The Classical Chat Thread

[karlhenning]

I'm feelin' the love

[jochanaan]

It is Tchaikovsky, isn't it? I'm surprised you've not seen FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!

A point. Pyotr Ilyich is known for extreme dynamic markings.

[Brian]

I put up a new poster in my dorm room! 

[karlhenning]

 

[Dana]

Have they ever been photographed together??!

[Lethevich]

Oh man, I had to giggle when I saw this unfortunate coupling. Take Dvořák's worst symphony, couple it with his worst one movement orchestral work, and what do you get? An unbuyable CD! I can put up with them in sets, but where they are the sole focus?

[Brian]

Have they ever been photographed together??!

The resemblance is uncanny!

In fact, if any airheaded folks come in and ask who it is, maybe I'll tell them "It's an age-progression of Harry Potter." Last night a girl who hates classical music came in and asked who it was; I told her it was "a leader of the French resistance" and she believed me.  

(It was a fun evening for making things up. I also convinced a bunch of drunk people that our rug was stolen from a movie set...)

[Dana]

The resemblance is uncanny!

And they're both totally emo too!

[Opus106]

In fact, if any airheaded folks come in and ask who it is, maybe I'll tell them "It's an age-progression of Harry Potter."

Harry loses the scar when he's old!

[jochanaan]

The resemblance is uncanny!...

Amazing what a pair of glasses can do for a person's looks.

[greg]

It is Tchaikovsky, isn't it? I'm surprised you've not seen FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!

Actually, for Tchaikovsky, wouldn't it be pppppppppppppppppp?...   

[Dana]

Zing!

[Brian]

I really dislike Santa Fe Listener, a reviewer on amazon.com. He seems to be a "review whore": the guy's covered just about every CD ever. And he's dead wrong on all of them, too. Just a few days ago I discovered that he had panned Gunter Wand's recording of Beethoven's Ninth, inspiring a firestorm of comments from people who have actually heard it. And today I found out that he had written up the new London Philharmonic Tchaikovsky Symphonies 1 and 6, with Vladimir Jurowski, and said that the performance of the Sixth was really light and emotionless and awful. He liked the First, but also called it light and balanced. What is this guy smoking? It actually irked me so much that I wrote a counter-review, even though I've already written a full-length piece on the recording for MusicWeb.

What a tin-ears.

[Dana]

      Hey! Sibelius' 6th (as I've heard from Lorin Maazel and the VPO) is really something! The string writing in the 1st movement really looks forward to the 7th symphony. How come people don't talk about it more often?

[CD]

I've mentioned it a few times. That's one of the few pieces that gives me chills within the first few seconds (the thunderclap and torrent of strings at the beginning of Tapiola do the same).

[offbeat]

      Hey! Sibelius' 6th (as I've heard from Lorin Maazel and the VPO) is really something! The string writing in the 1st movement really looks forward to the 7th symphony. How come people don't talk about it more often?

Agree. Sibelius sixth is magical - wat i would call a distant beauty especially in first movement and i love that heartrending coda at the end of the symphony 

[Martin Lind]

Such a classical chat thread is a great idea, never found this elsewhere. For myselve I am still discovering great music and doesn't come to an end. For example I know alot Beethoven, instrumental, piano, opera, masses, chamber - but there are still some string quartetts I don't know. Listen to the Guaneris. Had the Alexander but only with the Guaneris I realy discover this music.

A lot things somehow stopped. For example I have the Bax symphonies but haven't heard everything, haven't heard everything from the Mjaskovskisymphonies, listened only partly to Shostakowitschs string quartetts and so in a way there is alway music before me to explore. Didn't listen to all Puccini operas yet.

In the moment I am also a bit into baroque music to explore more baroque composers. D. Scarlatti is a discovery for example, Rameau was a discovery some months ago.

Classical music is really I wide field and you simply can't know everything and will miss even valuable things. But I am especially glad for the Beethoven string quartetts.

Regards

[Elgarian]

Rameau was a discovery some months ago.

Same for me. When I tiptoed cautiously into the room marked 'Baroque', I found a huge party going on that I'd been completely unaware of. Couperin, Charpentier, Rameau and Lully set me off on a journey that seems to have no end.

Have you tried Rameau's Les Indes Galantes? I'm always looking for excuses to post this youtube excerpt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OIdv9jrFY

[Martin Lind]

Hi Elgarian,

Yes the Indes Galantes is included ( at least in excerpts) in my CD. Splendid. But I think I will buy more of Rameau in some time. There are some Naxos CDs, I will watch out. Rameau has a lot vitality which I sometimes miss in other Baroque composers. But elegance and beauty too. A really nice listening.

Regards
Martin

[jochanaan]

More scores: Carl Nielsen's Fourth Symphony and Mahler's Second.  Last night I listened to the historic Oskar Fried M2, and I was really amazed at how much of it came through the terribly limited recording techniques they had then.  (For those who may not know, Fried's was the first complete M2 recording, made in 1924 with acoustic recording horns--no electronic anything! The orchestra and chorus had to be much reduced from the concert halls because the horn simply couldn't "hear" sounds very far away.)  Fried, too, was very scrupulous about following Mahler's written tempo and style indications, though he added a few major changes of his own.  At one time Fried was a fairly close associate of Mahler himself.