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#1

Great Recordings and Reviews / Re: Bach on the piano

Last post by George - Today at 02:06:38 PM

Taking recs for something good of a pianist playing Bach.

What I like is David Fray, Glenn Gould, András Schiff, Sviatoslav Richter etc. Though it's been a while since I've heard any of it.

[It's one of those bits that you wish could be wiped from your memory, so as to hear it again with innocent ears - the first reaction is "Bruckner finales don't start like this", then it gets repeated with loud brass cadences to make you jump, and then we're off - those loud cadences turn into the first theme.]

#2

Composer Discussion / Re: Bruckner's Abbey

Last post by Cato - Today at 01:58:22 PM

"Certain idiosyncrasies" in a Bruckner symphony?? Surely not!

And yes, quite agree with your particular admiration of no.6, and thanks for the Guardian link - it had never occurred to me that the oboe lament from the slow movement turns into the descending melody of the finale's introduction.  The latter is surely one of the funniest passages in a Bruckner symphony - up there, for me, with the "Beethoven 9" intro to no.5's finale, with its nose-thumbing clarinet interruptions.  It's one of those bits that you wish could be wiped from your memory, so as to hear it again with innocent ears - the first reaction is "Bruckner finales don't start like this", then it gets repeated with loud brass cadences to make you jump, and then we're off - those loud cadences turn into the first theme.  (The more I think of it, the more it becomes like a compressed version of no.5, where the rude interruptions turn also turn into the first theme, which just happens to be an almighty fugue.)

And isn't the first (quiet) half of the 1st movement's coda just the most beautiful thing in any Bruckner symphony?  And as for those rhythmic superpositions - it took Klemperer's recording to make sense of them to me, since so many conductors seem to get lost in a sort of polyrhythmic soup.  But when they do make sense, they are mind-expanding.

If I had to apply the description "patchy and inconclusive" to the finale of any late Bruckner symphony, it would be to that of no.7, nearly all of whose material is (admittedly very effectively) derived from the 1st theme of the 1st movement.  And here, if anywhere, the coda feels like a door being rather impatiently slammed.

Excellent points!  Thank you for the comments!

In one of my (Still unpublished novels) an adolescent organist for a Catholic parish decides to adapt the last section of the slow movement from Bruckner's Sixth Symphony for the organ and use it at a Requiem Mass for a child killed in an accident.

...a melody from Tom's musical memory began playing, as he read the obituary, which mentioned Augie's pride in being an altar boy at St. Mary's and his joy in playing baseball.  The melody was a somber funeral march, complete with muffled drumbeats.  The important thing, however, was that the second part of the march rose somewhat, and seemed to aspire toward hope, or at least to counterbalance the tragedy of the opening notes.  It was from the Sixth Symphony of Anton Bruckner, from the Adagio, the second movement. 

But Tom also remembered that Bruckner brings this theme back toward the end of the movement, in a shortened form, and the little tragic funeral march becomes involved in a short brass chorale that softens the lament, which then leads to a dialogue in the strings, an up-and-down debate, with the upwardness of the music winning gently at the end, the two flutes and a single clarinet slowly, benignly, smilingly voicing their opinion that all is well, that the turmoil and sadness heard earlier have been dissolved into nothingness.

#3

Composing and Performing / Re: Ottevanger's Omphaloskepti...

Last post by Karl Henning - Today at 01:56:27 PM

Very interested to hear....!

Here's another little collection: Christmas music written for the girls at one of my schools a few years ago. Soft-centred stuff but essentially in the same style and using the same techniques as my music for adults.

Oh, I'll have a look on behalf of my church choir. 

#4

Great Recordings and Reviews / Re: Bach on the piano

Last post by OrchestralNut - Today at 01:56:15 PM

Taking recs for something good of a pianist playing Bach.

What I like is David Fray, Glenn Gould, András Schiff, Sviatoslav Richter etc. Though it's been a while since I've heard any of it.

I do really enjoy Angela Hewitt for Bach on the piano.

#5

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

Last post by Todd - Today at 01:48:59 PM

Kind of a dud.  Grimaud favors a slow approach, which can work, but her playing sounds merely slow, and the orchestral contributions lack bite and sufficient dynamic contrast.  The whole thing sounds flattened out.

#6

Composing and Performing / Re: Ottevanger's Omphaloskepti...

Last post by Luke - Today at 01:44:45 PM

Very interested to hear....!

Here's another little collection: Christmas music written for the girls at one of my schools a few years ago. Soft-centred stuff but essentially in the same style and using the same techniques as my music for adults.

#7

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

Last post by vandermolen - Today at 01:30:24 PM

I'm still to hear this, but look forward to doing so. Valedictory works carry special poignancy, I think. Same kind of thing as Clive James' poem Japanese Maple.

The Clive James poem is very moving. I never saw it before.

#8

Great Recordings and Reviews / Re: Bach on the piano

Last post by vers la flamme - Today at 01:15:22 PM

Taking recs for something good of a pianist playing Bach.

What I like is David Fray, Glenn Gould, András Schiff, Sviatoslav Richter etc. Though it's been a while since I've heard any of it.

#9

Composer Discussion / Re: Mozart

Last post by Madiel - Today at 01:14:30 PM

I don't want to go into a PI/modern practice debate especially in English but maybe I wasn't clear. I didn't wrote that every PI sounds grotesque for me. If you read my post you may noticed that I wrote that balances in Pinnock's PI recording are almost perfect in my opinion.

I understood what you were saying. And I've sometimes thought the same thing (not about Mozart, more generally).

Musicians are told that to justify making a new recording they have to do something different. Rather than do something correctly.

#10

General Classical Music Discussion / Re: Purchases Today

Last post by Wanderer - Today at 12:44:24 PM