Piano Masters: 1950-2000

Started by snyprrr, February 04, 2011, 01:07:52 PM

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bhodges

Quote from: snyprrr on February 07, 2011, 09:57:02 AM
I just got a really nice disc by Russell Sherman called 'Premieres & Commissions' (w/Schoenberg Op.19, Schuller, Helps, Perle) which has Shapey's Late Sonata Profondo (1996) which really surprised me (I have enjoyed Seven (1963), a virtuoso piece for 4 hands, which Feinberg distatches awesomely with just two!).

You allude to the 2-cd 'Radical Traditionalism', which includes the two monster variations (21 & Fromm). Shapey has undeniable STYLE,... somthing we can get into on the Shapey Thread,... I just find a certain high standard running through everything I've heard by him (from any point in his development, no less).

As for his Piano Music, is it not worthy as perhaps the most successful interpretation of (strickly) the Second Viennese School, specifically Schoenberg? I mean, perhaps, as compared to Sessions, Perle, any Boriskin recital, and so forth? Basically, as far as the NewWorldRecords, Albany, and CRI catalogs are concerned, haha?

Tawk amoungst youwarselves

Wish I knew Shapey's piano music, but again, am more familiar with some of his orchestral and chamber music works. He's a fine composer, though.

--Bruce

snyprrr

XENAKIS Complete Music for Solo Piano


Evryali appears to be my single favorite Composition at the moment. I have become addicted to the Mode/Takahashi disc, more specifically, Track 1! I have also sought out some excellent YouTube performances of this Impossible Masterpiece, that I think give Aki a run for her money (her brother's old performance on Denon is explosive in another, more primal way).

This piece does conjure for me the Greek Epic Mythology that Xenakis seeks to translate for us, and in this instance, I do totally 'see' the many armed Sea Entity (I don't have the notes handy) perfectly, the Heroic Competition of the piece exemplified by the spirit of Marathon and Olympic ability that the pianist must,... I suppose,... literally 'overcome'.

Mists (1980) is beyond my ability to praise at the moment. Suffice to say that the piece, when played by A. Takahashi, is beyond begging. It simply States Truth. Total Science. Is there a more Scientific piece for piano (Nancarrow??)??

Frankly, IX's piano style is unmistakable, and in practically any piece utilizing it, it adds a Heroic dimension. Some (hmmm,... most) Late Pieces relegate the piano to single clusters (witness the simple percussive effect in the orchestral works, where the piano is used much like Martinu would in his Late Works), but even the granite Paille in the Wind (w/cello) convinces with his perfection of this cluster technique. Do we have other Cluster Masters?

The piano is so uniquely suited for certain types of Violence. I'm interested in the Traumatized Notes, and overtones, and the percussive attack of certain registers (there are secrets in the middle range which we could discuss). I'm remeinded of the Italian Horror Movie Deep Red, whose protagonist is a Composer Pianist (we never here him play, I think), who, at one point, explaining the Violence of his music, he says that a psychologist would probably say that he is bashing his father's teeth in. What IS some of the psychology behind some of this music?

snyprrr

That reminds me that Holliger's early '60s Piano Music (ECM Lieder ohne Worte) is very much in the vein of early Castiglioni, Bussotti, Donatoni, and the others who were just getting to Darmstadt @''58-'62.

Dieter Schebel, also, is one that has a 2-cd set of Piano Music (Meier again??) that may very well be right up some of our alleys.

lescamil

If anyone here like's Xenakis's Evryali, he or she might want to check out Claude Vivier's piano piece Shiraz. It has that same sort of monolithic, barbaric piano writing with a slight jazzy edge to it. It all amounts to a sort of violence that is really not unlike what Xenakis did. Vivier is a composer in general that most people should check out. Had he not been murdered, he no doubt would have become more of a household name, with his very personal, idiosyncratic style.
Want to chat about classical music on IRC? Go to:

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snyprrr

Quote from: lescamil on February 07, 2011, 01:38:54 PM
If anyone here like's Xenakis's Evryali, he or she might want to check out Claude Vivier's piano piece Shiraz. It has that same sort of monolithic, barbaric piano writing with a slight jazzy edge to it. It all amounts to a sort of violence that is really not unlike what Xenakis did. Vivier is a composer in general that most people should check out. Had he not been murdered, he no doubt would have become more of a household name, with his very personal, idiosyncratic style.

I had just happened upon Shiraz on YouTube right before seeing this! I must say that my expectations were utterly foiled, as I thought it did not sound typically spectral, but sounded closer to Sciarrino's Sonata No.4, which truly must be the most brutal piano piece ever. My first impression was that I didn't like the Vivier as compared to Sciarrino, but I am still curious to hear other CV.

snyprrr

Quote from: James on February 07, 2011, 10:51:25 AM
The amazingly wonderful Francoise Variationen .. check it out if you haven't already.

[asin]B000007TDF[/asin]

Yes, you convinced me of this. It is a sprawling work, in FD's typical, bubbly (amazingly wonderful!) and joyous style. It's all up and down, without any meaning but for the joy of timbre and play. FD has probably the most 'positive' expression of the High Modernists. And, Stradivarius used to have the best booklet covers! Love the windmill (relating to a Gorli piece).

RJR

Quote from: snyprrr on February 04, 2011, 09:45:39 PM
Well then, I have to tell you. I got the very last hard copy of the old issue from off the Mode warehouse shelf (I can see we think alike, haha)! That's what she told me on the phone. And, they charged me double, haha! can you believe it? But hey, it's going for millions on Amazon, so I don't blame them. You can get a cd-R from them, but any and all Historical Hard Copies are out there in the world. Here is truly a tragic tale of OOP. :'(

Another would be that Ferrari/Montaigne piano disc.
Luc Ferrari?

petrarch

#47
Quote from: RJR on February 12, 2011, 06:38:48 AM
Luc Ferrari?

Yep:

(looks like the ASIN link does not show the right pic)

Interestingly, I didn't find it that alluring. Sounded somewhat mechanical to me.
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

snyprrr

Quote from: PaulSC on February 05, 2011, 03:35:39 PM
Thanks for the Castiglioni tip, I should pay more attention to him. Thoughts on either of these?

Nicolls/Metier, Alberti/col legno


[asin]B000B6VUUM[/asin]

[asin]B000WULWVY[/asin]

I just saw a THIRD Castiglioni Piano Music cd, on Brilliant Classics!! :o It was on Amazon.uk. Wow, the end MUST be near! 8)

snyprrr

ok, here's some very creepy, makes Ferneyhough look like church bell, by Klaus K. Hubler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gywe_vmN8e0

snyprrr

What do you all think of the Barraque Sonata?

How does he compare with Boulez?

I was listening (mm,... I had this on) the other night (Henck; ECM), and thought it sounded a bit like early Boulez, but expanded, and with silences figuring heavily. I don't really know how I'm supposed to approach this piece, but it seems to me like your PostWar-end-of-world ennui,... the kind of stuff I can like. Does anyone have any insights?

The sound of the piano on this recording is much fun to hear, and it surely sounds like Henck is transcendent. I particularly remember a few bass notes that had some dark wooden tones.

Is it just serial music, or is it 'meaning'? The notes go into great detail on other matters.

petrarch

Quote from: petrarch on February 04, 2011, 08:39:17 PM
there's a swedish CD with Bo Nilsson that I'm also on the look out for, it's called Piano con Forza.

Got this one today, after finding a seller on amazon that had one copy. Great piano music from 1917 all the way to 1997.

[asin]B00000JBFB[/asin]
//p
The music collection.
The hi-fi system: Esoteric X-03SE -> Pathos Logos -> Analysis Audio Amphitryon.
A view of the whole

Dax

Quote from: snyprrr on February 16, 2011, 08:05:18 PM
What do you all think of the Barraque Sonata?

How does he compare with Boulez?

I was listening (mm,... I had this on) the other night (Henck; ECM), and thought it sounded a bit like early Boulez, but expanded, and with silences figuring heavily. I don't really know how I'm supposed to approach this piece, but it seems to me like your PostWar-end-of-world ennui,... the kind of stuff I can like. Does anyone have any insights?

It's an extraordinary and excellent piece. For me, much more rewarding than Boulez.
A few comments I made a couple of years ago can be found at
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,10955.msg272075.html#msg272075

A number of recordings of Barraqué can be found at
http://highponytail.blogspot.com/search/label/Jean%20Barraqué

Boulez too, for that matter.

snyprrr

Quote from: Dax on March 05, 2011, 04:44:57 AM
It's an extraordinary and excellent piece. For me, much more rewarding than Boulez.
A few comments I made a couple of years ago can be found at
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,10955.msg272075.html#msg272075

A number of recordings of Barraqué can be found at
http://highponytail.blogspot.com/search/label/Jean%20Barraqué

Boulez too, for that matter.

Henck's liner notes for the Barraque has precious little with the actual music, but follows Henck as he unearths Barraque's intentions and mysteries concerning this piece. It's almost a DaVinci Code-like cat-&-mouse. I'll see if Woodward is mentioned.

Luke

This blog has some magnificent needledrops of all sorts of things - happy browsing! - but specifically some good info on and downloads of the Barraque sonata in various recordings; the score and various scans are also included in one of the folders

http://highponytail.blogspot.com/search/label/Jean%20Barraqu%C3%A9

Scroll down this page for all the entries containing the term 'Barraque' - you'll find what you're looking for a short way down, but keep scrolling, there's other good stuff...

snyprrr

I listened to the Barraque (Henck) earlier, and really tried to take it in.

a) I missed the segue into Track2, so I really didn't begin to 'get' the piece until around the end, when there are these tremulous rumblings and tinklings. No,... I really didn't 'get' anything, but I began to hear the piece wind down. No, this is a thorny mess of a piece, no?

b) The liner notes mention recordings by Loriod (early '60s), Helffer (late '60s), and Woodward (1972). There is also a recording by a Chinese? lady, with Boulez, I believe.

PaulSC

Quote from: snyprrr on March 05, 2011, 08:46:48 PM
b) The liner notes mention recordings by Loriod (early '60s), Helffer (late '60s), and Woodward (1972). There is also a recording by a Chinese? lady, with Boulez, I believe.

Pi-hsien Chen

[asin]B00000DFLQ[/asin]
Musik ist ein unerschöpfliches Meer. — Joseph Riepel

Luke

Um, the recordings you mentioned are available via the link I gave in the previous post.

PaulSC

Thank you Dax and Luke for the links to those Barraqué recordings.
Musik ist ein unerschöpfliches Meer. — Joseph Riepel

k-k-k-kenny

Trying not to hit too many that have already been mentioned ...

German - minimalist?:
Peter Michael Hamel
Wilfried Hiller
Hans Otte

Prague spring:
Bohuslav Martinů
Miloslav Kabeláč esp Preludes Op. 30
Czesław Marek

North Americans:
Henry Cowell
André Mathieu
Conlon Nancarrow
Leo Ornstein
Ned Rorem

Tricky Italians:
Luigi Dallapiccola
Marco De Bari
Francesco Pennisi
Giacinto Scelsi

Soviets, well you won't find a whole lot of wild and wacky here tho Mosolov ceased to be appreciated:
Anatoly Alexandrov
Sergei Bortkiewitz (just sneaks in)
Samuil Feinberg
Dmitri Kabalevsky
Nikolai Kapustin
Alexander Mosolov
Nikolai Myaskovsky (d. 1950)
Nikolai Obouhov
Shosty

Forgettable Frenchmen:
Darius Milhaud
Paul Hindemith

Poms:
York Bowen
Brian Ferneyhough
Robert Simpson

Aussie, punching well above his weight:
Carl Vine

Orient:
Akira Miyoshi

Don't waste your life like I have wasted mine:
Claude Ballif
Paul Cooper
Robert Helps
William Hibbard