Pieces that have blown you away recently

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

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SymphonicAddict

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 29, 2019, 11:09:22 AM
I suppose I'll just list my favorite Szymanowski works since it'll be a lot easier for me:

String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Mythes
Symphony No. 3, "Song of the Night"
Symphony No. 4, "Symphonie concertante"
Harnasie
Stabat Mater
Litany to the Virgin Mary
King Roger
Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Three Fragments from Poems by Jan Kasprowicz
Love Songs of Hafiz


We share the same tastes on this composer. I don't know the Love Songs of Hafiz and the Three Fragments, though. I'd replace Mythes with Veni Creator.

Mirror Image

Quote from: SymphonicAddict on April 29, 2019, 11:30:01 AM
We share the same tastes on this composer. I don't know the Love Songs of Hafiz and the Three Fragments, though. I'd replace Mythes with Veni Creator.

Very good to know, SymphonicAddict. I couldn't part with Mythes, though. I love it too much. Do check out those orchestral songs.

SymphonicAddict

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 29, 2019, 05:27:58 PM
Very good to know, SymphonicAddict. I couldn't part with Mythes, though. I love it too much. Do check out those orchestral songs.

I've already put an eye on some recordings of them. I hope to be enthralled by that music!

vandermolen

Quote from: Mirror Image on April 29, 2019, 11:09:22 AM
I suppose I'll just list my favorite Szymanowski works since it'll be a lot easier for me:

String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2
Mythes
Symphony No. 3, "Song of the Night"
Symphony No. 4, "Symphonie concertante"
Harnasie
Stabat Mater
Litany to the Virgin Mary
King Roger
Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Three Fragments from Poems by Jan Kasprowicz
Love Songs of Hafiz


One of the more fascinating aspects of Szymanowski is in his use of ever-changing harmony. There always seems to be a restless and feeling of unease in his music. Of course, this isn't to say that the music doesn't have moments of consonance that help bind these more unsettled harmonies and melodies. This has always been intriguing for me and I've spent a great deal of time trying to figure out the harmonic structures of his music only to be turned around and slapped in the face with a chord I didn't even expect.

I don't know much of Szymanowski's work but like everything I've heard, especially the beautiful Stabat Mater, Litany to the Virgin Mary and the Symphony 3.
"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).

pjme

Szymanowski's music sounds (hyper?) refined, not only in the harmonic-tonal structures, but also in the search for (luxurious)"texture" and instrumentation (tremoloes, arpeggios, glissandoes, trills, figurations..sul ponticello, the combination of piano & 2 harps in the first violinconcerto....etc.). Ravel, Debussy and Scriabin et. al. were equally superb sound jewellers. Szymanowski very often manages to produce a very individual "brew" of exotic/impressionistic/Polish folksong infused/ Art Nouveau-like hot house symbolism...which I find ever so intoxicating.

The voice of Jadwiga Rappé helps to get blown away....

https://www.youtube.com/v/X5tQABxWfjU



Mirror Image

Quote from: pjme on April 30, 2019, 01:04:57 AM
Szymanowski's music sounds (hyper?) refined, not only in the harmonic-tonal structures, but also in the search for (luxurious)"texture" and instrumentation (tremoloes, arpeggios, glissandoes, trills, figurations..sul ponticello, the combination of piano & 2 harps in the first violinconcerto....etc.). Ravel, Debussy and Scriabin et. al. were equally superb sound jewellers. Szymanowski very often manages to produce a very individual "brew" of exotic/impressionistic/Polish folksong infused/ Art Nouveau-like hot house symbolism...which I find ever so intoxicating.

The voice of Jadwiga Rappé helps to get blown away....

https://www.youtube.com/v/X5tQABxWfjU

To the bolded text, you said a mouthful there and I completely concur. 8)

mus_gique

I've recently found a young talented composer Dmytro Gordon, who was supported at some crowdfunding platform for musicians. He's a blast! They'll release a video with him soon, but the track is now on streaming, it's called "Waltzing With Life". I think it's an amazing idea to compare classical music and modern approach in the video with a clown theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YL_q3ZOLLA

pjme

#807
Dmytro Illich Hordon (Ukrainian: Дмитро Ілліч Гордон), born October 21, 1967, Kyiv, is a Ukrainian writer, journalist, TV presenter and singer. He is also the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Boulevard" (from June, 1995), later – "Gordon Boulevard".




Apparently there's another Gordon (junior??) at work.

Florestan

Rachmaninoff - Vespers

in this performance:



I heard it on my car radio last week and I was mesmerized by its sheer beauty. Rachmaninoff was a devout Orthodox Christian and it shows. I am familiar with the Orthodox church music and I can safely say this is a monumental achievement in this respect, right there with Bortniansky's Sacred Concertos, Tchaikovsky's Liturgy of St. John Chrisostom and Pavel Chesnokov's works.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

SymphonicAddict

Quote from: Florestan on May 14, 2019, 07:54:06 AM
Rachmaninoff - Vespers

in this performance:



I heard it on my car radio last week and I was mesmerized by its sheer beauty. Rachmaninoff was a devout Orthodox Christian and it shows. I am familiar with the Orthodox church music and I can safely say this is a monumental achievement in this respect, right there with Bortniansky's Sacred Concertos, Tchaikovsky's Liturgy of St. John Chrisostom and Pavel Chesnokov's works.

I listened to Vespers some time ago, but I must confess I wasn't impressed. After some minutes, I got a little tired. I know it's my fault. Maybe I didn't listen to the right performance.

Florestan

Quote from: SymphonicAddict on May 14, 2019, 11:30:37 AM
I listened to Vespers some time ago, but I must confess I wasn't impressed. After some minutes, I got a little tired. I know it's my fault. Maybe I didn't listen to the right performance.

Don't know about the right performance. I'd say it's all about the right state of mind. Let go all your Western prejudices expectations about what, and how, sacred music should sound. Just listen. You don't have to understand any single word. Just listen.

Then ccome back and post your sincere reaction. Please do.

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

The new erato

For my part -being a heathen  -I'm bowled over by this music, as I am by Bach's cantatas.

May I recommend this highly?


kyjo

Quote from: SymphonicAddict on April 29, 2019, 11:30:01 AM
We share the same tastes on this composer. I don't know the Love Songs of Hafiz and the Three Fragments, though. I'd replace Mythes with Veni Creator.

You must hear Love Songs of Hafiz - such sensually gorgeous and exotic music! It reminded me of another "exotic" orchestral song cycle written around the same time by another Eastern European composer - Martinu's Magic Nights.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

kyjo

Out of many wonderful recent discoveries and re-discoveries, I thought I'd mention the absolutely lovely Quintet in F major for the unusual combination of oboe, string trio, and piano by Theodore Dubois, featured on this CD:

[asin]B000QFBW2Y[/asin]

This is exactly the type of melodic and elegant (yet not without depth) French Romanticism that I cherish. Dubois shows himself to be a melodist nearly on the level of Saint-Saens, which is no small feat. Gorgeous! Now off to explore more Dubois...
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

André

Love that disc, too. Dubois is a second-rank, but high quality composer. The Palazatto BruZane book/discs is a very nice complement (3 discs), but I especially recommend this superb release from François-Zavier Roth-Les Siècles:


Florestan

Quote from: The new erato on May 15, 2019, 05:14:17 AM
For my part -being a heathen  -I'm bowled over by this music, as I am by Bach's cantatas.

Maybe you're less of a heathen than you think you are...

Quote
May I recommend this highly?



To the wishlist it goes.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Florestan

Quote from: André on May 17, 2019, 06:43:28 AM
Dubois is a second-rank, but high quality composer.

Just like Richard Strauss, right?  :laugh:
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Christo

Quote from: Florestan on May 17, 2019, 08:27:16 AM
Just like Richard Strauss, right?  :laugh:
'second-rank, but dull' carries a slightly different meaning.  8)
... 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

Mirror Image

Quote from: kyjo on May 16, 2019, 09:22:20 PM
You must hear Love Songs of Hafiz - such sensually gorgeous and exotic music! It reminded me of another "exotic" orchestral song cycle written around the same time by another Eastern European composer - Martinu's Magic Nights.

Absolutely adore Martinů's Magic Nights, but let's not forget Nipponari as well, which is another gorgeous song cycle from him.

SymphonicAddict

Quote from: kyjo on May 16, 2019, 09:22:20 PM
You must hear Love Songs of Hafiz - such sensually gorgeous and exotic music! It reminded me of another "exotic" orchestral song cycle written around the same time by another Eastern European composer - Martinu's Magic Nights.

Sure, it's awaiting for me on my listening list!