April 2013 Is Impressionism/Expressionism Month!

[Mirror Image]

Thanks, John! These two look great!

De Laroccha performing Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain is a must-have. She has recorded this work twice I believe. The Ansermet recording is a no-brainer. Ansermet was a natural in Impressionistic music.

[Mirror Image]

How about Villa-Lobos? 

Good call, Ray. Yes, he definitely flirted with and was influenced by the style.

[Brian]

Fortuitous timing alert: the start of April will also see the start of our new blind listening game, Ravel's piano masterwork Gaspard de la Nuit. Info coming soon.

[springrite]

I nominate May to be "Unworthy Month": Webern, Mozart, J.S. Bach, and Francois Bayle.

For these, especially the first three, we need a YEAR, not month! How about the rest of the year?

[Moo Yai]

I quite like these themed months and this is one I can participate in so I will say yes!

[Mirror Image]

I quite like these themed months and this is one I can participate in so I will say yes!

Conor! You're back! Where have you been, man?

[Moo Yai]

Conor! You're back! Where have you been, man?

Hey mate - I've just been taking a break from the forum and stuff. I like this forum too much so I could'nt stay away for long! 

[Brian]

Sign up now for Impressionism Month Blind Comparison: Gaspard de la Nuit

(You can also "sign up" here and I'll see it! )

[Mirror Image]

Hey mate - I've just been taking a break from the forum and stuff. I like this forum too much so I could'nt stay away for long! 

Excellent well I'm glad to see you back at it again.

[Fafner]

 Now listening to this disc:

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I find Bach's Violin Concertos quite impressive. Does it count for this month's theme? 

[springrite]

Now listening to this disc:

[asin]B000099156[/asin]

I find Bach's Violin Concertos quite impressive. Does it count for this month's theme? 

Surely Bach belongs in every thread!

[Opus106]

Surely Bach belongs in every thread!

Underrated, under-appreciated and hardly recorded. The worst composer, totally!

[Karl Henning]

Underrated, under-appreciated and hardly recorded. The worst composer, totally!

I cannot believe this is a Bachafugaholic talking!

[kishnevi]

Digging into Mount To Be Listened To yields  the DG Complete Ravel Box and Bavouzet's Debussy set.
So that will be my contribution to April.

[Octave]

Crossposted from 'Listening', but motivated by IEM:

[asin]B0006VXF32[/asin]
Takemitsu: A FLOCK DESCENDS INTO THE PENTAGONAL GARDEN (DG 20/21)
Tashi, Ozawa, Wakasugi, Yuji Takahashi (!), etc

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Takemitsu: CANTOS (Richard Stoltzman, Tashi, et al - RCA, rec. 1978 and 1992)

I found all the pieces on the CANTOS disc almost as appealing as many years ago when I first heard it; if pungent atmosphere is your thing, this disc is probably highly recommended. 

The first two pieces on the FLOCK DESCENDS (also with Stoltzman's chamber group Tashi, featured throughout that CANTOS disc) were beautiful and very much in Takemitsu's wayward-impressionist style, music meant to be mysterious and beautiful instead of merely important.  I like the jagged, asymmetrical way the melodies seem to soar and blossom and dissolve.
Unfortunately, the later, shorter pieces from the 1960s (the second half of the record) did seem to be intended to be important.  They sounded much less fresh to me than they did when I first heard them several years ago; in fact, they seemed like pretentious Darmstadt-order-following, and I am not, AFAIK, even temperamentally against that kind of Aspberger's serialism; I've found quite a bit of it bracing and exciting.  (I think Webern is super, super great; sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, in fact, though that is a mood thing for me.)  These pieces come off as White Elephant Music, though I do like the tone colors a bit, especially the use of decay and attack between flute and cymbals/metals.  (Electric organ, not so much.)  But these latter pieces don't even really probably belong in this thread, so I should stop talking about them.

I was able to get a cheap new copy the CANTOS disc very recently, to replace a disc I got free many years ago and lost; also it might very well get reissued soon, with Sony dumping its catalog like boxed hotcakes.  (None of these pieces is included in the generous, mostly-traditional Stoltzman box that Sony recently issued.)

It's IEM (Impressionism/Expressionism Month). Hey, Takemitsu! Cool! I love that guy's music. Probably my favorite work is A String Around Autumn. Have you heard this work?

No, I haven't; and I see it's a viola concerto....what a treat!  That's a major omission in my familiarity with him.  Do you recommend one recording over others?

For IEM I will be listening to at least a couple more Takemitsu recordings: that 2cd of orchestral music on Brilliant (culled from the Denon series?), and maybe one or two more discs from the DG series.
I am crazy about the recordings reissued as IN AN AUTUMN GARDEN (DG 20/21): hands-down my favorite music by him that I've heard, though I am not sure whether it belongs in this thread?  I kind of think so, but it's hard to know.  It's also too bad this disc has become so expensive; I see some other 20/21 titles are getting reissued, so maybe we'll get lucky and have another shot at this fascinating collection of music.

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[Mirror Image]

No, I haven't; and I see it's a viola concerto....what a treat!  That's a major omission in my familiarity with him.  Do you recommend one recording over others?

The only recording I own is the long out-of-print Nobuko Imai/Ozawa recording on Philips, but I'm sure you can find this performance on YouTube. As for actually purchasing the recording, best of luck to you!

[Ten thumbs]

I don't need reminding to play Debussy.
Other Impressionists (in part at least) on my list are:
Bonis (French)
Shcherbachyov (Russian)
Backer-Grøndahl (Norwegian)

Expressionism is perhaps something of a grey area.
It's time I got into Scriabin again though.
Maybe I prefer Ravel here, too.

[Karl Henning]

Expressionism is perhaps something of a grey area.

Both terms are being bandied about with impossible vagueness here.

[Octave]

Both terms are being bandied about with impossible vagueness here.

Elucidate them, Karl.

[Karl Henning]

Elucidate them, Karl.

My dear fellow, do I make myself so free with [your time? ; )