Nikolay Miaskovsky (1881-1950)

Started by vandermolen, June 12, 2007, 01:21:32 PM

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vandermolen

Quote from: snyprrr on April 12, 2009, 09:01:10 PM
I was going to review the 13 quartets, but....
I was one of those suckers who came to Myaskovsky through Julian Lloyd Webber! and I've been trying to find the "piece that sounds like the cello cto" ever since, haha!! (and I suppose that would be the cello sonata? duh!)  I had the sym6/kondrash...but it was NOT the cello cto!!!

I "love" Myaskovsky?...but I understand why someone might have a problem.  I mean, what's the LEAST attractive place to get to know Mia?  Imagine a virgin getting sym (pick your least fav) for their first!

I have stayed away from the syms until I read enough reviews and forums to make some sense.  And, honestly, it's STILL confusing. Sym17 seems to be leading the pack...but

I seem to have bought every string quartet EXCEPT the "cello cto" one, which I believe is No8 in f# minor.

Nos 1-2 were written @1930 and, to me, mmm, er...sound kind of "gothic", whatever I mean by that...there's a lot of modulating, crafty, Brahmsy yet edgy, No1 in four mvmts, No2 in three.  Though in a minor and c minor, both quartets, to me, don't have that echt Mia sound...they are a bit "rad" for our man.

Nos 3-4 are revisions of schoolboy qrts. No.3 is the early masterpiece, in 2 mvmts, with the second a 15min variations on a Grieg melody.  This qrt really has that "edgar allen poe" sound to it!  No4, on the other hand, made not that great an impression.

Nos5-9 continue from where 1-2 left off.  With each qrt, we get closer and closer to "THAT" melody.  No6 starts off in that territory, but there is just too much "craftsmanship" and "composing"...oh, listen to me complain...as I said, I believe No8 is the grail.

No9 is very strange sounding, and I wonder what sym it might mirror.  This is one of my favs, very unorthodox sounding, with certain navy songs and such. Myask. in a laboratory?

No10 is another schoolboy revision...not that special to me...a nice Haydnesque affair.

No11 is a revision?, or reconstruction?, or recomp?, or just a newly composed "old fashioned" work..."from old notebooks"...and this one is my really just fav as a general quartet. It's not the meloncoly, but the wistful...this is the most elusive, perfect, nicely behaved and consistently beautiful...not so much modulating...just a relaxed qrt.

No12 I haven't heard
No13 is the one everyone turns to, and just like No6, it starts off in the territory, and it DOES continue, but here too I find Mias "craftmanship" getting in the way of MY melody (I know, I know).  Can't you just let me wallow, sir???  Either way, this is the end of the old russia as far as SQs are concerned, and it IS very fine.  It does make me wonder about No12.

so...No3, No11, No8(the supposed masterpiece), No13...with No9  as a pleasant head scratcher.  yea, honestly, I was kinda of disappointed...but I'll hold out for No8.

Myaskovsky...wow!

Thanks for your interesting survey. Do you know Cello Sonata No 2 - my favourite piece of Miaskovsky's chamber music? A beautiful, moving work IMHO. There are several recordings (Chandos/ Arte Nova/Regis etc)
"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).

J

I know there's a non-commercial tape of the piece circulating around - but why hasn't any label seen fit to record and issue Miaskovsky's violin & piano sonata?  The cost would be modest enough, and given the attention and enthusiasm Svetlanov's Symphony cycle has generated, it might do pretty well.  Or is it of inferior quality?  I've not heard it.

snyprrr

I used to have cello sonata on MDG (w/ Poulenc and Carter!), but now have on Globe with the obl. DSCH/Schnittke.

But yes,  the sonata delivers the goods.

I just brought all the qrts. over to listen to.  I tried some of the ones I've been having problems with (1-2,5-6)... and though they are not really immediately attractive (though 5-6 start out in the echt Mia. manner)-there are disturbing "avant" type moments, jarring modulatory anguishes- the overall "Edgar Allen Poe" gothic atmosphere and Mia's craftmanship (the same I was complaining about!) keep one well within the comfort zone, though none are especially "easy" on the ears.  The man has angst!!

Still have to hear No.8 in f# minor...I do believe it was written during that holiday with Prokofiev when they were using the "Kardashian"? themes.

And I JUST noticed Grechaninov has 4 quartets!  Anyone?

snyprrr

There's a great little chamber music publishing site...silvertrust editions...(punch that into the search), and they offer Mia's SQ No.8 in f#minor, and they have samples so I finally heard it.
Instead of being the Finzi-athon I thought, it turned out to be quite rarified, a logical progression from 5-7 (7 I still haven't heard). The slow mvmt wasn't the cello cto dream I had imagined either, and did seem peculiarly non-Miaskovskian.

so...having heard all but 7 and 12, for the discrimminator, I would rank Mia's SQs:

No.11* (the most delicate)
No.3* (the gothic masterpiece)
No.9* (the quirkiest)

No.13

1-2 (a pair- very advanced and stormy)

5-8 (pick one: the development of his style)

4, 10 (revised student works, slightly Haydnesque?)

snyprrr

I've been obsessing on these quartets for days now, plunging into the problems, and I do believe we're making headway.

Again I listened to No.4 in f minor (1909; rev. 1936), in four mvmts, and found it to be very creepy gothic indeed, in the good way! Nos.3-4 were composed early, and in the 30s were booked together with SQs 1-2 (both composed 1930) as Op.33 1-4.
I'm going to call these two early quartets (3-4) the darkest sounding quartets I've heard of any composer.  If anyone can think of any other more minor key wallowing "ruins in the moonlight" creepy gothic chamber music than this...Schmitt's Piano Qnt???

In a way I almost enjoy these two quartets more than his later innovations, since they are free of a lot of the procedurals Mia began using in the 30s.  They sound like what I had hoped Tchaikovsky would sound like (he only scratched the surface of sad for me), and almost on a "sad" par with Lekeu's Molto Adagio.

I listened again to the sound bites of No.8 in f# minor, and then to No.5 in e minor. No.5 (1939)picks up almost 10 years after the last "modern" SQ, No.2(1930).  I started to notice how all the quartets 5-8 (still haven't heard No.7) start with "the" Miaskovsky trademark melody: wistful, melancoly, perfect; and then he begins to...I'm going to say "torture" the melody(but in the good way), and every time he gets on the threshold of a Finzian moment, he pulls back. He is not making it easy for us here, there is always trouble brewing around the melody.

I listened hard to No.5 (1939), and heard things in a different way, and I realized that you HAVE to listen hard to these SQs; but that's when I heard the delicates. No.5 and No.6 start off pretty much the same, but No.5 is the more intimate.

And No.8 (1942), which is made a lot of hay over because it is written for a dead friend (in the war?), it seems to sidestep ever opportunity for crushing emotional release in favor of a very enigmatic and slightly aloof elegiac sound. The "echt" melody in this one reminds me slightly of the opening of Ravel's violin and cello Duo...hence the "aloof."

There is a general feeling like the SQ is Mia's "laboratory", that he is subjecting "melody" to various tests, but also that these are not just mere experiments. This cycle (5-9; 1939-43) encircles the Sym 21,
, which I haven't heard but once long ago, so I can't do any relational comparisons, but I have the feeling that the concentration and compactness of Sym.21 has it's seeds in Myaskovsky's SQ writing.

Forgive me for going on ad infinitum here, but if there ARE so many riches in Myaskovsky, then shouldn't revelations follow? I had just noticed how Mia's SQ No.5 starts off almost exactly like Milhaud's SQ No.9, written a couple of years earlier, and Milhaud himself seems to be going through a similar transformational process with his SQs 8-11.  Maybe also Villa-Lobos, Malipiero, Bloch, and others have more than a passing similarity during this time of upheaval.

Dundonnell

Two new recordings of Miaskovsky symphonies-

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/May09/miaskovsky_sys.htm

And-very interestingly-news that Scherbachov's Fifth Symphony has been recorded on the same label :) One to investigate for definite ;D

vandermolen

Quote from: Dundonnell on May 02, 2009, 05:03:52 AM
Two new recordings of Miaskovsky symphonies-

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/May09/miaskovsky_sys.htm

And-very interestingly-news that Scherbachov's Fifth Symphony has been recorded on the same label :) One to investigate for definite ;D

Ordered all three yesterday  ::)
"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).

The new erato

Quote from: vandermolen on May 02, 2009, 09:42:07 PM
Ordered all three yesterday  ::)
Are they distributed solely from the NF website or are there other sources?

vandermolen

Quote from: erato on May 02, 2009, 11:21:01 PM
Are they distributed solely from the NF website or are there other sources?

Not sure but got mine here:

http://www.russiancdshop.com/music.php?zobraz=details&id=20469&lang=en

Look under 'great composers' section for the others in the series.
"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).

J

Jeffrey - Trying to PM you, but your inbox is full.

vandermolen

Quote from: J on May 05, 2009, 06:26:58 PM
Jeffrey - Trying to PM you, but your inbox is full.

Sorry about that. Have cleared some space now.
"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).

Harry

Will start very soon with this box again, which I abandoned some months ago, due to illness.

vandermolen

Quote from: Harry on May 06, 2009, 01:48:45 AM
Will start very soon with this box again, which I abandoned some months ago, due to illness.

Hope you are better now.  Symphonies 6, 16,17,21,24,25 and 27 are my favourites.
"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).

Lethevich

I've been listening to his symphonies a lot recently, but I was wondering - why was he criticised for "formalism"? They all sound accessable, often excessively so, rendering him less interesting than Shostakovich, for example. It's very good music, but I hear nothing questioning the Soviet's "artistic goals" in it.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Harry

Quote from: Lethe on November 14, 2009, 03:56:45 AM
I've been listening to his symphonies a lot recently, but I was wondering - why was he criticised for "formalism"? They all sound accessable, often excessively so, rendering him less interesting than Shostakovich, for example. It's very good music, but I hear nothing questioning the Soviet's "artistic goals" in it.

Agreed Sarah, but somehow I failed to start again with this box with the complete Symphonies. Its lying around now for a year, but I did not manage till now to get as far as disc 8. I think I get a little bored with his music, which is odd, for I love his music. A puzzling paradox.

vandermolen

Quote from: Harry on November 14, 2009, 04:05:02 AM
Agreed Sarah, but somehow I failed to start again with this box with the complete Symphonies. Its lying around now for a year, but I did not manage till now to get as far as disc 8. I think I get a little bored with his music, which is odd, for I love his music. A puzzling paradox.

Harry,

You should enjoy the discs you are coming to. Disc 9 has No 24 and the valedictory No 27 (Miaskovsky's creative answer to the denunciation of his music in 1948 - the slow movement is especially moving). The wartime No 24 is also a top-ranker in my view. Disc 10 has Symphony No 3 on - the best of the early symphonies (before No 6) - the funeral march at the end is very darkly powerful. CD 11 has Symphony No 16 on. It commemorates the Maxim Gorky air disaster and has perhaps the best slow movement of all. Hopefully these works will revive your enthusiasm for Miaskovsky!
"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).

Harry

Quote from: vandermolen on November 14, 2009, 04:50:24 AM
Harry,

You should enjoy the discs you are coming to. Disc 9 has No 24 and the valedictory No 27 (Miaskovsky's creative answer to the denunciation of his music in 1948 - the slow movement is especially moving). The wartime No 24 is also a top-ranker in my view. Disc 10 has Symphony No 3 on - the best of the early symphonies (before No 6) - the funeral march at the end is very darkly powerful. CD 11 has Symphony No 16 on. It commemorates the Maxim Gorky air disaster and has perhaps the best slow movement of all. Hopefully these works will revive your enthusiasm for Miaskovsky!

No doubt it will. But you know what, this is more a problem of me, then Miaskovsky's compositions. You have to sit emotional comfortable in your own skin, to completely grasp this composer. I think I am bored with myself. Maybe my life is too mundane.....sigh!

springrite

Just got the cello concerto, part of the Brilliant Rostropovich box. I have the Olympia recording for years. Love the work. Will give the Rostropovich a spin as soon as I have a chance.

Listened to the complete piano sonatas last week. Glenn Gould was right. Magnificent works that should be heard more often!
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

vandermolen

Quote from: Harry on November 14, 2009, 07:28:46 AM
No doubt it will. But you know what, this is more a problem of me, then Miaskovsky's compositions. You have to sit emotional comfortable in your own skin, to completely grasp this composer. I think I am bored with myself. Maybe my life is too mundane.....sigh!

I am not entirely 'emotionally comfortable' in my own skin but that does not stop me enjoying Miaskovsky! The composer himself was a very retiring, introverted character and I think that his music might appeal to similar types. Just a thought  :)
"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).

Harry

Quote from: vandermolen on November 14, 2009, 07:46:18 AM
I am not entirely 'emotionally comfortable' in my own skin but that does not stop me enjoying Miaskovsky! The composer himself was a very retiring, introverted character and I think that his music might appeal to similar types. Just a thought  :)

I will keep that in mind Jeffrey, thank you for putting up with my ramblings.