Das Schloss Foss

Started by snyprrr, February 03, 2012, 01:37:37 PM

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snyprrr

How's my German? haha :-[ ::)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/arts/music/02foss.html?pagewanted=all

I know him more as a conductor, and just general 'name', whom I used to get confused with Bob Fosse. I recently happened upon a NewWorld cd of old LP pieces, including his String Quartet No.3 (1976), which has been called a Minimalist Grosse Fuge, which, it IS!

SQ 3 might be just what some people need, a very grinding Minimalistic piece that sounds more like NieInchNails rather than Philip Glass. One can hear his experience of conducting Xenakis, and frankly, Foss seems to have quietly absorbed quite a lot of the avant-garde. There is also a six-piece percussion ensemble piece that certainly reminds me of the more sci-fi Minimalism of a 'Logan's Run' movie, or something: very groovy, and very '70s!

The cd, 'Curriculum Vitae', gets its name from a solo accordion piece, which I found much more engaging than the plethora of said solo pieces that have glutted the market in the last 20 years.

There is also a vocal/ensemble piece, 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, which, sorry, I haven't gotten through yet. Not necessarily the piece's fault (don't like the singing).



I know there is a Bernstein disc of some famous song cycle, but I have heard nothing else other than the present disc. What do you know?

DieNacht

#1
I´ve got 10 works by him (not the mentioned string quartet), of which I have only heard the "Phorion". It was released on an old cbs-LP with Bernstein conducting orchestral works by Gunther Schuller and Denisov also, alltogether a good and interesting programme. The "Phorion", partly based on Bach motifs and including electric instruments, is quite unusual, one gets the pictures of musical waves reaching the edge of the beach, disappearing and appearing again ...

snyprrr

Quote from: DieNacht on February 03, 2012, 02:08:21 PM
I´ve got 10 works by him (not the mentioned string quartet), of which I have only heard the "Phorion". It was released on an old cbs-LP with Bernstein conducting orchestral works by Gunther Schuller and Denisov also, alltogether a good and interesting programme. The "Phorion", partly based on Bach motifs and including electric instruments, is quite unusual, one gets the pictures of musical waves reaching the edge of the beach, disappearing and appearing again ...

That sounds groovy. I think it must be on that 'Song Cycle' disc... I'll check.

snyprrr

Quote from: DieNacht on February 03, 2012, 02:08:21 PM
I´ve got 10 works by him (not the mentioned string quartet), of which I have only heard the "Phorion". It was released on an old cbs-LP with Bernstein conducting orchestral works by Gunther Schuller and Denisov also, alltogether a good and interesting programme. The "Phorion", partly based on Bach motifs and including electric instruments, is quite unusual, one gets the pictures of musical waves reaching the edge of the beach, disappearing and appearing again ...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand?? The other nine? ??? You realize how funny that looks?!?! ;D

DieNacht

#4
Supplementing the flossy, unfulfilled yet fluoroscently funky Foss discography ...  ;D :

"1.Klaverkoncert" (1943)
"2.Klaverkoncert" (1949-52)
"Phorion" f.Ork. (1966)
"Measure for Measure" f.Tenor & Ens. (1980)
"Solo Observed" f.Klaver (1982)
"Night Music for John Lennon" f.Brass & Ork. (1981)
"Elegy for Anne Frank" f.Ork. (1989)
"Round a Common Center" f.Recitation & Ens. (1982?)
"Capriccio" f.Cello & Klaver (1948)

Sorry, counted wrong, it´s only 9. Some of this material is available at sites like Avantgardeproject and you-t.

Catison

I have recently discovered Foss while browsing through Apple Music at the Boston Modern Orchestra Project catalogue.  I am absolutely adoring his Symphony No. 1.  I love music like this, a little Neo-Classical with some surprises and emerging from a strong tradition.  The piece reminds me a little bit of Carter's Variations for Orchestra in that it seems to constantly breaking through its own style into something bigger.

I have also heard Time Cycle on the Bernstein recording, but I must admit that I didn't really like it.  Maybe this new interest will spur some attention to a great composer I haven't paid attention to before.

Based on this recording (and the Mason Bates stuff) I am really enjoying BMOP.
-Brett

snyprrr

Quote from: Catison on October 23, 2016, 07:34:17 PM
I have recently discovered Foss while browsing through Apple Music at the Boston Modern Orchestra Project catalogue.  I am absolutely adoring his Symphony No. 1.  I love music like this, a little Neo-Classical with some surprises and emerging from a strong tradition.  The piece reminds me a little bit of Carter's Variations for Orchestra in that it seems to constantly breaking through its own style into something bigger.

I have also heard Time Cycle on the Bernstein recording, but I must admit that I didn't really like it.  Maybe this new interest will spur some attention to a great composer I haven't paid attention to before.

Based on this recording (and the Mason Bates stuff) I am really enjoying BMOP.

Can you haaandle the String Quartet No.3 (1976), though, that's the question. Aye, I whipped it out recently, and just haaad to put it away. They call it a "Minimalist Grosse Fuge"- oy, no, I can't handle it. If you want to break me, that would be the piece (oh, and you have to listen to the whole thing, lol!!)

I waaas hoping to find some Foss I could like, but his "hard" Minimalist style is too much grind for me. :(

Karl Henning

Quote from: snyprrr on October 27, 2016, 07:40:07 AM
... If you want to break me, that would be the piece ....

(You never know when this sort of information can come in handy.)
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

snyprrr

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 27, 2016, 09:23:33 AM
(You never know when this sort of information can come in handy.)

oh, it would work on you too, good buddy ;)... I dare ya to sit through it 8)

The new erato

There's a new disc in mdt's new releases: