William Schuman (1910-1992)

Started by vandermolen, June 26, 2007, 11:43:55 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Mirror Image

Thanks, but I'm perfectly fine with the McCabe/Miller recording on Albany which I don't think will be bettered any time soon.

Bogey

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 19, 2012, 07:08:45 PM
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, everyone's system will sound different for sure. It seems like it worked out for you. Is this your first exposure to Schuman's music?

Indeed it is.  But not my last. :)
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Mirror Image

Quote from: Bogey on April 20, 2012, 08:58:54 PM
Indeed it is.  But not my last. :)

This is certainly good to hear. I highly recommend his 3rd, 4th, and 5th symphonies next, Bogey. The Bernstein Century recording of Schuman's Symphonies 3, 5, and 8 is such a sizzling recording. This can be bought very cheaply from an Amazon MP seller.

Mirror Image


Bogey

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 20, 2012, 09:14:30 PM
Ummm...you do know we're talking about William Schuman right? Not Robert Schumann the German composer.

Just caught that.  Removed.  Get excited when I see those 6 eye Columbias. ;D
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Mirror Image

#165
Quote from: Bogey on April 20, 2012, 09:16:51 PM
Just caught that.  Removed.  Get excited when I see those 6 eye Columbias. ;D

:P

Edit: Bogey, since you're an LP guy, how about considering this:


Bogey

There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Mirror Image

Bogey if you can get away from vinyl, buy the Bernstein Century recording Schuman's 3rd, 5th, and 8th. You won't be sorry. Trust me on this one.

Scion7

#168
          click to inflate


Not bad at all, lescamil.  Could you rip it again at 320kps constant bit rate?  And possibly take a digital pic of the back cover?  Thanks.
This one's chances of a CD issue are probably nil and nil.   :(   And we'd never get that fine cover reproduced if it was.  Steigerwalt's always been a fine player.

William Schuman's piano concerto is a lot of fun, but it's not a major piece in his catalogue. In the decades following its 1943 première (Tureck's performance), he himself almost had forgotten about it. It took an account by Gary Steigerwalt in 1978 to remind the composer and to inspire him to write more piano music.  ClassicalNet - 2001
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 20, 2012, 11:32:16 AM

I just bought a recording of Schuman's VC with McDuffie/Slatkin on EMI.

Hm, I didn't even know this recording existed. Please let us know if it's any good, OK?

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 20, 2012, 03:12:06 PM
I wouldn't call Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony underdogs though. Schwarz is certainly a good conductor. I just found his performances, as I mentioned earlier, variable in quality.

The only Schwarz/Schuman I've heard was the 6th, and I was very impressed by it. Didn't feel it was lacking in anything, really. But I've never heard the classic Ormandy, so can't compare.
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

vandermolen

Quote from: Velimir on April 20, 2012, 11:50:28 PM
Hm, I didn't even know this recording existed. Please let us know if it's any good, OK?

The only Schwarz/Schuman I've heard was the 6th, and I was very impressed by it. Didn't feel it was lacking in anything, really. But I've never heard the classic Ormandy, so can't compare.

Both performances of No 6 are excellent.
"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).

Drasko

Quote from: Velimir on April 20, 2012, 11:50:28 PM
The only Schwarz/Schuman I've heard was the 6th, and I was very impressed by it. Didn't feel it was lacking in anything, really. But I've never heard the classic Ormandy, so can't compare.

You can get Ormandy here:

http://shellackophile.blogspot.com/2012/03/ormandy-three-american-symphonies.html

Dundonnell

Glad to get another version of the Schuman Piano Concerto :) Thanks :)

How many American Piano Concertos of that era are still played ::) Yet all or almost all of the toweriing figures of the generation of American composers born during the first two decades of the 20th century wrote at least one-in addition to the Schuman, Piston's Concertino(1937) and Double Concerto(1959), Sessions(1956), Harris(with string orchestra 1936, 1st 1944, Double 1946, 2nd 1953, amplified piano 1971), Creston(1949), Diamond(1950), Mennin (1957)- to name but a few.

The trouble with all these fine composers-as I am getting thoroughly fed-up saying-is that, these days, their music is apparently too conservative and conventional for those who espouse modernism, the avant-garde, minimalism, et al and too tough and acerbic (leaving Harris aside, of course) for those who are happier to embrace full-blown romanticism.neo-romanticism. Who would ever have thought that composers as different as Roy Harris and Roger Sessions could suffer the same fate :o

Scion7

Yeah, but how popular is the extreme avant-garde?  Try to stage a concert tour of that stuff.  Good luck!
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Mirror Image

#174
Quote from: Dundonnell on April 21, 2012, 03:27:26 AM
Glad to get another version of the Schuman Piano Concerto :) Thanks :)

How many American Piano Concertos of that era are still played ::) Yet all or almost all of the toweriing figures of the generation of American composers born during the first two decades of the 20th century wrote at least one-in addition to the Schuman, Piston's Concertino(1937) and Double Concerto(1959), Sessions(1956), Harris(with string orchestra 1936, 1st 1944, Double 1946, 2nd 1953, amplified piano 1971), Creston(1949), Diamond(1950), Mennin (1957)- to name but a few.

The trouble with all these fine composers-as I am getting thoroughly fed-up saying-is that, these days, their music is apparently too conservative and conventional for those who espouse modernism, the avant-garde, minimalism, et al and too tough and acerbic (leaving Harris aside, of course) for those who are happier to embrace full-blown romanticism.neo-romanticism. Who would ever have thought that composers as different as Roy Harris and Roger Sessions could suffer the same fate :o

Don't forget Persichetti's PC, which I haven't heard. :) I agree with you, Colin. People who listen to avant-garde music shouldn't have any problems listening to Schuman or Piston. Why would it give them any problems? I think composers like Schuman, Piston, Creston, Mennin, Diamond, etc. are only conservative in the sense that they stuck with the symphonic form and embraced it with open arms. Whereas to find a composer who actually wants to write a symphony these days is pretty slim. Has this, at one time hugely popular form taken a backseat? The entire symphonic literature is truly daunting if you examine it from the beginning. Do composers today feel threatened by it? Do they feel that the medium has been exhausted? Whatever the case may be, thank goodness for these American composers who stuck to the form.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Scion7 on April 21, 2012, 03:38:37 AM
Yeah, but how popular is the extreme avant-garde?  Try to stage a concert tour of that stuff.  Good luck!

Define extreme avant-garde.

Mirror Image

Quote from: Velimir on April 20, 2012, 11:50:28 PMHm, I didn't even know this recording existed. Please let us know if it's any good, OK?

Will do, Velimir. It was reissued on EMI with Bernstein's Serenade.

Scion7

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 21, 2012, 05:24:26 AM
Define extreme avant-garde.

A string quartet that sounds like it is emulating a swarm of bees, for example.  There's more than one of those!

Some of Ligeti's more extreme things, which I find unlistenable.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Mirror Image

Quote from: Scion7 on April 21, 2012, 05:28:42 AM
A string quartet that sounds like it is emulating a swarm of bees, for example.  There's more than one of those!

Some of Ligeti's more extreme things, which I find unlistenable.

I like Ligeti, but I like his larger ensemble works the best. I think he's truly one of the only avant-garde composers I can seriously enjoy.

Bogey

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 20, 2012, 09:20:57 PM
:P

Edit: Bogey, since you're an LP guy, how about considering this:



Where did you find that?  Cool.  However, if it is a later Columbia pressing, it may not be worth it unless I am planning on playing frisbee in the park. ;)
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz