Pieces that have blown you away recently

Started by arpeggio, September 09, 2016, 02:36:58 PM

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aleazk

This is great!

Babbitt was a very jazzy composer... I bet he would have loved this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-PJw2lqW7c

The original piano solo work (semi-simple Variations): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb5Klc-8WPY

SymphonicAddict

Schnittke - Cello concerto No. 1: There is a poignant suffering here. The whole concerto is haunting, but the last movement is incredibly brutal. Schnittke composed this with all his tormented soul.

More Schnittke - Piano quintet: One of the saddest pieces ever. The sorrow that I felt might not have comparison with similar works of any composer. This man has impressed me so so much!!

aleazk

Quote from: Neil Asuolubaftaht on June 05, 2017, 04:10:08 AM
Yep, classic video, love it! The Bad Plus are great, have you heard their Rite of Spring?   (which you may like as a fellow jazz enthusiast!)

The original work too, Babbitt is the man! He knows all the right notes  8)

I read somewhere that Babbitt indeed saw the video and he liked it and showed it to people, ha.

PerfectWagnerite


Maestro267

Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on June 08, 2017, 10:10:23 PM
Mahler 5 (and not for the adagietto either)


(But the adagietto is an extraordinary movement, that strong melancholy and the chromatic harmonies/polyphony <3  )

That's an incredible symphony, and the Adagietto stands as an oasis of calm amongst the turbulence surrounding it. It's interesting how the Adagietto is a genuine interruption of what come before it. The solo horn pretty much ends the scherzo (save for some final chords from the orchestra), and it starts the finale with the same note, just a different dynamic level, more fitting to smoothly bring us "back on track", so to speak.

amw

Welcome to the dark side!

That was my first and favourite Richard Barrett. Also try to hear Opening of the Mouth if you can, it's much more contrapuntal and therefore tougher to crack but might be an even more powerful listening experience overall.

Todd




As packaged in:




Zoroaster said something.  Something wonderful.  I'll admit that Also Sprach Zarathustra has always been one of those Strauss works I've never been crazy about.  Oh, sure, the opening movement is great - but then there's a whole lot after that.  Now, I've heard some of the biggest of big names in Strauss here - eg, Fluffy, Kempe, Reiner - and they all do a splendid job directing their orchestras in tour de force playing.  But only Clemens Krauss, in crusty mono, ever really made the piece enjoyable for me.  Until Zubin Mehta's CBS recording arrived.  Mehta isn't quite as old-timey as Krauss, but he knows to make the piece lush and beautiful, and in Das Tanzlied he makes the listener almost forget that titanic opening.  It's almost as rustic sounding as Krauss, and it has that same relaxed fit and feel as Strauss' old protege.  And it's in excellent 1980 sound.  Okay, sure, there's some glare, the sound is a bit compressed by contemporary standards, there's too much spotlighting, resulting in some instruments sounding too big, and Glenn Dicterow's violin would never sound like he's standing in the second row playing like he does here in real life, but with all those details popping out in the context of a lush aural backdrop, who cares?  Not me!  Throw in an almost as enjoyable Don Juan, and the first disc in the eight-disc Mehta set on Sony justifies the price for the whole box.  I think I need to try his Decca version.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Mahlerian

Elliott Carter's A Mirror on which to Dwell is stunning!  Such a wonderful balance between activity and restfulness, magnificently lyrical in the vocal writing and in the instrumental writing as well.  I've been listening to the Boulez/Bryn-Julson recording with the EI.  Does anyone know how it compares to the one on Bridge?
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on June 17, 2017, 02:28:58 AM
Richard Barrett - Dark Matter (Cycle)


I'm having a major moment I think. Like when I heard Licht or Espaces Acoustiques for the first time, I haven't really ever heard anything quite like this before. I know the kind of music this has come out of but this is so distinctive. and sounds amazing!!

Mind = Blown tonight  :o

Aaaaaah I'm so glad you enjoyed this! It's certainly a favourite of mine. 8)

vandermolen

Quote from: jessop on April 18, 2017, 07:54:36 PM
Quadrivium seems to be the most well known piece; it is especially good if you like percussion, I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/v/YLV5DUu1zqw

although personally I prefer Aura

https://www.youtube.com/v/Y9fwwDnTW6c

and Giardino Religioso

https://www.youtube.com/v/w93zOiuK_OY


Also, something I am surprised to have only just found out considering my enthusiasm for electroacoustic music, he has a sizeable number of tape compositions too if anyone else is interested.
I liked 'Aura' which reminded me a bit of Charles Ives.
"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).

aleazk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln3wWjc7vn0

Ferneyhough: Lemma-Icon-Epigram.

Not a new face to me but... nice to see an actual performance rather than the score... it gives a different perspective of a Ferneyhough piece.

Cato

Whoever is behind "Wellesz Theater" on YouTube, my thanks to them!  They offer an incredible array of unknown masterpieces from a large variety of composers, including the "quarter-tone, microtonal" composers.

I found this a few days ago:

https://www.youtube.com/v/ANZkYT4Ozg0
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Thanks to nathanb I now know of the operas of Robert Ashley!

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

Whilst it isn't exactly anything that really is blowing me away, so to speak, it is interesting and unique enough to me :)

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Brett Dean: Hamlet. Whilst retaining the real sense of drama and urgency from his first opera, his second really feels like a step up, somehow more streamlined.

vandermolen

Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on July 08, 2017, 01:52:13 AM
Ligeti - Lux Aeterna

I don't hear it often but when I do, it's a trip. Probably the single most influential Ligeti piece on my own work, I still haven't heard many piece which achieve anything like this. The power of canons!  :-*
Famously used in '2001: A Space Odyssey' - one of my favourite films.
"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).

ComposerOfAvantGarde

Quote from: α | ì Æ ñ on July 08, 2017, 06:21:40 AM
I've heard of that before (perhaps from you, but I I'm not sure). I've read a bit of Shakespeare over the years (I'm no expert believe me) but I think it would make a really crazy and fucking dark opera!!! (if handled seriously and not too old language, sorry Shakespeare)   :o
It is handled quite seriously. You can see it for yourself on the Glyndebourne website until Thursday.

SymphonicAddict

#276
Many works have blown my mind lately:

-Prokofiev - Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of October Revolution: Bombastic in high degree!!! There are some moving moments here, despite of so many explosions.

-Prokofiev - Seven, They Are Seven: Effectively, and there are 7 glorious and imposing minutes. It does capture that antique Mesopotamian environment.

-Shostakovich - The Execution of Stepan Razin: Revisiting this completely terrific work, I can't get enough of this. It's magnific!!!

-Martinu - Czech Rhapsody for baritone, chorus, organ and orchestra: A new discovery for me. Simply EPIC and wonderful; here we have a young Martinu in the height of his powers!!!

-Novák, Vitezslav - The Storm: An excellent recommendation of Jeffrey (Vandermolen). Another epic composition with pirates and lots of passion with a rapturous ending. Majestic!!!

-Janácek - The Eternal Gospel: It reminded me of his Glagolitic Mass (which I deeply admire). I quite enjoyed it.

-Guridi - Pyrenees Symphony: Guridi was highly skillful when composed this. Clearly, one of his masterworks.

-Bortkiewicz - His 2 symphonies (especially the No. 2 in E flat major): How had I not heard this before? A fine example of Russian symphony in the vein of Borodin, Tchaikovsky and Glazunov. In addition, it's permeated with a notorious nostalgia and despair.

-Ben-Haim - His 2 symphonies: Other great revelations for me this month. As a big fan of symphonies I am, those were worthy of exploring.

-Lutoslawski - String quartet: First meeting with it. Fu***ng music, Lutoslawski shocked me again!!! I wonder where he got those ideas for creating such a creepy quartet, I would think from his scariest and darkest nightmares. Now it is one of my favorite works by him. I like his music more and more.

-Penderecki - Sextet: It has a singular beauty, which I find so charming.

-Bartók - String quartets 4 and 5: Long time ago I had listened to them, and now the experience has been more overwhelming. There are not enough words to describe such mastery. They are authentic pinnacles of the musical form, state-of-the-art pieces.

Crudblud

Quote from: jessop on June 30, 2017, 02:48:51 AM
Thanks to nathanb I now know of the operas of Robert Ashley!

Late reply, but.... I wholeheartedly recommend Ashley's Perfect Lives, his masterpiece in my opinion. The libretto has the warmth and humour and breadth of something like Ulysses, but a distinctly American voice, and I think it stands out from his later operas, which tend to be rather homogeneous in their musical content. Also, I recommend checking out a piece he did called The Wolfman.

Mr Bloom

Quote from: jessop on July 08, 2017, 02:13:03 AM
Brett Dean: Hamlet. Whilst retaining the real sense of drama and urgency from his first opera, his second really feels like a step up, somehow more streamlined.

I fail to see how it is a step up. Not that it is disappointing in any way, but everything that makes Hamlet great was already in Bliss. The latter seems more tightly structured to me, and I think Hamlet lacks a scene as good as the big mental hospital scene from the third act in Bliss. That being said, both are masterpieces.

Christo

Both The Storm and The Tempest by Tchaikovsky.
... 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