What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[pjme]

Yesterday, live, on the radio : Honegger's "Le roi David" from the Montpellier /Radio France festival
Psaume symphonique en trois parties
d'après le drame de René Morax (1921)
In the original version with a small instrumental ensemble ( 18 instruments). This makes for a more "sturdy" almost hard sound .



André Wilms, récitant
Dany Kogan, récitante, la sorcière d'Endor

Guylaine Girard, soprano
Brigitte Vinson, mezzo-soprano
Julien Dran, ténor
Myriam Jarmache, soliste de la Maîtrise de Radio France
CHŒUR DE RADIO FRANCE
ORCHESTRE PHILHARMONIQUE DE RADIO FRANCE
Matthias Brauer, direction

Then from Musica mundi/Brussels/Genval : Fazil Say in

Haydn, Sonate C-dur
Bach, French Suite No. 6
Bach/Say, Fantasy g
Wagner/Liszt, Isoldes Liebestod
Prokofiev, Piano Sonata No. 7
Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue

I had a really enjoyable evening.

P.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

EDIT: the 'sad' symphony is No 11, some 30 minutes long. I've listened to it again today and the impression is quite reinforced. Many passages recall the harmonies and sound world of Prokofiev (movements I and III of 5), but I'm merely making a parallel to depict the atmosphere. Nothing I've heard really sounds like this work. I'm tempted to call this and 26 the most interesting of the dozen Brian symphonies I've heard so far.

Symphony 12 (the 'short' one) is a more turbulent affair, forbidding and somewhat prone to confrontation. Packed with events, but slightly baffling after two hearings.

Thanks, André, for reporting on your progress in cracking 'the Brian code'. It is always very interesting to see what people new to Brian make of his very individual idiom. You are absolutely right when you say if one dislikes the style, the sound, the ethos, it's no use keeping on. The reverse is true as well - once a Brian symphony speaks to you, you'll want to see if that experience could be replicated. I know this from Miaskovsky, some of whose symphonies (6, 19, 25, 27) I have an immediate rapport with, while others, their style and content roughly the same, remain closed...

Now to your remarks about some of the works. No. 11 is also a favourite of mine. The opening slow movement is deep and moving and the middle movement, that only seems to meander, is at once lively and 'sad', as you say, because though the music sometimes sounds child-like, the mind behind it is very old. Childhood remembered, which gives a melancholy tinge. (My explanation...) No. 12 is a short sharp shock - the funeral march at its centre is one of Brian's best. The work as a whole has something enigmatic, which more Brian symphonies share ('terseness gone too far', as Harold Truscott once opined, though not with regard to No. 12). No. 26, funnily enough, has never been a favourite of mine; it has some very good moments, but the symphonies flanking it are much stronger, especially 27.

[wintersway]

Good morning/day to all!

[bhodges]

Respighi Fountains of Rome
Dutoit/L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal
London

Would not mind owning this tandems entire catalogue.

Agree with that!  A week ago, when I was driving in south Texas, I had their Gershwin CD (An American in Paris, etc.) in the car. 

--Bruce

[Renfield]

Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (Paavo Järvi / Concertgebouw, live recording from July 21, 2008 on SymphonyCast, here) - An excellent performance, one of many archived on this site, and definitely worth hearing.  I don't have much experience with Järvi, either live or on recordings, but this makes me want to hear more of him.

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances (Vassily Sinaisky / Los Angeles Philharmonic, live recording from June 23, 2008, on SymphonyCast, here).  A bit heavy-handed, surprisingly, since I've been impressed with Sinaisky's work in the past.  The orchestra sounds excellent, it's just...too...slow (for me), without that springy, dance feel.  Since we were just discussing Ashkenazy's on another thread: his has much more verve.

--Bruce

Bruce, I was entirely unaware of that site. Wonderful new bookmark: thank you!


And I'm listening to an inspiring "Der Freischütz" overture from Ivan Fischer and the RCO as provided by the above, with an interesting program for that entire concert. However, I'm not sure I'll listen to the whole of it right now, due to needing to get some work done.

[Lethevich]

John Pickard - The Flight of Icarus

This is the work included on the new BIS CD, but in a different (non-commercial) broadcasted performance, and I've reuploaded it here because it's rather amazing, and should be sampled by anybody with a decent connection.

Points of reference are Holst, Strauss and Stravinsky. The most immediate thing about this music is how little of a challenge it is to listen to. There is no having to accustom yourself to a "unique" compositional system, or any extremes in any direction, it's solid orchestral music beautifully written. This is pretty much what I was expecting based on reviews of the BIS CD, but I wasn't anticipating how good the work would actually be. IMO a lot of tonal classical music written recently falls into a few categories:

1. "Traditional" - in something resembling the British mid 20th century style based in familiar movement layouts and with a familiar sound.
2. "Post-minimal" - in some way indebted to or influenced by 60s-70s American minimalism, or the eastern European style from the late 70s-90s.
3. Mood/depictive music, in a similar style used by Hollywood composers. The writing in this can feel slightly two-dimensional or not fully symphonic, rather suite-like.

The interesting thing about The Flight of Icarus is how it does not fall into any of those categories. It keeps ratcheting up tension throughout the first two thirds (presumably corrosponding with the two of three continuous movements that the piece is in - the broadcast rip is all in one movement). The orchestration is both brilliant and confident, percussion is used very liberally without being bombastic. The symphonic momentum throughout is quite masterful, and with this constant forward movement the work never becomes episodic or at any point "sags". When I first called it "easy" to listen to, this referred to the directness with which the composer is able to communicate by writing in a generally tonal style, but obviously without any interest in producing simply "pretty" music. There is a lot going on, and it engages the mind as all good music should.

Essentially, the work ticks all the right boxes. I wasn't sure that music like this was being written anymore, and it's ever so good :3

[bhodges]

Bruce, I was entirely unaware of that site. Wonderful new bookmark: thank you!


And I'm listening to an inspiring "Der Freischütz" overture from Ivan Fischer and the RCO as provided by the above, with an interesting program for that entire concert. However, I'm not sure I'll listen to the whole of it right now, due to needing to get some work done.

Oh cool!    Yes, they have quite a few tasty items there!  I have come a bit late to online listening--just prefer CD quality on my sound system, generally--but have discovered this and other sources for live concerts to be quite enjoyable. 

Also check out www.medici.tv, which has concerts from this summer from Aspen, Aix-en-Provence and Verbier. 

(Sorry, there goes all your free time.  )

--Bruce

[Renfield]

(Sorry, there goes all your free time.  )

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

John Luther Adams: Dark Waves (Jaap van Zweden / Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, live recording 15 Dec 07) - You can listen to it via The New Yorker magazine, here.  I must have listened to this 7 or 8 times by now, and it grows more fascinating with each hearing. 

Interesting, Bruce; that's a fellow I know only his name.

[karlhenning]

Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Rostropovich/LPO (Final Act only)

Need to listen to the whole thing sometime soon.....But the last act is a great one....

Magnificent piece!

[Sergeant Rock]

By coincidence, I've been listening to symphonies 27-30 these past few days. For some reason # 27 has by far the best recording, quite suited to the open air  character of the music. I wouldn't go so far as to term it 'pastoral', but it does sound distinctly of the English tradition. By contrast, the Stokowski-led 28th suffers from a noisy recording and restricted dynamic range. It's still good enough to reveal a baffling, now coruscating, now gruff and dementially dissonnant score of great power. I listened to these two twice, and once only to 29 and 30. I haven't made up my mind about them yet. But there's no doubt I'll listen to 28 often.

Even by Brian standards this is indeed a baffling score, one that begins deceptively simple and carefree and ends with an astonishingly "modern" outburst. One would never guess where it's heading by those opening bars. By the way, MacDonald criticizes Stokowski's interpretation, saying he seriously misrepresents the score by playing the second movement much too slowly and by too prominent percussion. Still, I'm very glad we have this recording; the symphony has become one of my favorites.

Sarge

[bhodges]

Interesting, Bruce; that's a fellow I know only his name.

Prior to this article, I had only heard portions of The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies, an extreme study in minimalism for percussion.  "Wail," for example, uses a siren, slowly cranked up to a climax and then just as slowly brought back to stillness.  (Those wanting counterpoint should look elsewhere.  ) 

Dark Waves, on the other hand, while still minimal, has much more going on, and I can't quite figure out "what" yet, since I haven't seen the score or many notes about it.  I don't even know exactly how Adams combines electronics with the orchestra.  (Just need to spend the time to do a little more research.)  Ross writes about it:

"One of the most arresting American orchestral works of recent years, it suggests a huge entity, of indeterminate shape, that approaches slowly, exerts apocalyptic force, and then recedes. Every instrument is, in one way or another, playing with the simple interval of the perfect fifth—the basic building block of harmony—but at the climax the lines coalesce into roaring dissonances, with all twelve notes of the chromatic scale sounding together."

Edit: here's the recording of the percussion piece.



--Bruce

[karlhenning]

"Wail," for example, uses a siren, slowly cranked up to a climax and then just as slowly brought back to stillness.

There must be ten or fifteen cities where I've heard that performed!  He must be raking in the royalties 

[bhodges]

There must be ten or fifteen cities where I've heard that performed!  He must be raking in the royalties 

--Bruce

[Sergeant Rock]

There must be ten or fifteen cities where I've heard that performed!  He must be raking in the royalties 

Indeed...even in my village it's played every Saturday, precisely at noon.

Sarge

[karlhenning]

I'm working on a piece, Foghorn . . . .

[johnQpublic]

LPs

Mancinelli - Overture to "Cleopatre" (Scimone/Erato)
Mendelssohn - Octet (Tokyo & Cleveland/RCA)
Borodin - Polovtsian Dances (Kubelik/Seraphim)

[ChamberNut]

Good morning! 

Tchaikovsky

String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11

String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 22

Keller Quartet
Erato

[Sergeant Rock]

Listened once again to Havergal Brian's symphonies 12 and 28. Listening now to Daniel Barenboim playing Beethoven's Sonata in D Major, op.10/3, a favorite of Brian's, particularly the Largo, "a remarkable piece of tragic music, eloquent enough for a funeral march."

Sarge

[Keemun]

Good morning! 

Tchaikovsky

String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11

String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 22

Keller Quartet
Erato

What a coincidence, I just put this on:

Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 3 (Borodin SQ)

Tchaikovsky's string quartets are among my favorites.