Alan Hovhaness — Where to begin?

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Nope, I haven't; I'll definitely check it out!

Since I enjoyed the work so much, I downloaded just this track from the Schwarz recording (reissued with Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe). I've listened to it about three times. The end is rather startling for Hovhaness.

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Added another Hovhaness recording to my order:

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Added these two recordings to my initial order:



I'm sure you own these as well, Jeffrey.

Actually John there is a CD here which I don't have 
The Armenian Rhapsody one. I feel a bout of panicky OCD purchasing coming on!
That encounter with Bernstein was interesting and I'm pleased that the likes of Lou Harrison were supportive of Hovhaness. I have a great CD featuring Hovhaness's 'Mysterious Mountain' Symphony 2 with a moving and enjoyable Lou Harrison symphony ('Elegiac'). Yes 'Meditations on Orpheus' is one of my favourite Hovhaness works.
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Also good:
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I listened again to 'Meditation on Orpheus' from the link which you kindly posted above. Yes, the ending is quite unusual for Hovhaness! That work covers a wide emotional range in only twelve minutes!

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Actually John there is a CD here which I don't have 
The Armenian Rhapsody one. I feel a bout of panicky OCD purchasing coming on!
That encounter with Bernstein was interesting and I'm pleased that the likes of Lou Harrison were supportive of Hovhaness. I have a great CD featuring Hovhaness's 'Mysterious Mountain' Symphony 2 with a moving and enjoyable Lou Harrison symphony ('Elegiac'). Yes 'Meditations on Orpheus' is one of my favourite Hovhaness works.
[asin]B0018WUBWQ[/asin]
Also good:
[asin]B00AG6Z5PI[/asin]
I listened again to 'Meditation on Orpheus' from the link which you kindly posted above. Yes, the ending is quite unusual for Hovhaness! That work covers a wide emotional range in only twelve minutes!

Yes, that is a fantastic Mysterious Mountain from Davies, Jeffrey (along with the Lou Harrison). I would still say, however, that Reiner's performance of Mysterious Mountain is my favorite. I mean the CSO performing Hovhaness is an exciting prospect within itself! I sampled a bit of this Armenian Rhapsodies recording with Schwarz on YouTube (or some site that I forget about) and I had to buy the disc immediately after. It was that good!

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This is all Jeffrey's fault, I just bought the following:





The Concerto for Two Pianos sounds quite interesting.

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This is all Jeffrey's fault, I just bought the following:





The Concerto for Two Pianos sounds quite interesting.

It's a great CD if I remember correctly John, with detailed notes. Don't be put off by the lengthy spoken introduction - in Russian! 

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It's a great CD if I remember correctly John, with detailed notes. Don't be put off by the lengthy spoken introduction - in Russian! 

No worries, Jeffrey. I can always skip over that or just edit it out completely when I go to rip the disc.

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This is all Jeffrey's fault, I just bought the following:





The Concerto for Two Pianos sounds quite interesting.

Indeed - I felt that it was important to torment you with an obscure, though desirable, Hovhaness CD which I thought might well not already be in your collection!

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Indeed - I felt that it was important to torment you with an obscure, though desirable, Hovhaness CD which I thought might well not already be in your collection!

Your taunting paid off for sure!

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My impression of Hovhaness is that he simply has a very limited range, everything I've heard of him conveys a similar impression.  If you have one of his symphonies the other hundred or so are redundant.  Get the Reiner recording, and maybe that nice Telarc disc and your collection is complete.

An older post, I know, but I feel the same way about Milhaud and Tansman. Two composers you've been quite taken with recently. I have yet to hear a work by Hovhaness that I didn't at least enjoy in some way. I do agree that a little Hovhaness goes a long way, especially if you're not really into his style. What I love about his music is compared to so many other composers during his time, he went his own way, but as to whether this particular way was successful or not is dependent upon the listener. But, this listener, loves his style and the whole idea of freeing himself and just doing what he wanted appeals to me greatly. Thankfully, for me, the music is gorgeous and, at times, haunting and even frightening. Of course, I respect your opinion and can even sympathize, but there's something about his music that just grabs me.

This will be unrelated to Scarpia's post, but I remember reading a short biography on the composer and his musical education is quite impressive. He studied with Frederick Converse at the New England Conservatory of Music, but had received much formal training with many teachers prior to Converse (Roger Sessions was someone who took an interest in his music). Hovhaness' grounding in classical music and it's tradition is admirable. He was initially inspired Schubert's lieder and Bach, but his greatest influence was Sibelius. A composer whom he had a correspondence with for many years. It was after this Sibelius influence that he decided that he must not listen to any other music but what he heard in his head so he wouldn't become influenced by anything else. It was his fascination with Armenian music and it's culture in which he found his compositional voice. Wow...I didn't intend for this to become a mini-biography within itself!

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Another one added to the already rather large pile:

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Why isn't Hovhaness on this list and who determines who's a maverick and who's not? What are the qualifications for being an 'American maverick'?

http://americanmavericks.org/meet-the-mavericks

An amusing read nevertheless.

[Baron Scarpia]

An older post, I know, but I feel the same way about Milhaud and Tansman. Two composers you've been quite taken with recently. I have yet to hear a work by Hovhaness that I didn't at least enjoy in some way.

I can't say I've listened to any Hovhaness since writing that post. My knowledge of his works is limited to the Reiner recording and the one other disc. It was impressive, but didn't result in curiosity to hear more.

[Karl Henning]

I can't say I've listened to any Hovhaness since writing that post. My knowledge of his works is limited to the Reiner recording and the one other disc. It was impressive, but didn't result in curiosity to hear more.

It may or may not be your thing anyway, but it is a change from Mysterious Mountain (not that I find any fault in it):

http://www.youtube.com/v/JlLjtie9xJk

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I can't say I've listened to any Hovhaness since writing that post. My knowledge of his works is limited to the Reiner recording and the one other disc. It was impressive, but didn't result in curiosity to hear more.

Yeah, that Reiner disc is quite fine and it was this very performance of Mysterious Mountain that turned me onto Hovhaness' work.

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It may or may not be your thing anyway, but it is a change from Mysterious Mountain (not that I find any fault in it):

http://www.youtube.com/v/JlLjtie9xJk

Oh....I don't have that one! Time to remedy that!

Just bought:

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Your taunting paid off for sure!

You'll enjoy it. Of that I have no doubt.


I'm sure that Mysterious Mountain shows the influence of Vaughan Williams's 'Tallis Fantasia'.

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You'll enjoy it. Of that I have no doubt.

Very cool, Jeffrey. Did you see my two latest purchases? I'm curious if you've heard those discs?

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Very cool, Jeffrey. Did you see my two latest purchases? I'm curious if you've heard those discs?

Yes, I have both of those John and have played both several times with much pleasure.

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Yes, I have both of those John and have played both several times with much pleasure.

Excellent to hear, Jeffrey. Good to see you're as into this composer as I am. As a consequence, I joined the Hovhaness group on Facebook. Seems like a nifty hangout.