Scandinavian and Finnish composers.

Started by Harry, April 13, 2007, 05:33:51 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

André

The composer seems to look at it and think 'why did I get a cat?'  >:D

vandermolen

Quote from: 71 dB on September 08, 2020, 01:56:14 PM
It was a relatively easy guess. Nothing else in the photo makes sense in this context. Everything except the cat in the photo looks "melancholic."
Yes, indeed. I can't stress how much I have enjoyed the 4th Symphony, which I must have played about four times yesterday. I haven't even listened to earlier symphonies yet.
Were you aware of him 71 dB?
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

vandermolen

Quote from: André on September 08, 2020, 03:29:38 PM
The composer seems to look at it and think 'why did I get a cat?'  >:D

I think that the cat is his 'kindred spirit' André!
:)

PS I'm sure that you and many others here would like Symphony No.4. I hope to listen to the more 'modernist' symphonies 2 and 3 today.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

André

Quote from: vandermolen on September 08, 2020, 09:59:56 PM
I think that the cat is his 'kindred spirit' André!
:)

PS I'm sure that you and many others here would like Symphony No.4. I hope to listen to the more 'modernist' symphonies 2 and 3 today.

Salmenhaara and Hans Eklund are on my watch list ! Might take a while before I hit the 'buy' button though. They are rather expensive and I just busted 3 months worth of cd budget at Chandos.net ???.

71 dB

Quote from: vandermolen on September 08, 2020, 09:57:07 PM
Were you aware of him 71 dB?

Yes, I know him by name (it has been mentioned here and there in the media over the years), but I have to say I don't know his music at all.
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

71 dB

Quote from: André on September 09, 2020, 09:15:12 AM
Salmenhaara and Hans Eklund are on my watch list ! Might take a while before I hit the 'buy' button though. They are rather expensive and I just busted 3 months worth of cd budget at Chandos.net ???.

Yes, exploring Finnish composers isn't cheap. Just invested money on Englund so I'm not exploring other Finns for a while.  :P
Spatial distortion is a serious problem deteriorating headphone listening.
Crossfeeders reduce spatial distortion and make the sound more natural
and less tiresome in headphone listening.

My Sound Cloud page <-- NEW Jan. 2024 "Harpeggiator"

Symphonic Addict

I do recommend to try Eklund at some point. The CPO disc is impressive, the performances are first-class. By judging those works I can imagine he was a very troubled man. There are no traces of 'happiness' in them.

I found his 6th Symphony Sinfonia senza Speranza on YouTube in very good sound quality. The title does justice to the work (Symphony without Hope). It's a grim but cogent piece.

https://www.youtube.com/v/KjQqyQt-aoo
Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Pohjolas Daughter

#747
Quote from: MusicTurner on June 12, 2020, 02:25:05 AM
Concerning a perhaps more informal side of Holmboe, I looked a bit for sources. There wasn't any informal content in this interview with Bo Holten from 1976, but I found it interesting enough to link to it. It's in Danish, so maybe use google translate, but:

he says he likes Martinu (which is interesting,since Martinu was rather overlooked here then) besides Britten and Lutoslawski, admiring both a lot; he also likes the symphonies of Roussel, Honegger and V-Williams, for example, and sees Nielsen as a barrier in Denmark against an - alleged - decadence found in later German music, for example; he sees nothing of value in the Darmstadt School. Bartok, Nielsen, Sibelius and Stravinsky influenced him the most, and Haydn as regards the quartets. He also likes late-medieval music, such as the linear features of Estampie and the Conductus, and says that a preference for a linear style comes very natural to him, etc.

https://seismograf.org/dmt/51/04/vagn-holmboe-i-dag

In another interview from 1983 he tells a lot more about his background and private life, including an early interest in yoga (!) and that originally he wanted to be a painter. He also details his un-sentimental interest in nature, shuns the city, and mentions Schubert and Mozart as other major figures for him. He also tells a good deal about music in the 1930s. H.D. Koppel, Franz Syberg, Svend S.Schultz and Svend Erik Tarp were his close friends among composers.
https://seismograf.org/dmt/51/04/vagn-holmboe-i-dag
Thank you so much MT for taking the time to sum up the contents for us.  Quite interesting!  :)

PD
Quote from: vandermolen on September 08, 2020, 03:39:00 AM
Copied over from WAYLTN thread:
Erkki Salmenhaara (1941-2002)
Symphony No.4 (1971-2)
Absolutely briliant!
Powerful, moving, inspiriting, tonal. Interesting booklet notes from Kalevi Aho.
A definite recommendation to 'the usual suspects' (those who, more or less, share my musical tastes here).
This one had to come from Finland:


And, here he is - Erkki Salmenhaara.
There is another clue in the photograph as to why his music was likely to appeal to me.  :)

You're a smoker Jeffrey?  :-X 

Just kidding!  ;)

PD

p.s.  A very striking grey tabby too!
Pohjolas Daughter

vandermolen

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on September 09, 2020, 11:52:38 AM
Thank you so much MT for taking the time to sum up the contents for us.  Quite interesting!  :)

PDYou're a smoker Jeffrey?  :-X 

Just kidding!  ;)

PD

p.s.  A very striking grey tabby too!
I use to smoke a pipe PD  8)
Yes, Salmenhaara's cat is very impressive.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Irons

Quote from: vandermolen on September 09, 2020, 01:50:09 PM
I use to smoke a pipe PD  8)
Yes, Salmenhaara's cat is very impressive.

So is Hurwitz's.  8)
You must have a very good opinion of yourself to write a symphony - John Ireland.

I opened the door people rushed through and I was left holding the knob - Bo Diddley.

Christo

Quote from: Irons on September 10, 2020, 10:31:32 AM
So is Hurwitz's.  8)
The great thing is that Pipo only loves fine music. Adorable cat.  ;D
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

vandermolen

Quote from: Irons on September 10, 2020, 10:31:32 AM
So is Hurwitz's.  8)
+1. I enjoyed her appearance in the favourite harp concertos video.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Irons

Quote from: Christo on September 10, 2020, 10:37:23 AM
The great thing is that Pipo only loves fine music. Adorable cat.  ;D

Harp and Nielsen - a good mix. ;)
You must have a very good opinion of yourself to write a symphony - John Ireland.

I opened the door people rushed through and I was left holding the knob - Bo Diddley.

vandermolen

I enjoyed this extract from Salmenhaara's 2nd Piano Sonata (middle movement).
CD continues the cat theme as well  8)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUpNWWnIxUw&list=PLNEJV1lNKyyVJ-2K200Pl7xI0nBWXLcV8&index=12
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: vandermolen on September 14, 2020, 04:04:03 AM
I enjoyed this extract from Salmenhaara's 2nd Piano Sonata (middle movement).
CD continues the cat theme as well  8)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUpNWWnIxUw&list=PLNEJV1lNKyyVJ-2K200Pl7xI0nBWXLcV8&index=12
Thank you for posting that clip....quite enjoying it!  :)

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

vandermolen

"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Alex Bozman

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on September 09, 2020, 11:28:17 AM
I do recommend to try Eklund at some point. The CPO disc is impressive, the performances are first-class. By judging those works I can imagine he was a very troubled man. There are no traces of 'happiness' in them.

I found his 6th Symphony Sinfonia senza Speranza on YouTube in very good sound quality. The title does justice to the work (Symphony without Hope). It's a grim but cogent piece.

https://www.youtube.com/v/KjQqyQt-aoo
Thanks for posting this. I had the Eklund 6th on an LP with Petersson's 16th many years ago and found it a powerful piece, but wasn't sure how typical it was of his output. Have recently invested in the CPO cd and getting to grips with the symphonies on there. Hopefully the start of a series. Eklund doesn't seem to feature much in the music books or recordings, yet seems a distinctive voice.

calyptorhynchus

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on September 09, 2020, 11:28:17 AM
I do recommend to try Eklund at some point. The CPO disc is impressive, the performances are first-class. By judging those works I can imagine he was a very troubled man. There are no traces of 'happiness' in them.
https://www.youtube.com/v/KjQqyQt-aoo

I don't know Eklund, but I find the same lack of happiness in Rawsthorne. I can't listen to anything he wrote. Pettersson, oddly enough, I love.
'Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth.' Robert Burton

kyjo

Quote from: calyptorhynchus on September 18, 2020, 05:26:45 PM
I don't know Eklund, but I find the same lack of happiness in Rawsthorne. I can't listen to anything he wrote. Pettersson, oddly enough, I love.

Surely you haven't heard Rawsthorne's piano concerti then! ;) They're delightful works, full of wit. His later works, though (e.g. Symphony no. 3 and Cello Concerto) are indeed devoid of any light or positive emotions.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

vandermolen

#759
Quote from: kyjo on September 18, 2020, 08:03:31 PM
Surely you haven't heard Rawsthorne's piano concerti then! ;) They're delightful works, full of wit. His later works, though (e.g. Symphony no. 3 and Cello Concerto) are indeed devoid of any light or positive emotions.
OT

The PC No.2 is a charming and IMO very approachable work, although I think that the Symphonic Studies is his greatest works. You can get both work together on a fine Lyrita CD.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).