Your Musical Discoveries of 2011

[Lethevich]

We have had a lot of Pierné love a few months ago, but most of the talk is buried in the listening thread and other nondescript places

I also discovered a lot of his music this year, although I had already fallen for his style a year or two before with the Timpani disc featuring L'An Mil, Les Cathédrales and Paysages Franciscains. I have yet to find other works which offered such a startling impact, but as you say - Pierné is a masterly composer, and every new composition I hear I tend to enjoy greatly.

[Christo]

the Timpani disc featuring L'An Mil, Les Cathédrales and Paysages Franciscains

One of my favourites too, and another `discovery' I only made this year. (Though I can imagine an even better performance of the piece I like most in this cd - Paysages franciscains - with another orchestra.)

Other favourite Pierné cds are the Erato with Jean Martinon conducting, containing the Cydalises et le chèvre-pied suites, Divertissements, and Concerstück pour harpe (the 1970 recording). Also another Timpani highlight: David Shallon conducting the Luxembourg PO in the complete ballet music of Cydalise et le chèvre-pied. Great to learn there are more Pierné lovers around. 

[some guy]

[T]he living composers that I enjoy tend to be both old and not at all radical in their musical language.* Do you really consider that alright, or would you prefer people like me try harder to like composers who are not just living, but writing in experimental styles?

I dunno about baggage, but yes, I would prefer that people try harder to like composers who are of their time as well as simply in it, no matter how old they are. Pauline Oliveros, LaMonte Young, Helmut Lachenmann, Francis Dhomont, Phill Niblock and Eliane Radigue are all over seventy, and I'm going to guess that they are not on your list of living composers you enjoy. So no "cult of youth" there.

Best to stay away from notions of cults, anyway, and just listen to some nice music, eh?

*I'm going to bet that the dead composers you most enjoy were for their time considered radical in their musical language. It's only a guess, of course, but I'd put real money on it; that's how confident I am!!

[Sergeant Rock]

I dunno about baggage, but yes, I would prefer that people try harder to like composers who are of their time as well as simply in it, no matter how old they are. Pauline Oliveros, LaMonte Young, Helmut Lachenmann, Francis Dhomont, Phill Niblock and Eliane Radigue are all over seventy

And when they die, which they will very shortly, will you stop listening to them...or join us, the necrophiliacs? 

Sarge

[Brian]

David Shallon conducting the Luxembourg PO in the complete ballet music of Cydalise et le chèvre-pied. Great to learn there are more Pierné lovers around. 

My favorite Pierné so far, that is! I enjoy the L'An Mil album, but not quite as much, for whatever reason. More exploration of this composer is certainly to come!



Side note: I listed 6 living composers in my "discoveries of the year," and another, Aaron Jay Kernis, juuuust missed.

[some guy]

I do not exclude dead composers.

But quite a lot of people who worship the dead do indeed exclude living composers.*

My call isn't at all for excluding anyone but for including the folks who largely don't even get a look in. (One of those, at least for US listeners, is now dead. Still worth including, though, of course. The idea that wanting people to listen to music of now means to stop listening to music of then is just silly. One's enjoyment of any music of any time is increased by enjoying even more music, from any time.)

*Including living composers who write like dead people used to is SOOO cheating. Sure Jennifer Higdon is alive (and a very nice person, too), but her music is warmed over Harris, Piston, Copland, Hanson and so forth. No fair counting people like her!!

[Brian]

One of my new year's resolutions was to double my living-composer listens; looking at my listening log files, I've listened to 180 "alive" pieces so far this year versus 75 in 2010. Not many obscure names, of course, but hey, any kind of improvement is improvement: Leonardo Balada, HK Gruber, Paquito D'Rivera, Gabriela Lena Frank, Libby Larsen, Carl Vine, Penderecki, Adams, Avner Dorman, Peteris Vasks, RX Rodriguez.

Incidentally, I'm a fellow Higdon detractor but for opposite reasons; if her music is warmed-over Copland, Harris, or Piston, it's also fat-free, low-calorie, and with the nutrients removed. In my opinion at least.

[Antoine Marchand]

I'm totally unable to understand how our musical enjoyment of a specific work can be enlarged if the composer is still alive. It's beyond my comprehension... sorry. 

[some guy]

I'm totally unaware of anyone claiming that our musical enjoyment of a specific work can be enlarged if the composer is still alive.

One thing about listening to living composers is a social thing: you are supporting people who can benefit from your support. Who can appreciate and acknowledge your support.

Another thing, however, may indeed be along the lines that are beyond your comprehension. And that is that a living composer worth a hundred pounds of gold or more will be writing music of this time (as opposed to simply in this time). And it might be exciting to recognize that something new and different is making those beautifully sculpted ears of yours vibrate so vibrantly.

[Antoine Marchand]

I have never bought a disc to support an economic theory.

Call me naive, but my only interest is the music itself, written by alive or dead people.

[Mirror Image]

Yes! I `rediscovered' Gabriel Pierné too, this year. In a long distant past, I remember to have been fond of his orchestral masterpiece (in my view), the Divertissements sur un thème pastoral from 1931. This year, the piece popped up on a new Chandos cd with the BBC Philharmonic under Juanjo Mena playing the Piano Concerto, Ramuntcho Suites and these `Divertissements'. And there he was again: the Pierné I'd almost forgotten and whose music I started playing a lot, this Summer.

By far the best of the three or four recordings of the piece is the one by Jean Martinon for Erato (conducting the Orchestrae National de l'O.R.T.E. in 1970, as I found out this year. It was the recording I had heard back in 1978 or so. Martinon's superb performance makes the piece a worthy counterweight to other cornerstones of the French orchestral repertoire like La Mèr or Daphnis et Chloë, IMO.

Speaking of the latter: this year I also `discovered' Pierné's response to Ravel ballet, namely his own Cydalise et le chèvre-pied (Cydalise and the Faun) from 1914-15. Pierné may not be the most original of composers, but at least he's a real master, producing his best pieces in later life, IMHO. I would also mention his Paysages franciscains from 1920 as another fine orchestral piece.

It's a pity that his most played pieces tend to be his earlier compositions, like the more conventional Piano concerto and the Ramuntcho suites. Indeed, we're still waiting for recordings of some of his later works. Any opinion on them or on Pierné (who doesn't have a thread of his own? 

                               

It's always a pleasure to meet another Pierne fan as well. I think it was you who recommended this Chandos recording to me, but in all honesty it pales in comparison to the Timpani discs, especially Cydalise et le chèvre-pied and the one with L'an Mil. These two recordings restored my faith in this composer. If I had only heard that Chandos disc, I probably wouldn't be talking much about him right now. Yes, his later, more mature works are where the true beauty of Pierne lie.

I hope Timpani continue their series and record some of his later ballets like Images and Giration, which to my knowledge have no recordings at all. Truly a shame.

[some guy]

Well, since no one was recommending any sort of force in the matter, I guess that means three useless posts in a row.

The point really is.... Oh, wait. You mean I was really gonna sucker for explaining that again!

Whew! Caught myself just in time there!

[snyprrr]

Well, since no one was recommending any sort of force in the matter, I guess that means three useless posts in a row.

The point really is.... Oh, wait. You mean I was really gonna sucker for explaining that again!

Whew! Caught myself just in time there!

What would I do if I were a Composer today trying to make it in this topsy turvy world? How would I produce my music? With paper? Or computer?

How would I get people to hear it,... what?, do I 'shop' a DEMO (how do I get that?)... to whom?,...

What if you wrote Gorecki's 3rd (in a forest) and nobody heard it? WOULD IT MAKE A SOUND?

[knight66]

This year:

Max Richter Memoryhouse
Carl Rutti Requiem
Szymanowski orchestral songs
Bax Winter Legends
Tarik O'Regan Heart of Darkness
Linley Cantatas & Theatre Music
Esenvalds Passion And Resurrection
Bizet Te Deum
Vasks Message
Korngold Sursum Corda / Sinfonietta
Moeran: Symphony in G minor; Rhapsody for Piano

There must be more pieces than that, but I can't think what right now.


The conductor Andris Nelsons

Mike

[Lethevich]

I dunno about baggage, but yes, I would prefer that people try harder to like composers who are of their time as well as simply in it, no matter how old they are. Pauline Oliveros, LaMonte Young, Helmut Lachenmann, Francis Dhomont, Phill Niblock and Eliane Radigue are all over seventy, and I'm going to guess that they are not on your list of living composers you enjoy. So no "cult of youth" there.

Music of this time appears to involve everything (including coin flips), though, which grates against my (conservative?) innate wish to find my own niche in things.

While I do like some living "scares the horses" composers, even these are based off a personal sense that the composer is doing things that I can understand, where most I feel are not

I'm going to bet that the dead composers you most enjoy were for their time considered radical in their musical language. It's only a guess, of course, but I'd put real money on it; that's how confident I am!!

Yes, but radical from the point that they push what was going before even further. Often the direction they pushed was in a quite narrow arc, which was why most of them came to be understood by the general population relatively quickly. During the second half of the 20th century, there was a conscious attempt to push in every direction, and it is only natural for the response of most to be bewilderment. Also, I am not against the concept of a burning edge style - I consider Delius, for example, to be a radical composer despite his music being roundly sneered at by current would-be tastemakers.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

The list of living composers I've gotten into is quite long. However, my only concern is quality. Whether something is "in its time" or "of its time" is not relevant. I live now, not 100 years from now. I don't get to see how this story turns out.

I do support the idea of getting behind your local composer, new music ensemble, etc. However, Sturgeon's Law applies in music as elsewhere.

[Christo]

It's always a pleasure to meet another Pierne fan as well. I think it was you who recommended this Chandos recording to me, but in all honesty it pales in comparison to the Timpani discs, especially Cydalise et le chèvre-pied and the one with L'an Mil. These two recordings restored my faith in this composer. If I had only heard that Chandos disc, I probably wouldn't be talking much about him right now. Yes, his later, more mature works are where the true beauty of Pierne lie.

I hope Timpani continue their series and record some of his later ballets like Images and Giration, which to my knowledge have no recordings at all. Truly a shame.

Exactly my thoughts. The two discs you mention show us thre `real' Pierné - as did Jean Martinon in his earlier recordings of some of these pieces. Real Pierné are also pieces like the Voyage au `Pays du Tendre' and the Variations libres et Finale Op. 51 for harp and a few instruments, both also later works. They are on a fine Belgian cd with the Oxalys ensemble:
                                                 

[71 dB]

Call me naive, but my only interest is the music itself, written by alive or dead people.

Same here. I listen to (and buy) non-classical music by living people. I am not much into atonal music or most weird trends classical  music took during the 20th century. But I am into electronic music. So, I listen to such living music makers as Tangerine Dream, Autechre, The Prodigy, etc. They have chosen to explore the possibilities of "electronic" music instead of locking themselves to the "serial 12-tone atonal mess" that classical music has become.

Sure, there are interesting living composers. I like Pärt, Glass and Torke. The problem is how to explore these composers? Where to start? Few years ago I just bought a Naxos disc of Richard Dubugnon's music. Not bad but not that exiting either. It would cost a lot to explore these composers this "hit and miss" way... ..even at Naxos price 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

They have chosen to explore the possibilities of "electronic" music instead of locking themselves to the "serial 12-tone atonal mess" that classical music has become.

Y'know 71, it sounds like you've become a victim of anti-modernist propaganda. The "serial 12-tone atonal mess" had its day (back in the 1940s-60s), but now it's gone. Composers nowadays write in every style you can think of.

[71 dB]

Y'know 71, it sounds like you've become a victim of anti-modernist propaganda. The "serial 12-tone atonal mess" had its day (back in the 1940s-60s), but now it's gone. Composers nowadays write in every style you can think of.

I haven't listen to any propaganda. My opinion is based on my listening experienses. Sure, newer modernn classical music can be tonal but it is still difficult to explore!

I have one dics of Henze and his music is pretty good.