What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[PaulR]

4 pieces for Violin and Piano

I bought sheet music for the transcription of the piece for the bass, except when I received it, there wasn't a bass part   Just two piano parts, one with orchestral tuning, the other for solo tuning.  Maybe someday, I'll take the orchestral tuning one and just insert the bass part so I can play it.

[Coco]

It's been a while. Anyone remembers me?



4th was just ok. I guess I expected more. 5th sonata was a bit hysteric. I don't like hysteric. I can't cope with Scriabin's school of Russian hysteric piano.  6th sonata is really good.

Nice to see you again.

[Luke]

I don't post much on this thread, at least not about my own listening. So when I am roused to do so perhaps it means...um...something. Anyway. This:



An utterly awesome recording. Get it for the Scriabin, which you will not hear better played, but the Tchaikovsky is phenomenal too. Haven't enjoyed it so much for years (though I rarely listen to it, to be fair).

The Scriabin, of course, is a sublime piece. One of those perfect, not-a-note-out-of-place pieces which I have never seen anything other than the deepest praise for, even from those who don't really like Scriabin (me, I love him, I feel a real musical affinity for him as I feel very rarely for any composer; compositionally speaking, I feel very close to him at times). The Concerto, as I'm sure most of you know, is a supremely romantic piece, as heart on sleeve as any Rachmaninov concerto and with, dare I say, more concision and less waste. The slow movement is a set of variations built on a theme as stunningly heavenly as that of comparable movement of the Ravel Concerto in G - and that is saying a great deal. Demidenko is awesomely committed and poetic in this reading; the disc is a winner.

Hey, maybe I'm just under a bit of a spell right now, but I'm always in love with this piece when I've just heard it, you'll have to forgive me!

[Scarpia]

I like Demidenko and would be tempted to get it if the thought of having another Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto wasn't so distasteful.   

[Luke]

I like Demidenko and would be tempted to get it if the thought of having another Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto wasn't so distasteful.   

I know! I agonised too! Then I gave in, because I wanted the Scriabin so much - had heard such good things of it, and adored the piece already. And then, you know what - the Tchaikovsky is played with just the same fire and insight as the Scriabin, and I found my reactions to the piece following a completely different path to the usual ones - it seemed new again, in a sense, or at any rate I could hear what was new about it when it was written in a way I haven't for a while. I still feel a bit grubby about it; I wish the Scriabin had been paired with something like e.g. the Rimsky-Korsakov Concerto, which has been done before and which works well. But I guess it wouldn't have shifted units so well then...

[Scarpia]

I know! I agonised too! Then I gave in, because I wanted the Scriabin so much - had heard such good things of it, and adored the piece already. And then, you know what - the Tchaikovsky is played with just the same fire and insight as the Scriabin, and I found my reactions to the piece following a completely different path to the usual ones - it seemed new again, in a sense, or at any rate I could hear what was new about it when it was written in a way I haven't for a while. I still feel a bit grubby about it; I wish the Scriabin had been paired with something like e.g. the Rimsky-Korsakov Concerto, which has been done before and which works well. But I guess it wouldn't have shifted units so well then...

I don't want the Tchaikovsky to seem "new" again.  I hated it the first time I heard it!     It seems to have been conceived for those "greatest melodies of classical music" collections because there is 30 seconds of awesomeness at the beginning, and that is it, it never comes back. 

Maybe I'll buy the FLAC download of the Scriabin tracks from Hyperion's site.

[Luke]

I don't want the Tchaikovsky to seem "new" again.  I hated it the first time I heard it!     It seems to have been conceived for those "greatest melodies of classical music" collections because there is 30 seconds of awesomeness at the beginning, and that is it, it never comes back. 

I know what you mean (though for me, there are moments throughout which make it worthwhile - it's just that formal imbalance that spoils it)

Maybe I'll buy the FLAC download of the Scriabin tracks from Hyperion's site.

Good idea, that sounds like the ideal solution

[Lethevich]

I don't want the Tchaikovsky to seem "new" again.  I hated it the first time I heard it!     It seems to have been conceived for those "greatest melodies of classical music" collections because there is 30 seconds of awesomeness at the beginning, and that is it, it never comes back. 

If you just skip the intro it'll never be there in the first place

Edit: On topic - I have that disc, although don't have much love for either piece atm ;_;

[Conor71]

Stockhausen: Chamber Music

Good morning - first classical listen of the day!.
Now playing the second disc in this set. Disc 1 was an easy listen and featured a percussion piece and some experimental electronic/ambient sounds and was'nt too dissimilar to a Brian Eno Disc I played first thing this morning. I really quite like ambient music and enjoyed the Eno and the first side of the Stockhausen quite a bit!  .
Planning on listening to some more modern Music today from my small collection of works and will listen to more Xenakis and Ligeti later today - enjoyable and stimulating listening and I can see why members like Coco (Corey) and Philoctetes, etc. enjoy listening to a lot of modern stuff! .

[Conor71]

- Re-listened to the Xenakis last night and will listen to the rest of the set today too - Its really quite interesting music for me and a worthwhile listening despite my reservations about the seeming lack of structure .

[bhodges]

Conor71, you might be interested in some of Xenakis's scores (if you haven't seen them already), such as this one for Pithoprakta. Many of them are graphically quite beautiful (even if a bit of a mystery, compared to conventional music notation), and point to his interests in art, architecture and mathematics.

A search for "Xenakis score" in Google images will produce many others--all fascinating. 

--Bruce

[Conor71]

Conor71, you might be interested in some of Xenakis's scores (if you haven't seen them already), such as this one for Pithoprakta. Many of them are graphically quite beautiful (even if a bit of a mystery, compared to conventional music notation), and point to his interests in art, architecture and mathematics.

A search for "Xenakis score" in Google images will produce many others--all fascinating. 

--Bruce

Thanks for the recommendation Bruce  .

Edit: I checked out the score for Pithoprakta, pretty cool stuff!  - I have a recording of that work so i will have a listen to it later as well!.

[Conor71]

Stravinsky: Rite Of Spring, Firebird Suite
Berg: Violin Concerto
Schoenberg: Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto

Looks like its going to be a modern-20th Century listening day for me .

[Sadko]

German Galynin: Suite for string orchestra (Svetlanov 1962, live)

A radio taping. Very nice music, melodic, touching, and and a character of its own.

I looked for some information about this composer, student of Shostakovich and Myaskovsky. Most sources are a bit cryptic about his "illness" that took 10 years from his productive life. German Wikipedia says it was schizophrenia. He grew up in an orphanage and died at 44 from a heart attack.

[Coco]

[Cato]

THAT is a great CD!  Highly recommended to anyone skeptical of Boulez as a composer!

[Coco]

THAT is a great CD!  Highly recommended to anyone skeptical of Boulez as a composer!

Absolutely. Le Marteau is an unqualified masterpiece — just ravishingly beautiful.

Listening:

[Mirror Image]

Now:



Simply outstanding recording. I'm enjoy Holliger's Koechlin series a lot. Can't wait to hear the others.

[Coopmv]

Now playing CD2 by this mature babe from the following set for a first listen ...

[Sid]

MONTEVERDI - Vespers of 1610 (disc 1 of 2)
Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini
Naive

Borrowed this set from the library yesterday and gave it a first lesson when I got home (disc 1). This is some of the most amazing music that I have heard, full stop. Monteverdi's innovative take on harmony, tonality & counterpoint is just awesome to hear. None of it is cookie-cutter and it is just as fresh as it must have been to those who first listened to it in 1610. His writing for the voice is very unique, so too are the colours and textures that he garners from the small ensemble of instruments - the opening fanfare, for example, must simply be one of the most bold openings of any work in the canon. I just ordered this work today, but not this recording (although I have no problems with it, the 2 disc set on boutique label Regis has bonus tracks - works of Schutz, Allegri, Palestrina which I also want to hear). I'd recommend the Vespers to anyone who is open to hearing one of the greatest works in the history of classical music. I've just been devoting a lot of time to Beethoven's late quartets, and Monteverdi's masterpiece is up there with those at the top of the tree. I have also decided to get around to hearing the operas Orfeo and The Cornonation of Poppea at some time down the track. Even though I'm no huge opera fan, if I generally dig a certain composer, I end up liking their operatic works as well. This is the beginning of a new discovery for me...

[asin]B000231VD0[/asin]