The Classical Chat Thread

[Todd]

Just got Daniil Trifonov's "Rachmaninov Variations" CD. It has SEVENTY-THREE tracks. So I have to ask: what is the most tracks you've seen on a CD?

73. 

[amw]

The Stockhausen-Verlag CD with Mikrophonie I & II and Telemusik has 99 tracks. These are literally three continuous pieces, which by the composer's own orders were split into 33 tracks each—roughly the equivalent of each 4- or 8-bar phrase in a work of conventional music receiving its own track. I have no idea why he didn't just use index points.

[jlaurson]

The Stockhausen-Verlag CD with Mikrophonie I & II and Telemusik has 99 tracks. These are literally three continuous pieces, which by the composer's own orders were split into 33 tracks each—roughly the equivalent of each 4- or 8-bar phrase in a work of conventional music receiving its own track. I have no idea why he didn't just use index points.

He wanted to make it streaming proof. Can you imagine listening to that on (free) spotify?

[Mandryka]

Chopin reviews are damn hard to write. With very rare exceptions (David Wilde!!) there is nothing new under the interpretive sun. All you really get to talk about with the mazurkas, in particular, is what they do with the rhythm, and maybe a few words about "poetry"...

One person who is bringing something new I think is Roger Woodward. I'm not sure I could say what but I think there is something very original there. Chopin is hard because the critical establishment is so conservative, with expectations about cantabile and rubato.

[jlaurson]

Fresh from Forbes:




JAN 5, 2015
National Symphony Orchestra's New Conductor Ideal
-- But Audience Quality Has To Match Him

...Word on the street was that Deborah Rutter, the Kennedy Center's president and previously
president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, thought there was no ceiling as to who the
NSO could get as its music director. This was very worrying, because while it is good to be
ambitious, it is also unhelpful to be deluded. To strive for name recognition above all is a
great recipe for orchestral regression... as any big name who might come wouldn't likely be
in it with his heart. The NSO is an upper-tier, middling orchestra; as per 2012 the sixth best
paid American orchestra, but never in its history the sixth best orchestra in the country. Not
a bad orchestra (incidentally the orchestra of my musical-coming-of-age, and I feel deeply
about it), but in brutal-sounding truth an ambitious B-orchestra with a C-audience and kept
relevant only by its location in the capital and having had a big-name conductor in Eschenbach
for the last seven years. It is less than its name, better than its reputation, but in any case not
a sexy position for any big-shot conductor wanting to make a glamorous career. And even
Christoph Eschenbach (who had previously been music director with the Tonhalle-Orchestra
Zurich, Houston Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, and Philadelphia Orchestra) could only be
lured to the NSO in 2010 by having made him artistic director of the whole Kennedy Center,
which was a salary-inflating bunny Deborah Rutter's predecessor Michael Kaiser pulled out
of his hat....



http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/01/05/national-symphony-orchestra-new-conductor-ideal-but-audience-quality-has-to-match-him/

[Brian]

Why has the Cleveland Orchestra recorded little/nothing in the last 10-15 years? I keep hearing that FWM has it sounding fantastic, but they seem to be live-only.

[jlaurson]

Why has the Cleveland Orchestra recorded little/nothing in the last 10-15 years? I keep hearing that FWM has it sounding fantastic, but they seem to be live-only.

They had a budding contract with DG... but that petered out after a lackluster LvB9 and another, well-received Measha Brueggergosman disc.
FWM isn't a very attractive conductor to critics, it seems... nor does the excellence of the Clevelanders in concert necessarily translate into an advantage on disc, where most orchestras can sound excellent.
And they haven't founded their own label yet, which is how other orchestras have gotten around this. That must be a management / board decision.
The real question is the Player's Union situation, but I know nothing about that.

[jlaurson]

Fresh from Forbes:




JAN 5, 2015
Washington's National Symphony And Lang Lang In Vienna

...In such proximity to the Super Bowl, a football analogy will have to fit the bill: The National Symphony
Orchestra is to American orchestras what the...

...BA-Dam!! Christopher Rouse rips the score of his 1986 8- or 9-minute symphonic overture open with a loud,
butts-from-seats-jolting chord before plinking and plonging away, harp-supported, and moving on with great
gaiety in the woodwind section. The tuba engages in sounds that would make juveniles giggle; the neglected
strings are allowed a word in, edgewise, here and there. Eventually the music works up an appetite and goes
through more notes than the Cookie Monster through Oreos. Me want demisemiquaver!...

...And the antics? Even trying to look away, the occasional glance at the pianist is impossible and whenever it
occurs, it is met by the spectacle of a young man looking like a self-satisfied juvenile hamster who does the slow
face-pan to the audience – ecstatic stop – very-moved head-swivel – slow semi-circle back to the music – briefly
arrested movement along with transfixed-by-beauty-of-his-own-playing stare. Lang Lang's gestures and
mimicking during a concert would make for primo live-blogging, if mobile phones weren't so taboo during
classical concerts...


(Image courtesy [= stolen from] American Ambassador to Austria, Alexa Wesner)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/02/10/washingtons-national-symphony-and-lang-lang-in-vienna/#149124a71520

[Sergeant Rock]

Why has the Cleveland Orchestra recorded little/nothing in the last 10-15 years? I keep hearing that FWM has it sounding fantastic, but they seem to be live-only.

Besides what Jens mentioned, there's the ongoing Uchida live Mozart cycle (she's doing 17 and 25 this week) and a live Knaben Wunderhorn with Rattle's wife and Gerhaher conducted by Boulez.

On BlueRay or DVD there is a Welser-Möst Brahms cycle (symphonies, concertos, overtures) and Bruckner 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.








Sarge

[jlaurson]

A Survey of Mozart Piano Sonata Cycles
Updated from W.Klien to V.Perlemutter

[jlaurson]

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Liszt Inspections

Liszt Inspections, Marino Formenti (piano), Kairos

A gentle small-scale giant of music who doesn't distinguish between "contemporary" and established, Marino Formenti has the preternatural ability to make any music sound weird.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/02/classical-cd-of-the-week-liszt-inspections-2/#2202ad6627f0

[jlaurson]

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Mozart, Sonatas For Fortepiano

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Keyboard Sonatas vol.8 & 9, Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), (Harmonia Mundi)

There have been fortepianists before Ronald Brautigam and Kristian Bezuidenhout upon whose shoulders those two might be said to stand. But none had managed to so convincingly bring the fortepiano into the mainstream.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/09/classical-cd-of-the-week-mozart-sonatas-for-fortepiano/

[Todd]

Yesterday I heard Joseph Moog perform in recital, and for the first half of the recital, my wife and I were the only two people in the front row of a half-full house.  For the second half, one other couple took their seats in the front row.  It was a bit odd.

More important, Moog was first rate.  His Liszt was phenomenally good.  One thing of note was how loud he played.  Moog is the loudest pianist I've heard in person.  He didn't bang or anything, and he played with absolute command at all times, and he played quietly and with nuance when needed.  Here's a pianist who could play the big time concertos with aplomb.  I hope to hear him do so one day.

[jochanaan]

Todd, I wonder if the piano had anything to do with Mr. Moog's volume?  Maybe he was using a different, more responsive instrument...

[jlaurson]

Latest on Forbes.com:
Classical CD Of The Week: Mendelssohn String Quartets

Felix Mendelssohn-B., String Quartets Nos.2 & 3, Escher String Quartet, BIS

The reverb on the last thunderously struck notes hovers in the air and you can almost smell a whiff of burnt resin as the Escher Quartet puts their smoking bows back into their scabbards. Ripping stuff!


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/16/classical-cd-of-the-week-mendelssohn-string-quartets/

[Todd]

Todd, I wonder if the piano had anything to do with Mr. Moog's volume?  Maybe he was using a different, more responsive instrument...

Possibly, but it looked like the same Steinway D that the hall always uses.  The only way to gain a better understanding is to hear him in person again in a different venue.  I'm game.

[jochanaan]

Possibly, but it looked like the same Steinway D that the hall always uses.  The only way to gain a better understanding is to hear him in person again in a different venue.  I'm game.

So, probably not just the piano.

[EigenUser]

This is what happens when an engineer gets a copy of the score for Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie for Christmas. Probably isn't too different from a 5-year-old with colored pencils getting one.

[Artem]

Does anybody have any experience with space saving cd sleeves? http://www.spacesavingsleeves.com Any opinion would be appreciated.

[Pat B]

Does anybody have any experience with space saving cd sleeves? http://www.spacesavingsleeves.com Any opinion would be appreciated.

Yes. They do basically what they say. I am a repeat customer. Some batches have one side slightly wider than the other, in which case you'll want to put the back tray card in the wider side.