What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[George]

Bartok String Quartet #4 (Takacs)

Wow.

We should start a Bartok listening thread, starting with #1 and working forward. I'd enjoying going back and listeng to one or more interpretations of each of the SQ.

Or maybe we should just do it in the exisiting thread? 

[Keemun]

Oh you be jahmmin'.

You know it. 

What a weird duck Boulez can be. He's got a stick reverse up his G-I tract over Shostakovich; yet he deigns to conduct Bruckner.

Well, his character is no better than it has to be, I suppose; but he sure is a man of sharp prejudices.

I wasn't aware of his position on Shostakovich.  Still, as a fan Bruckner, and generally not a Shostakovich fan, this prejudice does not bother me.    I'm grateful he conducts Bruckner; and quite well at that.

[karlhenning]

I wasn't aware of his position on Shostakovich.  Still, as a fan Bruckner, and generally not a Shostakovich fan, this prejudice does not bother me.    I'm grateful he conducts Bruckner; and quite well at that.

Glad to know that he does Bruckner justice, Keemun!

[Scarpia]

Glad to know that he does Bruckner justice, Keemun!

That's debatable, IMO.

[karlhenning]

Of course.

[Henk]

[AndyD.]

First Listen to Bartok's 6th SQ (Takacs)

So sad. There's some I'm-going-out-of-my-mind, tidal dissonance here. Not entirely dissimilar to Schoenberg. The application of chromatics is stunningly ingenuous.

I went too long not knowing Bartok, I'm getting inspired to write again.

It's really strange how, I can feel appreciate this style from Bartok (and to a slightly lesser degree Schoenberg), and yet an somewhat similar, obviously excellent composer like Shostakovich rarely appeals to me. Go figure.

[karlhenning]

I went too long not knowing Bartok, I'm getting inspired to write again.

Splendid!

[George]

I went too long not knowing Bartok, I'm getting inspired to write again.

Awesome!

It's really strange how, I can feel appreciate this style from Bartok (and to a slightly lesser degree Schoenberg), and yet an somewhat similar, obviously excellent composer like Shostakovich rarely appeals to me. Go figure.

I don't see Shostakovich as similar to Bartok - or at least I have found the former much easier to "get" (not to mention adore) while the latter took quite awhile for me to warm to.

[AndyD.]

Awesome!

I don't see Shostakovich as similar to Bartok - or at least I have found the former much easier to "get" (not to mention adore) while the latter took quite awhile for me to warm to.

That's amazing! I never had much emotional or mental connection to Shosty's music, while Bartok was immediate. I mention both because they each had that post-Tristan und Isolde supa chromatic/dissonant factor in some of their most famous works.

[George]

That's amazing! I never had much emotional or mental connection to Shosty's music, while Bartok was immediate.

Yeah and for me, the reverse is true. Which works and recordings of DSCH are we talking about, BTW?

[Benji]

Martinu's 6th Symphony with the Czech Philharmonic under Ancerl.

Over and over and over and over again. I just can't enough.

[AndyD.]

Yeah and for me, the reverse is true. Which works and recordings of DSCH are we talking about, BTW?

Please forgive me, I feel really dumb, but what is DSCH? Dmitri Shost...?

[karlhenning]

No, not dumb in the least, Andy!

Yes, that's his initials (which he used as a musical monogram);  the Cyrillic character Ш (the first letter in "Shostakovich") is transliterated sh in English, sch in German.

[karlhenning]

The musical monogram is D, E-flat ('S', Es in German), C, B-natural (H in German).

[George]

Please forgive me, I feel really dumb, but what is DSCH? Dmitri Shost...?

Yeah, a shorthand for the lazy (like me.) 

[bhodges]

Over the weekend, a friend programmed a little Wolfgang Rihm concert:

Rihm: String Quartet No. 2 (Minguet Quartett)
Rihm: Time Chant (Anne-Sophie Mutter/James Levine/Chicago SO)
Rihm: Jagden und Formen (Dominique My/Ensemble Modern)

--Bruce

[AndyD.]

My Shosta collection:

Haitink Complete Decca Symphonies
Karajan 10
Bernstein 5 and 9
Fitzwilliam SQs
I've got the Fugues but I can't remember who the heck it is.

A couple of incidental, but good, performances of the symphonies (Barshai)

I'm really off topic now, because I'm listening to Whitesnake's In the Heart of the City. Sorry!

[Henk]

SQ no.1

First listen to these discs, had it already for some times.

[Mirror Image]

Now:


Still making my way through the Milhaud symphonies. Listening to Symphony No. 7 right now.