Desert Island Disc

[Mirror Image]

I'd probably take something that combines many things, is not only straight classical. Something like a recording of Astor Piazzolla and his ensemble playing his own music. There's so many influences there, from Baroque to Argentinian tango (of course) and jazz, that his music is like a "one stop shop" for me. No wonder so many people who (think?) they hate classical love Piazzolla...

Piazzolla occupies a very interesting place in music. Not really a classical musician, but not really a jazz musician either. His music very much straddles and blurs the lines between these two genres. I've got several recordings that feature Piazzolla's music. One of my favorite compositions of his is probably Tangazo or Oblivion. Both are really wonderful works that, again, straddle that line. His Four Seasons Of Buenos Aires is next on my listening list. I've got a recording of this with Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica.

[jowcol]

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Piazzolla occupies a very interesting place in music. Not really a classical musician, but not really a jazz musician either. His music very much straddles and blurs the lines between these two genres. I've got several recordings that feature Piazzolla's music. One of my favorite compositions of his is probably Tangazo or Oblivion. Both are really wonderful works that, again, straddle that line. His Four Seasons Of Buenos Aires is next on my listening list. I've got a recording of this with Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica.

I'm not sure if he'd be my desert Island pick, but he is definitely a fave of mine.  If I could only have one disc of his, it would be Tango: Zero Hour, and if I could have another it would be The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night.  Both were recorded near the end of has career, and had some of his most inventive music.

[Mirror Image]

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I'm not sure if he'd be my desert Island pick, but he is definitely a fave of mine.  If I could only have one disc of his, it would be Tango: Zero Hour, and if I could have another it would be The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night.  Both were recorded near the end of has career, and had some of his most inventive music.

He's not one of my favorite composers, so I definitely wouldn't take his music to a desert island with me. A Ginastera he is not.

[Sid]

...A Ginastera he is not.

Yes, but Ginastera (Piazzolla's teacher) praised him highly. I forgot to mention in my original post that Piazzolla also wrote a pretty popular operetta, Maria de Buenos Aires. So probably my desert island disc (which I think is a bit of a silly concept, but anyway, it's fun) would probably be the Naxos disc with some of his tangos, songs, and highlights from the operetta. The only problem is that Piazzolla himself doesn't play on it, I've got a 2 cd set with him playing his own music, but the disc that got me into Piazzolla was that Naxos one.

[Mirror Image]

Yes, but Ginastera (Piazzolla's teacher) praised him highly.

Why would it matter to me if Ginastera praised Piazzolla highly? It still doesn't change my own opinion about his music. Mozart was impressed with young Beethoven, but does that mean I have to feel the same way Mozart does?

[Sid]

Why would it matter to me if Ginastera praised Piazzolla highly? It still doesn't change my own opinion about his music. Mozart was impressed with young Beethoven, but does that mean I have to feel the same way Mozart does?

I didn't say that. I think Piazzolla was just as great as Ginastera, because he has bought a whole lot of people into classical music, people who otherwise thought that they hated it. But this doesn't make Piazzolla a "dumbed down" version of Ginastera or something, the man was completely different. Piazzolla was very knowledgeable of music in both it's popular & "high art" forms, and you can clearly hear that in his music. While Ginastera branched out into atonality and serialism (I love his Piano Concertos & String Quartets), Piazzolla completely rebuilt the tango from the ground up, getting rid of it's sentimentality and imbuing it with a modernistic vigour, which (by the same token), was not afraid to look back to the past world of Baroque, etc. So I don't think it's necessary to compare these two guys, they were both great at what they did, imo...

[Teresa]

I didn't say that. I think Piazzolla was just as great as Ginastera, because he has bought a whole lot of people into classical music, people who otherwise thought that they hated it.

I congratulate Piazzolla and all cross-over composers for bringing more people into Classical music.  His tangos are considered by most in the Classical and Jazz worlds as the finest of that art form.   

[Mirror Image]

I didn't say that. I think Piazzolla was just as great as Ginastera, because he has bought a whole lot of people into classical music, people who otherwise thought that they hated it. But this doesn't make Piazzolla a "dumbed down" version of Ginastera or something.

This, of course, is your opinion, Sid. I don't think Piazzolla was as great as Ginastera or really nowhere near him. This ,of course, is MY opinion. I enjoy Ginastera more and consider him the greatest Argentinian composer that ever lived, but as I said there some works by Piazzolla that I do enjoy.

[Mirror Image]

I congratulate Piazzolla and all cross-over composers for bringing more people into Classical music.

I wasn't brought over to classical through a cross-over composer or musician, but then again, I already was musically inclined from a young age. Bartok and Ravel brought me over to classical music.

[Sid]

Well at least a commonality between you & I, MI is that we would both take a South American composer's music with us to the imaginary desert island.

I don't compare composers the way you have Ginastera & Piazzolla. I don't think one is "greater" than the other. They were both great in their unique ways. & this is only a game, it's just for fun, so there is no need to be too "academic" about this.

[Mirror Image]

Well at least a commonality between you & I, MI is that we would both take a South American composer's music with us to the imaginary desert island.

That's true, Sid. There's something so fresh about these Latin American composers. These composers practically invented their own language. You can even do a comparison with a Latin American and Spanish composer and the difference is huge. What I enjoy about Latin music is it's rawness and rhythmic vitality. It makes me feel alive and some of Piazzolla's music definitely does this without question.

[Guido]

Can we just get something clear here - Piazzolla is in absolutely no way Jazz. He composed Tango which is a separate genre from Jazz altogether, though as people have rightly pointed out he mixed it with a strong classical training and aesthetic, and was influenced certainly by elements of Jazz - but I would say that in most regards he's a classical composer. He studied with Boulanger and the influence of Bach is strongly heard too in his contrapuntal writing and interest in fugues. This new musical style that he invented and was the greatest exponent of is called Tango Nuevo.

[Brian]

So probably my desert island disc (which I think is a bit of a silly concept, but anyway, it's fun) would probably be the Naxos disc with some of his tangos, songs, and highlights from the operetta.

That's a great disc - the last track ends it with a really emphatic, moving sense of finality, with the narrator reading... Maria de Buenos Aires / Lloro por primera vez.

[jowcol]

Can we just get something clear here - Piazzolla is in absolutely no way Jazz. He composed Tango which is a separate genre from Jazz altogether, though as people have rightly pointed out he mixed it with a strong classical training and aesthetic, and was influenced certainly by elements of Jazz - but I would say that in most regards he's a classical composer. He studied with Boulanger and the influence of Bach is strongly heard too in his contrapuntal writing and interest in fugues. This new musical style that he invented and was the greatest exponent of is called Tango Nuevo.

It was Boulanger who steered Piazzolla away from mimic-ing Bartok and Stravinsky and developing his own sound. 

[Conor71]

Probably this or this are contenders :

[Guido]

It was Boulanger who steered Piazzolla away from mimic-ing Bartok and Stravinsky and developing his own sound.

Yes that famous conversation where she all too cannily knows that something is up with his pieces.

[Luke]

One disc? Then taking all things into acount, maybe this one:



(though loooking for that picture I can see a few others I want to try out.) A perfect piece - like everything by Ravel, but even more so  , moving beyond belief, witty, light, profound, tender, utterly magical, bewitching sounds...it contains a bit of everything.

Maybe it's too intimate and individual in tone, perhaps I'd get bored after a month or two, perhaps I should choose something more...general. The Busch in late Beethoven or something wondrous like that. But I'm not planning on being there very long, so Ravel it is...

[mjwal]

It's quite obvious that one would fairly soon come to loathe whatever one was misguided enough to take along - I know from experience that one immediately starts longing for all those pieces one decided against. A CD single of 4'33 would thus be my solution; after playing it each day I would sit and imagine listening to loved pieces like Sibelius #5, Das Musikalische Opfer, Haydn's Op.54/2, Opus 131 in C#minor, "Glück, das mir verblieb" (duet form with Tauber & Lehmann), "Soave sia il vento" ,  the "Todesverkündigung", Schwarzkopf singing Wolf's "Kennst du das Land", Pierrot Lunaire, the adagio of the Lulu symphony etc.

[aporia]

Probably this:



At least, this is my current favorite of the Cello Suites.  Or this:



I may have to flip a coin.

[DavidRoss]

Probably this:



At least, this is my current favorite of the Cello Suites.  Mine, too.  Nice choice.  Both these and the S&Ps came to mind (for me it would be Podger, most likely), but both comprise two discs and also I would hate the possibility of coming to hate such heavenly music.

Welcome to the phorum, aporia!  (And avoid the Diner, at least if you hope to alleviate your condition!)