What are you listening to now?

[EigenUser]

Fresh from the mailbox

Messiaen
Les Offrandes oubliées
L'Ascension
Poèmes pour Mi*
Yvonne Naef (mezzo)*
SWR Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Cambreling
[asin]B001E4S0X0[/asin]

Nice! I haven't heard that version of Trois Petites Liturgies, though.

Haydn Symphony No.101 D major "Clock" ...Goodman conducting the Hanover Band

I love 101. If I was a conductor, I'd program Haydn's Symphony No. 101, Debussy's Trois Nocturnes and Ligeti's Clocks and Clouds for the same evening. Clocks + Clouds (Nuages) = Clocks and Clouds!

[Mandryka]

The booklet is in fake interview format, that is, a paragraph by the essayist, a paragraph by Harnoncourt, then the essayist, then Harnoncourt. Harnoncourt states all of his ideas - for example, that conducting CPE Bach's oratorio inspired Mozart to create a "symphonic oratorio" in twelve movements, doing away with arias and choruses to create a totally new orchestral form. Unfortunately, Harnoncourt offers no evidence for any of his claims, except that the symphonies were written in consecutive months and that they share three themes (which themes, he does not say). The booklet writer fills in a few gaps with facts about history.

Which CPEB oratorio?

By the way, I think it has been pretty unclear why he wrote the last three symphonies, presumably this is still an area of research. I do recall that they were published as a single opus. I've never come across the idea that there's shared music before - maybe someone here who keeps up with musical analysis will comment on this. The idea that there's a spiritual content to the final movement of the Jupiter is pretty well known - apparently he helped himself to all sorts of hymn tunes, chant tunes. He was into church music big time when he wrote those symphonies - he was composing a mass setting. So I wouldn't be totally surprised to find church music elsewhere.

[Sergeant Rock]

Nice! I haven't heard that version of Trois Petites Liturgies, though.
I love 101. If I was a conductor, I'd program Haydn's Symphony No. 101, Debussy's Trois Nocturnes and Ligeti's Clocks and Clouds for the same evening. Clocks + Clouds (Nuages) = Clocks and Clouds!

That would be a cool concert. Orchestras need programmers like you 

Sarge

[Mandryka]

Hmm. Reading some Harnoncourt stuff.

It's one thing to suggest that Mozart was inspired by other music he'd been involved in. It's quite another to suggest that his inspiration took the form of a 12-movement work that was so subtle it fooled people into thinking it was three different works for centuries.

Lord knows what makes the finales of 39 and 40 not be 'proper' finales in Harnoncourt's eyes. They sound fine to me.

The ending of the Jupiter seems a particularly final ending to me.

What's needed is some sort of story which maps the 12 movements to a spiritual story.  It's that which I was hoping Harnoncourt would provide, maybe it's obvious from the way he plays the music. I'm kind of bracing myself to listen.

[Moonfish]

Rameau: Works       Marcelle Meyer

Magical!

[André]

Elgar:The Kingdom, his last oratorio , which is apparently the 'slow movement' of a gigantic oratorio imagined by Elgar (bookended by The Apostles and The Dream of Gerontius). May look like an harnoncourtism, but it's for real.  0:)

[EigenUser]

That would be a cool concert. Orchestras need programmers like you 

Sarge

There are some subtle programming similarities I notice when watching concerts on the BPO Digital Concert Hall (maybe not so subtle to you guys, but I was happy with myself for picking up on them without reading any program notes). Can you guess what they are?
1) Wagner's Prelude to Tristan und Isolde paired with Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie
2) Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra paired with Mahler's Symphony No. 6

[North Star]

Nice! I haven't heard that version of Trois Petites Liturgies, though.

Eh, looks like it's not in the box. 

[Mirror Image]

Elgar:The Kingdom, his last oratorio , which is apparently the 'slow movement' of a gigantic oratorio imagined by Elgar (bookended by The Apostles and The Dream of Gerontius). May look like an harnoncourtism, but it's for real.  0:)

That's an excellent work, Andre. Which performance are you listening to? My favorite is Elder/Halle.

[Sergeant Rock]

There are some subtle programming similarities I notice when watching concerts on the BPO Digital Concert Hall (maybe not so subtle to you guys, but I was happy with myself for picking up on them without reading any program notes). Can you guess what they are?
1) Wagner's Prelude to Tristan und Isolde paired with Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie
2) Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra paired with Mahler's Symphony No. 6

1) Both works are about love and death
2) Other than Mahler being an influence on all three composers of the Second Viennese School, no I don't know what the connection is.

Sarge

[André]

The Kingdom: It's the Boult on EMI. I have Elder in Gerontius. excellent version.

[Brian]

What's needed is some sort of story which maps the 12 movements to a spiritual story.  It's that which I was hoping Harnoncourt would provide, maybe it's obvious from the way he plays the music. I'm kind of bracing myself to listen.

The best Harnoncourtian insight into how the music ties together, audible in the recordings themselves, is the fact that they removed the pause between 39 and 40, and 39 really does flow into 40 pretty seamlessly.

Maybe the inexpressive, rushed slow movements are meant to somehow make the symphonies feel more "balanced"?

Listening to this:



Mackerras/SCO would be a midpoint between Harnoncourt and Bruggen. Bruggen is grander, more elegant and old-fashioned in 39 and 41, although his 40 is pretty thrilling and overall one of the best I've ever heard. I'd say the intro to Bruggen's 39 is probably half the speed of NH's. The Orch of the Eighteenth Century is a much more interesting period sound. The strings are drier and more insistently vibrato-free, but the woodwinds are glorious, and prominent in the recorded mix. Overall, a subtler ensemble than the trumpet-heavy Concentus Musicus Wien.

[Mirror Image]

The Kingdom: It's the Boult on EMI. I have Elder in Gerontius. excellent version.

You should definitely check out Elder's The Kingdom. Completely breathtaking.

[EigenUser]

Eh, looks like it's not in the box. 

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Although it isn't an orchestral work, do you know the Visions de l'Amen for two pianos? I listened to the whole thing twice in a row yesterday! I think I like it better than Vingt Regards, even.

1) Both works are about love and death
2) Other than Mahler being an influence on all three composers of the Second Viennese School, no I don't know what the connection is.

Sarge

Man, I'm disappointed that you didn't them!

1) Close, but more specifically both were based on the legend of Tristan and Isolde
2) HAMMER!

[North Star]

Although it isn't an orchestral work, do you know the Visions de l'Amen for two pianos? I listened to the whole thing twice in a row yesterday! I think I like it better than Vingt Regards, even.

Yes, I know Visions. A great piece, and I'll surely get the Hyperion recording soon.

[Papy Oli]

Good evening all

Haydn - 101 + 103 / Bernstein / NYPO

[Ken B]

Ligeti's puzzling Cello Concerto ...WHY DON'T I GET THIS PIECE DAMN IT ?!?!
[asin]B000HWZALK[/asin]

Not drunk enough.

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Finished up with Stravinsky's Violin Concerto. Now listening to Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2.

[Sergeant Rock]

Not drunk enough.

At our favorite Italian restaurant tonight, Mrs. Rock and I shared a bottle of superb Barbera, a glass each of Ramazzoti, and then the waiter offered us a grappa on the house....  I'm ready to tackle the Cello Concerto 

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

At our favorite Italian restaurant tonight, Mrs. Rock and I shared a bottle of superb Barbera, a glass each of Ramazzoti, and then the waiter offered us a grappa on the house....  I'm ready to tackle the Cello Concerto 

Sarge