Recent posts

#1

Composer Discussion / Re: Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Cast...

Last post by Pohjolas Daughter - Today at 06:43:13 AM

I've recently listened for the first time to some Castelnuovo-Tedesco's music (without counting his part in the Genesis Suite), the piano pieces Il raggio verde, Alghe, I Naviganti, Cipressi and Ricercare sul nome di Luigi Dallapiccola; absolutely exquisite, evocative compositions! The first four were very colourful and fluent, elegantly limpid and beautifully floating in the developing of the melodic lines, and they seemed to show the influence of the French Impressionism. Instead the fifth, despite equally graceful and lyrical, was in some way more angular and had certainly more tension and harmonic contrasts, definitely echoing the style of Dallapiccola; an interesting aspect was that it also seemed to show some brief series of notes, similarly to the tone row of dodecaphony.

Sounds interesting!  Whose recordings did you listen to LW?

PD

#2

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by AnotherSpin - Today at 06:36:39 AM

Nikhil Banerjee

It was a great loss for all those who care about Indian classical music when the Chhanda Dhara label ceased to exist.
The result is that these recordings are now often offered for very high prices.
Banerjee believed that music was not just an art form, but an alternative path to spirituality.
No compromises about the length or duration of the raga, as in ancient India these concerts at the various courts often lasted even much longer.In this case the duration of this raga is 57 minutes.

CD 1

I love Nikhil Banerjee's playing since the days of vinyls, i.e. from the 70s-80s. In the USSR it was possible to buy Indian made LPs of Indian classical music. In my perception, Banerjee is on the top place among all sitar players, even more so than Ravi Shankar or Vilayat Khan. Qobuz has some of his albums, many of those recorded during his tours to the West.

[Gotye]

#3

The Diner / Re: Non-Classical Music Listen...

Last post by brewski - Today at 06:15:41 AM

Gotye: Somebody That I Used to Know, with choreography by CDK.

-Bruce

[FREE SOLO]

#4

The Diner / Re: Last Movie You Watched

Last post by Cato - Today at 06:12:24 AM

More of a documentary but what a watch:

FREE SOLO (2018)



"From award-winning documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi ("MERU") and world-renowned photographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin comes National Geographic Documentary Film's FREE SOLO, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world's most famous rock ... the 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park ... without a rope.

Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold's climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death."




If, like me you struggle at the top of a three step-ladder, this will be a harrowing and mesmerizing watch in equal measures. Our watch was strewn with "Hell Nooooos...." , just way more sweary    The climber's relationships with his girlfriend, the filming crew and fellow climbers while training and preparing this feat add an incredible layer to this documentary.

A great petrified recommendation   

We were in Yosemite last week and gazed upon El Capitan from various standpoints: yes, climbing it was an amazing and incomprehensible feat!

No movies to report upon, as we have had no opportunity to watch anything during our national-parks tour.

However, I did catch a Pitch Meeting which I had missed!

Apparently the anti-geniuses at Disney want to keep Ryan George in business!

Concerning another dreary "superhero"...a commentary on the sad state of movie-making and the lack of creativity in Hollywood!

#5

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by Florestan - Today at 06:04:04 AM

And now she is doing it all a second time, creating the dilemma, "which version is better?"! I find no clear answer.

Her Faure disc is also great!

Her Couperin, Rameau and Scarlatti too.

#6

The Diner / Re: Astronomy

Last post by relm1 - Today at 05:36:17 AM

Yes, that's another reason I didn't make any huge effort to take anything with me: it was my first total eclipse, and I just wanted mostly to take it all in, including the twilit ambiance on the ground and the 360º sunset effect.

BTW I can see assuming that the naked-eye prominences were solar flares - there were plenty of prominences visible elsewhere on the Sun's limb through the Sun and H-alpha filters, but they were NOT visible during totality because (evidently) they didn't reach up to the altitude of the ones you photographed. The fact that this one extended well above the Moon does support the idea that they might have been solar flares. But they didn't reach high into the corona, and their strong H-alpha coloring (the pinkish color is from the H-alpha emission line of hydrogen) suggests that they were lower altitude, less violent prominences (though they might have been surge prominences).

Your photo shows something I didn't notice during the eclipse: the corona appears to be missing just to the left of the brightest prominence. A coronal hole, would be my guess - a window through which the solar wind streams out.

Interesting that there were many more prominences visible in H-A then with the eyes.  I recall seeing texture in the corona.  You could see gaps and details, just something I considered an example where pictures don't do it justice.  In pictures you don't get the dynamic range your eyes see.  How vibrant the reds were of those prominences just doesn't come through.  I'm also experimenting with processing techniques so might find a way to capture the best elements of multiple images into a single frame. 

#7

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: Musical depictions of the ...

Last post by Dima - Today at 05:33:05 AM

Thank you for this special additional information. Do you prefer the original version from 1851 (4 movements / dedication to Liszt) or is it the version in seven movements (additions from 1863 and 1880) that is more important? What are the main shortcomings of the existing recorded versions? What would be an "ideal" recording?

I found this interesting text (1994) at the site of the American Symphony Orchestra , written by Carol Reynards:

https://americansymphony.org/concert-notes/symphony-no-2-in-c-major-op-42-ocean/

I'm listening to Ghedini's Marinaresca e baccanale - a very memorable and original "seapiece"!

Instead of many words about positive and negative aspects of existing recording I prefer to present after my research the recording that is close to ideal in the sample version above: https://web.ligaudio.ru/mp3/%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%B5%D0%B0%D0%BD%2042%20dmg%20record

It is one of the greatest symphony of all time, not only on the theme of sea voyage. You can fell how reveals the essence of music if you have time to listen to the record. As an introduction to listening you may listen to my story about symphony on youtube. Anton Rubinstein was satisfied only with 7 part version.
Вut I have made 4 parts version recording only because other parts you can find in rather fine variants (and my version won't be very different) and then put it all
together. For example I did't make another interpretation of the
"Sea storm" part from 7 part version, but I remastered
sound in it, so it sounded now better here: https://vimeo.com/794959033
And as a bonus track - it's Adagio from 6 part version of Ocean symphony with Richard Kapp, Westphalian Symphony Orchestra (it was digitized by me from LP, it was never released on CD): https://web.ligaudio.ru/mp3/kapp%20rubinstein

Here I start translation of my words with auto translation:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A lot changes the size of the orchestra - Rubinstein's works are very often performed either in a reduced or the smallest possible orchestra - on a residual principle, but I've already tested that without a significantly enlarged orchestra (with more emphasis on the bass - with increased group of cellos and double basses), the music won't sound properly.
You can listen how the symphony will sound with an increased orchestra - in my post  - there I not only worked on the interpretation but also simulated such sound. Just look how grand sound now the 4-th part. In the first part - Rubinstein imitates choral masses in the orchestra - without a large orchestra, it doesn't make an impression. In the second part, there are already not choirs, but individual human voices are heard. There are things I wanted to share with conductors, but I didn't want to overload the message with details.

By the way, I'll share a draft of my thoughts about 7-part version of Symphony "Ocean" (I have not published it because I only posted a 4-movement version on the forum):

"While listening to Symphony 'Ocean' - and I think what a grand symphony, but only 4 movements. For a young man of 22, 4 movements is quite good - everyone writes like that. But for Anton Rubinstein, whom we know, 4 movements are not serious, and Anton Grigoryevich added 2 movements after 12 years, and then another one after several more years. And then he said to the publisher: "Now I'm satisfied".
The symphony is truly grandiose - there is no image of water, as they would have done  impressionists.
Each part has its own view on the man facing the elemental force of nature - just philosophical meaning of musical ideas is so profound that even their extract inspires respect. And if you listen to music  not in parts, but all parts together in one sitting, and not in unsuccessful recordings, but may be prepared with the help of technology, then the impression is clear - it's poweful."
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#8

Composer Discussion / Re: Mozart

Last post by Madiel - Today at 05:31:07 AM

Stockhausen fans are a vanishingly rare subspecies and I'd probably want to document the encounter.

This is supposed to be a Mozart thread. Also, I'd like some sleep before I fly to Spain tomorrow. Goodnight.

#9

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: What are you listening 2 n...

Last post by Traverso - Today at 05:24:06 AM

Nikhil Banerjee

It was a great loss for all those who care about Indian classical music when the Chhanda Dhara label ceased to exist.
The result is that these recordings are now often offered for very high prices.
Banerjee believed that music was not just an art form, but an alternative path to spirituality.
No compromises about the length or duration of the raga, as in ancient India these concerts at the various courts often lasted even much longer.In this case the duration of this raga is 57 minutes.

CD 1

#10

Composer Discussion / Re: Mozart

Last post by steve ridgway - Today at 05:05:29 AM

Well that won't happen, unless it is from a Stockhausen fiend that is mocking you for listening to Bach!

I don't think there'd be any problem as long as an appropriate ring modulator was employed .