Opposites!

[Brian]

Sometimes I like to consider, together, two pieces of music which feel like complete opposites. For instance, I often dream of a concert pairing Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra and Vaughan Williams's Fifth Symphony, because they seem to be more or less diametrically opposed in every way - musical language, emotional impact, level of "incident", even dynamics and tempos. I also think of the third movement from Glass's Third Symphony as a sort of "dark energy" or "dark matter" rewrite of Pachelbel's Canon.

Are you fascinated by opposites in music? Are there works you enjoy pairing because of the contrast? What do you think are the classical "yin/yang"?

0:)

[Karl Henning]

Stravinsky, Threni + Duruflé, Requiem

I suppose yet sharper would be:

Stravinsky, Threni + Scarlatti, Stabat Mater

[North Star]

Stravinsky, Threni + Duruflé, Requiem

I suppose yet sharper would be:

Stravinsky, Threni + Scarlatti, Stabat Mater

Which Scarlatti did you have in mind, Karl?

http://www.youtube.com/v/sgasIgm5KYo  http://www.youtube.com/v/BT88xeb5xWM

[TheGSMoeller]

As in (sticking with RVW) A Sea Symphony and Ives Symphony No.4?
Written just a few years apart, both performed using a choir and large orchestras, utilizing a four-movement structure, but definitely world's apart when discussing their respective musical languages.

[Gurn Blanston]

Like sticking with one composer for my contrasts, and even more, with one opus (which it was, despite the numbering system):

Mozart - String Quintet in C K 515 & String Quintet in g - K 516. Opposite poles I should say.

[Lake Swan]

Oh, like Chopin and Cannibal Corpse. 

[Johnll]

As in (sticking with RVW) A Sea Symphony and Ives Symphony No.4?
Written just a few years apart, both performed using a choir and large orchestras, utilizing a four-movement structure, but definitely world's apart when discussing their respective musical languages.

I would never have thought of it myself, but that nails it.

[Opus106]

a sort of "dark energy" or "dark matter" rewrite

The what now?

[Florestan]

There is a Fantasy by Lekeu (can't remember it exactly) which starts only with a few strings, other instruments are added as the music unfolds and ends in a tutti. That should make a nice contrast to Haydn's Farewell.   

[Opus106]

There is a Fantasy by Lekeu (can't remember it exactly) which starts only with a few strings, other instruments are added as the music unfolds and ends in a tutti. That should make a nice contrast to Haydn's Farewell.   

Bolero! (Nice idea, BTW. )

[Florestan]

Bolero!

Indeed!

[Florestan]

How about an operatic recital featuring, in turn, excerpts from Rossini and Wagner?  Say, the overture of La gazza ladra followed by the prelude to Parsifal, and Largo al factotum followed by O du mein Holder Abendstern? 

[val]

Beethoven's 4th and 5th Symphonies.

Or Wagner, Tristan und Isolde and the Meistersinger.

Or Verdi Otello and Falstaff.

Or Enescu's Oedipe and Stravinsky's "Edipus Rex".

[Karl Henning]

This thread is a fun romp through the reflection that there are so many axes of opposition which might be invoked.

[North Star]

This thread is a fun romp through the reflection that there are so many axes of opposition which might be invoked.

This is a nice pair of opposites, too:

Which Scarlatti did you have in mind, Karl?

http://www.youtube.com/v/sgasIgm5KYo  http://www.youtube.com/v/BT88xeb5xWM

[stingo]

MAHLER Symphony No. 8
CAGE 4'33

[Brian]

Has anybody done a recital alternating between Ligeti etudes and Scarlatti sonatas? I feel like that would be an interesting juxtaposition.

MAHLER Symphony No. 8
CAGE 4'33

BRIAN Symphony No. 1 "Gothic"
CAGE 4'33"

[rickardg]

MAHLER Symphony No. 8
CAGE 4'33

Didn't Mahler leave room for the Cage piece between the first and second movement of the Symphony No. 2 ?

:-)