Gerhard's Gazebo

Started by some guy, July 02, 2008, 01:22:18 PM

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bhodges

Quote from: snyprrr on December 20, 2012, 12:57:21 PM

The SQs, and I believe all his Chamber Music, is on the Metier label. The SQs are with the Kreutzer SQ. The SQs proper are truly of High Quality (tee hee), and sooo different from one another. No.1 is the most perfect Scheobergian SQ I think I've heard, and No.2 has all the bells and whistles of early-'60s Avant Garde (Penderecki-meets-Berio-meets-Lutoslawski). The sound on the Metier disc is of major eh quality (flat and dullish), I am so sure this new recording will bring out the burnished tones of the instruments much better.

Yes, this news is worthy of an adult diaper! ;D Gerhard infused his Avant tendencies with a flair 15 years ahead of his time.

Yes, I have a few Metier CDs, and good as the performances are, I wish the sound were just a bit cleaner. (PS, just looked at Aeon's website, since I thought I had some of their recordings - apparently not, and the catalog is quite interesting.)

--Bruce

snyprrr

Quote from: Brewski on December 20, 2012, 01:11:43 PM
Yes, I have a few Metier CDs, and good as the performances are, I wish the sound were just a bit cleaner. (PS, just looked at Aeon's website, since I thought I had some of their recordings - apparently not, and the catalog is quite interesting.)

--Bruce

Yea, between Aeon and Neos, it's easy to get confused, haha! Both very cool labels, along with Kairos. This Gerhard release is really a breath of fresh air, which highly complements the Arditti's Cycles of SQs by Halffter, and recent other issues of Spanish SQs (Marco, Posadas, Rueda).

snyprrr

Quote from: Brewski on December 20, 2012, 11:08:01 AM
Thanks, that looks like a great disc. I've heard a lot of Gerhard's orchestral music, but none of his chamber works.

--Bruce

Did you get the Arditti yet? Anyone?

snyprrr

Piano Concerto

Tell me again how essential it is the have the Naxos recording of the PC as opposed to the Chandos. Everyone says the sound is off on the Chandos: I've had this disc for years and have NOT listened to it for this reason, such an ascetic! Well, do I haaave to get the Naxos to hear this piece correctly?

lescamil

Quote from: snyprrr on April 12, 2014, 09:06:24 AM
Piano Concerto

Tell me again how essential it is the have the Naxos recording of the PC as opposed to the Chandos. Everyone says the sound is off on the Chandos: I've had this disc for years and have NOT listened to it for this reason, such an ascetic! Well, do I haaave to get the Naxos to hear this piece correctly?

It is very essential. The Donohoe recording is actually played in a way that it doesn't sound sightread. There are also some wrong notes in the Chandos that stick out like a sore thumb (to me, at least). Donohoe plays it much faster (at tempo, really, check the score) and with more articulation. Tozer was usually quite the pianist, but this is one of his recordings that misses the mark. Perhaps the only thing that Donohoe did "wrong" was that he did not take as much time in the slow movement as I would have liked him to.
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not edward

Quote from: lescamil on April 12, 2014, 09:11:05 AM
It is very essential. The Donohoe recording is actually played in a way that it doesn't sound sightread. There are also some wrong notes in the Chandos that stick out like a sore thumb (to me, at least). Donohoe plays it much faster (at tempo, really, check the score) and with more articulation. Tozer was usually quite the pianist, but this is one of his recordings that misses the mark. Perhaps the only thing that Donohoe did "wrong" was that he did not take as much time in the slow movement as I would have liked him to.
My "go-to" recording for the Gerhard keyboard concerti (IMO it's much better than the Chandos in the harpsichord concerto as well) has always been the Montaigne one:

[asin]B00000JPYB[/asin]

Any comparisons between Donohoe and this? (I'd expect Donohoe to come out ahead; not really sure why I don't have his recording other than my lack of interest in the other music on the disc.)
"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

lescamil

Quote from: edward on April 12, 2014, 09:43:53 AM
My "go-to" recording for the Gerhard keyboard concerti (IMO it's much better than the Chandos in the harpsichord concerto as well) has always been the Montaigne one:

Any comparisons between Donohoe and this? (I'd expect Donohoe to come out ahead; not really sure why I don't have his recording other than my lack of interest in the other music on the disc.)

The harpsichord concerto on the Montaigne one is very good, too. I actually like Tozer for it, too, but the Montaigne is better. Donohoe still comes out ahead for the piano concerto, but the pianist on the Montaigne (name escapes me) still does a nice job. It is just a little slow.
Want to chat about classical music on IRC? Go to:

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#concerthall

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snyprrr

Quote from: lescamil on April 12, 2014, 04:20:41 PM
The harpsichord concerto on the Montaigne one is very good, too. I actually like Tozer for it, too, but the Montaigne is better. Donohoe still comes out ahead for the piano concerto, but the pianist on the Montaigne (name escapes me) still does a nice job. It is just a little slow.

I forgot there was a third option... exxxcellent!! But, I'm sure it costs an arm and a leg. :( Frankly, I did not enjoy that Ferguson PC on YT- it was just a snoozer for me, so, if Montaigne isn't too much, let's see... yea, no, it's $620 New and $40-60 Used. :'( Well, maybe on the Naxos, but it seems like a waste for just the one piece (thanks, though, I'm glad I never listened to Tozer).

Should I complete the Symphonies with No.1 and the Violin Concerto? Both seem to cast an immediately strong spell from the opening bars- but then I might feel obliged to get the PC too. Oh, it looks as though I won't ever be getting the Harpsichord Concerto, and that sure sounds like a wonderful work. :( So much sadness and expense in the Gerhard Discography.

Is he like head and antlers above a lot of mid-century Composers? He just seems to have a reserve of "cool sounds" no matter what era, that others don't seem to?

That new Neos disc seems to only copy that old Largo disc, btw...

not edward

Quote from: snyprrr on April 12, 2014, 07:52:42 PM
Should I complete the Symphonies with No.1 and the Violin Concerto?
Absolutely. As far as I'm concerned, the Violin Concerto is the pinnacle of his tonal period, while the First Symphony is the pinnacle of his straight serialist period.
"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

snyprrr

Quote from: edward on April 13, 2014, 07:00:18 AM
Absolutely. As far as I'm concerned, the Violin Concerto is the pinnacle of his tonal period, while the First Symphony is the pinnacle of his straight serialist period.

Loud and clear! ;) People not messin' around here!!...

snyprrr

Quote from: lescamil on April 12, 2014, 09:11:05 AM
It is very essential. The Donohoe recording is actually played in a way that it doesn't sound sightread. There are also some wrong notes in the Chandos that stick out like a sore thumb (to me, at least). Donohoe plays it much faster (at tempo, really, check the score) and with more articulation. Tozer was usually quite the pianist, but this is one of his recordings that misses the mark. Perhaps the only thing that Donohoe did "wrong" was that he did not take as much time in the slow movement as I would have liked him to.

Piano Concerto

Yes, so I finally heard the piece from Donohoe today, and, yes!, judging by the glittering intro, I can see how a bad take could spell disaster here. So, I was very impressed with the first movement, and I liked the 'Minimalism' repeated downward passage in the middle- in all, a very aggressive Expressionism. The piano part is very nice and involved, with a particular melodic curve suggesting excitement.

The slow movement was very interesting in how the octaves were just allowed to become the point of the piece, a very odd atmosphere that Gerhard takes to the end. The Finale was what it was for me, simply a rousing Finale, somewhat not quite the profile of the first two, perhaps?

Still, Gerhard really impresses here, with a real manly building up of ideas. I do want to know, though,- can one listen to the slow movement of Tozier, or does that suffer as well- I thought it was 'noctural' enough to withstand bad treatment, but I'll defer to your wisdom here. The sound on the Naxos was pretty good, but I can certainly imagine  that Chandos sound! what a shame for Tozier :(

Symphony 1 and the Violin Concerto up next.

Scion7

Chamber
=====================

Sonatine a Carlos, Piano, 1914,
Piano Trio no.1, 1918 or before (lost)
String Quartet, 1918  (lost)
Piano Trio no.2, 1918
2 apunts, Piano, 1921–2
3 Piano Trios, c1923–4, (unfinished)
Divertimento, wind qnt, 1926, 2 versions,  (unfinished)
Suite, wind, strings, Piano, 1927,  (lost)
El conde sol, trumpet, horn, bassoon, violin, Cello, Piano, ?1927,  [possibly part of Suite, 1927]
String Quartet, ?1927–8 (unfinished)
Sonata, clarinet, Piano, 1928 (unfinished)
Wind Qnt, 1928 [with opt. t sax part, inc.]
Andantino, cl, Violin, Piano, ?1928
Sardana no.1, cobla (12 insts), 1928–9, arr. brass band, 1940, arr. 11 wind, perc, 1956
Sardana no.2, cobla, insts, 1928–9
Sevillana, fiscorn, Bassoon, string trio, ?1936
Alegrías, suite, 2 Piano, 1942 [from ballet]
Pandora, suite, 2 Piano, perc, 1944 [from ballet]
Dances from Don Quixote, Piano, 1947 [from ballet]
Sonata, Viola, Piano, 1948, withdrawn, reworked for Cello, Piano, 1956
Capriccio, fl, 1949
3 Impromptus, Piano, 1950
String Quartet no.1, 1950–55
Sardana no.3, 8 wind, perc, 1951, unpubd [from film score Secret People, 1952]
Sonata, Cello, Piano, 1956
Nonet, wind quintet, trumpet, trombone, tuba, accordion, 1956–7
Fantasia, guitar, 1957
Chaconne, Violin, 1959
Soirées de Barcelone, suite, Piano, 1950s [based on ballet]
String Quartet no.2, 1961–2
Concert for 8, flute, clarinet, mandolin, guitar, accordion, perc, Piano, double-bass, 1962
Hymnody, flute, oboe, clarinet, Horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, 2 perc, 2 Piano, 1963
Gemini (Duo concertante), Violin, Piano, 1966
Libra, flute + piccolo, clarinet, guitar, perc, Piano, Violin, 1968
Leo, fl + pic, cl, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, 2 perc, Piano + celeste, Violin, Cello, 1969

Orchestral
======================================================

Concertino, strings, 1927–8 [version of Str Qt, ?1927–8]
Albada, interludi i dansa, 1936
Violinn Conc., 1940, inc., destroyed
Sym. 'Homenaje a Pedrell', 1940–41, [3rd movt performable separately as 'Pedrelliana (En memoria)']
Don Quixote, suite no.1, small orch, 1941 [based on ballet]
Soirées de Barcelone, suite, 1940s, inc. [based on ballet]
Alegrías, suite, 1942 [based on ballet]
Violin Conc., 1942–3
Pandora, suite, 1944–5 [based on ballet]
Don Quixote, sym. suite, 1947 [based on ballet]
Piano Conc., 1951
Sym. no.1, 1952–3
Harpsichord Conc., 1955–6
Lamparilla Ov. 1956 [based on themes by F. Barbieri]
Sym. no.2, 1957–9
reworked as Metamorphoses, 1967–8, last movt inc., perf. edn arr. A. Boustead, 1973
Dances from Don Quixote, 1958 [from ballet]
Sym. no.3 'Collages', orch, tape, 1960
Concerto for Orch, 1964–5
Epithalamion, 1965–6, rev. 1968
Sym. no.4 'New York', 1967, rev. 1968
Sym. no.5, 1968–9 (unfinished)

Also several operas, ballets, "tape" electronic pieces . . .


from The New Grove:

Catalan composer, active in England. The most significant figure of the generation after Falla, he continued and extended the folkloric vein of his predecessors, while also internationalizing it through his firm commitment to an altogether more broadly based European modernism, and through his relocation to Britain after the civil war. Establishing a wider reputation only in the 1950s, he displayed an increasingly radical and exploratory outlook and until his death contributed energetically to the development of serial and electronic composition, and to timbral and textural innovation.


When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

http://www.robertogerhard.com/biography/  - 

Roberto Gerhard was born in 1896 in Valls, Spain. Initially he studied piano with Granados and composition with Felipe Pedrell. When Pedrell died in 1922, Gerhard moved to Vienna as a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. Returning to Barcelona in 1928 he became a central figure in the Catalonian avant-garde, befriending such figures as Pablo Casals and Joan Miró. Identified with the Republican cause throughout the Spanish Civil War, Gerhard was forced to flee to France in 1939 and later that year settled in Cambridge, England. Once in England, Gerhard produced a series of orchestra and stage works that would establish his international reputation. The Symphony (in memory of Pedrell), the ballet Don Quixote, First String Quartet, and the opera The Duenna followed in quick succession. In the 1950s Gerhard developed his musical style, synthesizing Schoenbergian serialism with catalan folksong. These years also marked him out as the first composer in England to engage seriously with electronic music. Gerhard worked extensively at the newly formed BBC Radiophonic Workshop producing a series of abstract electronic works as well as electronic music for stage – most notably his score for the 1955 Royal Shakespeare Production of King Lear. The last decade of his life saw Gerhard's musical language evolve still further and the composition of late masterpieces such as the Symphony nos 3 and 4, the chamber symphony – Leo and the masterly Concerto for Orchestra.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

snyprrr

'Gerhard's Gazebo' Thread is already here somewhere :-*


Otherwise, everything I've heard is excellent! ;)

cilgwyn

Great to hear Gerhard has a 'Gazebo'?!! I think the worst one is Prokofiev's Paddy Wagon!! ??? :o ::)

Scion7

I searched on the name and only got "mentions" in other threads before I created the topic, so there is a problem . . . .
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

snyprrr

Quote from: Scion7 on February 19, 2017, 09:58:13 PM
I searched on the name and only got "mentions" in other threads before I created the topic, so there is a problem . . . .

"No Thread... no problem"
                                            Stalin

ritter

#77
Bump...

Cross-posted from the WAYLTN thread:

Quote from: ritter on June 26, 2018, 01:55:35 AM
Roberto Gerhard's Harpsichord Concerto, with soloist Ursula Dütschler and Lawrence Foster conducting the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra:



This is a magnificent piece by this student of Schoenberg. In general, it's very stern and one can easily detect its from the 1950s. But then, in the concluding vivace spiritoso things become, well, very spiritoso  ;); the movement starts with a quotation from the prelude to Ruperto Chapí's zarzuela La revoltosa (music that I'd say every single Spaniard knows, and that by coincidence I listened to live in concert last Sunday at the Teatro Real). Later in, we also get a quote from the sixth ("Canción") of Falla's Seven Popular Spanish Songs. It's quite wonderful to listen to Gerhard's homage to music of his native Spain within his twelve-tone idiom, and this movement is great fun.

The interaction of the harpsichord with the orchestra (just strings and percussion) is very well crafted. All in all, a very enjoyable concerto.  :)

I see this CD has been lauded on above, and rightly so.

Concerning the quotations in the third movement of the Harpsichord Concerto, here it is (unfortuantely in the IMO less successful Chandos recording):

http://www.youtube.com/v/MuCG0fQjVkw&list=OLAK5uy_mP27HxfZlUHg-zhdVoO8SqRFahhcOh0Js

The prelude to Chapí's La revoltosa, which appears at the beginning...

https://youtu.be/EMbeAduw0rk

...and Falla's Canción, which is quoted at 3'40" of Gerhard's piece:

https://youtu.be/3shCMFui5Ag

Mirror Image

#78
Quote from: snyprrr on December 20, 2012, 12:57:21 PM

The SQs, and I believe all his Chamber Music, is on the Metier label.

Umm...not hardly. Have you seen all of the chamber music he composed? The work list is quite extensive. The Metier label has only released two chamber recordings of Gerhard's music.

Old post I know, but since snyprrr is nowhere to be found, this felt like the perfect opportunity for a sneak attack. ;D

SymphonicAddict

Earlier I was having my first meetings with all his symphonies. In spite of Gerhard is widely known as an avant-garde composer, those works drawn my attention, except the 2nd Symphony, which is overtly serialist/dodecaphonic (sorry, I don't get the differences yet). The best of the bunch was the 1st Symphony, a pretty radical piece in comparison with his early attempt Homage to Pedrell. The more modern Nos. 3 and 4 have terrific effects and weird atmospheres. Lately I'm realizing I'm feeling more empathy with this kind of works.