Topic: Sergei Taneyev's Tent of Twirbling Tones

[Brahmsian]

We need a high-pressure campaign on e.g. NAXOS or Melodiya to offer a complete recording of the Oresteia and a set with the String Quartets!

Well, Carpe Diem SQ is going to record all the string quartets on Naxos (I've been in contact with Carpe Diem's ravishing violist, Korine Fujiwara).

And yes, I hope that someone records (both on CD and DVD) the entire Oresteia opera.  The gargantuan Oresteia Overture is simply one of the best opera overtures I've ever heard, and yes - that includes even Wagner!   

[madaboutmahler]

And yes, I hope that someone records (both on CD and DVD) the entire Oresteia opera.  The gargantuan Oresteia Overture is simply one of the best opera overtures I've ever heard, and yes - that includes even Wagner! 

I'll agree with you Ray! The Oresteia Overture is pure magic! I certainly do hope someone records the whole opera, I would be really excited about hearing it!

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

And to make sure NAXOS keeps releasing Taneyev CD's, all of you chamber music people!  Hear ye!

TANEYEV'S Violin Sonata!



http://www.amazon.com/Taneyev-Violin-Sonata-Piano-Music/dp/B002N5KEC4/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1319854426&sr=1-1

The wish list keeps a-growing.

[Cato]

I have just heard - for the first time - The Taneyev Quartet performing, or attempting to perform, the Eighth and Ninth Quartets of Sergei Taneyev.

This is not the edition I have, but here is a newer picture of what they are selling:



If you want to hear wavering microtones in these quartets, as if Taneyev had cosmically pre-channeled Bartok and maybe Penderecki, then this is the CD for you!   

There are spots in the slow movement of the Eighth Quartet where I thought an Alois Haba quartet had been spliced in suddenly!

Apparently intonation is a problem with the group on these recordings: I found some reviews complaining about the same thing on other quartets. 

Let's hope the new NAXOS survey of Taneyev Quartets will not show similar unintended experiments in quarter-tones!   

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

There is a right and a wrong way to twirble, forsooth!

[Bulldog]

I have just heard - for the first time - The Taneyev Quartet performing, or attempting to perform, the Eighth and Ninth Quartets of Sergei Taneyev.

This is not the edition I have, but here is a newer picture of what they are selling:



If you want to hear wavering microtones in these quartets, as if Taneyev had cosmically pre-channeled Bartok and maybe Penderecki, then this is the CD for you!   

There are spots in the slow movement of the Eighth Quartet where I thought an Alois Haba quartet had been spliced in suddenly!

Apparently intonation is a problem with the group on these recordings: I found some reviews complaining about the same thing on other quartets. 

Let's hope the new NAXOS survey of Taneyev Quartets will not show similar unintended experiments in quarter-tones!   

Although I am enjoying the new Naxos series, it can't compete with the Taneyev Quartet concerning expressiveness.

[Cato]

Although I am enjoying the new Naxos series, it can't compete with the Taneyev Quartet concerning expressiveness.

I will admit that there is at times raw energy in the playing, but Wow!  To hear those intonation problems is very distracting!

[Bulldog]

I will admit that there is at times raw energy in the playing, but Wow!  To hear those intonation problems is very distracting!

I just didn't notice those problems to the degree that you experienced.  I'll check it out within a few days.

[snyprrr]

I will admit that there is at times raw energy in the playing, but Wow!  To hear those intonation problems is very distracting!

I have their Myaskovsky Cycle, and, I sense a supernatural quality in their playing, which I think you've interpreted... is it a vibrato issue, or... uncle uncle

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

> cross post <

The Wikipedia article on the Tchaikovsky a minor Trio is quite interesting.

[Tchaikovsky] put the finishing touches to the Trio by 9 February (the score is annotated "Rome 28 January-9 February 1882"), and sent it to his publishers on 11 February, asking that Sergei Taneyev appear as piano soloist at the first performance. Taneyev, the cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen and the violinist Jan Hřímalý were given access to the score, and they made a number of suggestions for improvement, which Tchaikovsky accepted.

There was a private performance at the Moscow Conservatory on 23 March, the first anniversary of Nikolai Rubinstein's death, with the above-named soloists, but Tchaikovsky was still in Italy at the time. He returned to Russia in April and heard the Trio for the first time, at another private performance, after which he made further changes. These included inserting a break before the Andante coda and substantially rewriting the piano part of the Finale. Taneyev also rewrote Variation VIII himself, a change that Tchaikovsky approved.

[Cato]

I have their Myaskovsky Cycle, and, I sense a supernatural quality in their playing, which I think you've interpreted... is it a vibrato issue, or... uncle uncle

??

Okay, no, it is not a vibrato issue by any means.  It is an actual sliding off the note into quarter-tone territory several times.  I know nothing of their Myaskovsky cycle.

> cross post <

The Wikipedia article on the Tchaikovsky a minor Trio is quite interesting.

Thanks Karl, for the Tchaikovsky Trio information!

[Opus106]

> cross post <

The Wikipedia article on the Tchaikovsky a minor Trio is quite interesting.

I wonder how much of the fugue was Tchaikovsky's contribution. It's so unlike him to write such a thing.

[Brahmsian]

I wonder how much of the fugue was Tchaikovsky's contribution. It's so unlike him to write such a thing.

Tchaikovsky wrote a wonderful, effective fugue in the opening movement of his Orchestral Suite No. 1 

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

And what of the famous fugato passage in the Romeo & Juliet Fantasy-Overture, hmm?

[Brahmsian]

And what of the famous fugato passage in the Romeo & Juliet Fantasy-Overture, hmm?

Hmm, I did not know there was a fugato passage, thanks Karl! 

[Brahmsian]

The Passacaglia is another form that I really enjoy, and Taneyev wrote a wonderful one in his Piano Quintet!

[Opus106]

Don't talk about things I haven't heard or works about which I don't remember much! So 2.5 fugues in how many pieces? I think it would still classify as 'unlike him'. In any case, let's talk about Taneyev and his contributions to the trio.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

Don't talk about things I haven't heard or works about which I don't remember much! So 2.5 fugues in how many pieces? I think it would still classify as 'unlike him'. In any case, let's talk about Taneyev and his contributions to the trio.

Well, Nav, I'll agree that Tchaikovsky did not often compose contrapuntally;  I contest the idea, though, that this rarity implies that the fugue in the Trio must to any degree have been someone else's work : )

[Opus106]

I contest the idea, though, that this rarity implies that the fugue in the Trio must to any degree have been someone else's work : )

The fugue is the eighth variation quoted in the Wiki article. As I said, I would like to know the relative amount of contributions from both men. That Taneyev, as someone who was known to write (and teach) a lot of contrapuntal stuff, might have had a greater influence is what I suppose. In fact, while reading the Wiki quote I didn't even remember where the fugue occurs in the work, but seeing ST's name associated with reworking the variation, I simply guessed that it would be the fugue -- and I was proved right.

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

. . . In fact, while reading the Wiki quote I didn't even remember where the fugue occurs in the work, but seeing ST's name associated with reworking the variation, I simply guessed that it would be the fugue -- and I was proved right.

Good on you, Nav!

My impression is that Tchaikovsky and Brahms had roughly similar views on counterpoint.  They respected the great contrapuntalists of the past, but did not often feel that it served their own musical purposes.