The Classical Chat Thread

[EigenUser]

I'm going to an open rehearsal (i.e. "open" meaning that we get to play with the orchestra in sight-reading) tonight with a friend. It's a fundraiser for a local community orchestra ($10 each time you attend). Should be fun. I'm sure that there will be a copy of Ligeti's San Francisco Polyphony sitting on our music stands when we get there, among other things. I'll let you know what else we play .

Or...
https://www.sfcv.org/article/tuning-up-for-san-francisco-polyphony
The image shown is not the actual score which is, in fact, in completely standard notation. It is just a very preliminary "storyboard" for the piece (I've seen it in a bio before).

[amw]

Yo, can anyone tell me which recording of Beethoven's Op. 132 it is that has the 22 minute Heiliger Dankgesang? I initially thought it was QI, but they only take 19 1/2 or so along with Busch and Belcea.

(Not that I think the Heiliger Dankgesang should take 22 minutes. But perverse curiosity drives me onwards)

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Funny thing I noticed about Puccini: I tend to prefer his operas where there is either a strong female character (Tosca, Fanciulla) or both strong and a "weak" one (Turandot) opposed to those where there is more "fragile" female lead (La Boheme, Madama Butterfly). Okay, you might disagree about Cio-cio-san and Liú being weak and I didn't quite mean that. They show amazing endurance in many other respects but to me they are still kind of "fragile" characters. Their amazing selflessness is very strong but I can't imagine Liú killing anyone like Tosca or Cio-cio-san living in Wild West like Minnie. Or either one being a complete bitch like Turandot.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Btw, I have changed my mind about Turandot's ending being dull. Okay, it's not perfect by any stretch of imagination and is bit of a cut-and paste, especially in the very end but it still made an impression to me when I relistened to it recently, especially the way that Turandot motive explodes at one point. Although it is kind of tragicomic the way we are to think "Yay, a happy ending!" despite innocent girl having just a moment ago been tortured and driven to suicide.

[EigenUser]

I'm going to an open rehearsal (i.e. "open" meaning that we get to play with the orchestra in sight-reading) tonight with a friend. It's a fundraiser for a local community orchestra ($10 each time you attend). Should be fun. I'm sure that there will be a copy of Ligeti's San Francisco Polyphony sitting on our music stands when we get there, among other things. I'll let you know what else we play .

Or...
https://www.sfcv.org/article/tuning-up-for-san-francisco-polyphony
The image shown is not the actual score which is, in fact, in completely standard notation. It is just a very preliminary "storyboard" for the piece (I've seen it in a bio before).

It was fun. We played through Holst's St. Paul's Suite (string orchestra) and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1 (full orchestra), which is one of the conductor's favorite pieces.

[Florestan]

It was fun. We played through Holst's St. Paul's Suite (string orchestra) and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1 (full orchestra), which is one of the conductor's favorite pieces.

I must have missed it, what instrument do you play?

[EigenUser]

I must have missed it, what instrument do you play?

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,2112.msg802625.html#msg802625

...And viola and piano.

[Florestan]

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,2112.msg802625.html#msg802625

...And viola and piano.

Good for you! Not being able to play an instrument is perhaps the biggest frustration of my life. And  I would have just loved to play flute and/or piano... 

[EigenUser]

Good for you! Not being able to play an instrument is perhaps the biggest frustration of my life. And  I would have just loved to play flute and/or piano... 

You know, you still can! It doesn't have to be good as long as you enjoy yourself. I read Peter Bartok's biography of his father and he said that his father was wary of recordings/radio. It isn't that he was against technology (not at all -- he said his father liked to listen to jazz on the radio), but he feared that people would substitute listening music for making music and would therefore not discover the joy of making music, no matter how mediocre it may be.

I took violin lessons for many years, but I taught myself piano (aside from a year of lessons in 4th grade, which many people did). Last year I bought the first book of the Ligeti etudes -- wayyyyyyy above my level! Any reasonable piano teacher would laugh at the idea. But, each morning (for a few months, say from July to November), I would get up very early, have breakfast, and walk to the music building (getting something with a lot of caffeine on the way ). I worked my way through Fanfares (slowly -- hands separately as my piano-virtuoso friend advised). I would often spend a whole hour on four measures (so, probably 5 seconds of music when played up to tempo!). It sounded horrible at first, but it was fun. Then, it started to sound not-so-horrible. I got to the point where I could play the first half of the etude up to tempo. Far from performance quality, but not bad, either.

I've read that the hardest thing adults have to deal with when learning something is that they have an idea how it should sound and judge themselves based on that (and subsequently become discouraged). Kids, on the other hand, just do what they are told and generally have little or no reference point.

[jochanaan]

It was fun. We played through Holst's St. Paul's Suite (string orchestra) and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1 (full orchestra), which is one of the conductor's favorite pieces.

I would have loved to be there for the Mendelssohn!  (My main instrument for orchestra playing is oboe, so that leaves me out for the St. Paul Suite. )

[Ken B]

I would have loved to be there for the Mendelssohn!  (My main instrument for orchestra playing is oboe, so that leaves me out for the St. Paul Suite. )

I thought you played flute. So, is that a transverse oboe in your pic? 

[EigenUser]

I would have loved to be there for the Mendelssohn!  (My main instrument for orchestra playing is oboe, so that leaves me out for the St. Paul Suite. )

It is a great piece. The conductor told us how Mendelssohn started it when he was 14 and then said "I don't know what all of you were doing when you were fourteen, but you were not doing this!"

I thought you played flute. So, is that a transverse oboe in your pic? 

He plays both, from what I remember. It is possible to play more than one instrument. Just not at the same time if they are wind instruments (I'm sure someone will find a YT video of someone (somehow!) playing flute and oboe at the same time just to prove me wrong).

[jochanaan]

I thought you played flute. So, is that a transverse oboe in your pic? 

I play flute too.

[Henk]

Time to listen to some music.

[EigenUser]

I decided to print out, frame, and hang this cartoon on the wall by my bathroom sink in my new apartment. The bathroom is always a good place to put a cartoon.



I also came across this one which is pretty good. Ken, recognize the formulae?

[Ken B]

I decided to print out, frame, and hang this cartoon on the wall by my bathroom sink in my new apartment. The bathroom is always a good place to put a cartoon.



I also came across this one which is pretty good. Ken, recognize the formulae?

Yup. 

[EigenUser]

I decided to print out, frame, and hang this cartoon on the wall by my bathroom sink in my new apartment. The bathroom is always a good place to put a cartoon.

I bet you thought I wouldn't actually do it!

[Brian]

Excellent!

I would do that with this cartoon, but it might send the wrong message.

[Karl Henning]

Good gravy...someone has tweeted (and the Orchestra of St Paul's retweeted) as follows: "John Adams, greatest living composer? Discuss,"

[Karl Henning]

Not even "greatest living American composer" (and there was ample capacity in the tweet for those characters).  The fellow who originated the tweet is a conductor, BTW.  I want whatever he's drinking.

No, on second thought:  I pass even on the recreational beverage/substance.