Music in the Time of Coronavirus

[vers la flamme]

Caplet, The Masque of the Red Death



Not sure what color is the most appropriate for Covid-19, but I'm going with "Orange Death".

I didn't know that any of Debussy's Usher opera survived. Any good?

[JBS]

I didn't know that any of Debussy's Usher opera survived. Any good?

It's in the Warner Debussy box in "the original" unorchestrated version for piano and voices. I have no idea why they did not use this Pretre recording as well. As I remember it, it had,  to borrow a phrase from Conan Doyle, "features of interest".

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

For me, J.S. Bach is the composer for nearly any and all occasions. I am currently enamored with the Jorg Demus performance of the Goldberg Variations.

I am kind of a hermit and peace and quiet fanatic in any case, coronavirus or not. I am finding solace in slow-paced, contemplative music. Thus, my coronavirus playlist is not all that different from my usual:

R. Strauss: Metamorphosen
J.S. Bach: Organ works, Goldberg variations, WTC, 'Cello suites
Grigny and F. Couperin: Organ masses
Feldman: piano music (Triadic Memories, etc)
Hinrichs-Gurdjieff-von Bingen: Vocation (piano transcriptions)

[pjme]

I didn't know that any of Debussy's Usher opera survived. Any good?

Not much survives of this opera. In the Salabert critical edition, François Lesure claims that only one scene can be reconstructed. However, Debussy worked more than ten years on the score and the libretto. Unfortunately, most of the sketches were dispersed by his widow who gave away loose pages to some friends...
https://issuu.com/durand.salabert.eschig/docs/debussy_revealed_2018

From Wiki:
In the 1970s, two musicians made attempts at producing a performing edition of the incomplete opera. Carolyn Abbate's version, with orchestration by Robert Kyr, was performed at Yale University on 25 February 1977.[9][10]

In the same year the Chilean composer Juan Allende-Blin's reconstruction was broadcast on German radio. Allende-Blin's version was staged at the Berlin State Opera on 5 October 1979 with Jesús López-Cobos conducting, the baritone Jean-Philippe Lafont as Roderick Usher, the soprano Colette Lorand as Lady Madeline, the baritone Barry McDaniel as the doctor, and the bass Walter Grönroos as Roderick's friend.[11] Blin's reconstruction was later recorded by EMI — the music has a running time of approximately 22 minutes.[12]

In 2004, Robert Orledge completed and orchestrated the work using Debussy's draft. His reconstruction has been performed several times. It has also been recorded on DVD (Capriccio 93517)[13] (see Recordings below). The first German staging of Orledge's reconstruction took place in Mannheim in 2019, expanded to 90 minutes with other music by Debussy.[14]

Today, Belgian composer Annelies Van Parys is working on her version of "Usher".
https://operaballet.be/nl/programma/2019-2020/usher/team
"USHER (100') 2018 - SECOND OPERA OF ANNELIES VAN PARYS
This opera is based on Debussy's "La Chute de la Maison Usher". It departs from the existing sketches (roughly 20') of Debussy but is by no means intended as an attempt to reconstruct the piece. The text of Debussy and Gaea Schoeters is based on E.A. Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher".
USHER is a co-commission of Staatsoper Berlin and Folkoperan Stockholm. "
https://www.anneliesvanparys.be/en/opera-music-theatre/

[ritter]

To add to pjme's useful info, the Orledge reconstruction of La chute de la maison d'Usher is also available on CD, along with the reconstruction of Le diable dans le beffroi (which was left in an even sketchier state by Debussy).  The Pan Classics 2 CD set seems to be OOP. I recall enjoying it when I bought it (but there seems to be rather little echt-Debussy un the global result).



https://www.youtube.com/v/YiZ6sGIuT68

[Spineur]

Hi Rafael !

The Ortledge reconstruction was also used in this staged version (the DVD is OOP) at the Bregenz festival.  In this version every character is doubled by dancers from the Royal opera ballet.  The staging is very elegant I find.  The DVD also contains a staged version of the Prelude de l'après midi d'un faune and Jeux, also with the Royal opera ballet.

The problem with La chute de la maison Usher is that the main character, his friend and the doctor are all baritones.  This makes the whole work very very dark indeed.

[ritter]

Hi Rafael !

The Ortledge reconstruction was also used in this staged version (the DVD is OOP) at the Bregenz festival.  In this version every character is doubled by dancers from the Royal opera ballet.  The staging is very elegant I find.  The DVD also contains a staged version of the Prelude de l'après midi d'un faune and Jeux, also with the Royal opera ballet.

The problem with La chute de la maison Usher is that the main character, his friend and the doctor are all baritones.  This makes the whole work very very dark indeed.

Bonjour, Spineur!

Yes, I've read positive things about that DVD, but the last time I checked, it was unavailable. I hope I can get hold of it sometime soon. 

Cheers,

[pjme]

Le sacre du printemps !!!

https://slippedisc.com/2020/03/a-percussionist-made-me-laugh/

[TMHeimer]

Wagner is always, will always be there for me.... . But he's not really suitable for background listening, is he? 

Agree. Like the virus, it goes on and on....

[Florestan]

Agree. Like the virus, it goes on and on....

I don't know if this is serious or tongue in cheek but either way it's a good one. 

(Full disclosure: I can't stand Wagner's operas).

[Kaga2]

Agree. Like the virus, it goes on and on....

There's a thought. Exponentially growing Wagner.

[TMHeimer]

I don't know if this is serious or tongue in cheek but either way it's a good one. 

(Full disclosure: I can't stand Wagner's operas).

Only "C" I got in 5 years undergraduate Bach. of Music program---  Wagner Operas.....

[Ratliff]

Since our schools closed I have listened to no music. I find music requires a certain repose that I do not have, and don't anticipate having in the foreseeable future.

[steve ridgway]

Since our schools closed I have listened to no music. I find music requires a certain repose that I do not have, and don't anticipate having in the foreseeable future.

I can understand that if you need to relax and concentrate for an extended period without mental turmoil. Perhaps more innocuous music played in the background without paying much attention would be calming, I often play an internet radio ambient stream.

[Ratliff]

I can understand that if you need to relax and concentrate for an extended period without mental turmoil. Perhaps more innocuous music played in the background without paying much attention would be calming, I often play an internet radio ambient stream.

I've been reading fiction when I find the time. It captures the mind.

[Mandryka]

   



Stella Coeli Extirpavit is a hymn used to pray for protection from plague, there are many settings including one from Walter Lambe, I think it's in The Eton Choirbook. Very nicely done on Hilliard Ensemble's final recording above, if you like that sort of thing. But there's also something attractive about the anonymous setting from the c14 which the Orlando Consort did.

[Maestro267]

I'm honestly curious how the composers of the world will respond to this period. It surely is and will be remembered as one of the major events in the 21st century, and composers often use things like this as fuel for their compositions. Whether it's the idea of distancing, isolation, the eventual coming together again, there are plenty of ideas that can be used here.

[vandermolen]

Currently listening to this soulful and poignant work written when the composer's friend, the conductor Stuart Challender, was dying of AIDS.
Symphony Da Pacem Domine (1992).
Seems to me appropriate for this time too:

[Maestro267]

Watched the Tchaikovsky 4 episode of the San Francisco SO's series Keeping Score. Great to watch how an orchestra prepares for a performance of a work like this. Though I am mildly disappointed they didn't mention my favourite section of the first movement, the "second" theme on solo woodwinds.

[Maestro267]

It's occurred to me that orchestral recordings are going to suffer because of this. You need all the players together in a room.