What were you listening to? (CLOSED)

[Florestan]

Basically the bulk of concert goers and listeners of recordings who buy into the luxury of classical music that is being sold to them — as opposed to the specialist listener who approaches them as works of art. Obviously we don't have many of the former on this site.

Okay, but I think the bourgeoisie-ness (by which I assume you mean middle-class, possibly in its upper ranks) is distributed evenly among the two categories and not particularly attached to the former. 

[mc ukrneal]

Listening to this disc now:
[asin]B000JLPNO8[/asin]
I loved the Elgar piece. Finely done and wonderfully performed. The other pieces are also quite good. I am particularly enjoying the War Elegy by Ivor Gurney.  Parry's Chivelry of the Sea doesn't disappoint either. This disc is a real find.

[Florestan]

No. 2 in C minor, "Resurrection"

[Luke]

How did you like this? This was a choral version instead of the 4 soloists?

I have that BBC music mag disc too - it's real fun. Don't imagine a large chorus, no, there's just a chamber grouping, soloists to the fore, lines reinforced as and when.

[mc ukrneal]

I have that BBC music mag disc too - it's real fun. Don't imagine a large chorus, no, there's just a chamber grouping, soloists to the fore, lines reinforced as and when.

Ah. That sounds interesting. Those pieces are so great. One of his (brahms) hidden treasures.

[Lethevich]

.[asin]B000007TQZ[/asin]

You make me happy! I adore Stevenson's music, his whole aesthetic. He's hardly mentioned enough for such a fabulously interesting, inspiring figure. There's no one else quite like him

What's his music like? I have a disc of piano concertos in my listening pile, but it has yet to fight its way to the top...

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

What's his music like? I have a disc of piano concertos in my listening pile, but it has yet to fight its way to the top...

Luke will write a terrific endorsement of Stevenson's piano concertos, I have no doubt... But I can recommend them, too. They are energetic, beautiful and varied. You'd like them!

[Luke]

What's his music like? I have a disc of piano concertos in my listening pile, but it has yet to fight its way to the top...

Hard to describe in a single paragraph. But he's one of the greatest piano-specialist composers of the century, without a shadow of a doubt. The single most important influence on him may be Busoni - he's a kind of Busoni disciple, really, despite never having met the man. That first concerto is to a very large extent a Busoni paraphrase (mostly Busoni's Faust), and the concerto itself is an expansion of an early piano work which was really Stevenson's coming-of-age as a composer. Though English-born, he is a Scots composer, and the Gaelic harp and Scottish pibroaich (have I spelt that right?) are to be found penetrating his music; connected to this, it seems to me, is his inherent tenderness, his songs, his pieces for children, all have this soft, gentle Scottish brogue to them which is quite unique. He's a transcendentally good pianist - his recordings are well worth digging up - and his many transcriptions are done with the profoundest understanding of the instrument; they are comparable to Grainger's and Busoni's, again. The piano is the heart of his output, and the heart of his piano out put is the enormous, infamous Passacaglia on DSCH, the Gothic Symphony of the piano world (i.e.the largest traditionally notated single movement piece for piano ever composed....perhaps there's something by Sorabji which outdoes it - and btw I would put Stevenson in the same sort of bracket as Sorabji even though their music is very different). The Passacaglia is a stone cold, awe-inspiring masterpiece, wildly inventive, deeply moving, phenomenally virtuosic, fabulously written - there's some counterpoint in there that makes the eyes water with its genius.

Limiting myself to four discs

[asin]B000XHBMO8[/asin] The Passacalia in Stevenson's own recording. Indispensible. Really, everyone ought to hear it. I mean that.
[asin]B00009V8HK[/asin] Stevenson's gentler side. This is an absolutely exquisite disc of songs, including his sensitive, gorgeous settings of Robert Louis Stevenson's Child's Garden of Verses.
[asin]B000BOIWVO[/asin] A live disc of Stevenson qua pianist, in fabulous form from the very first note. A highly sensitive, composerly sort of playing - I adore it. This is a disc of transcriptions, for the most part - Liszt, Alkan, Grainger, Godowsky - exactly the sort of music which established the tradition within which Stevenson works, much of the time. And the two Stevenson works of the disc are amongst his greatest and most important - the Peter Grimes Fantasy and the Prelude, Fugue and Fantasy on themese from Busoni's Faust which I mentioned earlier.
And - no image on Amazon - the 2 piano concerti, in the Murray McLachlan recording, i think (I haven't heard the other, but McLachlan is closely associated with Stevenson). The first is incredibly beautiful, I think; the second is a crazy, round-world trip (Stevenson is also a pioneer of including techniques drawn from 'world music' within a classical framework, starting with the string-drumming 'out of emergent Africa; section in the DSCH Passacaglia). Some great sounds in the latter piece, wonderful moments of all sorts, but the first concerto, for me, is the greater work.

[Lethevich]

Danke! The Passacaglia recording was under £10 on Amazon so I picked it up. I just realised that until now I had subconsciously associated the piece with Rzewski's People United, despite having heard neither

My PCs recording is with McLachlan, which is fortunate!

Edit: BTW, I am jealous that you found that Sorabji book (mentioned in the composer's thread) - I get the feeling that it'll be a while before I can find an affordable copy, but I can't complain - I have tons of other stuff to get through.

[Luke]

It was just in Oxfam, too - only £5. Slight tear on the dust jacket but otherwise fine. I got lucky!

[mc ukrneal]

.[asin]B000007TQZ[/asin]

I enjoy that disc a lot.

[mahler10th]

You're like okay I can find this...

wtf are you doing roaming around harrys Vynil collection>   

I am back onto Rangstrom today.  It is frustrating that this composer is not WIDELY performed.  If anyone knows of any performances or releases up and coming, please let me know.  I accept that Rangstrom isn't the 'most beautiful' or 'musically broad' composer, but, by all the Gods (and Swedish ones at that),  he packed one hell of a punch in the stuff he did.  I just love his sense of drama...

BTW, the guy in the cover on this album I think is commonly thought to be an image of Ture Rangstrom.  It isn't.  It is actually the playwright and all round nutter August Strindberg, to whose memory Rangstroms first is dedicated.
EDIT:  I wish it was Ransgtroms features, because that crazy, dramatic face of Strindbergs is completely in line with the music of Rangstrom.

[Florestan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCaaPaQx5zg&feature=watch_response_rev

[SonicMan46]

Villa-Lobos, Heitor - Floresta Do Amazonas w/ John Neschling et al - finally ordered and first listen; lauded by MI multiple times - will have to listen to my recording w/ Renee Fleming but this one does indeed sound great!  Neschling also does well in the box below - both now highly recommended for Heitor V-L fans! 

 

[mahler10th]

Villa-Lobos, Heitor - Floresta Do Amazonas w/ John Neschling et al - finally ordered and first listen; lauded by MI multiple times - will have to listen to my recording w/ Renee Fleming but this one does indeed sound great!  Neschling also does well in the box below - both now highly recommended for Heitor V-L fans! 
 

MI will be on to this I'm sure!

[DavidW]

wtf are you doing roaming around harrys Vynil collection>   

Don't let him know I'm here!   I took a wrong turn and hey would you believe it?  Harry extended his record room across the Atlantic!

[mc ukrneal]

wtf are you doing roaming around harrys Vynil collection>   

I am back onto Rangstrom today.  It is frustrating that this composer is not WIDELY performed.  If anyone knows of any performances or releases up and coming, please let me know.  I accept that Rangstrom isn't the 'most beautiful' or 'musically broad' composer, but, by all the Gods (and Swedish ones at that),  he packed one hell of a punch in the stuff he did.  I just love his sense of drama...

BTW, the guy in the cover on this album I think is commonly thought to be an image of Ture Rangstrom.  It isn't.  It is actually the playwright and all round nutter August Strindberg, to whose memory Rangstroms first is dedicated.
EDIT:  I wish it was Ransgtroms features, because that crazy, dramatic face of Strindbergs is completely in line with the music of Rangstrom.

I have enjoyed his music as well. I don;t have the Sterling release, but rather the symphonies on CPO. They are quite good too. Was it you who not so long ago was talking about not understanding lieder? I remember posting a link to a Rangstrom piece (at least, I think it was him) on youtube that was just outstanding and beautiful. Yet another composer who deserves to be better known than he is.

[mahler10th]

Don't let him know I'm here!   I took a wrong turn and hey would you believe it?  Harry extended his record room across the Atlantic!

Too late.  I already told Harry.  He says you can help yourself to the 12 Tone stuff if you can find any.  Meanwhile, on this 12 Tone stuff, here is something I have on my facebook page which I tagged as being 'just the kind of piano music I love.'   Well...Coco was on to it and he quietly informed me it is atonal, by which account I truly MUST be a completely ignorant ignoramus ignorantly bashing away at something quite CLEARLY I do not understand.  (Coco of course didn't say that, I do, because I am forced to rethink my stance, particularly by Il Barone Scarpia) - I am sorry this ignorance has been splashed all over these GMG pages, and I will not mention that troublesome bastard (for me) Schoenberg again until I DO know what I am talking about.
This is what I really like in piano music.  Perhaps I will try to get Schoenbergs piano music if he wrote any, because if it's anything like this, I may in fact become a Schoenberg devotee too.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5N5bYAGq_Sk%26feature%3Dautoshare&h=eae0e

[DavidW]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCaaPaQx5zg&feature=watch_response_rev

Awesome!!

[Florestan]

Awesome!!

Make sure you listen to the complete thing.