Pieces that have blown you away recently

[André]

+1, Cesar. I love the extra breadth of the reading and the recording's sheer amplitude of sound. Room-filling stuff.

[Symphonic Addict]

+1, Cesar. I love the extra breadth of the reading and the recording's sheer amplitude of sound. Room-filling stuff.

Indeed! Overwhelming and impressive in all accounts.

[Daverz]

I've been dipping my toe into the quite extensive Penderecki discography, and so far 2 pieces qualify for the "blown away" soubriquet, the Violin Concerto No. 1 with Stern and Skrowaczewski and the Concerto Grosso No. 1 for 3 cellos & orchestra.  The Concerto Grosso is very dramatic and theatrical, as you might imagine a work with 3 cello soloists would be. 

[Symphonic Addict]

I've been dipping my toe into the quite extensive Penderecki discography, and so far 2 pieces qualify for the "blown away" soubriquet, the Violin Concerto No. 1 with Stern and Skrowaczewski and the Concerto Grosso No. 1 for 3 cellos & orchestra.  The Concerto Grosso is very dramatic and theatrical, as you might imagine a work with 3 cello soloists would be.

Two quite dense pieces. I call the VC 1 'the purgatory's music'. All his concertante works with cello are very good.

[Roasted Swan]

The unique Ilya Murometz

WOW!!!

A superlative interpretation of this towering masterpiece. I'm in sheer awe with this!!! It worked extraordinarily well with the slow pace in the first two movements. Epic in its supreme expression. Worth each of its 93 minutes. For me it's the definitive recording.

I'm with you completely on this both regarding the piece and this particular recording.  Its a quite unique conception of this work - I'm not sure any other interpretation (of the uncut work) even breaks 80 minutes let alone 90!  I know for many it makes the piece too long and bloated but I hear a grandeur and epic quality as you say.  Also, huge credit to the original recording company Unicorn for making this one of their very first digital recordings.  I think I am right in saying this was at the point digital tapes could not be edited so everything had to be single takes.  If that is so, it makes the sheer concentration of the RPO's playing even more impressive - and I can forgive the horn section the various splits!

[Symphonic Addict]

I'm with you completely on this both regarding the piece and this particular recording.  Its a quite unique conception of this work - I'm not sure any other interpretation (of the uncut work) even breaks 80 minutes let alone 90!  I know for many it makes the piece too long and bloated but I hear a grandeur and epic quality as you say.  Also, huge credit to the original recording company Unicorn for making this one of their very first digital recordings.  I think I am right in saying this was at the point digital tapes could not be edited so everything had to be single takes.  If that is so, it makes the sheer concentration of the RPO's playing even more impressive - and I can forgive the horn section the various splits!

The last part would make that performance even more remarkable, epic in all the sense of the word!

[arpeggio]

I have recently joined the Association of Concert Bands.

One of the perks of membership is that one gains access to the Naxos Music Library.  There library includes more labels than just Naxos.  There are over 150,000 cd's in their library.  As a result I am discovering all sort of new works and composers.

One of them are the Symphonies of Joly Braga Santos.



 

[Symphonic Addict]

I have recently joined the Association of Concert Bands.

One of the perks of membership is that one gains access to the Naxos Music Library.  There library includes more labels than just Naxos.  There are over 150,000 cd's in their library.  As a result I am discovering all sort of new works and composers.

One of them are the Symphonies of Joly Braga Santos.



 

Good to know you're getting acquainted with this Portuguese composer. Braga Santos was a striking symphonist. I haven't found any work from his I dislike yet.

[arpeggio]

I have also discovered some contemporary composers that I am very disappointed in.  I really avoid making negative waves posts.  One man's meat may be another's poison.

[arpeggio]

Although his music did not quite blow me away a new interesting composer I have discovered is Karol Beffa.

[some guy]

I recently found Henk Badings' Armageddon on youtube. It was pretty cool. I wouldn't say blown away, but very impressed. (It's from 1968, so even though I'd not heard the piece before, the idiom is familiar.)

I suppose however that "blown away" is appropriate for Eva Reiter's Wächter, for bass flutes and pipe orchestra. A really gorgeous piece that youtube's generally sucky algorithm threw up today in a rare moment of inspiration. If an algorithm can be inspired, that is.

[vers la flamme]

Pérotin's Viderunt omnes as performed by the Hilliard Ensemble totally blew me away when I heard it earlier in the week.

[arpeggio]

This CD contained new works as well as some that I was already familiar with.


[asin]B00000J6TT[/asin]

The one new work that blew me away was a band work by Charles Wuorinen: Windfall.  I checked Wuorinen's catalogue and this is the only band work he composed.

The other new works did not impress me:

Syrtos - Nicolas Roussakis
Heaven's Gate - Scott R. Hawkinson
Sinfonia XVII: Transcendental Vienna - Timothy Broege

Follow-up:  I purchased and received the CD.  I have listened to it on Naxos and You Tube.  The CD sounds better.

[some guy]

Yeah, that Wuorinen piece is pretty cool.

Thanks for the tip!

(And yeah, too bad the other ones are so lame. Oh well. The Wuorinen is worth the price of admission.)

[arpeggio]

I have been listening to the following three Wuorinen discs on the Naxos Music Library:







My favorite work was the Concerto for Amplified Violin And Orchestra in volume two.

While I was checking Wuorinen I discovered that he passed away on March 11, 2020.

[vandermolen]

A twofer of terrific symphonies!


Matthew Taylor: Symphony No. 2

This is very recommended for lovers of Nielsen, Holmboe, a bit of Sibelius and Tubin, even of Olav Kielland whose 1st Symphony (or Sinfonia I) has meant an all-time revelation. A very exciting work, with many fine details and stormy nature. The strength of its gestures and its cohesive narrative make it a most compelling symphony. Matthew Taylor is an English composer who proves that symphony is too far from dissapearing (fortunately)!!!




Robert Farnon: Symphony No. 2

Yet another discovery of some significant importance for my tastes. Hyper-Romantic, tuneful, film-like and eventually moving to say the least. This piece has a Korngoldian-like flavour that is just irresistible. One of those works that can easily stick on your mind. Farnon was a Canadian composer of film and light-music, chiefly. Now you know what to expect.

How did I miss this post? I have the Farnon disc but the Taylor one looks to be of great interest as we share similar tastes in music.

[vandermolen]

Probably the most moving, utterly beautiful piece I encountered this year: Kinder Scout (1923) an unknown tone poem by English composer Patrick Hadley (1899-1973):

+1 this was a great discovery, especially having scrambled up Kinder Scout at least three times myself.
Also a big thumbs up for Faberman's epic recording of Gliere's epic 'Ilya Murometz' and also for Korngold's Symphony. It was used as background for a radio production/drama about Elizabeth 1st and the Earl of Essex last week and, of course, Korngold composed the score for the film 'Elizabeth and Essex' - one of his most memorable film scores.

[vandermolen]

https://www.youtube.com/v/pyfnU5Bd5HI

I don't know how to describe this music - sublimely kitschy, grandiose, deep, heartfelt, Ur-Russian... neo- romantic, pathetic. But it brings tears to my eyes. The female soloist (a mezzo or alto?) is superb...
For those who read Russian: http://www.yuributsko.com/ru/works

I like the sound of this.

[Symphonic Addict]

How did I miss this post? I have the Farnon disc but the Taylor one looks to be of great interest as we share similar tastes in music.

Indeed, Jeffrey. Both works might appeal to your tastes.

[arpeggio]

Another CD that I discovered on Naxos that has all sort of great new music on it.

It was just released on April 17.



The CD contains the following works:

Philip Spark: Reflections on an Old Japanese Folktune

Paul Fauchet: Symphony in B-Flat Major

James Michael David: Ghosts of the Old Year

James Stephenson: Symphony No. 2, "Voices"

Unlike the earlier Windfall disc every work on the CD is a winner.

Fauchet is a French composer.  The Symphony was composed in 1926.  It is a very traditional late romantic work that still sounds fresh.

The others are living composers and the music was composed between 2015 and 2018.  Although they are tonal they are still outstanding.

In another forum that I am occasionally involved with, there is a small group that think that all contemporary music is atonal, like the fine Wuorinen work in the above CD.  I have given up trying to communicate to them that contemporary composers write in many styles from atonal to tonal.