Avant Garde Project torrent 60 is up and running

[loudav]

I'm really excited about AGP60. It is the first of two featuring orchestral works by Wilhelm Killmayer, a German composer who managed to combine late 20th century techniques with tonal harmonies that in places sound right out of the orchestral tone poems of Franz Liszt, in a way that is musically intriguing and not at all reactionary. Killmayer was very much an outsider in the academic musical culture of his time, which may explain why his works have not remained in print. That is a great loss to the contemporary musical community--a loss that I hope in part to redress with these two AGP installments.

The five works in AGP60 are all orchestral works, except Sappho: Five Greek Songs for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra, which features Anja Silja with the Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Stuttgart, conducted by the composer.

Check it out at:

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1154368/?rel=1178917092

If you don't want to register with demonoid, I'm going to upload a version to thepiratebay later tonight, but I can't do it now because I've just discovered they reject torrents with the demonoid info file in them, and if I simultaneously do two torrents, I'll split my meagre bandwidth in half.

Enjoy!

[loudav]

Here it is on mininova:

http://www.mininova.org/tor/700337

[Maciek]

Here it is on mininova:

http://www.mininova.org/tor/700337

This torrent does not exist...

[loudav]

Sorry about that.

AGP60 originally included four symphonic poems by Wilhelm Killmayer that I have since discovered have been re-issued by Wergo and are available at the Schott Music Shop, together with a number of other compositions by Killmayer. Having discovered that, I have withdrawn the torrent, and am making the one remaining AGP60 track available for direct download in the AGP archive:

http://www.avantgardeproject.org/agp60/index.htm

Three more out-of-print works by Killmayer make up part of AGP61.

My apologies to all concerned for this mistake. The good news is that I can now recommend the Schott Music Shop to AGP partisans as an excellent resource for avant-garde music CDs.

[Maciek]

Ah, well, I guess one free track by an unknown composer is better than none at all... 0:)

Don't worry, loudav! In fact, I wouldn't be downloading any of the AGPs if I didn't know your strict approach to copyright issues!

[oyasumi]

Are any releases particularly good for piano music?

[Maciek]

There's nothing dedicated to piano only, and I think no piano solo pieces in the strict sense of the term but you could try out AGP 12 (Concerto for piano and 19 instruments by Aribert Reimann), AGP 30 (Piano Music for Performer and Composer by Ilhan Mimaroglu), AGP 34 (Enactments for Three Pianos by Stefan Wolpe), and AGP 42 (Le Microphone Bien Tempere by Pierre Henry).

[loudav]

Why so few piano releases? I'm not sure, but...

1) Being a timbral hedonist, I do prefer ensemble, orchestral, and electroacoustic music from the late 20th century.

2) Piano is always a challenge to track on LPs, so I'm more likely to pass over piano works that don't make for good transcriptions.

3) Piano works by modern composers are more likely to be in print, since they're cheaper to record than orchestral and ensemble works are. Bussotti's piano works, for example, were passed over in AGP53-55 because they're available on CD.

I'll look in the stacks to see if there's something obvious I'm missing.

And thanks, Maciek, for your reply--I love the idea of Le Microphone Bien Tempere as sort of a work for piano! I'd add AGP49, which has a remarkable work for piano, harpsichord, and organ. Also, AGP27 has Berio's concerto for two pianos.

[Maciek]

I love the idea of Le Microphone Bien Tempere as sort of a work for piano!

Well, that's what I meant by "no piano solo pieces in the strict sense"...

[loudav]

Some possibilities: Maurice Ohana's 24 preludes, Milton Babbitt's piano works, and Boris Blacher's piano works have all been released on CD but are out of print. I think my recordings of Babbitt and Blacher are pretty good, but the Ohana may be lackluster. I'll have to see how well they track. Stay tuned, maybe somewhere in the AGP70's.

And in other news, I've just realized that none of the six Alexander Goehr works in my stacks have ever been released on CD. WTF? That should make the better part of two installments. It's great stuff!

[S709]

And in other news, I've just realized that none of the six Alexander Goehr works in my stacks have ever been released on CD. WTF? That should make the better part of two installments. It's great stuff!

Goehr seems really under-recorded for some reason... I've only very recently heard a bit of his music: the "Death of Moses" and "Sing, Ariel". A Goehr AGP would be fantastic!

[loudav]

Will do. Two LPs transcribed this weekend, and both tracked nicely. What a great composer--nothing flashy, but some really sound music. Great sense for piano. Should make up two installments, either before or after our upcoming festival of Henze.

[Maciek]

our upcoming festival of Henze.

Wow!

[Hau]

Can anybody help me to get Killmayer's Uberstehen from AGP60? Does anybody still have it? Unfortunately, that torrent is dead...