Sergei Taneyev's Tent of Twirbling Tones

[Sean]

Yes this work is in the very eye or ear opening category that stays with you forever. The invention is totally riotous and the sheer vigour and originality really blows your head off. It makes a tremendous impression first hearing and if it doesn't quite materialize into great music this is very much his masterpiece, closely followed by the great chamber works...

[Cato]

This (apparently Russian) website offers one the opportunity to listen on-line to all sorts of composers, including Taneyev!

They have apparently downloaded the OLYMPIA recording of the opera, and will let you listen to it for free:

See:

http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/4095

[Sean]

Presently exploring the Fourth quartet, somewhat straightforward fare for the period.

[kishnevi]

The first American performance of the complete Oresteia is scheduled for this summer at the Bard SummerScape Festival outside New York City:  Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra.

Botstein did a good job on the Chandos recording of  Foulds' World Requiem, so hopefully he'll do just as well with this other rarely heard piece of massiveness.  And perhaps his Chandos links can come into play.  (Has he recorded with any other labels?)

[Sean]

Taneyev's Fourth SQ of 1900 is somewhere between Stenhammer and Dvorak with dashes of Faure and Janacek; plenty more head than heart but indeed helps to fill the fin de siecle picture in.

[Sean]

The 80-90% copy paste of this quartet is lost on the Carpe Diem Quartet's enthusiasm and skill.

[snyprrr]

The 80-90% copy paste of this quartet is lost on the Carpe Diem Quartet's enthusiasm and skill.

???Is that good or bad??

[Sean]

It's both. Actually some of the more important quartets I alluded to were written after the Taneyev, which always muddies the waters doesn't it...?

[Sammy]

The 80-90% copy paste of this quartet is lost on the Carpe Diem Quartet's enthusiasm and skill.

One Taneyev is worth 30 Carpe Diems.

[Karl Henning]

Sean learnt at an early stage that it was much easier to adopt an intellectual-sounding scorn, than to cultivate musical discernment.

[Sean]

Sounds like a good policy sometimes.

To say what one thinks or not, to be or not to be, that is the question.

To put in the boot when it needs it but also where nothing can be changed and all you do is wind others up, or don't say anything and stay meaninglessly polite...

Well sometimes you have to be, which Hamlet failed to do, but I'm not a prince of anything and can't change the world...

Maybe I'm going to join snyprrr...

[Sean]

This music got better across five listenings, some contrivance and corners unconvincingly turned but the control of skittishness and play in a secure fund of modest melody won me over in the end. The quartet sound like they've been playing it all their lives...

Also somewhat recalls Nielsen's mercurial Fourth of 1906, again a few years postdating the Taneyev...

[North Star]

Also somewhat recalls Nielsen's mercurial Fourth of 1906, again a few years postdating the Taneyev...

You might get into some trouble with this sort of thinking in the academic world.

[Sean]

You might get into some trouble with this sort of thinking in the academic world.

No problem, I've long since quit the fantasy of an interesting music academic environment to belong to- the whole system is totally corrupt.

[Cato]

The Wall Street Journal has a mainly positive review of Taneyev's Oresteia now at the Bard Festival in New York:

A few excerpts:

How can you resist an opera that ends with a 50-voice chorus belting out "Slava [glory], Athena!"? Sergey Taneyev's "Oresteia" (1895) may not be a lost masterpiece, but conductor Leon Botstein and the Bard Festival gave this curious Russian-Greek hybrid a robust staging that made the most of its theatricality...

The chorus retains its central function in Greek tragedy, explaining and commenting on the plot, as well as challenging the principal characters. Its constant presence also adds to the Russian-ness of the experience, recalling works like "Boris Godunov," in which the chorus represents the suffering Russian people....

... the opera feels very Russian in its essence, inhabiting the late Romantic sound world of Tchaikovsky with a little Richard Wagner thrown in. However, Taneyev was prolix without enough bite: Some of the tunes are distinctive, and the orchestral and choral parts are imposing, but there's a lot of filler in the arias. The orchestra is big and brassy, and in the very bright acoustics of the Fisher Center the orchestra and chorus in full cry were sometimes hard to bear. Mr. Botstein led a potent, enthusiastic performance.  .

For the entire review:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324809004578635842420975424.html?KEYWORDS=Taneyev

[Brahmsian]

Taneyev - String Quartets # 5 and # 7 (Carpe Diem String Quartet - Naxos)

[asin]B00D2K1ZQS[/asin]

I must admit, and it pains me to do so, that the Vol. III release by Carpe Diem SQ is not quite as strong and convincing as their previous two volumes.

For SQ#5 and #7, I vastly do prefer the Taneyev SQ performance on Northern Flowers, even if the sound quality isn't the most pristine.

[Brahmsian]

Well, I'm leaning more and more towards truly favouring the Taneyev String Quartet recordings of the string quartets, on the Northern Flowers label.

More and more, they are sounding better to me, and more expressive, than the current Carpe Diem SQ cycle on Naxos.  I like the Carpe Diem work-in-progress cycle, just seem to be preferring the Taneyevs.

The Taneyev group's performance of String Quartet No. 4 in A minor, Op. 11 is so amazing.  Such an incredible quartet, and the highlight for me, the gorgeous, expressive 3rd mvt. Adagio.

[Brahmsian]

Listening to these 2 works, which are fast becoming my favourite (non-chamber) Taneyev works!    These are Top Notch Taneyev (aka TNT!) 

Taneyev

Cantata:  Ioann Damaskin (John of Damascus), Op. 1 (1884)

Gnesin Academy Chorus

Suite de Concert for violin and orchestra, Op. 28 (1909)

Ilya Kaler, violin

Thomas Sanderling, conducting
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra

Naxos

[asin]B002IVRB92[/asin]

[Cato]

Listening to these 2 works, which are fast becoming my favourite (non-chamber) Taneyev works!    These are Top Notch Taneyev (aka TNT!) 

Taneyev

Cantata:  Ioann Damaskin (John of Damascus), Op. 1 (1884)

Gnesin Academy Chorus

Suite de Concert for violin and orchestra, Op. 28 (1909)

Ilya Kaler, violin

Thomas Sanderling, conducting
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra

Naxos

[asin]B002IVRB92[/asin]

Yes, these are excellent works and excellent performances!  Sanderling is becoming a Taneyev specialist!

I was hoping that the performance this past summer of The Oresteia at the Bard Festival (see above) would be appearing on a CD, but so far no announcement that I can find.

I did find this: the Piano Concerto on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/v/4xEsI_mOysI

[Brahmsian]

I was hoping that the performance this past summer of The Oresteia at the Bard Festival (see above) would be appearing on a CD, but so far no announcement that I can find.

I did find this: the Piano Concerto on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/v/4xEsI_mOysI

Hmm, I still have a lot to learn (and listen to).  Didn't realize Taneyev had composed a Piano Concerto.