniversary

Splendid.

If you have trouble with that link for any reason, you can hear the broadcast directly on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/wxxi/a-diamond-anniversary-special

vandermolen

Quote from: Peter Power Pop on July 09, 2015, 05:57:07 PM
Splendid.

If you have trouble with that link for any reason, you can hear the broadcast directly on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/wxxi/a-diamond-anniversary-special

I hope that BBC Radio 3, Gramophone magazine and BBC Music acknowledge it too. Have written to the latter but they will probably ignore it.
"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).

Karl Henning

So, has anyone heard the Sonatina for accordion?
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

calyptorhynchus

Good news for Diamond fans, Naxos are announcing a recording of the Symphony No.6 (a world premiere) in a release scheduled for 1 May.

The recording is a recent one from 2015, so let's hope it's the beginning of series recording all the hitherto unrecorded symphonies of the sparkling master David (7, 9, 10, 11 to go + many other works).
'Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.' Robert Burton

vandermolen

#108
Quote from: calyptorhynchus on March 31, 2018, 06:35:42 PM
Good news for Diamond fans, Naxos are announcing a recording of the Symphony No.6 (a world premiere) in a release scheduled for 1 May.

The recording is a recent one from 2015, so let's hope it's the beginning of series recording all the hitherto unrecorded symphonies of the sparkling master David (7, 9, 10, 11 to go + many other works).

How exciting! Thanks very much for the info. Yes, those 'missing' symphonies are big gaps in the catalogue.
Have ordered the Naxos disc. I see that Symphony 6 is coupled with Romeo and Juliet which is a lovely score.
[asin]B07BN7RCP2[/asin]
"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).

dhibbard

There is a new Naxos CD coming soon  (May) with new recordings. 

dhibbard

Quote from: vandermolen on March 31, 2018, 10:43:11 PM
How exciting! Thanks very much for the info. Yes, those 'missing' symphonies are big gaps in the catalogue.
Have ordered the Naxos disc. I see that Symphony 6 is coupled with Romeo and Juliet which is a lovely score.
[asin]B07BN7RCP2[/asin]

perhaps this might be the start of using University student orchestras to bring about recordings of unsung composers.....  they work for free.

vandermolen

#111
Quote from: vandermolen on July 04, 2015, 01:34:33 PM
A plug for this great CD. I love all three pieces and although I always liked the inspiriting First Symphony I have really come to appreciate the VC No.2 and, above all, 'The Enormous Room' (after E.E. Cummings), which I find to be a classic American tone poem of great melodic appeal and movingly eloquent. Don't understand why I did not appreciate it before:
[asin]B00009NH8G[/asin]
Back to listening to this great symphony.
I don't really understand why Diamond is not up there with Copland and Harris.
I find his music moving, eloquent and of wide potential popular appeal.
"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).

lescamil

We really need a modern recording of David Diamond's piano sonata. There's an old recording of it by Rosalyn Tureck but it is nigh on unlistenable with the amount of hiss and age that is apparent in the recording. I think it's a great work that uses some very interesting textures (including a fugue at the end).
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vandermolen

Quote from: lescamil on April 26, 2018, 05:34:29 PM
We really need a modern recording of David Diamond's piano sonata. There's an old recording of it by Rosalyn Tureck but it is nigh on unlistenable with the amount of hiss and age that is apparent in the recording. I think it's a great work that uses some very interesting textures (including a fugue at the end).

Thank you for the recommendation. I must investigate this work. I know little of Diamond's chamber music.
"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).

Jaakko Keskinen

Diamond is a rather new composer to me but I like very much his Timon of Athens.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

vandermolen

Quote from: Alberich on April 27, 2018, 09:25:37 AM
Diamond is a rather new composer to me but I like very much his Timon of Athens.

Never heard of it! But it sounds good:

https://youtu.be/7LBX1Mi6zFQ
"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).

vandermolen

#116
I'm glad that I bought the new Naxos CD. But, I'm sorry to say, that's for 'Rounds' which I appreciated more than ever before and the lyrical and, at the end, poignant music for 'Romeo and Juliet'. Symphony No.6 however, is, for me at least, a difficult nut to crack. It bears no resemblance as far as I'm concerned to the tuneful symphonies 1-4, all of which I love. No.6 sounds to me like the work of a different composer and brought to mind a quote from Vaughan Williams about 'arid note-spinning'. I will try again with Symphony 6 and hope that others appreciate it more than I have.

Added later:

I'm on my fourth listening to Symphony 6 now and like it a bit more. It reminds me a bit of one of Copland's more modernist works.
"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).

calyptorhynchus

My new Naxos disk is still on the way to Oz so I can't comment on this recording. However the Symphonies 6-8 are very different from 1-5, much more modernist. (There are so-so radio recordings of symphonies 6, 7, 9 and 10, and 8 has been recorded). Symphony no. 9 is a more lyrical symphony with a baritone which sets some of the sonnets of Michaelangelo. Symphony no.10 represents a new departure, a massive, sort of Brucknian sound that isn't like either the early symphonies or the middle ones. [Also in the 90s Diamond wrote a Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (not to be confused with the Concerto for (solo) String Quartet of the 30s), which is in a different style again, neo-baroque, there's a recording of the premiere of that work on YouTube, go listen. The soloist are the Julliard String Quartet, (I don't think they are known for playing substandard works)].

The Symphony no.11, by all accounts of the premiere in 1992, was similarly Brucknerian, so much so that the conductor, Kurt Masur, took it upon himself to cut 10 minutes out! Only the adagio of this work has been recorded (uncut) and it is very fine, so it's frustrating that 11 hasn't recorded yet, or that a recording of the premiere isn't available for the bits that Masur was good enough to leave for us.
'Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.' Robert Burton

vandermolen

#118
Quote from: calyptorhynchus on May 12, 2018, 04:07:47 PM
My new Naxos disk is still on the way to Oz so I can't comment on this recording. However the Symphonies 6-8 are very different from 1-5, much more modernist. (There are so-so radio recordings of symphonies 6, 7, 9 and 10, and 8 has been recorded). Symphony no. 9 is a more lyrical symphony with a baritone which sets some of the sonnets of Michaelangelo. Symphony no.10 represents a new departure, a massive, sort of Brucknian sound that isn't like either the early symphonies or the middle ones. [Also in the 90s Diamond wrote a Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (not to be confused with the Concerto for (solo) String Quartet of the 30s), which is in a different style again, neo-baroque, there's a recording of the premiere of that work on YouTube, go listen. The soloist are the Julliard String Quartet, (I don't think they are known for playing substandard works)].

The Symphony no.11, by all accounts of the premiere in 1992, was similarly Brucknerian, so much so that the conductor, Kurt Masur, took it upon himself to cut 10 minutes out! Only the adagio of this work has been recorded (uncut) and it is very fine, so it's frustrating that 11 hasn't recorded yet, or that a recording of the premiere isn't available for the bits that Masur was good enough to leave for us.
Yes, I'd also like to hear the complete Symphony 11 but suspect that  symphonies 1 to 4 will always remain my favourites.
I've heard No.6 at least four times now and doubt that I'll be returning to it very often, as is the case, for example, with the symphonies 5 and 6 of Braga Santos which I find much less enjoyable than the earlier ones.
"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).

calyptorhynchus

Just been listening to the new Naxos disk and it's a 5 star recording. The feel of the ensble for Rounds and R & J is intimate, just perfect for the music.
So great to hear a modern recording of 6, the continuity of the early phase Diamond is still there even if the aural soothing isn't! (Seriously don't be put off, it's quite crunchy but miles away from avant garde).
Seriously good performances.
'Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.' Robert Burton