What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Mirror Image]

I meant that people talk about late Schoenberg like it's scary music, or somehow requires a large amount of study to understand, but I found that the music quite lucidly speaks for itself. It surprised me how easy it was to enjoy after having read all those opinions and expecting something "weird".

People's mentalities now should be accustomed to hearing the music of late Schoenberg. It's not that far removed from what is being composed today. His music is as approachable as Bartok's or Stravinsky's. It still retains a beautiful human quality, while, at the same time, transcending time and space.

[Papy Oli]

Good evening all 

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CD6 - Debussy - A selection from children's corner, Images I, Images II, Preludes Livre I

Debussy is still a tough nut to crack for me but gradually getting there.

[Henk]

Handel | Concerti Grossi / Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Paul Dyer

Great set. Playful performance.

Sciarrino - Omaggio a Burri; IV Sonata; La spazio inverso

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[Henk]

Cimarosa | Keyboard Sonatas

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[Scarpia]

I meant that people talk about late Schoenberg like it's scary music, or somehow requires a large amount of study to understand, but I found that the music quite lucidly speaks for itself. It surprised me how easy it was to enjoy after having read all those opinions and expecting something "weird".

Hmmm, I'm not sure what you mean by "late" Schoenberg, because he returned to a tonal idiom for some of his very late pieces.  In any case, I don't think that anyone should find Schoenberg atonal stuff "scarey" but I'd be surprised if they did not find it "weird."  After all, in that music he eschews the main organizing principal used in 300 years of European music.  It should sound "weird" when first encountered, otherwise I would be led to suspect that the listener lacks sensitivity.

[Sadko]

Now from this set:

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Chopin - Waltzes (Nikita Magaloff)

[Lethevich]

@Scarpia: I am not really super-knowledgable about Schoenberg, but I get the impression that he went ultra late Romantic to expressionist/free atonal to serialism, and I refer to his serial works as being "late", although I am not surprised that the chronology is more complex than this generalisation - danke for the correction!

Re. "weird" - it was mainly that it didn't use extended technique, it was structurally and texturally kind of like "normal" classical music, it was just harmonically unusual. As a basis for what I consider "weird" - it would be post WW2 serialism, which I don't get at this moment in time. Compared to that, Schoenberg's serialism sounds downright traditional.

np:
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The edit the Amazon reviewers mention is there, but as far as gaffes go it's not the most noticable. As for the performances, I don't agree with the negativity - these are easy-going, contoured, plush performances which quite admirably avoid heaviness. Schumann can be played without ratcheting up the drama, and I have no complaints here...

[Mirror Image]

Now:

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A recent acquisition. Great stuff!

[Scarpia]

@Scarpia: I am not really super-knowledgable about Schoenberg, but I get the impression that he went ultra late Romantic to expressionist/free atonal to serialism, and I refer to his serial works as being "late", although I am not surprised that the chronology is more complex than this generalisation - danke for the correction!

The general trend is right, but even after his "invention" of 12 tone music he continued to write scores using traditional techniques, although he typically didn't consider them his most significant.  The Variations Op 43, written in 1944, was a traditional tonal work.

Re. "weird" - it was mainly that it didn't use extended technique, it was structurally and texturally kind of like "normal" classical music, it was just harmonically unusual. As a basis for what I consider "weird" - it would be post WW2 serialism, which I don't get at this moment in time. Compared to that, Schoenberg's serialism sounds downright traditional.

You're quite right that Schoenberg respected many of the traditions of form even as he was writing his berserk harmony.  But it was only after some time that he felt he could manage to build extended structures using his new harmonic technique.  It is the transition stuff that I find difficult to digest.  His "pieces for orchestra" Op 16 strike me as the weirdest, and least successful of his works.  The mature atonal stuff seems very natural to me.

[Henk]

Clementi - Piano Sonata in D major, Op. 40 no. 3

Doesn't really impress me. More in the category of historical importancy.

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[Henk]

Hummel - Mass in D major, op. 111

First listening to this work. Also a genre I haven't explored much yet. Interesting composer to me.

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[Lethevich]

@Henk: Hummel is great, isn't it? Quite dense with musical content after a rather Italianette composer such as Clementi.

The general trend is right, but even after his "invention" of 12 tone music he continued to write scores using traditional techniques, although he typically didn't consider them his most significant.  The Variations Op 43, written in 1944, was a traditional tonal work.

You're quite right that Schoenberg respected many of the traditions of form even as he was writing his berserk harmony.  But it was only after some time that he felt he could manage to build extended structures using his new harmonic technique.  It is the transition stuff that I find difficult to digest.  His "pieces for orchestra" Op 16 strike me as the weirdest, and least successful of his works.  The mature atonal stuff seems very natural to me.

I do consider the early free atonal works hard going at times, although not so much the five pieces because I've listened to them so much, but they are definitely audibly exploring new ground and displaying the composer trying to get to grips with a new idiom. I find works like Pierrot Lunaire especially difficult due to the unhinged nature of the mood and harmony, but great fun when I can stomach it. Even Pelleas und Melisande I find harmoncially uncomfortable and extremely "hot" sounding.

[Mirror Image]

"hot" sounding.

Isn't this the phrase Webern used to describe Schoenberg's music? I can't remember the exact quote.

[Mirror Image]

Now:

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Fun! Fun! Fun!

[CD]

@Henk: Hummel is great, isn't it? Quite dense with musical content after a rather Italianette composer such as Clementi.

I do consider the early free atonal works hard going at times, although not so much the five pieces because I've listened to them so much, but they are definitely audibly exploring new ground and displaying the composer trying to get to grips with a new idiom. I find works like Pierrot Lunaire especially difficult due to the unhinged nature of the mood and harmony, but great fun when I can stomach it. Even Pelleas und Melisande I find harmoncially uncomfortable and extremely "hot" sounding.

That's what I love about the early works, esp. P&M — you feel like you're constantly on the edge of a cliff.

[Coopmv]

Now playing CD 5 - 4 Ballades and 2 Polonaises from this set for a first listen ...

[listener]

lp's     DEBUSSY   Le Boîte à joujoux,  Printemps
          Ansermet and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
          VERDI   String Quartet in e;  Johan(nes) WIKMANSON (1753-1800)  String Quartet in e, op. 1/2
          Saulesco Quartet

[Scarpia]

Listened to Stravinsky's Orpheus today (Jarvi and the Concertgebouw again).  I'm really not getting it.  The neoclassical style of Stravinsky really fascinates me in the symphonies, concertos and chamber pieces.  But I am not relating to this austere, neoclassical ballet, so far.

[Mirror Image]

Listened to Stravinsky's Orpheus today (Jarvi and the Concertgebouw again).  I'm really not getting it.  The neoclassical style of Stravinsky really fascinates me in the symphonies, concertos and chamber pieces.  But I am not relating to this austere, neoclassical ballet, so far.

Orpheus is beautiful work. It is quite melodic and, along with Apollon Musagete, it reveals, in truly Stravinskian fashion, a more lyrical side of his music.

[mc ukrneal]

Currently listening to Puccini's Messa di Gloria. Quite a wonderful piece, a precursor of what Puccini would become. The playing and singing are of generally high quality. In many moments I was reminded of one or more moments in his other operas, more for the style of the drama than the music itself, although he apparently recycled some it in other operas (Manon Lescaut for example).
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