Chez Stravinsky

[karlhenning]

Aye, that was one of a select group of especially spiffy threads in The Old Place!

[owlice]

We have our fun, certainly!

[karlhenning]

Only the Third Viennese School die young

I'd rather laugh with Stravinsky than cry with Schoenberg.

[snyprrr]

No one has mentioned the Septet, one of my gnarly favs.

Currently I have the Salonen/Sony disc with the piano ctos, "Stravinsky in Hollywood" MTT/RCA, the Decca/Ashkenazy 2fer which includes chamber music and more Hollywood/American stuff, and Mutter/DG (great cd with Lutoslawski).

No one has mentioned middling pieces such as Dumbarton Oaks or Concerto in D, not all that great, but...

And I haven't seen much love here for Stravinsky's "Webern period", The Movements, the Double Canon (SQ), the Epitaphalium (trio), the Variations,...I'm not sure HOW many pieces fall into this category. Crystalline (my new fav word)!

Also, I can't seem to keep his late vocal works seperated: Canticum Sacrum, Threni, Requiem Canticles, and isn't there one or two more (Dylan Thomas?)? All I've heard is that Hyperion disc which I recall seemed a saturated sonics wise, blurring the precision?

I do find his Norwegian Moods (not very Nordic), Danses Concertantes, and his Hollywood-type suites rather dull (most of the second disc of the Decca 2fer)...well, no one has mentioned them really, so I expect you all feel about the same here.

I'm surprised so many of you are "just" getting into IS so late (thread started in 2007). I thought EVERYONE had the Mutter disc!

I must say, IS has the most fractured commentary on the concept of a string quartet cycle. His three pieces (3 pieces, Concertino, Double Canon) last about as long as a normal breezy SQ (@15min), and certainly make little sense out of context with the rest of his output. I guess I could have seen him write a substantial 1940s style neo-classical SQ that probably would have sounded "white" and probably not that exciting, perhaps like blanched Hindemith, or more likely like Chavez's No.3, a Martha Graham inspired SQ.

btw- which Symphony (in C, or 3 mvmts) has that awesome fading ending that ends on "that" shimmering chord? I'm remembering IS's own recording that must be in the "big box." I think that's my fav ending to almost any work. I used to keep rewinding it over and over. Anyone feel the same way?

Picture IS, Reger, and Babbitt standing next to one another!!! Harhar...

[jowcol]

I feel the love for the last movement of Dumbarton Oaks-- very powerful, compelling, and logically satisfying.

If you include Agon among the 12 tone works, I think its one of his finest compositions.  What is so brilliant is how he took the form, and some liberties with it, and made it his own.

[karlhenning]

If you include Agon among the 12 tone works, I think its one of his finest compositions.

I think it one of his finest, regardless 

[Herman]

I like Agon a lot, too, and that "Stravinsky in Hollywood" cd with MTT has an excellent version  -  the piece is very hard to play well.

BTW I'm inrigued to see Bily Joel made it to GMG

[Brian]

BTW I'm inrigued to see Bily Joel made it to GMG

[karlhenning]

Someone managed to misquote him, too.

[Guido]

Boulez is not a Stravinsky fan?

[Guido]

Oh yeah, I should have guessed.

[karlhenning]

Ah, well . . . I cannot much interest myself in the interstices of Boulez's dislikes.

[Nick]

I really dislike Boulez.

[karlhenning]

I really dislike Boulez.

I prefer him as composer; don't have much use for him as an opinionator.

[Nick]

I agree with you there.

[Herman]

I prefer him as composer; don't have much use for him as an opinionator.

or as a conductor, surely?

[karlhenning]

or as a conductor, surely?

Well, in the 'voting with my feet' sense, Herman.  I don't own many recordings he's conducted; nor have I seen him live.

[karlhenning]

I wonder who, if anyone, will conduct a fresh recording of Threni.

[karlhenning]

Also, I can't seem to keep his late vocal works seperated: Canticum Sacrum, Threni, Requiem Canticles . . .

You don't mean it?  To my ear these three have perfectly distinct profiles.

[karlhenning]

We can dream, '