Lo Spazio Sciarrino

Mandryka · January 20, 2023, 10:27:28 AM

I only bought this old one a couple of months ago. It is without a doubt the best Sciarrino recording I have heard, and this is from someone who wouldn't touch orchestral music with a barge pole normally. If anyone wants an intro to the Sciarrino cult, this is the place to start I would say

https://www.kairos-music.com/cds/0012802kai

T. D. · January 20, 2023, 02:22:27 PM

Way back when, these recordings got me interested (2nd piece on first recording is a piano concerto of sorts).

Ship may have sailed on these releases, but there are no doubt others, even Youtube videos (Lohengrin).

Mandryka · January 21, 2023, 02:22:47 AM

Quote from: T. D. on January 20, 2023, 02:22:27 PMWay back when, these recordings got me interested (2nd piece on first recording is a piano concerto of sorts).

Ship may have sailed on these releases, but there are no doubt others, even Youtube videos (Lohengrin).

Can you understand the Italian in Lohengrin?

The piece I'm enjoying most right now is called Il Suone e Il Tacere.

T. D. · January 21, 2023, 06:13:12 PM

Quote from: Mandryka on January 21, 2023, 02:22:47 AMCan you understand the Italian in Lohengrin?

The piece I'm enjoying most right now is called Il Suone e Il Tacere.

No, but there are subtitles in this video:

Mandryka · January 22, 2023, 02:18:02 AM

Excellent, just what I needed. Now it all makes sense.

And what effect does the moonlight have on my beauty?

Mandryka · February 04, 2023, 03:14:22 AM

I saw Arditti Quartet play yesterday and came away particularly impressed by the cellist Lucas Fels. Searching for his recordings I came across this, another wonderful piece of orchestral music from Sciarrino which, because I don't do orchestral music, I've ignored up to now. That was my loss.

Once again the relationship between Feldman's type of minimalism and Sciarrino's is interesting to think about. What they do with perceived time in their music. In Sciarrino, there's often this indeterminate pitch in the background - something organic - the sound that Cage heard when he went into the echo chamber - the sound of heart beat and blood flow. And that sets a pulse which, if you submit, can draw you in.

Mandryka · June 26, 2024, 01:08:15 PM

Astonishing piece here for voice, flute, percussion and live electronics - Cantare con silenzio.

Mandryka · November 25, 2024, 08:58:44 AM

Quote from: T. D. on August 05, 2020, 07:42:45 AMYes, Sciarrino is a bit frustrating for me. There are pieces and passages I deeply enjoy, but also many instances where (apologies for snark) I get the impression "...OK, cue a silence...now cue the cricket-like string riff...OK, now another silence...now cue the skittering woodwind key clicks...".

What is true is that he developed some new techniques and used them over and over again - arguably refining them, learning how they can be used. I think one of the downsides of the plethora of recordings is that we have access to so much of his music we notice his trademark tropes.

I thought of your old post because I remembered you used the phrase "cricket like" (I was an elephant in a former life) while I was listening to Il Motivo Degli Oggetti di Vetro - Sciarrino said this is inspired by natural sounds he heard one summer's day on Stromboli.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcjBM3ESc3w

T. D. · December 14, 2024, 12:25:18 PM

Only tangentially related, but I stumbled across this article on a site I used to visit a lot (it seems only semi-active these days):

https://www.lafolia.com/out-of-breath-redux/

Why, then, must every other piece (and at times, it feels like every piece) of contemporary music take a wind break? You know what is meant, these swoops, these jet whistles, these passages of heavy breathing, overbreathing, underbreathing, grunting, mumbling, these bursts of human gales down a fatigued shaft of wood or metal en route to even-more-fatigued ears. It is there, it will be there, for no reason, this tempest, this flatulence. The cliché of "when in doubt, trill" is now "when in doubt, take a wind break".

What an apt metaphor, this excess of breath, for a time of inflation and overinflation, in multiple ways. To live is to indulge, though not this much.

Blame Lachenmann, blame Sciarrino, blame whoever, but make it stop.

Sounds clever, but I'm not sure I know what a "wind break" is...apart from flatus, which association presumably was a joke.

Mandryka · December 14, 2024, 01:58:02 PM

This is just a person who doesn't like the flute techniques which Sciarrino developed.

I've been spending a lot of time with a really challenging early piece, Un'immagine d'Arpocrate.

T. D. · December 14, 2024, 05:01:01 PM

The first Sciarrino recording I bought was Un'immagine d'Arpocrate and Sei capricci on Accord.

I think Un'immagine may be my favorite Sciarrino piece. Despite lacking many of the tropes that later became so recognizable.
I got the old Ricordi recording of Lohengrin, a work I also rate highly, at about the same time.

Mandryka · December 15, 2024, 03:31:20 AM

Quote from: T. D. on December 14, 2024, 05:01:01 PMThe first Sciarrino recording I bought was Un'immagine d'Arpocrate and Sei capricci on Accord.

I think Un'immagine may be my favorite Sciarrino piece. Despite lacking many of the tropes that later became so recognizable.
I got the old Ricordi recording of Lohengrin, a work I also rate highly, at about the same time.

I too find the Ricordi Lohengrin more involving than the later one.

If you could share that Bour Un'Imagine d"arpoctate I would really think it's Christmas -- it's very rare (there's a recording streaming of the music's creation, with Damarini, which I think is very good.)

Mandryka · December 20, 2024, 02:19:40 AM

I've got the Accord Arpocrate now. I'll try to do a review of all three performances of this piece soon.