Favorite newish tonal orchestral works

[jimmosk]

Let me put in a little recommendation (okay, a big one) for American composer Stephen Paulus. One of my treasures is a cassette tape of a performance of his Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (which he sent me himself after I raved about it on the newsgroup rec.music.classical after hearing it on the radio!)

Sadly, this engaging, idea-filled, rather Shostakovichian concerto has never been commercially recorded, as far as I know.  So I'll just have to recommend his Violin Concerto, which is merely an A+ work rather than an A++

[Brian]

Vasks Symphony No 2

See, I did listen to this, and Vasks' Third Symphony and his Violin and Cello Concertos, and they were definitely very pretty and Vasks is very good at conjuring up moods and images and creating tension with his climaxes. But the structure of the pieces just didn't work for me. It was all lull-climax-lull-climax-lull-climax, over and over, tension and release, tension and release, tension and release, never going anywhere. And I couldn't help wondering: was all that repetition the point, or could he really have just cut each symphony by 10 or 15 minutes?

In the past I've had similar issues with meandersome music by John Adams and Roberto Sierra.

David W, I liked Penderecki 8 and have an amusing story about the first time I listened to it in my dorm room.

[knight66]

1974/75 Aulis Sallimen 3rd Symphony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--8FAEam33g

I also have his Age of Iron Suite on Ondine. Very enjoyable, it was written for what now looks like a fairly dire TV mini-series and stands up rather better than the programme itself.

Arvo Part: Speigel in Speigel, like a meditation, each phrase is longer than the preceeding one as though longer and longer breaths were being taken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRRC94DvXwo&feature=related

Philip Glass: Violin Concerto, very beautiful, here are two of the three movements. The second track takes a few seconds before the music starts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOW5zUYt3Dw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a0DpV-1MSU&feature=related

Kurtag: Stele, There is an astonishing array of instruments used in this piece, rarely do they play together, for much of it the instrumentation is laid bare so that every instrument makes its mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4TcZnZYt4I

Mike

[DavidW]

Oh goody youtube links, I'll watch them tonight!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I also have his Age of Iron Suite on Ondine. Very enjoyable, it was written for what now looks like a fairly dire TV mini-series and stands up rather better than the programme itself.

And if you buy the disc with the Iron Age Suite on it, you will get the quasi-requiem Songs of Life and Death, which is one of Sallinen's best pieces.

[knight66]

Yes, with the famous Finnish bass Jorma Hynninen. The disc is worth looking out for.

Accessable, but far from easy-listening.

Mike

[vandermolen]

See, I did listen to this, and Vasks' Third Symphony and his Violin and Cello Concertos, and they were definitely very pretty and Vasks is very good at conjuring up moods and images and creating tension with his climaxes. But the structure of the pieces just didn't work for me. It was all lull-climax-lull-climax-lull-climax, over and over, tension and release, tension and release, tension and release, never going anywhere. And I couldn't help wondering: was all that repetition the point, or could he really have just cut each symphony by 10 or 15 minutes?

In the past I've had similar issues with meandersome music by John Adams and Roberto Sierra.

David W, I liked Penderecki 8 and have an amusing story about the first time I listened to it in my dorm room.

I see what you mean but I find the last section of Symphony No 2 to be very moving and this puts a kind of retrospective glow on the earlier parts of the Symphony - so I often play this work.  Symphony 3 seems to start where No 2 leaves off - I enjoy the work but it did not move me as much as the Second Symphony. Rautavaara's 7th and 8th symphonies are also modern, tonal works which are worth exploring.

[Lethevich]

John Pickard - The Flight of Icarus



Sadly the sample doesn't really do it justice - it sounds arid and plain, but actually it has a really great dramatic sweep - a very fun orchestral spectacular in the manner of the "greats". Cool bang and crash stuff

I agree with nominating Vasks, especially the violin concerto (published in 1997, and somehow recorded about 6 times since then - it has to be doing something right). There are a lot of Australian composers writing in this style, with Varl Vine's compact symphony cycle perhaps being the most notable and interesting.

I also second Holmboe, Simpson and Brian, although Brian in particular is pushing the definition of "recent". Brian's 6-9th symphonies are very fine, his later ones are tough cookies - like the tightness of Brahms' 4th ratcheted up to an absurd degree. There is a great budget EMI twofer which is a perfect introduction to Brian for its combination of those accessable symphonies along with one of the very last ones as well.

Simpson is super controversial, some find him arid, others find him vital. I am in the second group and while I will admit that he isn't strong on "big tunes", most modern tonalists struggle to equal the Romantic greats in that area anyway regardless of how lyrical their writing is. Simpsons' primary appeal is the sheer heft of his works, highly ambitious, intricate and making very mind-opening use of orchestra and form. From his 1st to 11th symphony, there is something of interest in all (I was surprised at how much value I found in his first four - which aren't actually his first four, he discarded 3-4 serious attempts before his No.1 due to considering them not to be strong enough to publish), but extensive sampling should be done first (I can hook you up with some sample movements in lossless if you would like). I also have a great admitation for his enormous 9th string quartet which is a masterpiece of invention. After Bartók, Shostakovich, and perhaps Carter, Simpson is right up there as a candidate to be considered among the most distinguished cycles of the 20th century. This shortlist would also include -

Holmboe, who is just stunning. His style crystalises, meaning the late quartets in particular can be a bit tough going, but he has a Haydnesque manner of just finding more and more things that he can do with the relatively fixed format of the string quartet. In his symphonies when they reach double digits his music becomes more sparse, glass-like and IMO beautiful in a cool way. Some do feel that he got a bit "boring" after his more popular middle period, though.

[DavidW]

Well I did check out the Havergal Brian thread, and I was convinced so I gave it a try with the VC + Symphony No. 18 + The Jolly Miller.  It's funny that I asked for tonal, but not romanticized and this is the opposite of that... but you know what?  Doesn't matter, it's good music.   It's complex music, but I was expecting a dense polyphony, heavily textured (from how people describe his music)... but instead I got melodic neoromanticism.  A surprise indeed.

[vandermolen]

Lethe mentioned Australian composers and, with this in mind, a very strong recommendation for the Symphony No 1 'Da pacem Domine' by Australian composer Ross Edwards (born 1943). This is a haunting, deeply felt, monolithic score written in tribute to Edwards's friend the conductor of the Sydney SO, who was dying of Aids at the time of composition (1991). This is one of those works that I would probably never have discovered without this forum (thank you Andre  ). It is very moving work of considerable slumbering power. There is more than one recording:

[vandermolen]

Also a plug for William Mathias whose powerful and defiant Third Symphony is a great work.

[Sergeant Rock]

Well I did check out the Havergal Brian thread, and I was convinced so I gave it a try with the VC + Symphony No. 18 + The Jolly Miller.  It's funny that I asked for tonal, but not romanticized and this is the opposite of that...

Atonal romanticism? 

but you know what?  Doesn't matter, it's good music.   It's complex music, but I was expecting a dense polyphony, heavily textured (from how people describe his music)... but instead I got melodic neoromanticism.  A surprise indeed.

I'm glad you enjoyed it but you know you did stumble upon some "easy listening" Brian. Of course I think all Brian is easy listening (i.e., I've never found his music particularly difficult to grasp or so dense as to call it sludge) but many others find his music incomprehensible. Before you write him off as just another neoromantic (he isn't although you must understand he was a contemporary of R. Strauss, Mahler, Schoenberg, etc. and the influence of his time is in his music) I hope you continue to explore his symphonies. What I love most is the abrubt, often jarring juxtaposition of extreme moods and his use of militant themes and resources (marches, brass fanfares, heavy percussion) that remind me of Mahler.

As to what you actually asked for in your first post, I guess I should have listened to the Penderecki Third (a work I don't know) before making suggestions, eh? 

Sarge

[DavidW]

Nah it's cool Sarge, I like the music and since I went for easy listening, if you rec something you consider to be great from him, I'll jump on it.  I guess the 1st symphony?

[Sergeant Rock]

Nah it's cool Sarge, I like the music and since I went for easy listening, if you rec something you consider to be great from him, I'll jump on it.  I guess the 1st symphony?

Let me know when you have a spare two hours to devote to the Gothic...I'll upload it for you    In the meantime, I'll continue to relisten to all the symphonies and pick out something less "easy listening"...the Fourth, Das Siegeslied, perhaps...the one almost everyone hates, even the Brianites.

Sarge

[DavidW]

Let me know when you have a spare two hours to devote to the Gothic...I'll upload it for you    In the meantime, I'll continue to relisten to all the symphonies and pick out something less "easy listening"...the Fourth, Das Siegeslied, perhaps...the one almost everyone hates, even the Brianites.

Sarge

Well you don't have to actively try to find something I don't like! lol

[Sergeant Rock]

Well you don't have to actively try to find something I don't like! lol

I'm on a mission now. I will find something you detest...I promise 

Sarge

[Daverz]

Let me put in a little recommendation (okay, a big one) for American composer Stephen Paulus. One of my treasures is a cassette tape of a performance of his Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra (which he sent me himself after I raved about it on the newsgroup rec.music.classical after hearing it on the radio!)

Benjamin Lees also wrote a Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, and Julian Orbon wrote a Concerto Grosso for String Quartet and Orchestra.  The Lees was on an RCA Lp (flipside of the Sessions Symphony No. 3), and their are several recordings of the Orbon available.

EDIT: I forgot that David Diamond wrote one, too.

[DavidW]

1974/75 Aulis Sallimen 3rd Symphony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--8FAEam33g

I also have his Age of Iron Suite on Ondine. Very enjoyable, it was written for what now looks like a fairly dire TV mini-series and stands up rather better than the programme itself.

Arvo Part: Speigel in Speigel, like a meditation, each phrase is longer than the preceeding one as though longer and longer breaths were being taken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRRC94DvXwo&feature=related

Philip Glass: Violin Concerto, very beautiful, here are two of the three movements. The second track takes a few seconds before the music starts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOW5zUYt3Dw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a0DpV-1MSU&feature=related

Kurtag: Stele, There is an astonishing array of instruments used in this piece, rarely do they play together, for much of it the instrumentation is laid bare so that every instrument makes its mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4TcZnZYt4I

Mike

Well I finally gave a listen, and here is what I think:

Sallinen: great!  wonderful powerful music
Part: too new agey for me blech!
Glass: too tedious blech! (couldn't even finish the Part or Glass ones)
Kurtag: excellent!!  Is it tonal?

[DavidW]

In terms of what I'm looking for so far from what I've tried off of this thread:

Sallinen: PERFECT!
Kurtag, Brian: really not what I was looking for, but both good on their own merits
Part, Glass: really, really not

Later I think I'll see what I can find on youtube to go along with other works and composers mentioned on this thread.

[knight66]

Oh well, two out of four is not bad. Perhaps you will mature into Part. 

Mike