The Barber Chair

[Ken B]

I'd love to see one of Barber's works live. Knoxville would certainly be one to see. It's just gorgeous from start to finish.

Indeed. But my favourite is and always will be ( in MI terms I mean, ask me again Tuesday) the first symphony. I don't know of a better symphony by any American-born composer.

[NJ Joe]

I only own one Barber disc, but I love it from start to finish:

[Mirror Image]

Indeed. But my favourite is and always will be ( in MI terms I mean, ask me again Tuesday) the first symphony. I don't know of a better symphony by any American-born composer.

Well sure, I mean I have a lot of favorite Barber works and Symphony No. 1 is among them certainly. That slow movement is so haunting. I like Symphony No. 2 and the Essays for Orchestra as well. All first-rate works.

[Mirror Image]

I only own one Barber disc, but I love it from start to finish:

Agreed. A fine disc, NJ Joe.

[Mirror Image]

Any favorite performances of the Violin Concerto?

My vote will always go to Hilary Hahn with Hugh Wolff conducting the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. One of the most incredible performances of Hahn's career so far along with her Schoenberg.

[Mirror Image]

I only own one Barber disc, but I love it from start to finish:

Have you considered getting the Alsop series, NJ Joe? I think you'll be satisfied with the series.

[Ken B]

Have you considered getting the Alsop series, NJ Joe? I think you'll be satisfied with the series.

+1 on the 3 discs I have heard

[Mirror Image]

+1 on the 3 discs I have heard

Yes and what's nice now is you can buy the whole series boxed up, which at the time I bought the series Naxos hadn't gotten around to doing this yet.

[asin]B003VC51S0[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

This is the only site I could find that listed Barber's complete oeuvre:

http://www.samuelbarber.fr/pdf/Catalogue_chronologique_oeuvres.pdf

[Mirror Image]

A little statement I'll make about Barber:

For me, Barber is easily the greatest American composer. Besides the obvious accessibility of his music, there is something much deeper happening under the surface. There's much pain and heartbreak. There's also a sense of yearning, but not without that glimpse of hope. The optimism, and pessimism, are also what makes Barber's music 'human.' Earth-bound in a sense but with vast walls of smoke. Uncertainty for what tomorrow brings seems to underline a lot of his music. Enigmatic, but extremely telling in it's direct emotional expression.

[Mirror Image]

I think Alsop's set does contain some duds performance-wise:

1. Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance - would have liked to see more rhythmic vigor here than Alsop gets from the RSNO

2. All three concerti are better performed elsewhere, but I'm a bit biased here as I had favorites prior to Alsop's recordings: Ma/Zinman in the CC, Hahn/Wolff in the VC, and Browning/Slatkin in the PC, I don't think the soloists in Alsop's set rise above the occasion, but the CC seems to get the best performance of the trio

3. Adagio for Strings wasn't deeply felt, but Thomas Schippers is still the conductor to beat here for me

4. Toccata festiva - a cool work but a rhythmically slack performance and you can barely hear the organ

But Barber wrote some duds himself and the performances couldn't change this fact for me:

1. Die natali - one of the most boring pieces of music I'd ever heard -- essentially this whole work is just a theme and variation type of form on Christmas carols bah humbug!

2. Fadograph of a Yestern Scene - I might have to listen to this again pretty soon but I found nothing in it

3. Mutations from Bach - what a travesty and not because of Bach, I would say Bach is the best thing about this work --- the 'mutations' however were dreadful

[Madiel]

Hmm. Might as well pitch in...

I've got a grand total of 4 CDs worth of Barber - a double disc of the songs (Hampson, Studer and Browning, with Hampson shining in particular), and another double disc which combines orchestral recordings by Slatkin with some chamber and piano music.

The funny thing is, though, those discs are enough to give me nearly half of Barber's opuses. Not exactly a prolific composer, but certainly a very good one.

And I definitely want to hear more. I keep pondering some of the discs in that Naxos orchestral series. I definitely want more of his vocal works, because there are some real gems in the solo songs. I would have high hopes for the works with orchestra - Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Prayers of Kierkegaard, Andromache's Farewell and The Lovers.

In fact, that sounds like a perfect CD program right there, which makes me wonder why it hasn't been done. Although a bit of research suggests it might not be quite possible to fit all 4 of those on a single disc.

[DavidW]

I also don't like Alsop's approach to the Adagio.  It is the most faithful version I've heard, but I would rather have something super-indulgant!

[snyprrr]

Capricorn Concerto

Barber's most neglected Neo-Classic Masterpiece is a Stravinskian delight! I simply cannot get passed the Mercury recording- it just reminds me of early '70s TV, oh what times!

[Mirror Image]

Capricorn Concerto

Barber's most neglected Neo-Classic Masterpiece is a Stravinskian delight! I simply cannot get passed the Mercury recording- it just reminds me of early '70s TV, oh what times!

A nice work indeed. Is this Mercury recording with Howard Hanson conducting? I know Hanson has a performance of the Medea Suite on Mercury (coupled with some Gould works).

[Mirror Image]

Symphony No. 2 -

While serving in the Army Air Force during World War II, Samuel Barber was commissioned to write a symphony about the heroic American flyers. The result is the Symphony No. 2, a work Barber was to later reject. Thinking it was inferior, he instructed his publisher to destroy the score and parts twenty years after its premiere. (The second movement did survive in the form of Night Flight, Op. 19a.) Luckily, parts were found in England a few years after Barber's death and the work was rescued from obscurity.

Symphony No. 2, unlike the one-movement Symphony No. 1, is in three separate movements. The first performance was with the legendary conductor Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony in 1944. The work depicts the danger and drama experienced by World War II flyers. While Barber can be considered the quintessential Neo-Romantic, he experimented with the more modern compositional technique of bi-tonality (two different keys played at the same time). The "introduction" of the first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, has a precarious, teetering effect in the high woodwinds. This is followed by a grand, almost plodding dotted rhythm in the lower register that suggests the huge scale of the machines these young flyers were expected to command. There are hints of Sergey Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky as dissonance plays a large role leading into the "exposition" marked by a faster tempo. This rhythmically complex section, which builds momentum and tension, is eventually contrasted by a calming, more placid secondary theme in major played by the oboe (typical "Barberesque" lyricism). A development section ensues containing bits of all previously used material. In fact, most of the thematic material in this movement derives from the very opening, giving it a cohesive, organic quality. A quasi-recapitulation brings the movement full circle ending in the stratosphere where it began, underlined by an ominously low rumble (plane engines in the distance?).

The second movement, Andante, un poco mosso, starts with a murky, dirge-like feeling that leads into a mournful English horn solo. The middle section gets about as dissonant as Barber gets, building to a tension-filled climax, working its way back to the lyrical English horn theme played this time by the strings. The movement ends with an E flat clarinet in the high register imitating the sound of a radio signal. (Apparently, the original score called for an authentic electronic homing device, which Barber later withdrew.) The third and final movement, Presto, senza battuta, is a whirlwind of energy. The texture is fairly contrapuntal (fugue-like entrances), especially some three and a half minutes into the movement. This developmental episode leads to the quiet before the final storm, which ends triumphantly in a major key. The symphony, fraught with defiance, uncertainty, and edginess, may not have been the patriotic piece of Americana the powers that be had in mind. But, like Barber's Symphony No. 1, it deserves to be heard more often for its thoughtful architecture and emotional impact.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

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What do my fellow Barberites think about Symphony No. 2? I think it's one of Barber's most visionary works. Everything about this symphony hits me like a ton of bricks. Ken B. may feel strongly about Symphony No. 1 being the best American symphony ever composed, but I'm starting to feel this way about the 2nd. The first and third movements are tour-de-forces in melodic invention and thematic transformation. The second movement has to be counted as one of Barber's most heartfelt utterances. So moving.

[Ken B]

Symphony No. 2 -

While serving in the Army Air Force during World War II, Samuel Barber was commissioned to write a symphony about the heroic American flyers. The result is the Symphony No. 2, a work Barber was to later reject. Thinking it was inferior, he instructed his publisher to destroy the score and parts twenty years after its premiere. (The second movement did survive in the form of Night Flight, Op. 19a.) Luckily, parts were found in England a few years after Barber's death and the work was rescued from obscurity.

Symphony No. 2, unlike the one-movement Symphony No. 1, is in three separate movements. The first performance was with the legendary conductor Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony in 1944. The work depicts the danger and drama experienced by World War II flyers. While Barber can be considered the quintessential Neo-Romantic, he experimented with the more modern compositional technique of bi-tonality (two different keys played at the same time). The "introduction" of the first movement, Allegro ma non troppo, has a precarious, teetering effect in the high woodwinds. This is followed by a grand, almost plodding dotted rhythm in the lower register that suggests the huge scale of the machines these young flyers were expected to command. There are hints of Sergey Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky as dissonance plays a large role leading into the "exposition" marked by a faster tempo. This rhythmically complex section, which builds momentum and tension, is eventually contrasted by a calming, more placid secondary theme in major played by the oboe (typical "Barberesque" lyricism). A development section ensues containing bits of all previously used material. In fact, most of the thematic material in this movement derives from the very opening, giving it a cohesive, organic quality. A quasi-recapitulation brings the movement full circle ending in the stratosphere where it began, underlined by an ominously low rumble (plane engines in the distance?).

The second movement, Andante, un poco mosso, starts with a murky, dirge-like feeling that leads into a mournful English horn solo. The middle section gets about as dissonant as Barber gets, building to a tension-filled climax, working its way back to the lyrical English horn theme played this time by the strings. The movement ends with an E flat clarinet in the high register imitating the sound of a radio signal. (Apparently, the original score called for an authentic electronic homing device, which Barber later withdrew.) The third and final movement, Presto, senza battuta, is a whirlwind of energy. The texture is fairly contrapuntal (fugue-like entrances), especially some three and a half minutes into the movement. This developmental episode leads to the quiet before the final storm, which ends triumphantly in a major key. The symphony, fraught with defiance, uncertainty, and edginess, may not have been the patriotic piece of Americana the powers that be had in mind. But, like Barber's Symphony No. 1, it deserves to be heard more often for its thoughtful architecture and emotional impact.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

What do my fellow Barberites think about Symphony No. 2? I think it's one of Barber's most visionary works. Everything about this symphony hits me like a ton of bricks. Ken B. may feel strongly about Symphony No. 1 being the best American symphony ever composed, but I'm starting to feel this way about the 2nd. The first and third movements are tour-de-forces in melodic invention and thematic transformation. The second movement has to be counted as one of Barber's most heartfelt utterances. So moving.

I do like Night Flight more than the outer movements. Listening now, first time in a couple years, so I'll report back.  Played it much more in the 80s.

I do value Barber's opinion though. Especially when he agrees with me. 

[Mirror Image]

I do like Night Flight more than the outer movements. Listening now, first time in a couple years, so I'll report back.  Played it much more in the 80s.

I do value Barber's opinion though. Especially when he agrees with me. 

I love each movement. The first and second especially, but the finale does make quite an impact. You must remember that Barber was sometimes a merciless self-critic hence why his oeuvre is so small. But give it a listen and see if you've changed your mind about it.

[snyprrr]

A nice work indeed. Is this Mercury recording with Howard Hanson conducting? I know Hanson has a performance of the Medea Suite on Mercury (coupled with some Gould works).

Yea, but not on the same disc.

[Karl Henning]

Oh, I do need to revisit the symphonies.