Pieces that have blown you away recently

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

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SymphonicAddict

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on August 10, 2019, 05:05:00 PM
This:

Like hearing it for the first time!

I've come to enjoy this piece recently, albeit I confess I'm not the hugest fan of it. It's a paradoxical piece because I feel it like dense and sparse at the same time, and somehow that intrigues me and encourages me to not give up.

relm1

Yes, yes, I know it's not a revelation, but damn I'm amazed by the quality of the music, performance, and recording of Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin on the Chailly/RCO recording.  Suburb.  It is also the complete ballet.

Karl Henning

Quote from: relm1 on August 11, 2019, 03:45:17 PM
Yes, yes, I know it's not a revelation, but damn I'm amazed by the quality of the music, performance, and recording of Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin on the Chailly/RCO recording.  Suburb.  It is also the complete ballet.

Excellent!
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

vers la flamme

Witold Lutosławski's Jeux vénitiens. Wow, what a piece. He really does a lot with it despite its brevity.

Christo

Quote from: kyjo on August 05, 2019, 03:52:40 AM
Just made a most wonderful discovery - the tone poem Aurora by William Lloyd Webber (yes, the father of the much more famous Andrew and Julian). This is sensuous, incandescent music depicting the Roman goddess of the dawn. The main theme that appears a minute or so into the piece is a glorious gift of a melody that has staying power. This is a relatively brief but stunning piece which makes me regret that he mostly wrote small-scale works.

https://youtu.be/S-DRoD4Jh2A

It's featured on this Chandos disc:

[asin]B000007MY2[/asin]
Have it, and wasn't too much impressed with the old Lloyd Webber's musical world, but will certainly single this piece out to re-evaluate.  :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

The new erato

With a superb performance of the Schnittke by the Danel Quartet and Leif Ove Andsnes at the Rosendal Festival the piece finally clicked for me. And Hamelin's performance of the Feinberg sonata no 4 and Scriabin no 7 was mindblowing.

kyjo

Quote from: Christo on August 12, 2019, 03:47:14 PM
Have it, and wasn't too much impressed with the old Lloyd Webber's musical world, but will certainly single this piece out to re-evaluate.  :D

I sampled a few other pieces on this disc and they were pleasant but nowhere near as compelling as Aurora. I have a feeling it may be far and away his finest work.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Biffo

Quote from: kyjo on August 13, 2019, 07:12:00 AM
I sampled a few other pieces on this disc and they were pleasant but nowhere near as compelling as Aurora. I have a feeling it may be far and away his finest work.

I listened to Aurora and also Invocation, both fine works, especially the former but neither 'blew me away' .There is a turbulent passage in Aurora that reminded me of Scriabin but that might just be me.

SymphonicAddict

A friend of mine alerted me of a composer who curiously was born a day like today: the Norwegian Olav Kielland. More accurately it was his Sinfonia I (or Sinfonia No. 1), Op. 3 the work that he recommended me. I'm so glad he did it so. It's in a Nielsen-Langgaard-Holmboe-sounding field (the latter two are more related to the idiom of the piece from my view, though). It has some elements of Langgaard's 4th and 6th Symphonies, though this work is less episodic than those symphonies, and has the rawness and organic growth of Holmboe's stamp but without the rhytmic vitality of his style. At first hearing it sounds sober, and I think it has to do with its instrumentation (think of a Sibelius symphony, for example). I like the ostinato-like passages, they give some sense of urgency I find exciting. Pastoral, gray and quiet moments also permeate it, suggesting some Norwegian folk influences. A few of tempestuous climaxes appear in places. It's the kind of works that goes from dark to light. All is concentrated in 27 minutes. A very succinct and attractive piece.

I consider it a find of a significant importance, and it can be the best Norwegian symphony I've heard thus far. Kielland composed other 3 symphonies, so I urge to record labels to bring them to life!

Also, these works:

Martinu - Duo No. 1 for violin and viola and Les Rondes. Joy for ears!

Akutagawa - Prima Sinfonia. Energetic and fierce.

Karl Henning

The Adagio from Mozart's B-flat viola quintet !!!
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

vandermolen

Quote from: SymphonicAddict on August 16, 2019, 12:10:05 PM
A friend of mine alerted me of a composer who curiously was born a day like today: the Norwegian Olav Kielland. More accurately it was his Sinfonia I (or Sinfonia No. 1), Op. 3 the work that he recommended me. I'm so glad he did it so. It's in a Nielsen-Langgaard-Holmboe-sounding field (the latter two are more related to the idiom of the piece from my view, though). It has some elements of Langgaard's 4th and 6th Symphonies, though this work is less episodic than those symphonies, and has the rawness and organic growth of Holmboe's stamp but without the rhytmic vitality of his style. At first hearing it sounds sober, and I think it has to do with its instrumentation (think of a Sibelius symphony, for example). I like the ostinato-like passages, they give some sense of urgency I find exciting. Pastoral, gray and quiet moments also permeate it, suggesting some Norwegian folk influences. A few of tempestuous climaxes appear in places. It's the kind of works that goes from dark to light. All is concentrated in 27 minutes. A very succinct and attractive piece.

I consider it a find of a significant importance, and it can be the best Norwegian symphony I've heard thus far. Kielland composed other 3 symphonies, so I urge to record labels to bring them to life!

Also, these works:

Martinu - Duo No. 1 for violin and viola and Les Rondes. Joy for ears!

Akutagawa - Prima Sinfonia. Energetic and fierce.
Following your recommendation Cesar I found a copy of the Kielland symphony quite inexpensively on eBay.
"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).

SymphonicAddict

Quote from: vandermolen on August 18, 2019, 03:54:02 PM
Following your recommendation Cesar I found a copy of the Kielland symphony quite inexpensively on eBay.

Very good, Jeffrey. I'm gonna feel guilty if you don't enjoy it.  ;D

Please, let me know what you think of it when you get it, no matter if your impressions are positive or not.

some guy

François Bayle - Erosphère.

Back in the early 70s, when I was first listening to electroacoustic music, one name I never ran across was François Bayle. And later, when I heard one of his pieces, it was not something I particularly liked, so I didn't pursue Bayle's music. My mistake.

I've heard many things on youtube, of course, and I have many Bayle pieces on CD, which I enjoy very much.

I had never heard Erosphère[/], however, until just now, and it is a long and continuously fascinating piece. That is, you never feel (I never felt) like you've heard enough after ten or twenty or 57 minutes. And when it is over, you feel (I felt) as if 62 minutes was too short.

SymphonicAddict



It's more than fair that this work is here. An insane and epic work for piano. The wide variety of styles and variations around the famous song leaves a strong impression. Inventiveness and virtuosity aplenty.

Andy D.

Not concert music (necessarily), but John Williams' score for Jaws 2. Some of my admiration comes from the fact that John didn't overdo the original, iconic theme in the sequel...instead taking things into different territory, and then knocking them out of the park.

Faves, as if anyone gives a yee-haw:

1) Alfred Newman
2) Jerry Goldsmith
3) Bernard Herrmann
4) Miklos Rozsa
5) Williams

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Andy D. on August 26, 2019, 01:39:17 AM
Not concert music (necessarily), but John Williams' score for Jaws 2. Some of my admiration comes from the fact that John didn't overdo the original, iconic theme in the sequel...instead taking things into different territory, and then knocking them out of the park.

Faves, as if anyone gives a yee-haw:

1) Alfred Newman
2) Jerry Goldsmith
3) Bernard Herrmann
4) Miklos Rozsa
5) Williams

Definitely give a yee-haw!  My list wouldn't include your nos.1&2 - excellent though both are (sorry!) but would have to include the big three Korngold/Waxman/Steiner and would add James Horner.  I'm sure you know the latter's score to "Glory" - one of my favourite films anyway but hugely enhanced by Horner's stirring/moving score..

Andy D.

Quote from: Roasted Swan on August 26, 2019, 02:32:32 AM
Definitely give a yee-haw!  My list wouldn't include your nos.1&2 - excellent though both are (sorry!) but would have to include the big three Korngold/Waxman/Steiner and would add James Horner.  I'm sure you know the latter's score to "Glory" - one of my favourite films anyway but hugely enhanced by Horner's stirring/moving score..

Glory is the one thing I really like by Horner (no offense).  But hey you can probably guess I'm nuts about your trio there.

I'm almost entirely about the Golden and Silver ages, RS. Back then the composers were far more influenced by Wagner, Mahler, Straus...even Shostakovich (Goldsmith cribbed part of his chilling "Final Conflict" motif from Mitya's 8th symphony).

vers la flamme

A few pieces of Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau sans maître, which I've just begun to appreciate, and Répons, which blows my mind every time I hear it!

ritter

Quote from: vers la flamme on August 26, 2019, 02:53:14 AM
A few pieces of Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau sans maître, which I've just begun to appreciate, and Répons, which blows my mind every time I hear it!
Great stuff...you definitely have to listen to Pli selon pli next.  :)

vers la flamme

Quote from: ritter on August 26, 2019, 03:00:02 AM
Great stuff...you definitely have to listen to Pli selon pli next.  :)
I have a lot of love for that work already  :) I may have to listen to it in the morning.