Toch Talk

[Guido]

Also I am glad that I introduced you to Bliss' two youthful Studies. What do you think of his Discourse?

[Guido]

Quite right Karl... back to business. 

[lukeottevanger]

Yeah, Karl.    Like anyone would believe that one. 'Toch', indeed... 

[karlhenning]

 

I had clean forgot that I also have a wind ensemble piece by Toch: Spiel.

Must be back at home, too . . . .

[Dundonnell]

Also I am glad that I introduced you to Bliss' two youthful Studies. What do you think of his Discourse?

Well until my ordered copy of the Naxos Cello Concerto arrives I won't be able to comment on the Two Studies.

My version of the Discourse is the one by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Christopher Lyndon-Gee. I suppose that it is one of the most 'modern' sounding pieces Bliss ever composed(which is, admittedly, not saying much!) and I am sure that it would have benefited from a more attractive sounding title but it is undoubtedly a fine piece. Not perhaps Bliss at his best in my estimation but certainly worth hearing by those unfamiliar with it.

One of so many interesting commissions from the Louisville Orchestra in that golden period when that worthy band recorded such a vast amount of music by contemporary composers. Such a pity that the plan to transfer all their old recordings to cd by First Edition Music seems to have come unstuck

[Guido]

Does orchestral music include concertos?

[Dundonnell]

Does orchestral music include concertos?

Indeed it does.

(Quick count-107 Cello Concertos in my CD collection, ie 107 pieces actually entitled "cello concerto", plus many other pieces for cello and orchestra of course.)

[Guido]

Indeed it does.

(Quick count-107 Cello Concertos in my CD collection, ie 107 pieces actually entitled "cello concerto", plus many other pieces for cello and orchestra of course.)

Wow that is a lot! You way have a headache on your hands though - Violinconcerto has over 3000 works for violin and orchestra in his collection - I suspect there may be a few that you are missing. http://www.violinconcerto.de/

The number of works with cello soloist I own is on the left there.

[karlhenning]

I'm subbing in the First Church Boston choir the Sunday when the service will include the Geographical Fugue.  It's great fun; and although the director did remember it being generally fun, we of the choir have been reading it so well, that he (the m.d.) says he never realized just how good a piece it is.

A note at the end of the score mentions it being part of a suite first performed in Berlin in the 1930s.  Have the other parts of the suite survived, anybody know?

[jlaurson]

A trip to Vienna is due this summer for all Toch-heads:

The Jewish Museum in Vienna not only has the best Poppy-seed strudel, it will also feature TOCH in this year's composer exhibit:

http://www.jmw.at/ausstellungen/kommende-ausstellungen.html

Eisler & Korngold were the last two I visited.

Hanns Eisler––Music as a Weapon
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=536

Korngold Sr. & Jr. – Cliché, Critic and Composer
http://www.weta.org/fmblog/?p=241

[mahler10th]

Currently listening to the Pitts SO and William Steinberg doing Toch 3.  This is the first time I have heard Toch, and he is attracting me with his vivid expressions and sometimes jagged corners.  Very interesting.  This means more Toch!  I will read through this thread to find out a bit about his stuff, from what I can hear, it has terrible wings in the best sense of the phrase.

[karlhenning]

Any Toch means more Toch (in my experience). Glad to see you've revived this thread, John!

[Dax]

All together now:

Trinidad! And the big Mississippi and the town Honolulu and the lake Titicaca. The Popocatapetl is not in Canada rather in Mexico Mexico Mexico.....

The original's in German of course . . .

[mahler10th]

Any Toch means more Toch (in my experience). Glad to see you've revived this thread, John!

Yes, I revived it I suppose, but on the whole this thread is desperately lacking information...    When I get Toch, I'll be back...

[snyprrr]

Any Toch means more Toch (in my experience). Glad to see you've revived this thread, John!

I don't know if I groaned on here before, but I have a Laurel cd of SQs that has totally turned me off to Toch. I just find it Hysterical Expressionism poured into a Mozart mold. I try and try...

[Daverz]

I don't know if I groaned on here before, but I have a Laurel cd of SQs that has totally turned me off to Toch. I just find it Hysterical Expressionism poured into a Mozart mold. I try and try...

I'd try some of his earlier stuff from the 20s like the Tanz Suite, the Cello Concerto, and the Piano Quintet.

[asin]B000XH37TG[/asin] [asin]B000069KKX[/asin]

(The CPO disc's program is duplicated on a Naxos CD I have not heard.)

[jlaurson]

Yes, I revived it I suppose, but on the whole this thread is desperately lacking information...    When I get Toch, I'll be back...

I'll publish a piece on him on WETA in a month or so... I'm just waiting for the Chamber Music America Magazine to get first dips on the piece... That will hopefully shed a little light on the composer... (I've tried to filter out a few misconceptions about his upbringing that pop up even in the Grove.)

Meanwhile: get some of the piano solo works (the juggler) and the early string quartets... I find those rather good introductions, even if they're not definitive Toch.

[snyprrr]

I'd try some of his earlier stuff from the 20s like the Tanz Suite, the Cello Concerto, and the Piano Quintet.

[asin]B000XH37TG[/asin] [asin]B000069KKX[/asin]

(The CPO disc's program is duplicated on a Naxos CD I have not heard.)

I'll publish a piece on him on WETA in a month or so... I'm just waiting for the Chamber Music America Magazine to get first dips on the piece... That will hopefully shed a little light on the composer... (I've tried to filter out a few misconceptions about his upbringing that pop up even in the Grove.)

Meanwhile: get some of the piano solo works (the juggler) and the early string quartets... I find those rather good introductions, even if they're not definitive Toch.

I'm listening to SQ No.9 Op.26 right now, written after his experience in WWI. Yea...no... it seems pretty screamin' to me. Granted, Laurel is known for claustrophobic recordings (and that never helps with this kind of music), but... maybe I'm just hearing that pre-Hollywood sound? One minute it's screeching, the next, Vienna-like.

ok, that was the first mvmt. The scherzo... mmm.... nothing wrong here, but not all that super exciting either.

ok, I either want to hear early Korngold, or Pfitzner, or Schoeck, or,... something else. Hey, it's not badly written,... I just keep wondering if someone would have wrote this post-LvB if they would have locked him up? It sounds like salon music for the Schoenberg set (IMHO, of course ).

eh...it's not Janacek.

[Daverz]

I'm listening to SQ No.9 Op.26 right now, written after his experience in WWI.

Well, earlier or not, I think you'll find the the works I referred to quite different in character.  Think of early, cheeky Hindemith, but maybe a little more harmonically interesting.  Or maybe Weill is a better comparison.

[Dax]

Here's the Gesprochene Musik. The Geographical fugue (in German) starts at 2'58".

http://www.sendspace.com/file/mj0a4n