Charles Koechlin(1867-1950)

[Spotted Horses]

Second quartet better

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/apple-music/id1108187390

Listened briefly to the opening of the Quartet No 1 before skipping ahead to No 3. Perhaps I will cycle back to No 2. The one thing I didn't like about it was the voice leading seemed rather claustrophobic, all crowded together. He didn't take advantage of the aural possibilities of the ensemble very well. I have it in my mind to revisit Honegger chamber music, so the Pfitzner exploration may be brief.

[Mandryka]

Consistently beautiful does not work for me.  I this point in my life, I do not have the repose necessary to take it in. There has to be some strife or conflict in the music.

You should try Feldman - shorter pieces obvs. This to me sounds like music trying to be beautiful and failing - trying to be rested but failing. (Maybe that's why he's sometimes compared to Schubert.)

[Mandryka]

Listened briefly to the opening of the Quartet No 1 before skipping ahead to No 3. Perhaps I will cycle back to No 2. I have it in my mind to revisit Honegger chamber music, so the Pfitzner exploration may be brief.

Yes someone mentioned Honegger quartets to me  with enthusiasm a couple of weeks ago, so I may check them at some point.

[Spotted Horses]

Second quartet better

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/apple-music/id1108187390

 

Having listened, I agree that the second quartet is a cut above.

[Spotted Horses]

Yes someone mentioned Honegger quartets to me  with enthusiasm a couple of weeks ago, so I may check them at some point.

I stumbled on this recording decades ago, it still stands out in my mind.

[Mandryka]

Tremendous scherzo in the third quartet. Complicated - harmonically strange.

[Spotted Horses]

Tremendous scherzo in the third quartet. Complicated - harmonically strange.

I should return to that. The string quartets are what initially turned me on to Koechlin chamber music.

[Mandryka]

I find myself getting on with Segerstam's Les Heures Persanes better than Holliger's, I think the slower tempos suit more of the pieces better, he creates a more involving ambience. The dynamic range is not as wide as with Holliger, but the sound is fine, it doesn't feel compressed. I'm sure there will be pieces where I feel Holliger has the edge, and many where they're just different -- but on the whole I'd say the Segerstam is more my sort of thing. Certainly worth a listen if you're curious about the music.

I just found this comment from the wonderful Scarecrow on amazon, which seems about right to me

Leif Segerstam and the Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic do a fantastic,comprehensive job with vision sorting out these discreet timbres. We always hear everything, the overwhelming richness of the blended/distended at times string body, even the bassoon timbres buried into the center of the orchestral canvas is heard. The Harp is also utilized quite effectively,as punctuating moments. Koechlin's music is also incredible rich in harmonic motion, almost unceasingly, it never stops searching. Perhaps that's an obvious metaphor for the creative agenda here,but a good one.As you proceed through the work, you do sense some unexplainable homesickness, a longing. The music never is at rest, it is always pushing forward,even as in thevery long second piece the Caravan eight minutes in duration over a pedal stasis throughout.
I was thrilled by the extended use of string harmonics,whole nests of them,incredibly modern much further developmentally in conception than his duel iconoclastic contemporaries as Stravinsky/Schoenberg.

[Karl Henning]

I find myself getting on with Segerstam's Les Heures Persanes better than Holliger's, I think the slower tempos suit more of the pieces better, he creates a more involving ambience. The dynamic range is not as wide as with Holliger, but the sound is fine, it doesn't feel compressed. I'm sure there will be pieces where I feel Holliger has the edge, and many where they're just different -- but on the whole I'd say the Segerstam is more my sort of thing. Certainly worth a listen if you're curious about the music.

I just found this comment from the wonderful Scarecrow on amazon, which seems about right to me

Leif Segerstam and the Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic do a fantastic,comprehensive job with vision sorting out these discreet timbres. We always hear everything, the overwhelming richness of the blended/distended at times string body, even the bassoon timbres buried into the center of the orchestral canvas is heard. The Harp is also utilized quite effectively,as punctuating moments. Koechlin's music is also incredible rich in harmonic motion, almost unceasingly, it never stops searching. Perhaps that's an obvious metaphor for the creative agenda here,but a good one.As you proceed through the work, you do sense some unexplainable homesickness, a longing. The music never is at rest, it is always pushing forward,even as in thevery long second piece the Caravan eight minutes in duration over a pedal stasis throughout.
I was thrilled by the extended use of string harmonics,whole nests of them,incredibly modern much further developmentally in conception than his duel iconoclastic contemporaries as Stravinsky/Schoenberg.

Nice. Love that piece!

[Mandryka]

Enjoying the three Poèmes d'Automne from Michèle Command and Christophe Durrant - there's a fourth for voice, piano and flute which unfortunately isn't on the CD. Substantial songs - impressive cycle IMO.

Command's voice is, I suspect, a bit marmite - I know someone who just can't tolerate it. I'm cool about her myself.

Orledge doesn't have a whole lot to say about the cycle, he talks about the harmonies a bit, but he doesn't seem to think it's a Koechlin masterpiece.