The Diamond Mine

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

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vandermolen

Quote from: calyptorhynchus on May 21, 2018, 07:01:08 PM
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.

Ok I'll have another go with Symphony 6. I thought that Rounds was great and always loved Romeo and Juliet but did not respond very positively to Symphony 6 which to me sounded so different from symphonies 1 - 4 and not very memorable.
"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

Quote from: calyptorhynchus on May 21, 2018, 07:01:08 PM
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.

You say avant-garde like it's a bad thing  8)
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

vandermolen

I've just realised what a fine work 'The Enormous Room' (1948) is. A kind of fifteen minute symphonic-Fantasia based on a work by e e Cummings.
"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

#123
The Enormous Room (1948) remains one of my favourite scores by Diamond. I find it powerful, brooding and moving.
A classic American Tone Poem which should be much better known.
[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).

vandermolen

I thought that I'd wake up this thread after a two year hibernation. I've been listening to the marvellous Symphony No.3, which I rank alongside those by Copland, Harris, Schuman and Hanson as great third symphonies. I found Diamond's obituary on the Guardian website. The encounter with Rodzinski made me laugh:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jun/17/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries
"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).

Mirror Image

Quote from: vandermolen on July 22, 2020, 01:28:48 PM
I thought that I'd wake up this thread after a two year hibernation. I've been listening to the marvellous Symphony No.3, which I rank alongside those by Copland, Harris, Schuman and Hanson as great third symphonies. I found Diamond's obituary on the Guardian website. The encounter with Rodzinski made me laugh:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/jun/17/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries


That's an amusing anecdote about Diamond punching Rodziński on the nose. :P

T. D.

I read that article a couple of months ago when I was exploring the string quartets. Got the impression Diamond was rather a "difficult personality" and wondered whether that hindered his career (e. g. performances / exposure) in any way.

vandermolen

Quote from: T. D. on July 22, 2020, 05:50:20 PM
I read that article a couple of months ago when I was exploring the string quartets. Got the impression Diamond was rather a "difficult personality" and wondered whether that hindered his career (e. g. performances / exposure) in any way.
Yes, you may be right as his music (especially symphonies 1-4 IMO) deserves to be much better known. I rank Diamond very highly amongst American composers and actually amongst composers generally. That Third Symphony is, to me, very special. I need to explore his string quartets more.
"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).

Mirror Image

Quote from: vandermolen on July 22, 2020, 09:25:34 PM
Yes, you may be right as his music (especially symphonies 1-4 IMO) deserves to be much better known. I rank Diamond very highly amongst American composers and actually amongst composers generally. That Third Symphony is, to me, very special. I need to explore his string quartets more.

To the bolded text, a ginormous YES!!! A great SQ cycle.

Pohjolas Daughter

#129
Quote from: Peter Power Pop on October 03, 2014, 12:44:08 AM
The first time I heard David Diamond's music was also on ABC Classic FM, but it wasn't String Quartet No. 3. It was this:

David Diamond - Rounds for String Orchestra (1944)
https://www.youtube.com/v/3QAyE0HAB7s

I absolutely loved it, and from that moment I was a fan of his work. I bought as many CDs featuring his music as I could find. I ended up with the five discs of orchestral works on Delos (reissued on Naxos), and a few orchestral and chamber discs.

1. No idea.

2. Er, dunno.

I'd been thinking that I had this CD, but then wondered whether or not I was hallucinating that as I couldn't find it.  Bingo!  It was slightly mis-shelved (and in an area which is hard for me to see to begin with).  I suspect that I found it used.  Mine is an ArkivMusic reissue and though I've ordered other things from them in the past, I don't remember ordering this one.  Will put it on a bit later.   :) I know that I could listen to it here, but I'd rather listen to it through my stereo system.

PD

EDIT:  By the way, I tried someone's link to Alan Belkin's website and was redirected to his new one.  I couldn't find anything there re David Diamond's symphonies or music in general, but perhaps I wasn't looking in the correct area?
Pohjolas Daughter

Peter Power Pop

#130
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on July 23, 2020, 12:37:22 PM
I'd been thinking that I had this CD, but then wondered whether or not I was hallucinating that as I couldn't find it. Bingo! It was slightly mis-shelved (and in an area which is hard for me to see to begin with). I suspect that I found it used. Mine is an ArkivMusic reissue and though I've ordered other things from them in the past, I don't remember ordering this one. Will put it on a bit later. :) I know that I could listen to it here, but I'd rather listen to it through my stereo system.

PD

EDIT: By the way, I tried someone's link to Alan Belkin's website and was redirected to his new one. I couldn't find anything there re David Diamond's symphonies or music in general, but perhaps I wasn't looking in the correct area?

I searched for "Alan Belkin David Diamond" and this PDF was the result:

http://alanbelkinmusic.com/Diamond/Diamond.pdf

It's titled "The Symphonies Of David Diamond: A Listener's Guide".

André

Quote from: Peter Power Pop on July 28, 2020, 04:22:02 PM
I searched for "Alan Belkin David Diamond" and this PDF was the result:

http://alanbelkinmusic.com/Diamond/Diamond.pdf

It's titled "The Symphonies Of David Diamond: A Listener's Guide".

That's great, Peter ! A good occasion to air these recordings after a few years, but this time I'll follow the guide !

vandermolen

Quote from: André on July 28, 2020, 04:46:40 PM
That's great, Peter ! A good occasion to air these recordings after a few years, but this time I'll follow the guide !
+1 have been listening, with much pleasure, to symphonies 1 and 3 as well as to the eloquent and poignant score for 'Romeo and Juliet'.
"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).

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Peter Power Pop on July 28, 2020, 04:22:02 PM
I searched for "Alan Belkin David Diamond" and this PDF was the result:

http://alanbelkinmusic.com/Diamond/Diamond.pdf

It's titled "The Symphonies Of David Diamond: A Listener's Guide".
Thanks Peter; I did end up finding it later by googling it, but I appreciate the heads up!  :)

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Pohjolas Daughter

Just listened to his "Rounds for String Orchestra" which I enjoyed and put me in a good mood.  In the liner notes on the CD, they include the composer's own notes about the work:

"Rounds for String Orchestra was commissioned by Dmitri Mitropoulos and composed in June and July, 1944, in New York City; the instrumentation was completed at Rhinebeck, New York.  Almost all of the new music Mitropoulos had been performing at this time was of the twelve-note school and he was undergoing depressions and doubts as to the quality of general melancholia in this music.  I had pointed out to Mitropoulos that many of these contemporary composers had suffered much in their transition from middle-Europe to the United States.  'But you have suffered much too, in your way.  Write me a happy work.  These are distressing times, most of the difficult music I play is distressing.  Make me happy.'

And I suspect that he did.   :)

The above quotes are from the Nonesuch CD NON 79002

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

vandermolen

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on August 01, 2020, 10:32:06 AM
Just listened to his "Rounds for String Orchestra" which I enjoyed and put me in a good mood.  In the liner notes on the CD, they include the composer's own notes about the work:

"Rounds for String Orchestra was commissioned by Dmitri Mitropoulos and composed in June and July, 1944, in New York City; the instrumentation was completed at Rhinebeck, New York.  Almost all of the new music Mitropoulos had been performing at this time was of the twelve-note school and he was undergoing depressions and doubts as to the quality of general melancholia in this music.  I had pointed out to Mitropoulos that many of these contemporary composers had suffered much in their transition from middle-Europe to the United States.  'But you have suffered much too, in your way.  Write me a happy work.  These are distressing times, most of the difficult music I play is distressing.  Make me happy.'

And I suspect that he did.   :)

The above quotes are from the Nonesuch CD NON 79002

PD
Interesting anecdote PD.
"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).

foxandpeng

#136
Revisiting David Diamond symphonies over the last couple of days, after reading Jeffrey's WAYLT post, reminds me just how fine this music is. In recent months, if asked about my favourite American composer, I would be puzzling over great names like Hovhaness, Hanson, Barber, Schuman, Glass (I know) and more recently, Pavlova and Aaron Kernis, but David Diamond really is up near pole position - certainly as a symphonist.

Shout out on the first 4 symphonies particularly, but the stylistic shift in the later symphonies (recorded and via YT) doesn't have a dud amongst them either.

I do wish I had more ears. So much music.
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people ... then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbour — such is my idea of happiness"

Tolstoy

calyptorhynchus

Reading through the latest entries in this thread I was interested in the person who said they heard Rounds on ABC Classic FM. I assume this is the poor excuse for a classical music channel we have in Australia which dedicates itself to forgettable contemporary pieces, schmalz, hackneyed "classics", crossover music, single movements of multi-movement works &c.

However, as with our friend above, it did put me on to Diamond. About 15 years ago I had an engagement one evening and my wife had another one. I arranged to pick her up after mine had finished. I arrived outside the venue in the late evening and the event was obviously still going so I reluctantly turned the radio on to Classics FM hoping for some Mozart or something. What I tuned into was the beginning of the last movement of the Diamond String Quartet no.3. This is an 11 minute searing elegy for a friend of Diamond who suicided. My hair was standing on end, I had no idea of the composer, but I knew whoever they were they were amongst the greats of music. I heard the announcement at the end and then shortly afterwards my wife showed up but I could barely speak.

The next day, being a Saturday, went round to the one classical CD shop in Canberra (Abels in Manuka, which closed about 12 years ago) and bought up various Diamond disks. :)
'Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.' Robert Burton

Carlo Gesualdo

i JUST WOKE UP,i listen now to  Spanish Renaissance Music on DECCA label Gold Series, what an awesome LP from 1960, there are obscur name or first put to LP classical composers, it'S a delight, here a resume of composer y'all find this list impressive:Martin DE Rivaflecha (Josquin inspired composer), Cristobel DE Morales, Alonso Mundera, Luis Milan, Mateo Flecha, Diego Ortiz, Nicolas Gombert,Antonio DE Cabezon..

AWESOME-O!!!

vandermolen

Quote from: calyptorhynchus on August 20, 2021, 01:13:07 PM
Reading through the latest entries in this thread I was interested in the person who said they heard Rounds on ABC Classic FM. I assume this is the poor excuse for a classical music channel we have in Australia which dedicates itself to forgettable contemporary pieces, schmalz, hackneyed "classics", crossover music, single movements of multi-movement works &c.

However, as with our friend above, it did put me on to Diamond. About 15 years ago I had an engagement one evening and my wife had another one. I arranged to pick her up after mine had finished. I arrived outside the venue in the late evening and the event was obviously still going so I reluctantly turned the radio on to Classics FM hoping for some Mozart or something. What I tuned into was the beginning of the last movement of the Diamond String Quartet no.3. This is an 11 minute searing elegy for a friend of Diamond who suicided. My hair was standing on end, I had no idea of the composer, but I knew whoever they were they were amongst the greats of music. I heard the announcement at the end and then shortly afterwards my wife showed up but I could barely speak.

The next day, being a Saturday, went round to the one classical CD shop in Canberra (Abels in Manuka, which closed about 12 years ago) and bought up various Diamond disks. :)
Interesting story - I have always believed Diamond to be a very significant composer whose music deserves greater exposure.
"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).