The Barber Chair

[Guido]

Hello all. Long time since I've posted here, but I'm directing Barber's Vanessa in Cambridge, UK on 3, 4, 5th March if any of you would like to come. Excellent cast, with superb pianist accompanying.

It's a teenage dream come true - I used to post here a lot about Barber as he was one of my absolute favourites. Vanessa was the first opera I loved - long before I fell in love with opera as a genre.

[bhodges]

Sometimes great works are unfairly neglected because of production issues.  I also read that the problem of the 1966 performance was embarrassingly extravagant staging by Franco Zeffirelli.

Yes, I had heard that, too. (Some of the reviews I found alluded to that.) Though I actually like some of Zeffirelli's productions, somehow he and Barber don't seem like good chemistry.

Hello all. Long time since I've posted here, but I'm directing Barber's Vanessa in Cambridge, UK on 3, 4, 5th March if any of you would like to come. Excellent cast, with superb pianist accompanying.

It's a teenage dream come true - I used to post here a lot about Barber as he was one of my absolute favourites. Vanessa was the first opera I loved - long before I fell in love with opera as a genre.

Wow, fantastic - congratulations! Hope it goes well, and feel free to post photos, audio excerpts, etc.

--Bruce

[vandermolen]

Hello all. Long time since I've posted here, but I'm directing Barber's Vanessa in Cambridge, UK on 3, 4, 5th March if any of you would like to come. Excellent cast, with superb pianist accompanying.

It's a teenage dream come true - I used to post here a lot about Barber as he was one of my absolute favourites. Vanessa was the first opera I loved - long before I fell in love with opera as a genre.

How very exciting - that is great news and nice to see you posting here again. 

[Karl Henning]

Although it was a commercial and critical disaster [...]

Which, as we know, may not be any reliable judgment.

[Karl Henning]

Hello all. Long time since I've posted here, but I'm directing Barber's Vanessa in Cambridge, UK on 3, 4, 5th March if any of you would like to come. Excellent cast, with superb pianist accompanying.

It's a teenage dream come true - I used to post here a lot about Barber as he was one of my absolute favourites. Vanessa was the first opera I loved - long before I fell in love with opera as a genre.

Conquer, Guido!

[snyprrr]

Piano Sonata

Heard it for the first time today. Hey, not at ALL what I expected. "American Romantic",... uh,....NO!! And I wasn't expecting the two quick movements to be so angular and bleepy/bloopy,... in all I was quite impressed! It just sounded "modern" to me, but it is obviously of a conservative modernism, but, it sure isn't Rachy or anything, or Copland and such. It seemed very thoughtful, though I felt it was a bit rushed as a Composition, like he wanted to get it over with or something, a bit short to be the Big American Piano Sonata. But, it has a sheen, sports car American Academic, thoughtful, sincere, with some turbo charging- Barber doesn't really sissy out here, and I say again that I was pleasantly surprised. I might even give the whole SQ a go (Tokyo SQ;RCA).

So, is my assessment correct?- a bit more badass than I had a right to expect?,... or, I just didn't know Sammy?

[lescamil]

Piano Sonata

Heard it for the first time today. Hey, not at ALL what I expected. "American Romantic",... uh,....NO!! And I wasn't expecting the two quick movements to be so angular and bleepy/bloopy,... in all I was quite impressed! It just sounded "modern" to me, but it is obviously of a conservative modernism, but, it sure isn't Rachy or anything, or Copland and such. It seemed very thoughtful, though I felt it was a bit rushed as a Composition, like he wanted to get it over with or something, a bit short to be the Big American Piano Sonata. But, it has a sheen, sports car American Academic, thoughtful, sincere, with some turbo charging- Barber doesn't really sissy out here, and I say again that I was pleasantly surprised. I might even give the whole SQ a go (Tokyo SQ;RCA).

So, is my assessment correct?- a bit more badass than I had a right to expect?,... or, I just didn't know Sammy?

Which recording did you listen to? I've lived with the piece in my life for a while and disagree with you on many points. It sounds to me like a work where he tried to stretch himself to the limit in many facets. I've examined the score numerous times and keep finding new things in there that show his genius. Just take the way he uses 12 tone technique in a dramatic, quasi-tonal fashion in the 3rd movement, or how he writes such a powerful fugue to round it all out. To me, this is Barber's best work that isn't for orchestra.

[snyprrr]

Which recording did you listen to? I've lived with the piece in my life for a while and disagree with you on many points. It sounds to me like a work where he tried to stretch himself to the limit in many facets. I've examined the score numerous times and keep finding new things in there that show his genius. Just take the way he uses 12 tone technique in a dramatic, quasi-tonal fashion in the 3rd movement, or how he writes such a powerful fugue to round it all out. To me, this is Barber's best work that isn't for orchestra.

Peter Lawson (Virgin)

Yea,...no,... all I know is that it put me on my ear... I wasn't expecting what i got, and was pleasantly surprised. Maybe Lawson emphasized the modernity? Well, kudos to Barber for pushing himself...

Tell me more...

[Monsieur Croche]

Piano Sonata

Heard it for the first time today. Hey, not at ALL what I expected. "American Romantic",... uh,....NO!! And I wasn't expecting the two quick movements to be so angular and bleepy/bloopy,... in all I was quite impressed! It just sounded "modern" to me...
So, is my assessment correct?- a bit more badass than I had a right to expect?,... or, I just didn't know Sammy?

You just didn't know Sam ;-)

The Piano Concerto is pretty rugged, too, while it does have a more usually expected lyric middle movement, that movement is rife throughout with an ominous tension.
https://www.youtube.com/v/HobIr7logJc

[Andante]

I have Hilary Hahn playing the Violin concerto and to be quite honest I do not rate this work very highly to me it is sickly sweet and is only another concerto.
NB. I am in no way referring to Hahn.

[Monsieur Croche]

Tell me more...

..." written by Samuel Barber in 1949 for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the League of Composers.  First performed by Vladimir Horowitz... ~ Wiki

Horowitz
https://www.youtube.com/v/Uiu4dA-dUYE

John Browning (for whom Barber specifically wrote his Piano Concerto.)
https://www.youtube.com/v/6evRy3Jf6-E


Best regards

[Monsieur Croche]

I have Hilary Hahn playing the Violin concerto and to be quite honest I do not rate this work very highly to me it is sickly sweet and is only another concerto.

You must just absolutely hate the life-threateningly sweet Adagio for Strings and the choral Agnus Dei the adagio spawned, then :-)

[Monsieur Croche]

Perhaps another "You didn't know Sam," might be Capricorn Concerto, op. 21.

https://www.youtube.com/v/u_yHhkM_I8E

Another type of "You didn't know," (or 'knew of but never actually met,')
The 'Cello Concerto.
There is current superb performance / recording of the 'Cello Concerto; it is Op. 22, the next work following the Capricorn, and still redolent with a lot of the neoclassical traits of the former work.

Yo-Yo Ma; Baltimore Symphony, David Zinman
https://www.youtube.com/v/i9ZhuU2EzWM
2nd and 3rd movements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOzmYWzCtzs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmo68IipMQs

[Andante]

You must just absolutely hate the life-threateningly sweet Adagio for Strings and the choral Agnus Dei the adagio spawned, then :-)

No I don't hate any music, like most people I have my likes and don't likes. 

[lescamil]

Peter Lawson (Virgin)

Yea,...no,... all I know is that it put me on my ear... I wasn't expecting what i got, and was pleasantly surprised. Maybe Lawson emphasized the modernity? Well, kudos to Barber for pushing himself...

Tell me more...

I've heard the Lawson recording and it just sounds very dry and almost metronomic to me. The spirit of the work is romantic, in my opinion, and it might be fair to say that he gives it a "modern" reading, albeit a rather boring one. Listen to Browning, Hamelin, or Terrence Judd for a better version of the work.

The piano concerto... what an amazing work. I am a little too hungover to go into it right now, though...

[pjme]

Toccata Festiva for organ and orchestra . Barber grandioso.

https://youtu.be/-RQBXzXzKJ4

(part 2 is also on YT°.

P.

[snyprrr]

Perhaps another "You didn't know Sam," might be Capricorn Concerto, op. 21.

https://www.youtube.com/v/u_yHhkM_I8E

Another type of "You didn't know," (or 'knew of but never actually met,')
The 'Cello Concerto.
There is current superb performance / recording of the 'Cello Concerto; it is Op. 22, the next work following the Capricorn, and still redolent with a lot of the neoclassical traits of the former work.

Yo-Yo Ma; Baltimore Symphony, David Zinman
https://www.youtube.com/v/i9ZhuU2EzWM
2nd and 3rd movements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOzmYWzCtzs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmo68IipMQs

Oh yes, now I am reminded... I actually have those around here somewhere...

I've heard the Lawson recording and it just sounds very dry and almost metronomic to me. The spirit of the work is romantic, in my opinion, and it might be fair to say that he gives it a "modern" reading, albeit a rather boring one. Listen to Browning, Hamelin, or Terrence Judd for a better version of the work.

The piano concerto... what an amazing work. I am a little too hungover to go into it right now, though...

I can see how Lawson is more steely and grey coloured, perhaps to complement the Ives, Copland, and Carter? But now I wonder if I'll like the more full bodied performances...


Yea, I forgot about all the concertos (except the VC maybe), Barber is a little more ballsy than I was thinking (why and what waaas I thinking?- I already know all this, maybe I was throwing Barber under the bus in my recollection, or maybe it was just the liner notes in the Lawson disc and the use of the term 'Romantic'??) I kept thinking I was going to hear Rachmaninoff... but no.

[Mirror Image]

Let me add that Barber's Capricorn Concerto is a great work.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Let me add that Barber's Capricorn Concerto is a great work.

Hear hear. Probably my favourite thing he has written out of everything I've heard.

[Madiel]

Let me add that Barber's Capricorn Concerto is a great work.

Haven't reached that one in the Alsop box yet.