What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Harry]

A really fine disc, well recorded and performed, and the music is...well devastatingly beautiful. A firm recommendation. Lovers of the Harpsichord grab this bargain up before its gone. A small Glossa sale on JPC.

[karlhenning]

More Martinů!

Martinů
Concertino, H. 269 (1938)
Giorgio Koukl
Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic
Arthur Fagen

Martinů – Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 / Concertino

[pjme]

Jolivet's last concerto. A difficult and tough score, ca 33 minutes.
The last couple of days I took time to really listen & concentrate. It is music that I like ...



Mademoiselle Faust has a pretty face... albeit the wrong one for Jolivet's violinistic witches' brew.

Possibly this would do better.

[listener]

A-B-C, and then go to L
AURIC: Partita for 2 pianos      Doubles jeux for 2 pianos    Geneviève Joy, Christian Ivaldi
   Trio for Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon     4 Songs
BACH: Violin Concerto in a, BWV.1041,  2-Violin Concertos BWV 1042,1043
   Musical Heritage reissue of the 1967 Teldec recordings
   Alice Harnoncourt, Walter Pfeiffer, violins    Vienna Concentus Musicus
   Nikolaus Harnoncourt, cond.
CONVERSE  The Mystic Trumpeter) (after a poem by Whitman, not included, nor is there a trumpet solo of any importance)     CARPENTER: Skyscrapers
   Vienna Symphony O.,Schoenherr, von Zallinger, cond.
LOCKE   Suites in c, G and C for viols, part-songs
   Elizabethan Consort of Viols                 Golden Age Singers

[Opus106]

Thread duty: Dvořák | Silent Woods | Arto Noras (cello) | Kuopio SO | Markus Lehitnen

[kishnevi]

Five in total. The other disc in the Naxos series has 1, 2 and 4; the first of which is arguably rather slight, but the other two of which are major Tippett works (the second quartet is in his Beethoven-inflected early style, the fourth--which is probably my favourite of the five--is related to the fourth symphony in both its musical style and also its 'birth to death' narrative).

Am listening to SQ 3 even as I type this.  I don't see how anyone could not like this work.  The roots in Beethoven sound fairly clear to my ears.   I'll definitely be getting the other CD soon.

Meanwhile, I listened to that Arte Nova Martinu disc again this morning.  I think the problem I had with it was with the music itself, not the performance.  Too much dissonance and fragmentation for my taste.  Are those works typical of Martinu's style (Duo Concertante for 2 Violins,   Violin Concerto No. 2, Concerto for 2 Violins)?

[Drasko]

[Conor71]

Lovely!

[Franco]

Horn Trio (1981)
Charles Wuorinen
Group for Contemporary Music


A fantastic group of works that I have not heretofore spent much time with - but am enjoying immensely right now!

[Mirror Image]

I am confused by these two sentences.

I made the necessary corrections, Corey.

[Mirror Image]

Britten
Sinfonia da requiem, Opus 20
CBSO
Rattle

The Rattle and Previn are good, but it's hard to top the composer's own recordings. Britten was a very capable conductor and he knew what he was doing.

[Sid]

Yesterday night on radio 2mbs-fm Sydney
www.2mbs.com

CHAMBER SOIRÉE with Pat Hopper Prepared by Judy Ekstein

Hummel, J. Piano trio no 5 in E, op 83 (pub. 1819).
Herzogenberg, H. Trio in D, op 61 (1889).
Beethoven, L. Sonata no 9 in A, op 47, [Kreutzer] (1803).
Janácek, L. Quartet no 1 (1924).

& later on tonight:

ROMANTIC INITIATIVES The innovators with Elaine Siversen

Gluck, C. Suite from Don Juan (1761); Chè farò senza Euridice? from Orpheus and Eurydice (1762); Dance of the furies, from Orpheus and Eurydice.
Field, J. Nocturnes (1812): no 1 in E flat; no 2 in C minor; no 3 in A flat.
Beethoven, L. Triple concerto in C, op 56 (1803-04); To the distant beloved, op 98 (1816).
Lanner, J. Pesther-Waltzer, op 93 (1834); Evening star waltz, op 180 (1841).
Strauss, J. I Philomel waltz, op 82.

BAROQUE AND BEFORE with Andrew Bukenya Prepared by Elaine Siversen

Rameau, J-P. Suite from Dardanus (1739).
Couperin, F. The French, from The nations (1726).
Chambonnières, J. de Suite no 3 in D minor.
Attaingnant, P. Bransles de Bourgogne.
Corbeil, P. de The fool's service and the donkey Mass.

[not edward]

Meanwhile, I listened to that Arte Nova Martinu disc again this morning.  I think the problem I had with it was with the music itself, not the performance.  Too much dissonance and fragmentation for my taste.  Are those works typical of Martinu's style (Duo Concertante for 2 Violins,   Violin Concerto No. 2, Concerto for 2 Violins)?

Honestly, I'd say they're fairly typical works for the periods they come from, though in my opinion only the second violin concerto is major Martinu: the other two works I find rather slight.

[Mirror Image]

I listened to that Arte Nova Martinu disc again this morning.  I think the problem I had with it was with the music itself, not the performance.  Too much dissonance and fragmentation for my taste.  Are those works typical of Martinu's style (Duo Concertante for 2 Violins,   Violin Concerto No. 2, Concerto for 2 Violins)?

If you don't like the overall style, then you're not going to like Martinu. As Edward points out, Violin Concerto No. 2 is a major work. The way Martinu composed was in these fragmented melodies, but what carries these little phrases are his rhythms and those rather ambiguous chord voicings. Martinu also used a lot of syncopated rhythmic motifs in the music. The way he seamlessly blended all of these different elements into his music is truly interesting, but I can certainly understand how this could turn some people off to his music.

My only suggestion is don't give up on him just yet. As I may have mentioned (perhaps not in this thread), that it took me a year to appreciate him. Alot of this appreciation came from repeated listening and also reading about his life and his influences in music. I read an interview on the Martinu website where the intereviewer asked him what his main musical influences were and he said "Debussy," but he then later said that he also loved English madrigals, but also he mentioned Czech folk music as an influence. So here we have Debussy, English madrigal, and Czech folk music. Three pretty interesting influences I would say.

Like Villa-Lobos and Milhaud, Martinu was an incredibly prolific composer. His detractors find fault in this by saying his output is uneven, but I honestly haven't found but two or three works that I didn't enjoy in everything that I've heard so far.

I think many people just don't like his music and that's fine as long as they've given him a fair trial. Try a few more works and if the style still doesn't appeal to you, then take a break. Come back in a week, a month, a year, or whatever, but I know for me, it took awhile to appreciate him. Hopefully, you'll give him another chance. Try out other recordings. Maybe check his symphonies out? If you choose to pursue the symphonies, please stay away from Fagen's Naxos recordings. They are terrible. Search for Neumann's symphony recordings on Supraphon with the Czech Philharmonic.

[Mirror Image]

Now:

[listener]

Tadeusz BAIRD Trouvère Songs for soprano, 2 flutes and cello
   4 songs to poems by Vesna Parum  for mezzo-sop. & chamber orch
   Epiphany Music      4 Novelettes for Chamber Orch.
Krystyna Szostek-Radkowa,  Warsaw Nat. Phil. O.     Rowicki, cond
MOZART   2 Divertimenti for 3 Basset-horns  K439b nos 2&4
  6 Notturni for 4 Voices and 3 Basset-Horns  K.436-439a & 549
FRIEDMAN Tempo di Menuetto - transcription of the 2nd mvt of Mahler's Symphony no.3
  Frülingstimmen    after Johann Strauss Jr.,   Studies on a Theme of Paganini
Peter Froundjian, piano

[Mirror Image]

Tomorrow on my list:



I'm hoping to be able to squeeze some time in for at least the first disc of this highly acclaimed box set.

[kishnevi]

Tomorrow on my list:



I'm hoping to be able to squeeze some time in for at least the first disc of this highly acclaimed box set.

Have you had much exposure to Ligeti?  If not, I suggest listening to only one work at a time, instead of playing one disc all at one time.

I have that box, and it's a dubious pleasure.  Everything starts to sound the same, and it's only by paying attention to the soloists, to see what instruments are involved, or constantly checking the track on the CD player, that I can tell which piece I am hearing.
This sameness extends throughout his career.   What Stravinsky is said to have uttered about Vivaldi--that he didn't write four hundred odd concertos;  he wrote one concerto four hundred odd times--can apply to Ligeti's orchestral music.  The only work I completely enjoy in that set is the Hungarian Concerto, which sticks out like a sore thumb-, because it was written to please Communist ideology about socialist realism.

I deeply love his piano works and string quartets, but I think his style was much more suited to small forces than large forces.  I'm not sad I have this set, but it gets played very  very infrequently.

[CD]

Brilliant music-making, especially the Ballade for Piano and the 1st PC.

[Mirror Image]

Have you had much exposure to Ligeti?  If not, I suggest listening to only one work at a time, instead of playing one disc all at one time.

I have that box, and it's a dubious pleasure.  Everything starts to sound the same, and it's only by paying attention to the soloists, to see what instruments are involved, or constantly checking the track on the CD player, that I can tell which piece I am hearing.
This sameness extends throughout his career.   What Stravinsky is said to have uttered about Vivaldi--that he didn't write four hundred odd concertos;  he wrote one concerto four hundred odd times--can apply to Ligeti's orchestral music.  The only work I completely enjoy in that set is the Hungarian Concerto, which sticks out like a sore thumb-, because it was written to please Communist ideology about socialist realism.

I deeply love his piano works and string quartets, but I think his style was much more suited to small forces than large forces.  I'm not sad I have this set, but it gets played very  very infrequently.

I actually haven't had much exposure to Ligeti at all. I only heard one work and it is, believe it or not, the work you like so well the Hamburg Concerto. I heard this work on AOL radio years ago and didn't think much of it then but I have been hearing Ligeti's name pop up in classical forums, so I decided to take a chance on at least one box set, which I bought ridiculously cheap (around $14-$16). This one was the highest rated, so I bought it.

I'm not sure if I'll like any of the music in this box set, but I won't know until I have listened to some of his music.