Past Purchases (CLOSED)

[Brian]

Broke my CD purchase fast. Naxos CD prices are going up next month, so I figured I should clean out everything important on my Naxos wish-list. Did so fairly inexpensively, 52 pounds for this haul (MDT and NaxosDirect):





Since I have NML, all of these are CDs I know and love enough to want on my iPod/when I don't have internet. In fact, I even already reviewed the Fuchs for MusicWeb. There are a couple other things on my list which might get snapped up later: the new Saint-Saens string quartets CD, another Balada concerto album, the first of the two Karlowicz tone poem CDs, a Haydn mass or two.

[Mirror Image]

I've enjoyed what I've heard of Poulenc's chamber music so I bought this set on Naxos rather inexpensively:

[asin]B000SKJQWK[/asin]

And continuing with Petrenko's fantastic Shostakovich cycle on Naxos:

[Sid]

After successfully solving a bothersome technical database issue iI treated myself to some music:

[asin]B002ZBTWMY[/asin]

I got that Xenakis EMI chamber set last December and have been slowly getting into it ever since. I particularly like the string quartet (ST/4) - the pizzicato in it reminds me a bit of Beethoven's Harp Quartet! Another favourite piece is Polla Ta Dinha for children's chorus & chamber orchestra - quite repetitive but he does some amazing things with the repetition...

Saygun has been a composer that has flown under my radar for quite some time, so I decided to buy the CPO series:
[asin]B001E2V8OU[/asin]

My limited experience of Saygun has been that piano concertos disc on cpo and the solo piano works disc on Naxos. I much prefer his solo piano works - they seem to have much more individuality. The piano concertos to me just sound like a Turkish version of Bartok. Saygun seemed to push things a bit more with some of the solo piano works - eg. the 12 preludes have moments that remind me of the complexity and adventurousness of Ligeti's etudes. I got the cpo piano concertos disc on special, I usually don't buy this label as it is quite expensive...

[Mirror Image]

My limited experience of Saygun has been that piano concertos disc on cpo and the solo piano works disc on Naxos. I much prefer his solo piano works - they seem to have much more individuality. The piano concertos to me just sound like a Turkish version of Bartok. Saygun seemed to push things a bit more with some of the solo piano works - eg. the 12 preludes have moments that remind me of the complexity and adventurousness of Ligeti's etudes. I got the cpo piano concertos disc on special, I usually don't buy this label as it is quite expensive...

Perhaps Saygun wasn't trying to push things in a far out direction with his piano concertos? I haven't heard them obviously so I have to wait and reserve judgement on them. A Turkish Bartok, eh? And how is this a bad thing? I love Bartok, so it'll be nice to hear his long, lost Turkish brother.

Anyway, my own experience with you, Sid is you shoot your mouth off about a composer before you've heard much by them. I was guilty of this at one point in time as well, but not anymore and haven't been in quite some time. I know better now.

[Sid]

Perhaps Saygun wasn't trying to push things in a far out direction with his piano concertos? I haven't heard them obviously so I have to wait and reserve judgement on them. A Turkish Bartok, eh? And how is this a bad thing? I love Bartok, so it'll be nice to hear his long, lost Turkish brother.

Anyway, my own experience with you, Sid is you shoot your mouth off about a composer before you've heard much by them. I was guilty of this at one point in time as well, but not anymore and haven't been in quite some time. I know better now.

As with any composer, some things of his I liked & connected with, others I haven't. I'm not rubbishing him by any means. I'm like this with a number of composers, I don't aspire to achieve expert status in any way. True, two Saygun discs isn't "much," but compared to everyone I personally know who's into classical to some degree, that's two more than what they've heard. & I really like the Naxos solo piano disc - there are a selection of works on it, and it displays the breadth of his style quite well, imo.

& he can be compared to Bartok, whom he personally knew & took care of when the Hungarian visited Turkey. Saygun's piano concertos were written 30 years apart - the first in the 1950's and the second in the 1980's - but stylistically I can't hear much difference between them. They both kind of look back to the Neo-classical folkish modernism of the Bartok concertos composed in the 1920's and 30's...

[Mirror Image]

As with any composer, some things of his I liked & connected with, others I haven't. I'm not rubbishing him by any means. I'm like this with a number of composers, I don't aspire to achieve expert status in any way. True, two Saygun discs isn't "much," but compared to everyone I personally know who's into classical to some degree, that's two more than what they've heard. & I really like the Naxos solo piano disc - there are a selection of works on it, and it displays the breadth of his style quite well, imo.

& he can be compared to Bartok, whom he personally knew & took care of when the Hungarian visited Turkey. Saygun's piano concertos were written 30 years apart - the first in the 1950's and the second in the 1980's - but stylistically I can't hear much difference between them. They both kind of look back to the Neo-classical folkish modernism of the Bartok concertos composed in the 1920's and 30's...

I'm aware of his history with Bartok. In fact, I encourage anyone who is interested in Bartok to read up on Saygun's history. So what if there's hardly a change in his style from the first PC to the second PC? I mean is this how you equate music now? Good music is good music, right? Arvo Part hasn't made much of a departure from his tintinnabuli style of composition. Rautavaara hasn't really made any stylistic developments in his career. Does a composer whose style doesn't change much get a negative vote by you? Vivaldi was criticized by Stravinsky as writing the same concerto over and over again, but, honestly, has he put the effort into really listening to the music? I highly doubt it. I love Stravinsky's music, but some of his opinions I thought were a bit harsh and narrow-minded.

[Sid]

...Does a composer whose style doesn't change much get a negative vote by you?...

Not necessarily, it depends on the piece/s in question. & it depends on how they tackle, & keep tackling, certain genres.

I wasn't trying to knock the cpo Saygun piano concertos disc, just offering some observations about their style/feel. The playing & recording quality is pretty good. & the Turkish pianist who plays on it personally knew & if I remember correctly, was taught by the composer. He actually dedicated the 2nd concerto to her, which she premiered. The first concerto was premiered by another Turkish pianist, but of the older generation, Idil Biret.

But the best thing is just to listen to the discs when you get them & see if Saygun's music works for you, to what degree, etc. All I was doing was making some purely personal observations. Having had this conversation with you, I'll put my 2 Saygun discs on my list of things to listen to again in the coming days/weeks. I'm currently buying less discs and aim to revisit my collection in some depth over the next year or so...

[Conor71]

I got that Xenakis EMI chamber set last December and have been slowly getting into it ever since. I particularly like the string quartet (ST/4) - the pizzicato in it reminds me a bit of Beethoven's Harp Quartet! Another favourite piece is Polla Ta Dinha for children's chorus & chamber orchestra - quite repetitive but he does some amazing things with the repetition...

I bought that set of Xenakis Chamber Music last year too but I really struggled with it and ended up selling it - I wish I'd kept it now as I would be interested in re-visiting his Chamber works at some stage! .
I have a Disc of Xenakis Orchestral Works which i really quite like - one of the pieces sounds like someone scrunching up a sheet of Paper in front of the microphone (sorry cant remember the name of the piece) - its really quite cool though, Im not sure why .

I think the Xenakis Chamber Works and currently the Bartok SQ's are about the limit of my listening capabilities at the moment! - I still struggle with the Bartok quite a bit - do you own a set of these and have any thoughts on them Sid? .

[Conor71]

I've enjoyed what I've heard of Poulenc's chamber music so I bought this set on Naxos rather inexpensively:

[asin]B000SKJQWK[/asin]

And continuing with Petrenko's fantastic Shostakovich cycle on Naxos:

Nice one! - I'll be interested in your thoughts on the Poulenc Chamber Music MI as I havent heard anything by him before apart from the piece Model Animals which is a Disc I have with some Saint-Saens .

Out of interest MI have you heard any of Shostakovich's chamber Music? - I think you'd quite like it . I really enjoy Shosta's Piano Quintet and his Piano Trios in particular and of course the SQ's as well! .

[Brian]

I've enjoyed what I've heard of Poulenc's chamber music so I bought this set on Naxos rather inexpensively:

[asin]B000SKJQWK[/asin]

A few summers ago Naxos made a pricing error on their website and I got that for $3. Just fantastic - the sextet is great and the flute, oboe, clarinet, and horn pieces always make me grin. Love that stuff. Alexandre Tharaud is, of course, a consistently superb accompanist, and seems to have assembled a starry cast of all his friends as soloists.

[Mirror Image]

Nice one! - I'll be interested in your thoughts on the Poulenc Chamber Music MI as I havent heard anything by him before apart from the piece Model Animals which is a Disc I have with some Saint-Saens .

Out of interest MI have you heard any of Shostakovich's chamber Music? - I think you'd quite like it . I really enjoy Shosta's Piano Quintet and his Piano Trios in particular and of course the SQ's as well! .

I can already tell you about some of Poulenc's chamber works as I have heard several of them. I'm a huge fan of his sonatas for oboe, clarinet, and flute, but I heard these on YouTube, so the quality wasn't that great, but I'll let you know once I've heard them in good audio.

I've heard several of Shostakovich's chamber works. My favorite is his Piano Quintet, which I believe I only have one recording of and it came on a Martha Argerich recording on EMI coupled with his Piano Concerto No. 1.

Anyway, I'll let you know about the Poulenc.

[Mirror Image]

A few summers ago Naxos made a pricing error on their website and I got that for $3. Just fantastic - the sextet is great and the flute, oboe, clarinet, and horn pieces always make me grin. Love that stuff. Alexandre Tharaud is, of course, a consistently superb accompanist, and seems to have assembled a starry cast of all his friends as soloists.

That must have been the best $3 you've ever spent. Since you own the box set, does the box house the original releases like their other sets or is it a specially made set with sleeves? Thanks in advance.

[not edward]

Those Poulenc chamber music recordings on Naxos are ridiculously good value, and for the most part competitive with any performances I've heard of the works (I'm less keen on the Sextet here than, say, the Decca recording with Pascal Roge et al). The recordings of the clarinet sonata and violin sonata are particular standouts for me.

[DavidW]

Finally pulled the trigger on these, and wow I can breathe a little bit easier now that amazon cloud has launched (storage/backup):

[asin]B000U7V9HQ[/asin]
[asin]B003122HD2[/asin]

Beethoven and Hummel trios performed by Staier and company (think it was rec'd by Don) and Mozart's 39th and 40th Jacobs (since I love the 38th and 41st).

[Mirror Image]

Thanks to Edward for reminding of Revueltas' string quartets and as I'm already familiar with this string quartet's (Latinoamericano Quartet) work, this seemed like a no brainer:

[asin]B000000R3M[/asin]

Also picked up this little out-of-print recording on Dorian:

[asin]B000001QBM[/asin]

[The new erato]

[Sid]

I think the Xenakis Chamber Works and currently the Bartok SQ's are about the limit of my listening capabilities at the moment! - I still struggle with the Bartok quite a bit - do you own a set of these and have any thoughts on them Sid? .

I have Bartok's SQ's on EMI by the Alban Berg Quartet. I haven't managed to connect with these works after having them for about 18 months, except maybe the 6th. They just seem to me to be technical exercises, which is fine at some levels, but they don't engage me in many ways beyond that. I'm beginning to lose my interest in Bartok now, I've known his music for over 20 years, & maybe I'm so familiar with his style that I'm bored with it. However, another excellent Hungarian c20th composer that I am really getting into now is Miklos Rozsa, who was not only a famous Hollywood film composer, but also a "serious" composer of many fine orchestral and chamber works. I have been listening to his Viola Concerto & Hungarian Serenade on Naxos for days & it's been great. On the chamber front, I'd recommend you listen to his 2 string quartets. They are in a kind of "Modern Hungarian" style close to Bartok, but Rozsa's music comes across to me to be a more emotional experience even upon first listen, rather than just a purely technical exercise...

[EDIT: I should have added that Bartok's 4th and 5th SQ's are directly modelled on two of Beethoven's late SQ's, especially in terms of structure. If you find that you are struggling with the Bartok SQ's, give the Beethoven ones a listen - esp. opp. 130, 131, 132, 133 & things might slowly "click" for you with Bartok - but Bartok's SQ's haven't "clicked" with me despite this, but it might be a good idea for you to do this & see what happens?]

[Mirror Image]

I have Bartok's SQ's on EMI by the Alban Berg Quartet. I haven't managed to connect with these works after having them for about 18 months, except maybe the 6th. They just seem to me to be technical exercises, which is fine at some levels, but they don't engage me in many ways beyond that. I'm beginning to lose my interest in Bartok now, I've known his music for over 20 years, & maybe I'm so familiar with his style that I'm bored with it. However, another excellent Hungarian c20th composer that I am really getting into now is Miklos Rozsa, who was not only a famous Hollywood film composer, but also a "serious" composer of many fine orchestral and chamber works. I have been listening to his Viola Concerto & Hungarian Serenade on Naxos for days & it's been great. On the chamber front, I'd recommend you listen to his 2 string quartets. They are in a kind of "Modern Hungarian" style close to Bartok, but Rozsa's music comes across to me to be a more emotional experience even upon first listen, rather than just a purely technical exercise...

You've known Bartok's music for 20 years? Have you heard all of his music? So there's nothing in Bartok's output that has moved you at all? I find this interesting from somebody who claims to have a wide range of taste.

[Scarpia]

For this first one, some discussion in the crowded chamber music thread created curiosity (although I have not been too impressed with penderecki orchestral music I have heard.

[asin]B0007DDR28[/asin]

For the second one, I have volume 1 from this series which was pretty good, so it seems sensible to spring for volume 2.

[asin]B004KDO2XO[/asin]

[The new erato]

You've known Bartok's music for 20 years? Have you heard all of his music? So there's nothing in Bartok's output that has moved you at all? I find this interesting from somebody who claims to have a wide range of taste.

Please note; this is a Mirror Image moment; borderline insulting to anybody not sharing his taste. You really should count to ten before you post comment on other music lovers tastes. I'm a Bartok fan and dearly love his quartets, was a fan from my first listen at around 1975; but would never post a provocative statement like that on somebody who has clearly tried but found other avenues more fruitful. Why is it that you seem to take any comment disagreeing with your own preferences like a personal insult?