One work that you'd like fellow GMG members to discover.

Started by vandermolen, May 09, 2016, 11:23:07 PM

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vandermolen

Here I'd like you to nominate a work which means a lot to you and that you'd like others to discover - so it may be, but does not have to be, lesser-known.
My choice is the lovely Symphonie (1952) by the long-lived French composer Jean-Michel Damase (1928-2013). The 'Symphonie' is comparatively short (c.27 minutes) and I find it a very charming, humane, civilised and uplifting work which always puts me in a good mood. It is very approachable (reminding me of the music of Jean Francaix) but it is not without depth and has an inspiriting ending. In fact the CD below is one of my favourites and I love every work on it, especially the Piano Concerto 2 and the Concertino for piano and string orchestra although it is the 'Symphonie' that I keep coming back to and feel that it should be much better known:
[asin]B00M2D7MY0[/asin]
"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).

Scion7

The opening theme to the TV-2 part movie, Frankenstein: The True Story, composed by Gil Melle.

When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

vandermolen

#2
Quote from: Scion7 on May 10, 2016, 01:06:22 AM
The opening theme to the TV-2 part movie, Frankenstein: The True Story, composed by Gil Melle.


Right, I'll be investigating that one.
Thanks. :)
PS The film itself was terrific and I recall a fine performance by David McCallum of 'Man from U.N.C.L.E.' fame.
I especially liked the scene where the monster wrenches off Jane Seymour's head!
"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).

premont

Quote from: vandermolen on May 10, 2016, 01:56:17 AM
I especially liked the scene where the monster wrenches off Jane Seymour's head!

Certainly very entertaining.  ::)
γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Karl Henning

Gil Mellé also did the theme music for Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
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

Scion7

Quote from: vandermolen on May 10, 2016, 01:56:17 AM
I especially liked the scene where the monster wrenches off Jane Seymour's head!
Yes, a sort of 'pre-punishment' for that awful old west doctor show that used to be on American television.  :P
Otherwise, I love you Jane !!!!!!

Seriously, that is one of the best movie themes in the Classical field you will ever hear.
Melle was a genius is many ways - jazz musician, electronics-music pioneer, and large-scale composer.
He is probably most famous for the innovatory electronic theme for Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

EigenUser

Steven Mackey's Ars Moriendi: Nine Tableaux on the Art of Dying Well. I wrote this on GMG two years ago:

I first discovered Mackey at a Borromeo String Quartet performance of his SQ "Ars Moriendi: Nine Tableaux on the Art of Dying Well". This was the first really "avant-garde" work I think that I've ever heard and it had a huge impact on me, both emotionally and musically (and this was at a time when my favorite composer was Felix Mendelssohn).

The subject is of the composer's father's death. Back when I first heard it performed live in 2007 I wasn't familiar with any Berg, but now it reminds me a lot of Berg's Violin Concerto. It has a similar theme of "death and transfiguration" with a lot of parts that seem like flashbacks. Instead of using the Bach chorale Es Is Genug, he uses the Irish tune Danny Boy. An incredibly moving piece.

It is on this album (available on Spotify):
[asin]B0017N8X3K[/asin]
Beethoven's Op. 133 -- A fugue so bad that even Beethoven himself called it "Grosse".


Brian

Note to Mirror Image: one means one!!!

Jean Cras' quintet is terrific. I think I will try most everything posted here.  :)

bhodges

For those who haven't heard Terry Riley's In C (1964), it is worth hearing for many reasons. When it appeared, it was something of a revelation, compared to what many composers were writing (e.g., Boulez, Wuorinen, Carter). If nothing else, it is the "contemporary" piece for those who might not be inclined toward contemporary music. (But since it is now over 50 years old, "mid-20th century" is probably more accurate.)

The score - just a single page of 53 short figures - is simplicity itself, and can be played by any combination of instruments. Against a constant pulse (usually piano), the musicians go through all 53 phrases, in order, until everyone reaches the end - roughly 30-45 minutes. Plus, the lack of difficulty required means that beginners or amateurs can play it. That said, the piece can be thrilling when done by professional musicians.

There are many fine versions available, but I like the especially sunny outlook of this one by Bang on a Can, recorded in 2001.

[asin]B00005NUPM[/asin]

--Bruce

North Star

Abel Decaux (1869-1943): Clairs de Lune, for piano, 1900-1907. Sounds like something written after Schönberg's atonal works and Debussy's solo piano masterpieces, but predates them.


https://www.youtube.com/v/uei_czWHtVE

[asin]B0063JALOW[/asin]

QuoteDecaux's biography is soon told, but is none the less surprising for that. Born in Auffay in 1869, the same year as Roussel and seven years after Debussy, he studied the organ with Widor and Guilmant and composition with Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire. For twenty-five years from around the turn of the century he was organist at Sacré-Cœur, then in 1923 he went to America and taught the organ at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. Out of this routine life came these four extraordinary pieces 'Clairs de Lune', plus a sketch for a fifth piece of the set, 'La Forêt'. Only a handful of other works are known by him.

An epigraph from the writer Louis de Lutèce sets the scene, with its white moon gliding silently in space, its motionless ghosts, pale luminescences, mysterious shadows, the carcass of a yowling cat .... This is the world of Edgar Allan Poe, whose writings, translated by Baudelaire and Mallarmé, were the (masochistic) bedside reading of many a French artist of the fin-de-siècle, including Gide, Debussy and Ravel: Aloysius Bertrand's Gaspard de la nuit belongs to the same company. Even Debussy ultimately found the task of setting The Fall of the House of Usher beyond him, but Decaux's more limited ambition succeeded most remarkably in bringing to life this world beyond what we call reality.

He wrote the pieces between 1900 and 1907, but they were not published until 1913. Whatever the reason for the delay (perhaps no other publisher would take them seriously?), Decaux's teacher Massenet died in 1912 and so was spared what would surely have been a rude shock, not so much at the technique—as Richard Taruskin has pointed out, everything stems from the two falling bell motives at the outset (major second, major third; minor second, minor third)—as at the extraordinary harmonies and the no less extraordinary syntax. Whole tone aggregations (as at the beginning of 'La Ruelle') and consecutive fifths were nothing so out-of-the-way around 1900, but some of Decaux's chords seem to have been taken from a source such as the songs in Schoenberg's Das Buch der hängenden Gärten; the only problem being that these weren't written until 1909. Throughout, major and minor triads are scrupulously avoided or else, as in 'La mer', coloured persistently with a sharpened fourth. Again, this piece was written in December 1903, nearly two years before the premiere of Debussy's La mer and six years before his similarly wild Prélude 'Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest'.


There's also Hamelin's recording, pairing it with Dukas' Piano Sonata.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Rinaldo

Nice – I love random discoveries and this thread is shaping to be a treasure trove of those.

My pick? Albicastro's 12 Concerti a Quatro Op.7!

https://www.youtube.com/v/uNvxFy_GtvQ

Dancing Divertimentian

Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

Mirror Image

Quote from: Brian on May 10, 2016, 07:46:10 AMNote to Mirror Image: one means one!!!

:P

Thread duty:

Malcolm Arnold's Symphony No. 9 is a work I think all GMGers should try.

vandermolen

Quote from: Scion7 on May 10, 2016, 02:13:33 AM
 
Yes, a sort of 'pre-punishment' for that awful old west doctor show that used to be on American television.  :P
Otherwise, I love you Jane !!!!!!

Seriously, that is one of the best movie themes in the Classical field you will ever hear.
Melle was a genius is many ways - jazz musician, electronics-music pioneer, and large-scale composer.
He is probably most famous for the innovatory electronic theme for Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
No soundtrack available so I've ordered a copy of the DVD. I recall that the film was based on the original premise that the 'monster' when he first emerges from Dr Frankenstein's clutches is very handsome but then disintegrates with predictable consequences.
"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).

Spineur

Tigran Hamasyan, Luys i Luso

Tigran Hamasyan is a 28 years old armenian prodigal jazz pianist, with a very accomplished career
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigran_Hamasyan

In this album he revisits sacred music of his country Armenia, as an ode to commemorate the 100th aniversary of Armenian 1915 genocide.

[asin]B012EJBSNC[/asin]

The originality of Tigran Hamasyan is dazzling.  Here he bridges Armenian liturgical music from the IVth to the XIX th centuries blending the voices of the Yerevan state choir with his own piano arrangement.
Among the hymns he chose are St. Mesrop (362-440),  the lamentations of Grigor Narekatsi and the monodies of  the iconic Komitas, a nineteenth-century armenian priest and composer.

These fully rearranged chants resonate in Yerevan cathedral and make up a liturgical nebula of angels voice, high and melodious. The piano Tigran Hamasyan is surprisingly reserved but with a dazzling precision: its scholarly metrics are here the salt of the dialogue with the ancient lithurgic inspiration.



Spineur

Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on May 10, 2016, 10:33:08 AM
Britten's cello sonata.
Its a beauty.  I have the Rostropovich-Britten recording with Frank Bridge cello sonata, also very nice.  Britten also wrote several suites for Cello.  I have the recording of the third suite Op 87 with Matthew Barley at the cello.

Dancing Divertimentian

Quote from: Spineur on May 10, 2016, 01:13:23 PM
Its a beauty.  I have the Rostropovich-Britten recording with Frank Bridge cello sonata, also very nice.  Britten also wrote several suites for Cello.  I have the recording of the third suite Op 87 with Matthew Barley at the cello.

Yes, I love his cello suites, too! Something else to add to this thread...


Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

DaveF

This is difficult because GMG members already know almost everything ever composed, but I'd like to recommend my old pal Mark Edgley Smith's Five Madrigals to poems by e e cummings, on this disc:

[asin]B000EQ46GY[/asin]

A review described them as "seductively intricate", which is about right, but the middle movement is not at all intricate, just very very sweet.  Sadly (or happily if you want to buy it) the disc quite often turns up in Hyperion's "Please, someone buy me" offer.
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

vandermolen

Quote from: North Star on May 10, 2016, 09:09:54 AM
Abel Decaux (1869-1943): Clairs de Lune, for piano, 1900-1907. Sounds like something written after Schönberg's atonal works and Debussy's solo piano masterpieces, but predates them.


https://www.youtube.com/v/uei_czWHtVE

[asin]B0063JALOW[/asin]


There's also Hamelin's recording, pairing it with Dukas' Piano Sonata.
A beautiful and extraordinary work. Thank you for alerting us to it.   :)
"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).