Claude Vivier (1948-1983)

Started by bhodges, April 13, 2007, 12:43:33 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

bhodges

Thanks for that nice post, Lis, and I like hearing that his work is still on the radar.  Just imagine what he might have created if he had lived longer...

PS, that's a great Proms program! 

Charles Dutoit, conductor
Martha Argerich, piano
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Vivier: Orion (UK premiere)
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.1 in D flat major
Musorgsky, orch. Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition

--Bruce

Brünnhilde ewig

Bruce, while I watched his Marco Poloagain yesterday I was wondering if there exists an issue of just the piano section shiraz. It's awesome and surely there is another pianist alive besides Marc Couroux capable of performing it.  ???

not edward

There's a recording of Shiraz on the CBC's Montreal Postmoderne disc:

http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.dspItemDetails&buyItemsID=124

It's only $6 Canadian (what is that, $5.99 US these days) currently, and a real bargain IMO.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

bhodges

Thanks edward--just ordered it!   :D  The rest of the program looks interesting, too.

--Bruce

Brünnhilde ewig

Ordered it too - but the postage is almost two bucks more than the price of the CD! Is the Canadian postal system hand-delivering it to me by one of the countries handsome Mounties??  ::)

UB

Edward - Do you have the four CD set of his music from CBC that is part of their Anthology of Canadian Music series?

It is good to read about this very talented and seldom heard Canadian composer. Has anyone heard Orion? I was wondering if it was worth buying the Kairos cd to get it.

I am not in the entertainment business. Harrison Birtwistle 2010

bhodges

Quote from: UB on June 18, 2009, 08:35:06 AM
Edward - Do you have the four CD set of his music from CBC that is part of their Anthology of Canadian Music series?

It is good to read about this very talented and seldom heard Canadian composer. Has anyone heard Orion? I was wondering if it was worth buying the Kairos cd to get it.

Am I going to have to drag out my credit card again?   ;D  ;D  ;D

Haven't heard Orion, to the best of my knowledge. 

--Bruce

Brünnhilde ewig

Bruce: Four CD set? I have a KAIROS, 0012472KAI with

Orion
Siddharta
Cinq chanson pour percussion

All on one CD. Saved you some money, didn't I?  0:)

bhodges

Quote from: Brünnhilde ewig on June 18, 2009, 09:28:29 AM
Bruce: Four CD set? I have a KAIROS, 0012472KAI with

Orion
Siddharta
Cinq chanson pour percussion

All on one CD. Saved you some money, didn't I?  0:)

Oh thanks, Lis.  Yes, I will probably order the Kairos first.  (Other than that DVD, I seem to have only one Vivier disc: the one with Lonely Child and Zipangu, conducted by De Leeuw.)

--Bruce

springrite

I have no Vivier in my collection. Last year I ordered one and after 3 months, I got an e-mail telling me the order is cancelled because it was out of stock. I hate it when that happens.
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

ChamberNut

Outside of Canada, would Claude Vivier be viewed as the greatest Canadian composer?

bhodges

Quote from: ChamberNut on June 18, 2009, 09:59:03 AM
Outside of Canada, would Claude Vivier be viewed as the greatest Canadian composer?

An interesting premise, and you could be right.  IMHO it's hard to say because he died so young and wasn't able to create a huge body of work. 

Who would you choose?  (Or nominate.)

--Bruce

Brünnhilde ewig

I definitely would call him a French composer. He left Canada, where he had composed very little, because then he was not celebrated as Canada's greatest composer. In fact he was barely recognised, whereas his reception in France was enthusiastic and his genius was recognised.

UB

Lis - the 4 CD set has 15 works and a documentary but it does not have Orion. Can you compare Orion with any other of his works - for instance does it have about the same soundworld as Siddharta?
I am not in the entertainment business. Harrison Birtwistle 2010

springrite

He's Canadian?

I knew so little about Canadian composers, if I HAD TO name one, I can only come up with one name: Glenn Gould.
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

Brünnhilde ewig

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned this month's article in Gramophone about Vivier. One sentence: "He complained that Canada was a compositional backwater and relocated to Paris to work on an opera inspired by the life of Tschaikovsky.

timnehguy

Vivier's "Lonely Child" is here - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2735391902424403560

A friend just sent me the link today.  Does anyone have any idea what the text is about?  I can't find anything on the Internet...


Brünnhilde ewig

All I can do is to quote the short paragraph in the booklet from the DVD:

"The Youth of Marco Polo"
A song of loneliness, melody coloured by carefully constructed timbral chords. The music finally returns to a chord, then an interval, until all that remains is the opening melody.


So far about the music, but the meaning is not quite clear. Even if he connects the loneliness to Marco Polo, maybe it has something to do with Vivier's loneliness, he never knew his birth parents.

UB

Vivier at the Proms - Prom 60

In the International Year of Astronomy, Claude Vivier's intriguing exploration of the echoing vastnesses of outer space is brought to the UK by Charles Dutoit, who conducted its 1980 premiere in Montreal.

Vivier Orion (UK premiere) (13 mins)
I am not in the entertainment business. Harrison Birtwistle 2010

Sean

I've just borrowed the CD with Prologue pour un Marco Polo, Bouchara, Zipangu and Lonely child- it's fairly unusual and keeps the attention but shows Stockhausen's influence and the pieces are basically classically organized with clear sense of departure and return, like some electronic music.