What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Harry]

Finally found my copy of this Hendrik Andriessen cd, OOP for long. I remember it was recorded back in 1991 in the Geertekerk (St. Gertrude Church) in Utrecht, just a few steps from my home at that moment. But forgot to buy it when it was still available, and made a long search to find a copy now (that is to say, for 6 euro in stead of Amazon's $152.91 ...).

Now playing: the Chromatic variations (1970):

                                      

Andriessen never got to my circle of listenable composers alas....

[Christo]

Andriessen never got to my circle of listenable composers alas....

I can only agree with the "alas", for there's much to enjoy with Andriessen père.  To put it simple: I can't imagine people who wouldn't love his easy-going Kuhnau and Couperin Variations - both included in this cd. But his best work are probably his masses and other larger liturgical pieces, often unrecorded.  0:)

In honest, what do you dislike about him? 

[Harry]

I can only agree with the "alas", for there's much to enjoy with Andriessen père.  To put it simple: I can't imagine people who wouldn't love his easy-going Kuhnau and Couperin Variations - both included in this cd. But his best work are probably his masses and other larger liturgical pieces, often unrecorded.  0:)

In honest, what do you dislike about him? 

That is as difficult as explaining why I feel something for Scarlett Johanssen, and don't give a jot about the new rebuild Meg Ryan.
Its simply his more modern works that gives me a scare, without being disrespectful to the composer Christo, as I must add.

[Subotnick]

I've just converted another lp to mp3 that's been collecting dust in the attic. I believe I've heard a track or 2 before, but the lp is mainly new to me. Van Cliburn is a name I know of but have hardly ever come across. I have no idea of his standing as a pianist or of this recording. All I can say is that after the last few notes of the Polonaise No. 6, side 1 is off to a very good start.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

That is as difficult as explaining why I feel something for Scarlett Johanssen, and don't give a jot about the new rebuild Meg Ryan.
Its simply his more modern works that gives me a scare, without being disrespectful to the composer Christo, as I must add.

I wonder if you are talking about Louis Andriessen here, Harry. Christo loves Hendrik Andriessen's music.

[Christo]

I wonder if you are talking about Louis Andriessen here, Harry. Christo loves Hendrik Andriessen's music.

(Thnx. I didn't dare to ask ...) 

[Keemun]

Listening to No. 1 right now.  Wonderful. 

[not edward]

Mahler 3 & 5 (RCO/Chailly).
Before I got the Chailly set last year I had totally burnt out on both of these works. I guess sometimes a new perspective on music is what I need--now these are amongst the highlights of my Mahler collection. I can't exactly put my finger on what Chailly does to make the performances as revelatory as they are for me, but I'm glad of it.

[karlhenning]

I guess sometimes a new perspective on music is what [one needs]

Quoted for Truth.

[Harry]

I wonder if you are talking about Louis Andriessen here, Harry. Christo loves Hendrik Andriessen's music.

Blimey yes I did.



Glitter Text Maker

[Moldyoldie]

Still: Symphony No. 2 "Song of a New Race"
Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony
Ellington: Harlem
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, cond.
CHANDOS
A few months ago I was introduced to the music of William Grant Still (d. 1978) via these same forces in their recording of his Afro-American Symphony, purported to be the first such work by an African-American composer to be played by a major orchestra (the New York Philharmonic in 1930).  I commented: "....while this symphony is fleetingly entertaining, it's not a very elaborate musical expression."   Still's second symphony "Song of a New Race" seemingly eschews much of the European-derived formalism heard in that earlier work and strives for a more "homegrown" classical/folk idiom. Again, Järvi and the DSO immerse themselves in it, though here their playing is freer and more alive to the expressive possibilities the score presents.  Irrespective of the composer's own predilection to "....[represent] the American colored man of today; in so many instances a totally new individual produced through the fusion of white, Indian, and Negro bloods....", this later music (premiered in 1937 by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra) presents the listener with a more delightfully varied, colorful, and thoroughly American expression while adhering to classical musical ideals.   Though culminating powerfully, the symphony oddly ends on a harumph of a note, but...

...it segues most comfortably with the Negro Folk Symphony of William Levi Dawson (d. 1990), a renowned arranger of choral spirituals and whose long career included founding the music school at Tuskegee Institute.  According to the notes, he began work on his symphony in Chicago where he received his master's degree in composition from the American Conservatory of Music and later presented the score to Stokowski in New York while touring with the Tuskegee Choir.  Suggestions were made by the famous maestro for the work's expansion and the final work was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934.  The first movement, titled "The Bond of Africa", commences with a soulful clarion theme on a solo French horn which is echoed and varied throughout by strings, winds and dynamically by the trombones -- it peculiarly evokes in this listener's mind a sort of African-American Wagner!   The second movement, "Hope in the Night", begins softly but leads to some powerful swells of various percussion and brass again echoing the main theme.  The finale, "O, le' me shine, shine like a Morning Star!", is a colorful and uplifting working of the main theme with the DSO treating us to a wide-ranging and exhilirating orchestral workout.

Duke Ellington (d. 1974) was world famous when he composed Harlem in 1950 on the sea voyage home from a successful European tour with his band.  Again according to the notes, it was originally commissioned by Arturo Toscanini to be part of a Portrait of New York suite, but the maestro's infirmities precluded him from conducting the piece.  Ellington's band recorded it in 1954 and Don Gillis performed it in Carnegie Hall the following year with the Symphony of the Air, the successor to Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra.  If you've yet to hear it, this is about as colorful, jazzy, and swingin' as an orchestra gets!  The DSO revels in it...and I can just picture Estonian giant Neeme Järvi groovin' uncontrollably and tapping his toes on the podium!

As per usual in Detroit's Orchestra Hall, Chandos provides the most naturally vivid recorded sound imaginable for a most entertaining 74 minute program!

[Harry]

(Thnx. I didn't dare to ask ...) 

Well you could have, and spare me the embarrassment......

[Harry]

Listening to No. 1 right now.  Wonderful. 

Yes, that is in many respects a very fine recording. I bought this a very long time ago.

[Harry]

Still: Symphony No. 2 "Song of a New Race"
Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony
Ellington: Harlem
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, cond.
CHANDOS
A few months ago I was introduced to the music of William Grant Still (d. 1978) via these same forces in their recording of his Afro-American Symphony, purported to be the first such work by an African-American composer to be played by a major orchestra (the New York Philharmonic in 1930).  I commented: "....while this symphony is fleetingly entertaining, it's not a very elaborate musical expression."   Still's second symphony "Song of a New Race" seemingly eschews much of the European-derived formalism heard in that earlier work and strives for a more "homegrown" classical/folk idiom. Again, Järvi and the DSO immerse themselves in it, though here their playing is freer and more alive to the expressive possibilities the score presents.  Irrespective of the composer's own predilection to "....[represent] the American colored man of today; in so many instances a totally new individual produced through the fusion of white, Indian, and Negro bloods....", this later music (premiered in 1937 by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra) presents the listener with a more delightfully varied, colorful, and thoroughly American expression while adhering to classical musical ideals.   Though culminating powerfully, the symphony oddly ends on a harumph of a note, but...

...it segues most comfortably with the Negro Folk Symphony of William Levi Dawson (d. 1990), a renowned arranger of choral spirituals and whose long career included founding the music school at Tuskegee Institute.  According to the notes, he began work on his symphony in Chicago where he received his master's degree in composition from the American Conservatory of Music and later presented the score to Stokowski in New York while touring with the Tuskegee Choir.  Suggestions were made by the famous maestro for the work's expansion and the final work was premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934.  The first movement, titled "The Bond of Africa", commences with a soulful clarion theme on a solo French horn which is echoed and varied throughout by strings, winds and dynamically by the trombones -- it peculiarly evokes in this listener's mind a sort of African-American Wagner!   The second movement, "Hope in the Night", begins softly but leads to some powerful swells of various percussion and brass again echoing the main theme.  The finale, "O, le' me shine, shine like a Morning Star!", is a colorful and uplifting working of the main theme with the DSO treating us to a wide-ranging and exhilirating orchestral workout.

Duke Ellington (d. 1974) was world famous when he composed Harlem in 1950 on the sea voyage home from a successful European tour with his band.  Again according to the notes, it was originally commissioned by Arturo Toscanini to be part of a Portrait of New York suite, but the maestro's infirmities precluded him from conducting the piece.  Ellington's band recorded it in 1954 and Don Gillis performed it in Carnegie Hall the following year with the Symphony of the Air, the successor to Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra.  If you've yet to hear it, this is about as colorful, jazzy, and swingin' as an orchestra gets!  The DSO revels in it...and I can just picture Estonian giant Neeme Järvi groovin' uncontrollably and tapping his toes on the podium!

As per usual in Detroit's Orchestra Hall, Chandos provides the most naturally vivid recorded sound imaginable for a most entertaining 74 minute program!

A good write up, and it concurs with my own findings several years ago, when I bought this. My listening notes speak volumes. A splendid example of how good Grant Still can sound.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Blimey yes I did.

I thought as much... (I don't care much for Louis Andriessen either, to be honest.)

(Thnx. I didn't dare to ask ...) 

Glad to be of assistance. 

[karlhenning]

Langgaard
Symphony № 4, Løvfald (Leaf-fall), 1916
Danish National Radio Symphony
Frandsen

I sense a Langaardalia in the offing . . . .

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Langgaard
Symphony № 4, Løvfald (Leaf-fall), 1916
Danish National Radio Symphony
Frandsen

The 4th? One of his best.

Happy Langgaardalia!

[ChamberNut]

Listening to No. 1 right now.  Wonderful. 

Very nice Todd!  I hear that is the standard set for Borodin SQs.

Thread duty:

Beethoven

Trio in E flat major, Op. 38 (after the Septet, op. 20)
Trio in D major, Op. 70/1 Ghost

BAT
Philips

[Coopmv]

Bill,  How is this CD?

[Brian]

What....no 'Ernie'

Moeran = drogulus?