What are you listening to now?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Listening to the Piano Concerto. A work that captures the desolation of the Outback and the hot sun beaming down upon all who enter this barren landscape. Of the three performances I've heard of Sculthorpe's Piano Concerto, this is the best one and the most convincingly performed. What's interesting about this particular concerto is it doesn't adhere to any of the traditional notions of the genre. There's no question that there's structure here, but it's almost rhapsodic in form.

This is so cool that you can imagine the desolation of the outback and the hot sun....this is my favourite Sculthorpe work and maybe it is the way the piece is orchestrated, or maybe the image on the cover has influenced my perception of the work, but it reminds me of the uninhabited areas and solitary beaches along the coast of Gippsland region in Victoria where I have been a number of times. I have never been to the outback, but I can only imagine that there would be a very similar feeling of isolation in a huge open area in the desert.

[TheGSMoeller]

I sought refuge in Glass's wonderful Concerto Fantasy for Two Tympanists and Orchestra.

An excellent concerto, it is. 

[TheGSMoeller]

This set is on Spotify, and features Guschlbauer(Nulte), Sieghart(1, 3, 4) and Eichhorn(the rest) at the helm. I've only listened to the 5th, 6th and 7th. The 5th performance with Eichhorn is to die for, most notably the broad and gloriously delivered finale. Would love to get my hands on some hard copies of these, but I might have to sell my first born to afford it.

[Karl Henning]

For the Barber concerto, Stern/Bernstein, Hahn, and Ehnes are my top three.

I read your post, Brian, and realized:  I've got that in The Box.  So:

Barber
Violin Concerto, Op.14 (1939)
Isaac Stern, vn
NY Phil
Lenny

[Karl Henning]

... but I might have to sell my first born to afford it.

Tangentially, friends of mine drove in to downtown Boston Wednesday to have lunch with me. (I know: it sounds mad and improbable, but there it is.)  They had been on walkabout up in the wilds of Maine to celebrate their anniversary, and wanted to catch up with me on their way down to Rhode Island.  They found the road in to Boston surprisingly smooth that lunchtime.

"You well propitiated the traffic gods, then," said I.

"And it only involved the sacrifice of a small child," the husband observed philosophically.

"Thank goodness it was not your child, anyway," I said.

"We won't miss him," said the wife cheerfully.

[NikF]

Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1 in D Minor - Jansons/St Petersburg Philharmonic.

[asin]B000UZ4EY8[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 1 in D Minor - Jansons/St Petersburg Philharmonic.

[asin]B000UZ4EY8[/asin]

(* ломать стол *)

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

music by Stravinsky conducted by Boulez. I am listening to this especially for Agon, which is my personal favourite of Stravinsky's ballet scores.

[TheGSMoeller]

Tangentially, friends of mine drove in to downtown Boston Wednesday to have lunch with me. (I know: it sounds mad and improbable, but there it is.)  They had been on walkabout up in the wilds of Maine to celebrate their anniversary, and wanted to catch up with me on their way down to Rhode Island.  They found the road in to Boston surprisingly smooth that lunchtime.

"You well propitiated the traffic gods, then," said I.

"And it only involved the sacrifice of a small child," the husband observed philosophically.

"Thank goodness it was not your child, anyway," I said.

"We won't miss him," said the wife cheerfully.

Ha! Love it. 

[Ken B]

Could you elucidate?

For me, at present, Watchorn is the bencmark in this repertoire with Kenneth Weiss right up there too.

It's hard to really, since I haven't listened enough to be fair. But: rushed, with a harsh metallic sound from the instrument. i really think I hate the instrument.

[NikF]

(* ломать стол *)

Ya znayu 'stol' = 'table', no, ya ne ponimayu 'lomat'.



e: Of course..."Pounds the table".

(Ya zabyl kak gavorit po-russki)

[Karl Henning]

No surprise:

Bartók
Concerto for Orchestra (1942–43, revised 1945) Sz. 116
NY Phil
Lenny

[Karl Henning]

Ya znayu 'stol' = 'table', no, ya ne ponimayu 'lomat'.



e: Of course..."Pounds the table".

(Ya zabyl kak gavorit po-russki)

:-)

(Well, it's more like breaks, ruins, I suppose.  But then, that table has taken rather a pounding.)

[Brian]

Petrushka
Ančerl
!

[Karl Henning]

Petrushka
Ančerl
!

(* Ещë раз ломать стол *)

[Brian]

(* Ещë раз ломать стол *)

Hypothesis: this is Russian for "pounds the table"

EDIT: Google Translate renders it "Esche time breaking table"

[Karl Henning]

EDIT: Google Translate renders it "Esche time breaking table"

Aye, a mystery.  Ещë раз means simply, once again.  For some reason, writing it with ë (which reflects the vowel's pronunciation) throws Google Translate off.

[Mirror Image]

Yes, this is a very nice piece for sure.
I have a few Sculthorpe Discs and I do like his music. I guess I should listen to him more often too - I am not being very patriotic by leaving it a long time between listens .

He's a great composer no question about it and one of my favorites. Some listeners seem to be quite 'Eurocentric' and don't really realize that there's marvelous classical music being produced all over the world and not just in Europe. What I like about Sculthorpe's music is it is music that does seem to evoke the landscapes of your country. His series of tone poems: Earth Cry, Mangrove, and Kakadu are reason enough to listen to this man's music.

[Mirror Image]

This is so cool that you can imagine the desolation of the outback and the hot sun....this is my favourite Sculthorpe work and maybe it is the way the piece is orchestrated, or maybe the image on the cover has influenced my perception of the work, but it reminds me of the uninhabited areas and solitary beaches along the coast of Gippsland region in Victoria where I have been a number of times. I have never been to the outback, but I can only imagine that there would be a very similar feeling of isolation in a huge open area in the desert.

It's certainly among my favorite Sculthorpe works as well, but I'll be honest and say I haven't heard a work of his that I actually didn't enjoy. He was an incredibly consistent composer and one of things I do like about his music is that there's a unity in his oeuvre it seems. He's been known to reuse a melody of his and orchestrate it in a different way and this gives that melody a whole new life. One area of his oeuvre that I'm becoming more familiar with are his string quartets. What amazing works these are! Do you own many recordings of his music?

[Karl Henning]

JSB
Concerto for 2 Violins and Orchestra in d minor, BWV1043
Yehudi Menuhin & Isaac Stern
NY Phil
Lenny
Recorded at Carnegie Hall, 18 May 1976

Mixed feelings about this.  I have been listening to this very concerto in a couple of period-truer recordings;  but it is not quite an objection to the "insufficiently reformed" character of this performance.  It's the frequency of a too-sweet vibrato in the soloists (as if they need to go back to the Turkish bath and sweat some more of the Brahms out, first);  and the numerous times that the soloists want to press faster than the band.  No question that the two violinists are legends, and I'm just a bloke;  but I cannot shake the feeling that it is an uneasy match of performers and music, at best.  (Of course, it's a historic document.)